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s * ^ . ubsequent number . Its design % to correct a statement in the Ninth ^ jg - lurne > p . 266 . Tliere your very rep spec table Correspondent , who transmitted the " Account , " speaking ot \ Dr . John Prior Estlin , says , ** That |
on Mr . Wright ' s resignation , L e , of the pastoral office at Lewin ' s Mead , Bristol , and his being called to the pastoral office in 1778 , lie was ordained . ' This , I must be allowed to say , is inaccurate ; Mr . Wright never did resign that office , hut was the colleague of Dr . Estlin till his death : as will
appear from the following passage in the Doctor ' s Funeral Sermon for Mr . Wright , from Heb . xiii . 7 ., on May 14 , 1797 : " It has pleased the sovereign Disposer of all events , in whose hands our breath is , and whose are all our ways ,
to deprive me of my revered colleague and friend , with whom I have spent six and twenty years , in the service of this congregation , with uninterrupted harmony : and the painful task now devolves upon me of addressing this society as a family of mourners . "
I remain , Sir , Your ' s respectfully , JOSHUA TOULMIN . NM ^^ dB ^ ltaHkM-^—
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with the exclamation of the gagger , u let us hear what you have to say . " What , £ ir ! have our Boiingbrokes , Humes , Gibbons , Voltaires , Volneys , or , to descend to living writ-^ ers , our Godwins , Burdous , & * c . &c * ibeen " bound , threatened with death
Imprisoned , fined , tortured , gagged !" or has any one of this description , so far from suffering death , had a hair of his head injured in consequence of his attacks on Christianity , or ( I allude to Mr Hume ) on the being of a God ? r > o , Sirj the whole of the matter , and which has occasioned all this
lamentable wailing * is , in the course of half a century some two- or three miserable individuals , whose ignorance or wilful misrepresentation , whose abuse and ribaldry , when attacking Christianit y and its Author , might have been very safely consigned to that contempt they most justly merited , have been
imprudently , unjustly , and most contrary to the letter and spirit of genuine Christianity , persecuted by fine and imprison men t * These two or three individuals ought , however , in fairness , to he cited , rather as exceptions to the general practice , than as proofs that # 7 / Infidels were so " bound , gagged , fettered , '' &c . &cc .
But Chiron exclaims , " Don't telj us that this conduct is contrary to the precepts and spirit of Christianity : what ' , my Lord EJlenborough , Lord Erskhie , Sir Vicary Gibbs , and Sir W . Garrovv are undoubtedly Christians ! You cannot deny it , or if you should , you will not be believed , for we know them by their fruits . "t
# The infidel writing's of Voltaire and Volney have been translated and very liberally circulated in this country . Mr . Burdon appears to glory in his disbelief and contempt of Christianity , and has expressed himself very freely on the subject
of the being of a God , in his own writings , and in various periodical publications ; and yet , I will venture to predict , he may proceed , without any fear of interruption from the civil power , titl he is heartily tired of his hopeless task .
} Whether Lord Erskine ought to rank with the Christian state-persecutors abovenamed , may admit of doubt . It is true , that in the lmrry of his professional engagements , and in one unhappy moment , he accepted of abnef as counsel against the publisher of the Second Part of " Paine ' s Age
of UefL&on ; " but , as if nol perfectly e ™ Y when reflecting- on his own conduct , he , shortly after the conviction of the offending
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9 £ Mr . B . Flower ' s Defence of Christians ayainst Infidels .
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- Sin , Hackneyy Feb . 5 , 1815 . YOU R , correspondents Chiron and Thomas , whose letters appear in the last number of your Repository , ( p . 25 . ) arc , in my opinion , justly chargeable with th e misconduct which
they have unjustly charged upon every one who glories in the Cross of Christ , and who is thoroughly persuaded that to revealed religion we owe our best enjoyments in this life , and the only rational and clear prospect of the noblest enjoyments in eternity- Neither of your correspondents " fights
fVirly , " and 1 submit it to your readers , whether misrepresenting almost every man who writes in favour of Christianity , holding him up to the world as a coward " continuing- to provoke fettered antagonists ,, ' is not , if not arrant cowardice , something worse—gross misrepresentation .
This is the first time I have ever heard that modern " Infidels had their hands bound behind their barks , or were threatened with fine , tortures , imprisonment , perhaps death , if they uttered a syllable ; ' that a great gag wcis put into their mouths , followed
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1815, page 92, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1757/page/28/
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