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    embrace this religion with its fals ^ protection , its proper energies of tmth ?* nd juaoral Excellence have been jenfeebled , arid it has waned to a mass of

    pftiful superstitions . It has been the least understood and practised , and kas consequently produced the fewest beneficial effects on the improvement and happiness of man , in those countries where it has been made most

    dangerous to call its truth or its supposed doctrines in question . And vrhere has Christianity at length assumed the most respectable and dignified aspect in the eye of reason , and produced the happiest effects on the Religious character and habits of the

    people I In those countries where its evidences , its doctrines and records , have been exposed to the most unlimited discussion ; where the friends of religious liberty have succeeded to the greatest extent in wresting from the hands of the civil authorities the

    power to injure Christianity by their pretended patronage . These are plain and powerful lessons from experience , which , if governments overlook , reflecting and liberal Christians should keep constantly in minds .

    There are also particular circumstances in the present times , which must render any interference of the law in behalf of Christianity altoge ther injurioMj , It is no longer possible for the cs ^ i power , as in past ages , to shield this religion from the investigation of unbelievers , nor evea from

    their ignorant and malicious misrepresentations * The adversary ot the Feviier of Christianity cannot now be rtmsttmed at the staKe . Only a few of the boldest can be chosen to be imprisoned and harassed as examples . By such examples the

    preiudices of unbelievers may k confirmed * and tlieir passions excited , but their tongues cannot be silenced . " Schism / J sa ^ sratf old and sensible writer ,. " is art ailment in tfee t > ody politic not curable but by an utter

    extirpation of the limbs infected , ainl # ^ steady cru ^ lty ^ zealoy sly p urs ued without pity or reinorse- All petty severities , . however * wholesome they ifi ^ y appear , are only quack medicines , which put th ^ put teiu to . p ain / Wit hout removing the ratt « ftojp 6 tf . ' ?? * $ oeh are rr' * y \ t * y ' : A 7 t v t .--- ' \ E--r ~ , \ . i ] . ; ' :. ' »< MtttKlevmiiTs F ^^ e Tlj oiighte . ^ han . U .

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    the only medicines which the civil power can rto \ y adtnin&ter for the care of infidelity . The stingy of t ^ law , for this purpose , has lost its power ; it can only irritate , not de ~

    stroy its victims . * : ; Many circumstances Aere undoubtedly are in the present condition of Christianity , calculated to excite a

    more thaii ordinary degree of interest in the minds of its serious professors . This religion is n $ m perhaps more than at any former period , except at its first introduction , before the

    tribunal of the public . The bod y of the people , who have no Learned systems to support , but whom the in * creased means of education , and the spirit of the times , have awakened to

    inquiry upon religious subjects , who have no secular interests depending upon their profession or denial of Christianity , but 'who cannot fail to be sensible , that the truth or falsehood

    of reiigio » is a question that involves the most momentous consequences to themselves ; these are the inquirers to whom Christianity is &ow appealing ft > r belief and attachment in a more direct and' open manner than the circumstances of the Christian world

    have hereto / ore acbi > iited . Now these are the . ciase of persons to whose minck it is most desirable that Christianity should bo presented free from

    alay association with objects foreign from its nature and spirit . Philosophers and aien of habitual reflection canjiot he ~ so easily impqsed upon > by the . accidental associatrion of things

    which have hd proper connexion . But the mass of mankind judge from jappearances and from general represent ^ tioas . Siftce , therefore , the ( question concerning the truth df Christianity ivppears to excite iucreaeing attention amougst the people , it becomes daily more ne ^ esgftry . that t h ^ y Vho

    cotisider this religion to be wholly iadepencfetitof aU hitman law and government , should viiidfcate it from every felse representation ; that they should openly denoaacc all nboans of ^ erseootioa takei ^ for its deforiee- ; in other wordnt that the ppiiiciples of coneiBteht Nonoonformitv aad perfect MberlV of ©

    piiliott and dfediieeioti afeoirfd . h& eara-06 % 1 ^ e ^ wtop ^ iedk * rr ^ . ^^^^^^^^ M ^^^^^^ 'F ^* **

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    326 . The Noncoti / vrtnut . - { fo . XXVI .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1823, page 226, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1783/page/34/