166 



the Trinity, or asserts there are more gods than one, 

 or denies the Christian religion to be true, or the scrip- 

 tures to be of tlivine authority, he is j)unisliable on the 

 first offence by incapacity to hold any office or em- 

 ployment ecclesiastical, civil, or military ; on the se- 

 cond by disability to sue, to take any gift or legacy, to 

 be guardian, executor, or administrator, and by three 

 years imprisonment without bail. A f\\ther's right to 

 the custody of his own children being founded in law 

 on his right of guardianship, this being taken away, 

 they may of course be severed from him, and put by 

 the authority of a court, into more ortiiodox hands. 

 This is a summary view of that religious slavery, un- 

 der which a people have been willing to remain, who 

 have lavished their lives and fortunes for the establish- 

 ment of their civil freedom.* The error seems not 

 sufficiently eradicated, that the operations of the mind, 

 as well as the acts of the body, are subject to the coer- 

 cion of the laws. — But our rulers can have no authority 

 over such natural rights, only as we have submitted to 

 them. — The rights of conscience we never submitted, 

 we could not submit. We are answerable for them to 

 our God. The legitimate powers of government ex- 

 tend to such acts only as are injurious to others. — But 

 it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 

 twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket 

 nor breaks my leg. If it be said, his testimony in a 

 court of justice cannot be relied on, reject it then, and 

 be the stigma on him. Constraint may make him 

 worse by making him a hypocrite, but it will never 

 make him a truer man. It may fix him obstinately in 

 his errors, but will not cure them. Reason and free 

 enquiry are the only eflfectual agents against error. 

 Give a loose to them, they will support the true reli- 

 gion, by bringing every false one to their tribunal, to 

 the test of their investigation. — They are the natural 

 enemies of error, and of error only. Had not the Ro- 

 man government permitted free enquiry, Christianity 



* Furneaux passim. 



