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Priestley reasoned more intelligibly , and I think also more justly : "As laws should not contradict themselves , so neither ought they to have any tendency to lessen the obligation of moral duties—they ought rather to enforce them /'* But what would be the
moral effect of Mr . B / s proposed encouragement of Christianity ? While , on the one hand , we offer a bounty to the promuigators of our faith , and , on the other , give complete indemnity and full license s € to do his worst" to the
scoffing Infidel , shall we not in all probability have to lament the inefficiency of the pleadings of our hired advocates , who will be very unequally matched with their opponents in the
estimation of the multitude , both from their situation as mercenaries , and from its not being in their power to use the weapons of ribaldry and vulgar ridicule , which the Unbeliever wields with so much success ? Neither are
we sure that none but readers of the worst character can be affected by them : " while we are philosophizing about " the omnipotence of Truth , " the young , the ignorant and the presumptuous may be seduced from her standard and consigned to perdition .
I am ready to grant that " every bigot includes his own absurdities among the essentials of Christianity ;" for bigots are apt to be absurd and unreasonable . But why should Mr . B . thus take it for granted that our
civil magistrates must be bigots ? Does he not perceive that if they are such , they must be quite as unfit to be trusted with the encouragement of Christianity , as with the punishment of the Infidel ? Let us neither €€ call
transubstantiation impious , " nor " Athanasianism nonsense : " in the name of common sense let us leave them to their fate , and they will soon be forgotten . But Mr . Belsham will reply , Let us also leave the Infidel to his fate . I answer willingly , So long as he does not attempt to do mischief ; but if he
treats sacred things with levity and scorn , I cannot but agree with Blair in regarding him as ' " a public enemy to society , " since , " by the example which he sets of contempt for reli g ion , he becomes accessary to the crimes which that contempt occasions among
* Lect . on Hist ., U . 172 . vol . xv . 4 q
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others . By his scoffing at sacred instil tutions , he is encouraging the rabble to uproar and violence ; he is emboldening the false witness to take the
name of God in vain ; he is , in effect , putting arms into the hands of tlie highwayman , and letting loose the robber on the streets by night . " *
If this representation be just , are such disturbers of peace and good order to be permitted "to do their worst" with impunity ? Even with regard to the offender himself , I should say with Bishop Waddington in the case of Woolston ,, that " if he could
be restrained by the civil magistrate from writing on in the same outrageous manner ,. ( with a liberty still to use reason instead of railing , ) I don't see how this could be any prejudice to the
Christian religion , any contradiction to the true , forbearing spirit of it , any injury to the just liberties of mankind , or any injustice to the writer himself , but , in my poor opinion , the greatest kindness that could possibly be done him . " f
Perhaps some of your readers may think it little to the purpose , in an argument like this , to quote the opinions of orthodox or episcopal : writers ; I will therefore take leave to adduce one example from Pagan antiquity . It is well known , that the Romans
protected the inhabitants of all the provinces they conquered in the exercise of their several religious institutions , esteeming all men ' s religion inviolable . Cicero , in one of his Orations against Verres , contends for that further
interposition of the civil magistrate which has given such offence to * ' a liberal minority" in the case of Mr . Carlile . He maintains , that even if the religion of the Sicilians were different from that
which was adopted at Rome , it ought not to be insulted with impunity ; , and he calls upon the judges " to secure it by an exemplary punishment of him who had offered to violate it" % Since I have professed myself a
Dissenter upon principle , I have too high an opinion of your candour , Mr . Editor , to suppose that you will class me among the slavish supporters of " whatever is . " In selecting the examples
* Sermons , III . 380 , &c . + Life of Lardner . App . % Lardner ' s Works , 1 . 173
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On the Controversy relating to the Punishment qf Unbelievers . 661
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1820, page 661, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2494/page/33/
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