1822.} 
opposition, unaided by temporal power: 
and your Petitioners humbly submit to your 
[Right] Honourable House, that herein 
consists one of the- brightest evidences of 
the trath of the Christian Religion ; and 
that they are utterly at a loss to conceive 
how that which is universally accounted to 
have been the glory of the Gospel in its 
beginnings, should now eease to be accoun- 
ted its glory, or how it should at this day 
be less the maxim of Christianity, and less 
the rule of the conduct of Christians, than 
in the days of those that are usually de- 
nominated the Fathers of the Church— 
that it is no part of religion to compel re- 
ligion, which be received, not by force, 
but of free choice. 
Your Petitioners would earnestly repre- 
sent to your [Right] Honourable House, 
that our Holy Religion has borne unin- 
jured every test that reason and learning 
have applied to it, and that its Divine 
origin, its purity, its excellence and its 
title to universal acceptation, have been 
made more manifest by every new exami- 
nation and discussicn of its nature, pre- 
tensions and claims. Left to itself under 
the Divine blessing, the reasonableness 
and innate excellence of Christianity will 
infallibly promote its influence over the 
understandings and hearts of mankind ; 
but, when the angry passions are suffered 
to rise in its professed defence, these 
provoke the like passions in hostility to it, 
and the question is no longer one of pure 
truth, but of power on the one side, and of 
the capacity of endurance on the other. 
It appears to your Petitioners that it is 
alfogether unnecessary and impolitic to 
recur to penal laws in aid of Christianity. 
The judgment and feelings of human na- 
ture, testified by the history of man in 
all ages and nations, incline mankind to re- 
ligion ; and it is only when they erringly 
_ associate religion with fraud and injustice 
that they can be brought in any large num- 
ber to bear the evils of scepticism and 
unbelief. Your Petitioners acknowledge 
and Jament the wide diffusion amongst 
tie people of sentiments unfriendly to the 
Christian faith: but they cannot refrain’ 
fiom stating to your Honourable Honse 
their conviction that this uncxampled state 
of the public mind is mainly owing to the 
prosecution of the holders and propagators 
_of infidel opinions. Objections to Chris- 
tianity have thus become familiar to the 
readers of the weekly and daily journals, 
curiosity has been stimelated with regard 
fo the publications prohibited, an adventi- 
tions, unnatuyal, and dangerous importance 
has been given to sceptical arguments, a 
suspicion has been excited in the minds of 
the multitude that the Christian religion 
can be upheld only by pains and penalties, 
and sympathy has been raised on behatt 
of the sufferers, whom the uninformed and 
Montucy MAG, No, 365. 
, 
Political Affairs in July. 
81 
unwise regard with the reverence and con- 
fidence that belong to the character of 
martyrs to the truth. ~ 
Your Petitioners would remind your 
[Right] Honourable House, that allhistory 
testifies the futility of all prosecutions for 
mere opinions, unless such prosecutions 
proceed the length of exterminating the 
holders of the opinions prosecuted,—an 
extreme from which the liberal-spirit and 
the humanity of the present times revolt. 
The very same maxims and principles 
that are pleaded to justify the punishment 
of Unbelievers would authorize Chris- 
tians of different denominations to vex and 
harass each other on the alleged ground of 
want of faith, and likewise form an apology 
for Heathen persecutions against Chris- 
tians, whether the persecutions that were 
anciently carried on against the divinely- 
taught preachers of our Religion, or those 
that may now be instituted by the ruling 
party in Pagan countries, where Christian 
missionaries are so landably employed, in 
endeavouring to expose the absurdity, 
folly, and mischievous influence of ido- 
latry. 
Your Petitioners would entreat your 
[Right] Honourable House to consider 
that belief does not in all cases depend 
upon the will, and that inquiry into the 
truth of Christianity will be wholly pre- 
vented if persons are rendered punishable 
for any given resuit of inquiry. Firmly 
attached as your Petitioners are to the re- 
ligion of the Bible, they cannot but con- 
sider the liberty of rejecting, to be im- 
plied in that of embracing it. The un- 
believer may, indeed, be silenced by his 
fears, but itis searcely conceivable that 
any real friend to Christianity, or any one 
who is solicitous for the improvement of 
thehuman mind, the diffusion of knowledge, 
and the establishmentof truth, should wish 
to reduce any portion of mankind to the 
necessity of concealing their honest judg- 
ment upon moral and theological questions, 
and of making an outward profession that 
suall be inconsistent with their inward 
persuasion, : 
Your Petitioners are not ignorant that a 
distinction is commonly made between 
those unbelievers that argue the question 
of the truth of Christianity calmly and dis- 
passionately, and those that treat the sa- 
cred subject with levity and ridicule; but, 
although they feel the strongest disgust at 
every mode of discussion which approach- 
€s to indecency and profaheness, they cane 
not help thinking that it is neither wise 
nor safe to constitute the manner and tem- 
per of writing an object of legal visitation ; 
inasmuch as it is impossible to define 
where argument ends and evil-speaking 
begins, The reviler of Christianity. ap- 
pears to your Petitioners to be the least 
fosmidable of its enemies; because bis 
M scofls 
