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    100 The Nonconformist. No. VII.

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    The Nonconformist. No. Vii. An Inquiry I...

    tation to the Nonconformists to come forward and state what they had to say in justification of their secession from the church ; this invitation De Laune accepted , and wrote his Plea in answer . I shall , however , give an extract from another of his

    works—The present State of London , printed in 1681 , now very scarce , and not generally known to have been his . In pages 219 , £% 09 he says , " A thing may be clear to one man that would fain impose it , but it may be doubtful to him on whom it is imposed , which

    no one can help ; must he therefore be persecuted ? If the point be clear in Scripture , what needs any new article of faith to impose it ? If only deduced , what one thinks clearly deduced , another , as learned and able as he ^ may think not to be so .

    *• Men ' s understandings are as various as their speech or faces ; and is it just for one man to quarrel with another , because different from him in either of these ; or to put him upon a rack in order to stretch him to his

    own dimensions , if not so tall as he ? —Certainly that man is defective in charity , that thinks all Dissenters either maliciously or wilfully blind . No man can be forced to believe ; he may be compelled to say this or that , but not to believe it . His brains may sooner be knocked out than made

    clear , and able to see or perform an action morally beyond his power . A man may as Easily make a man stark blind read Greek , or distinguish colours , as an unbeliever to believe ,

    for that is God ' s gift . Arguments ar £ good inducements , but force has no countenance in the gospel , much less a command . * Force may make one blind , but never to see clearer \ it may make a hypocrite , but no true

    convert . "The magistrate is ( and ought ) to punish evil-doers , bat not evil-believers - —God reserves that to himself : and man can never have a right cognizance of evil thoughts in another , for

    the greatest professor may be the greatest atheist . Nothing is more derogatory to the honour of God , than for men to think he wants their help to defend him : nor can any thing more affront him , than for any one to intrude into bin tribunal , and «* Jtohti xi . 31 ; y . 39 ; 2 Tim , lii . 15 ; Deut * xii , Jtt . "

    The Nonconformist. No. Vii. An Inquiry I...

    usurp his sovereignly . Christ conquered his enemies by preaching and suffering . " In a word , what to me seems clear , ( which I humbly submit to the consideration of others , ) is—1 . That none

    ought to be persecuted for religion , whose principles are consistent with human society , and behave themselves according to the established laws of the land quietly and peaceably - but are to be won by the mild ways of the gospel . if

    2 . That , if under pretence of religion they disturb the common peace , or wrong any other , or be seditious and unquiet , they ought to be punished by the magistrate 3 because religion teaches no such things , but the contrary / ' & c . & c .

    This extract , with very trifling exceptions , contains so nearly the leading principles of the Baptist denomination , as far as I have been able to as * certain them , on the right of free inquiry and private judgment , that I

    think it must be evident to every impartial mind , that they have been a grossly calumniated people . They appear to have perceived , amidst the darkness by which nearly all other Christian sects were surrounded , that

    as man is endued with the faculty of reason , he ought to exercise it ; and they were determined to exercise it whatever might be the result as to themselves . Priests who feared to bring their opinions or arbitrary authority to the test of reason and

    Scripture , thought , pronounced , and persecuted them as their worst enemjes ; and where they had not the power of persecuting them themselves , instigated princes to imprison , torture and destroy them as enemies of regal authority and the well-being of civil society .

    I shall conclude with a short quotation from Whiston . Having bestowed justly-merited praise on those ministers who were against subscript tion in reference to the Exeter affair , he adds ,

    " The General Baptists had also a . very grfeat meeting in London about 173 O , where the numbers were about ISO , who also came in a manner universally into the same determination , of not making any human explications neceftsary to Christian communion . " * * WhUtorfsUh by himtfjlf , 17 * 3 , p . 190 . ^^^^^^^^^^ UMB ^ i ^^^^^^^^^^

    100 The Nonconformist. No. Vii.

    100 The Nonconformist . No . VII .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 22, 1819, page 100, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_22021819/page/32/