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    your Lordshi p expresses it , " whatever can be sdid in favour of or against doctrines which are questioned , " we only obey the precept of Scripture which you have so judiciously and correctly quoted . All the friends of that " independence of the human mind" which your Protestant eulogists of Fermoy extol , must rejoice to hear such a noble declaration from your Lordship . They would rejoice still more to hear ,

    that your subsequent sentiments and conduct were in perfect unison with that declaration . But they cannot help perceiving a lamentable discrepancy ; for , in the next paragraph but one , you contradict yourself , and so far from allowing all descriptions , or any description , of persons " an opportunity of hearing what could be said in favour of or against" only one doctrine which was questioned , you would not grant the questioners a single hearing . It appears that some gentlemen of the Roman Catholic persuasion advanced certain arguments against a favourite tenet of the New Reformation Meeting

    at which you presided , and that those arguments being stubborn and difficult to be answered , it was judged expedient to put them down , not by superior force of argument , which would have been the legitimate way , but by absolute prohibition of their farther utterance . This was an ungenerous mode of depriving an opponent of victory when he could not be fairly combated . It reduced him to silence ; but so far from carrying conviction to his understanding , it only fixed more deeply a belief of his antagonist ' s itnpotency , and a consciousness of his own strength .

    But you objected to their line of argument , because " it is wicked and blasp hemous to seek to extract poison out of God ' s mouth . " In this sentiment also , the Unitarian , if he rightly understands it , " cordially concurs ; " though he objects to the expression as coarse , indelicate , containing a false metaphor , and bordering on the blasphemy which it condemns . It is wicked and blasphemous , my Lord , to pervert and torture the Scriptures for abstruse meanings which reason repudiates , while the plain and obvious sense is neglected or despised . But who is guilty of this impiety ? The Unitarian , who adheres to the clear declaration of Scripture , that God is one ;

    or the Athanasian , who sets up , as the standard of true faith , the unintelligible jargon of creeds composed in the dark ages , dooming us to perish everlastingly if we do not believe that He is three ? The Unitarian , my Lord , extracts only honey , the honey dews of life , from the leaves and the flowers of holy writ As for the poison which contaminates the affections and curdles all the milk of human kindness in the heart of man , seek for it where it is to be found abundant , even to overflowing , in the damnatory creeds and confessions of the orthodox hive !

    You further object to the Roman Catholic adopting his line of argument , u because the Deist and Infidel laugh at his weakness and profit by his folly . " What then ? Has your Lordship , veril y and indeed , so tender a regard for your Roman Catholic brethren * that it would grieve you to see the Deist and Infidel laughing at their weakness and profiting by their folly ; or are you desirous that all the glory of victory , and all the " profit , " whatever it may be , should belong to the New Reformation Society ? It

    may be doubted whether the Roman Catholics will feel much obliged by your Lordship ' s compassionate regard for their weakness ; and as for tlie Deist and Infidel , they do not seem to be giving themselves any concern about the matter . But if they do , why not answer the Deist and InfideJ , and add them to the number of your proselytes ? Deists and Infidels are huinan creatures . They are rational too , and if they require a reason for

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    Dr . Drummond ' 8 Letter to Lord Mountcashett . 435

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• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1828, page 435, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2562/page/3/