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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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No , II . Mr . T . Williams to Mr . Cornish . House of Correction , Clerkenwell > Sept . 16 , 1798 . IR .
WITH heartfelt gratitude I return you my sincere thanks for your liberal donation in support of my family , and believe me , as God is justy the persecution of me is unjust ; for I Hin not publicly charged with any thing but selling the book which was
answered by the Bishop of LlandafF , } Vutson ; and it waa his answer that induced me t 6 publish it , conceiving the work % vas sanctioned by his publishing an answer to it ^ an d physically no man can be considered capable of forming an idea of an ans wefl | ( whether Jt be to the purpose or notunless he
, > he permitted to perase tte ^ vo rk whi < % gave cause to it f and if" I have been gtfflty of any crime in , publishing fig 1 . 1 ¦ BWiop ^^ -Sih * dMF- was the cause or it , and would have evinced hid affecv
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tion for the Christian r ^ iMaa if h ^ had | toed his influence f | r suppisesa the prosecution ; and if he could not have accomplished it privately , h $ * as a servant of Christ ,, should have pub ^ Us tied to the world the words of his
Lord and Master , who metaphorically says , St . Matt . xxvi .. 52 * * AH they that institute persecution shall perish with persecution . ' * With , respect to ray ideas OB
religion ; I presume when I inform you that I am by trade a book-binder , and that for six years last past , iny ciiieC support has been by binding the different works of the late venerable John
Wesley , for Mr , G . Whitfield , one of the preachers and bookseller belonging to that Society at the New Chapel , City-Road , Moorfields , you - will be satisfied that I am not a very immoral character ; for it is to be presumed that no Christian Society will prefer supporting a person of that class to one of their own principle .
In regard of petitioning the King , I aui satisfied there is no chance of one being conveyed to him , for the hearts of those through whose hands a petition must go , are as callous as the stone-floor of the melancholy cell I ani now locked up in ; and I conceive the only effectual means of procuring me
any liberation , would be for some philanthropist to write an energetic letter to the Bishop of London , who is president of the conspirators against the gospel of pur blessed Saviour and the liberty of religious opinion . Permit me to inform you that I have
petitioned the Society before I received sentence , to stop all farther proceedings , when Mr . Wilberforce , the Bisliops of London ( Porteus ) , Durham ( Barrington ) and St . Asaph ( Bagot ) , with other persons , came to the following unanimous decision : " That they
did not feel themselves justified in uw timating a wish to shew lenity > " which answer precludes me from making fcny further personal application , although l > y my being kept from my business my family are literally starving to \ v hat they would be if I waa with thenx ^ airender
my efforts in their suppoi ?« Hlp | , p $ jrimt me to picture to your mind what my feelings must have b ^ en aince the first of May last , in ^ hevcoqrse of which month I was so il ^ th ^ t I Jja y without tl | e \ em % # xp ^ ct | it ^ n of seeing the mouth through ; in which time I had one of my , cUildren died of the
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and Mr . T . Williams . b »
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however , did thte Divine Instrosctor foresee that numberd ^ pf hh pro fessed and pretended diseipes and ministers woulo exrite division and wield the sword .
The truth as it is in him will finally prevail , and then no civil forms of religion will domineer , or rational lyings , whether professing Christianity or not , for their mere profession , either in speaking or writing , be domineered over . The ablest advocates for
Christianity , like the great Lardner , have decidedly expressed their abhorrence of persecuting measures . This little help would have been forwarded long ago , but it was thought best " to wait till the sentence was passed , and opportunity did not immediately offer .
It would be worthy of the ministers of the gospel , publicly to petition the King to give orders for your immediate release and the remission of your fine , and , like a true Defender of the Faith , discountenance and reject every other mode of defence but reason and argument .
That you may be delivered from every effect of the prosecution under which you suffer , and be savingly en * lightened in the knowledge of the best tilings , is the fervent prayer of Yours , most sincerely , JOSEPH CORNISH .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1822, page 587, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2517/page/3/
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