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€€ Victory obtained upon the ground of argument and persuasion alone * by writing and discourse , will be honourable to us and our religion . —But a victory secured by mete authority is no less to be dreaded than a defeat . —
WHi any serious and sensible Christian , in the view of a future judgment , undertake to answer for the damage thereby brought to the doctrine of his Saviour , the meek and patient Jesus ; as meek in his principles as in the example he has bequeathed us ? " ( Works , XI . 5 , 6 . ) The correspondence with
Bishop Waddington , annexed to Lardleer ' s Life , may also serve to shew his superior discernment , when discussing ttuch a question , with one who viewed it through the misty atmos p here of Church and State . Dr . Kippis remarks , ( Life , p . xviii . ) that " it will now be little doubted , on what side
lay the advantage of the argument /' Dr . Lardner , also , in a letter to Lord Barrington , on the same subject , the prosecution of TVoolston , says , " A true Christian may sutler on account of his religion , but he can never make others suffer on account of theirs .
Whatever may be the consequence of it , we are not to support Christianity by force . " ( Life * pp . xix . cxxiv . ) Dr . Price , in 1767 , when he is about to controvert the arguments of Hume 4 On Historical Evidence and
Miracles , " commences by deprecating " the aid of the civil power to answer Unbelievers ; adding the following note , in which he , no doubt , refers to the disgraceful prosecution of Peter Annet , which had then recently occurred :
"We have lately seen a cruel instance of this in the prosecution , pillorying and confinement to Bridewell of a poor puny Infidel , worn out with age , who was utterly incapable of doing any cause the least good or harm . It is a bad excuse to say # that it was not infidelity 9 but indecency and scurrility
that were punished in this instance . For , this is to punish for the circumstances in a publication , which render it so much the less likely to produce any effect . Besides , who shall have
the power of determining whether a book agjEunst an established opinion is wyit decently 9 in order to give ; a right ^ f punishing ? There are no hands in which such a power can be lodged , without the utmost danger to what , as
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reasonable beings , we ought most to value . A zealot in a Popish country , cannot well wish for any greater power . God grant it may never be again allowed to any zealots in our own /*
€€ Detested , " proceeds Dr . Price , ** be the principles which have occasioned this . Let rather Unbelievers be encouraged to produce their strongest objections . If Christianit y is of God , we may be sure that it will bear any
trial , and in the end prevail . The civil magistrate ought not to . interpose in the defence of truth , till it has appeared that he is a competent judge of truth . This , certainly , he is not . On the contrary ; universal experience has , hitherto , proved him one of its
worst enemies . Nothing can be more disgraceful to the Christian religion than to suppose , that it needs such assistance . Were this true , it would , by no means , be worth defending . " ( Dissert . 1777 , pp . 366—367 . )
Happily these just and liberal views have not been peculiar to Unitarians . Among other Christian writers of a different persuasion , was Dr . Campbell . Having declared against checking the adversaries of Christianity , ' * in any other way than by returning
a candid answer to their objections / ' he adds , " I am both ashamed and grieved , when I observe any friends of religion betray so great a diffidence in the goodness of their cause , as to shew an inclination for recurring to more forcible methods . " ( Miracles , Ed . 3 , I .
301 . ) What would Dr . Campbell have thought of Christian associaters for " the suppression of vice / ' who assist an ^ Attorney-General to complete the ruin of an undisguised , rude Unbeliever ; thus providing for a succession
of Humes and Gibbons , b y offering the high premium of impunity for the vice of hypocrisy ? Such impartial promoters of public virtue have been , not very unfairly , nicknamed the Vice Society ,.
Hylasy however , will , , I . hppe , at length have his doubts resolved , and attain to the satisfaction of believing that Christianity an lose nothing of reputation ! or influence ¦ should the magistrate bp Iqfif to perform his io ^ portunt civil duties , without distracting nis attention by , an unwp ^ talWe curp of souls . As Jkor . f ^ jChriatyfUi advocate , who would ask , or rather who
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4 tQ Mr . Rnttx in Reply to HylasB on the Punishment of Unbelievers .
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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/30/
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