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< c ( hey were fitter to be crushed by the civil magistrate than to be merely confuted : " did I believe him to be so , I would only refer him to the rebuke of a distinguished member of his own church , Dr . Jortin , who says ,
in reference to South ' s ill-natured rant , " Such is the true agonistic style or intolerant spirit—such the courage of a champion who challenges his adversary , and then calk upon the constable to come and help him !"
Your correspondent , indeed , protests against the imputation of persecution \ he would only have " the sword suspended over the heads" of Unitarians ; he would revive the penal statutes merely in terror em * This
explanation is idle . u If these statutes / ' said Mr . Fox , ** are too bad to tie put in practice , they ought not to be suffered to exist . ' He that
wishes for their recovery shews by that wish that they could not be safely trusted to hi& hands . The Clergyman will not , I am persuaded , find many of his own , or of any profession , who long for the revival of laws which punish a difference of faith and
worship with civil incapacities , fines , outlawry , imprisonment and death * The Unitarians , I can assure him , have no fears with respect either to their fellow-countrymen or to the government of their country . They repose securely upon the law of the land ,
strengthened especially as that law is by liberal public opinion , and by the tolerant disposition of the illustrious family now upon the throne of these realms , to whom they , in common with all the Dissenters , have been
always warmly attached , and under whose sway they feel that it would be disloyal to entertain a doubt of their' own safety , while they continue to conduct themselves as faithful , peaceabje and useful' subjects . The alarm that now prevails with regard to the spread of Deism , appears to me somewhat extravagant ; and I cannot but applaud your attempt to qufet the fears of Christians - If their Religion be , as I believe it is , divine , * na& within itself the principle 6 f w % and will come out of every con-\ &t more fresh and vigorous . The fa ults of unbelief may be necessary , jjwr Divine Providence , to brings 111611 **> a personal sense © f reJiaion ,
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and to separate the pure word of God from human traditions * This vifcw was taken of the Deistical control versy , which begafi with the French Revolution , bv the most able and
successful apologist of Christianity which that eventful period produced t I refer to Bishop Watson , who thus expressed himself in an episcopal charge— " The time , I think , in approaching , or is already come , when
Christianity will undergo a more severe investigation than it . has ever yet done . My expectation as to the issue is—that Catholic countries will become Protestant , and that Protestant countries will admit a further refor ~ mat ion . ' -
Nothing , in my humble judgment , can give even a momentary triumph to infidelity , unless it be the angry zeal of Christians in prosecuting its advocates , and placing them on the vantage ground of suffering for their
principles . This is , I am aware * an unpopular sentiment ; but 1 trust I may be permitted to say with the immortal Chilliiigwovth , •« I have learned from the ancient fathers tff the church , that nothing 1 is more against religion than to force
religion . " With what truth and eloquence , and with what aft evangelical spirit , is this doctrine illustrated aB < l enforced by Bishop Lowthjinliiseefebrated Visitation Sermon . Suffer me to make one quotation from it , peculiarly adapted to these times : —
Christianity itself was published to the world in the most enlightened age ; it invited and challenged the examination of the ablest judges , and stood the test of the severest scrutiny : the more it is brought to the figHht , to the greater
advantage will it appear . When , on the other Laud , the dark ages of barbarism catne on , as every ait and science was almo&t extinguished , so was Christianity in proportion oppressed and overwhelmed by error and superstition : and they that pretended to defend it from the assaults of its
enemies , by prohibiting examination and free inquiry , took the surest method of cutting * onTall hopes of its recovery . Again , Wltafei letters revived and reason regained her liberty ^ wiien a . spirit of inquiry begmn to prevail , and was kept up and promoted
by a h * f > py invention , by which the communication of knowledge was wonderfully facilitated , Christianity immediately emerged out of darkness , and vvas in a manner republished to the world in its native siimlioity . It fcath aiway * flou-
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Intelligence . ^—Correspoyidence relating to the Unitarians . 711
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1819, page 711, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1778/page/59/
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