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Untitled Article
ing as if , by $ he aid df the Attorney-General , Christianity had gained a victory over unbelief / ' and that " Dr . Priestley , like Lardner and WakefieW , had too well imbibed the spirit of Christ and of his religion , and too
highly valued its reputation , willingly to see it degraded by an unhallowed association with * pains and penalties , the implements of corrupt and unregenerated men / " This just description of such prosecutions and their contrivers , I quoted from a passage in Wakefield ' s " Letter to Sir John
Scott , " in which he mentions that earlier prosecution of the Age of Reason , by which Lord Erskine irrecoverably tarnished his reputation as an enlightened advocate of just , impartial liberty . My note closed with a reference to Mr . Fox ' s Sermon , on " the Duties of
Christians towards Deists ; " a highly seasonable publication , tending to shew that there are Christians who had no part nor lot in the late cruel transactions of men to whose thread-bare
pretences of zeal for religion and the the public morals , the line written for the followers of Loyola is too appropriate : Their name from Jesus , but their arts fromThell .
The expression dungeon-arguments , which I borrowed , but cannot recollect from whence , and the rest of the note was written without any design " to catch the inattentive reader / ' for which purpose ' * remarks of this sort ** are described by Hylas as " well adapted / 1 I attributed a different character to the
select few who had encouraged my edition of Dr . Priestley ' s Works , among whom I may probably reckon your Correspondent . But could he really deem it necessary to inform us , ** that
hardly any persecutor—has ascribed to prisons , scaffolds tod stakes , any influence propeHy Argumentative" ? And why were thfe •* tertns dungeon-argiff ments less admissible than the artftimentiim bacullnum , applied to a felo ^ wtos ' cudgel , <> t the r&iitrultimtf Pittrum , to a train of royal akil lejrf ? jfind l&fc
Hylas lUltaMttti 1 ^ ^ ltittfdWn fetfti gram on t \ L < 6 Ei ^ Bsh ^ tfivgtt 5 iti 6 d > tiUmj in 1716 < wii&taS Were quartered on € he one ; and , at the satne time , a rbyallibW * ry wad presented to the 6 th ** r ? I tiubtfe the lineS froth memory , an * perhapVnot verbally exact :
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The king to Oxford Mrft a troop of horse , ., ; ... ¦ . ; ¦ . - ' ; < - . ¦ ,: - ¦ '¦* <*¦ Ffa ther& they own no argument but force ; , ,
To Cambridge , books the generous monarch sent , For there they own no force but argu ment . " The question ' which Hylas considers as " simply arid fairly stated /* is , I apprehend , quite beside an inquiry into the duties of Christians towards
Deists . On the principles of equitable government or sound policy , I should not scruple to answer his question in the affirmative . But the present question , which has arisen out of the prosecution of Mr . Carlile , is not what
Legislatures , in their worldly wisdom , may deem just or politic ; but whether a Christian should invite or deprecate their interference to punish those who impugn or insult the Christian faith .
I say impugn , for " the law , " which Hylas approaches so reverentially , denounces punishments , equally upon the most temperate and respectful , as upon the most virulent and insulting ' denial " that the Old and New
Testainents are of divine authority . " These punishments no longer , indeed , include the pillory ; but are now mercifully confined to the incarceration of an Unbeliever , the spoiling of his goods , and the beggary of his family , by fines and imprisonments of indefinite
extent , limited only by th £ independence or servility , the rigour or toleration df judges in the exercise of their arbittra ^ discretion ; which is strangely supposed to consist with the principles 6 f a ffefe government . Such is " the LaWi" as to which , Hylas 9 writing in the Character of a Christian , can , at this day , raise a question , whether the
sanctions should not be enforced /* It is due to the memoiy of Old Unitarians , who had none of Hylas ' s doubts upon this subject , to quote some of their opinions , by which it wiU [ appear that they tmderstood " the duties of' Christians towards Deists /*
whether they were reasoning 01 * reviling Deists , exactly as they have ? b 6 $ h £ x ~ plained and ^ aforced by the Aiithor o ^ the Sermon . Dr . Lardrter , on tlie f f& secutiori of fFoolstdnhx lf ^^ W ® Wbiib follouing invaluable remafk ^ , which I had occasion to qutitfe 1 h Westl ^ f s Works ( XIV . 24 ) :
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Mr . Butt , ifi Reply to Hylas 9 on the Punishment of Unbelievers . 409 **
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1820, page 410, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2490/page/29/
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