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earneftly requested my wife to return and afsuage my bitter woe in this fad hour, she heareth not, nor regardeth! I am ready to forgive all the paft-but, alas! though the injured are forward to pardon, those who injure are always backward. It matters little what becomes of fuch a wretched worm as I am; but if you think my fad cafe may be ferviceable to others, I fhall rejoice in feeing it made public. fee the fruits of Antinomian principles; and furely it deferves ferious confideration, whether the propagators of fuch tenets, fo palpably deftructive of the interests of society, ought to be fuffered fuffered in the halls of this city or what is worse in the churches; for I am forry to fay, there are churches, where thefe doctrines have been heard by

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Your afflicted humble feryant,

T.

NUM

NUMBER XLIV.

High gaming is an immorality, a fordid vice, the child of avarice, and a direct breach of that commandment, which forbids us to covet what is our neighbour's. RICHARDSON,

SIR,

To the VISITOR.

F you think the following Remarks on Gaming in any refpect worthy the attention. of the public, I may expect you will give them a place in your paper.

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ift. Mr. Sale (who by the way is extremely favourable to Mahomed and his tenets) in his large preliminary discourse prefixed to his tranflation of the Koran, obferves, p. 124. that gaming is there prohibited for the fame reafons, and in the fame paffages of the Koran, as wine.' The reasons why wine is prohibited, are because the ill qualities of that liquor furpafs its good ones; the common ef'fects thereof bring quarrels and disturbances ' in company; neglect of, or at least, indecencies in the performance of religious worfhip. Some good qualities of wine might perhaps without much difficulty be enumerated; but it may be hard to fay, where any good qualities of gaming, properly fo called, are to

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be found. And if Mahomedans forbid it because it promotes quarrels and disturbances; how much stronger obligation lies upon chriftians to forbid it, to abftain wholly from it, whose religion is a religion of love, not of the fword, and whofe mafter hath faid, that, "Whoever is angry with his brother, and calls him opprobrious names Raca, fool, &c. is in danger of eternal death.' St. Matt. v. 22. And I would be glad to know where that gam→. ing-table, and those gamefters are found, who do not continually tranfgrefs thefe Precepts.

It is an abfurdity to fuppofe that a gamester fhould love God; and therefore why go to church?

It is ftill more abfurd to suppose that a gamefter fhould love his neighbour as himself; for every man that plays defires to win, and fo to diftrefs his neighbour. Now on these two precepts depends all religion; therefore a gamefter can have no religion; and of confequence no moral obligation; and can be hindered by nothing but penal laws; and often not by them, from committing the moft flagrant enormities.

By the practice of gaming therefore we open a door for every iniquity, like fo many wild beafts to run out upon us and devour us. For where gaming reigns, the love of God, and of man cease, and religion ceafes.

2d. But when we confider the fort of gaming which Mahomed forbad, for the reasons above

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given, we fhall fee how much more cogent they are against the fort of gaming ufed amongst us.

The game moft in ufe, and most pleafing to the Arabs was fomething of this kind, A

young camel being bought and killed, and divided into ten or twenty eight parts, the perfons, who caft lots for them, to the num⚫ber of seven, met for that purpose, and eleven arrows were provided without heads or feathers; feven of which were mark'd, the first with one notch, the fecond with two, and fo on; and the other four had no mark at all: These arrows were put promifcuoufly into a bag, and then drawn by an indifferent perfon, who had another near him to receive 'them, and to see that he acted fairly: Thofe to whom the mark'd arrows fell, won fhares in proportion to their lot, and those to whom the blanks fell, were entitled to no part of the camel at all, but were obliged to pay the full price of it. The winners however tafted • not of the flesh any more than the lofers • but the whole was diftributed among the poor, and this they did out of pride and oftentation, it being reckoned a fhame for a man to ftand out, and not venture his money on fuch an occafion, (as by the way it is now • efteemed amongst our polite and fashionable gentry, who cannot be fo mean as to stand out and not play). This cuftom however, B 6

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tho' it was of fome ufe to the poor and di verfion to the rich, was forbidden by Matos med, as the fource of greater inconvëmencies, by occafioning quarrels and heart-burnings, which arofe from the winner's infulting those who loft.' So Mr. Sale.

Mahomed's words in the Koran (c. 5« p< 942 of Sale's tranflation) are these, "O true be lievers, furely wine, and lots, and images ❝ and divining arrows are an abomination of the works of Satan: Therefore avoid them, that ye may profper: Satan feeketh to fow diffen tion and hatred among you by means of wines and lots, and to divert you from remembering God, and from prayer: Will ye not therefore abftain ?"

Oh, fhame to chriftians! fhall a wicked; loofe, and impious impoftor forbid bis followers that which brought fome good to the poor, and diverted the rich, merely becaufe it produced hatred and diffention? and fall chrif tians indulge themselves in that which brings ruin to themselves and families injures their fervants, their tradefmen, their dependants, and robs the poor of their due? At the fame time that it ruins the mind, kindles all the irafcible and odious paffions, and renders man-unfit for focial, far more unfit for religious duties:!

It is commonly urged by thofe who are fond of games of chance, as, cards, dice, &c. and

who

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