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the having granted a fund of suffering superior to that of pleasure . Doctrines imposing unfounded , excessive and useless punishments ; corrupting doctrines which grant pardons where punishment would be suitable , which offer rewards for actions which are of no value .
! 2 . Frivolous doctrines , from the belief of which results no moral good , and by the authority of which very ill effects are produced between those who admit and those who reject them . " 3 . Absurd doctrines another means
of attributing malevolence to God , making him the author of a system of religion obscure and unintelligible . Caco-theism produces atrocious crimes , it brutalizes the people , it causes the
wise to be persecuted , it fills mankind 'with terrors , it interdicts the most innocent pleasures , and is a most dangerous enemy to morals and legislation . Penalties against the propagators of these hurtful doctrines would be
founded in justice , for the evil which results from them is real ; but they would be ineffectual , they would be superfluous , they would be foolish . There is but one antidote against these persons , it is truth . These doctrines once convicted of falsehood cease to
be pernicious , and are only ridiculous ; the opinion which sustains them ought to be attached in the same way as any other opinion ; it is not the sword which destroys errors , it is the liberty of examination . The sword directed against opinions , proves nothing but the union of folly and tyranny .
" I say the same of Atheism , though Atheism t > e an evil in comparison with a system of religion , conformable to the principles of utility , consolingfor misfortune and propitious to
virtue : nevertheless , it is not necessary that it should be punished , it belongs to the moral sanction to do it justice . This opinion is here only announced , it sjiall be elsewhere proved . "
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Sir , Clapton , Oct . 25 , 1817 . THERE has probably never been a period in which America was a subject of so much interest to reflecting minds as at this moment . The United States rapidly advancing to display the practical influence of a free and equal government , formed and maintained in defiance of antiquated notions , the pedantry of courts
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and schools , principles of too many European establishments , as Bishop Berkeley described them . At the same time , South America rising j n her strength to dissolve a degrading connexion with
those fair specimens of royal legitimacy , the contemptible governments of Spain and Portugal . Her success must be a consummation devoutly to be desired by every friend to the moral or intellectual
improvement of his species , though humanity will regret , and the consistent Christian will turn from the confused noise of the warrior , and the garments rolled in blood . The first peopling of the New World , as is well known , has been a
frequent subject of learned and curious investigation . In the absence of historical documents , conjecture has enjoyed a boundless ranger Even Noah has had his partisan who would confer that honour on his memory , though in later times the ancient Briton
Madoc , has outstripped every other competitor . There was , however , a profoundly learned scholar and most excellent man , in the l 6 th century , who attributed the peopling of
America to a more exalted personage , one to whose superior claims all human pretensions must immediately yield . The scholar was Joseph Mede , and the personage whom he described as the colonizer of the New WorW , no
less than the Devil . I am indebted for this information to the following correspondence , between Mede and the learned Dr . Twisse , Prolocutor of the Assembly of Divines , which forms part of the 4 th book of Mede ' s Works , 3 d Ed . 1672 .
Dr . Twisse to Mr . Mede . " Newbury , March 2 , 1634-5 . " Now , I heseech you , let me know what your opinion is of our English plantations in the New World . Heretofore I have wondered in my thoughts at the providence of God concerning' that world , not discovered till this old world of ours is
almost at an end ; and then no footsteps founfcof the knowledge of the true God , nm ^ b less of Christ . And then considering oaf English plantations of late , and the opinion of many grave divines concerning sometimes
the Gospel ' s fleeting- Westward 5 I have had such thoughts , Why may not that be the place of New Jerusalem ? Bu j you have handsomely and fully cleared me from such odd conceits . But what , pray , shall our English there degenerate
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/ 08 Correspondence between Mr . Mede and Dr . Twisse
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1817, page 708, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2471/page/12/
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