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tion of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, 

 jm|)risone<l ; yet we have not advanced one inch to- 

 wards uniformity. Wlint has heen the eflect of coer- 

 cion ? To make one half the world fools, and the other 

 half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all 

 over the earth. Let us reflect that it is inhabited by 

 a thousand millions of |)eople. That these profess 

 probably a thousand different systems of religion. Tiiat 

 ours is but one of that thousand. That if there be but 

 one right, and ours that one, we should wish to see the 

 999 wandering sects gathered into the fold of truth. 

 But against such a majority we cannot effect this by 

 force. Reason and persuasion are the only practicable 

 instruments. To make way for tliese, free enquiry 

 must be indulged : and how can we wish others to en- 

 dulge it while we refuse it ourselves. But every state, 

 says an inquisitor, has established some religion. No 

 two, say I, have established the same. Is this a proof 

 of the infallibility of establishments .^ Our sister states 

 of Pennsylvania and New-York, however, have long 

 subsisted without any establishment at all. The ex- 

 peritnent was new and doid)lful when they made it. 

 It has answered beyond conception. — They flourish 

 infinitely. Religion is well supported ; of various kinds, 

 indeed, but all good enough ; all suflicient to [)reserve 

 peace and order: or if asect arises, whose tenets would 

 subvert morals, good sense has fair })!ay, and reasons 

 and laughs it out of doors, without suftering the state 

 to be troubled with it. — They do not hang more male- 

 factors than we do. — They are not more disturbed with 

 religious dissensions than we are. On the contrary, their 

 harmony is unparalleled, and can be ascribed to no- 

 thing but their unbounded tolerance, because there is no 

 other circumstance in which they differ from every 

 nation on earth. — Ti)ey have made the happy disco- 

 very, that the way to silence religious dis|)utes, is to 

 take no notice of them. Let us too give this experi- 

 ment fair play, and get rid, while we may, of those 

 tyrannical laws. It is true, we are as yet secured 

 against them by the spirit of the times. I doubt whe- 



