482 Opprobrious Appeliations reprobated. 
Jines of feparation, fhould arife out of: dif- 
ferences in religious opinions, is an effect 
fo natural, that 1 do not fee how it 1s to be 
helped. They will be more or lefs ftrong- 
ty felt, according to our opinion of the 
importance of the doétrines in which we 
differ, to the firmnefs with which we hold 
them, to the enlargement of our minds, 
and the feafoning of humility and can- 
dour with which we puriue our refearches 
into truth; but no degree of candour can 
require us to annihilate in our minds cir- 
cumftances which are formed to effect it 
fo ftrongly. The brotherhood of human 
nature, the charities of domeftic life, the 
intereft refulting froma common country, 
thefe the unbeliever can fhare in; but 
there is alfo a tie, and a dear one, refult- 
ing from a fellowfhip in the fame faith—in 
this he cannot ; and, as it arifes from the 
nature of things, he ought not to take it 
amifs that ke cannot. Nor ought it to be 
jaf caule of offence to the unbeliever, that 
a name is affixed to him, which, in his ef- 
timation, is fynonymous with fuperior fa- 
gacity, and freedom from vulgar prejudice ; 
his fellow-citizens call him incredulous, 
he calls them credulous ; he would be very 
forry, if any man, of whofe undcrftandin 
he has a good opinion, fhould fufpect him of 
embracing the creed of the majority, why 
then fhould he wifh to be confounded with 
them. One word more on the blame 
which Orthophilus throws on the Diffen- 
ters for ufing thefe terms, which are faid 
to be fo obnoxious: but furely they have 
aright to include themfelves within the 
Jarge pale of believers in general. ‘They 
are fenfible they differ in many things 
from the majority, and they know alfo 
that a fhare of the odium we nave been 
fpeaking of does and muft attach icfelf to 
them on that account, but that is no rea- 
fon they fhould take more than fairly be- 
longs to them, or that they fhould be 
confounded with thofe who deny the 
whole fyftiem. A Scotchman may call 
himfelf a Briton, though he cannot call 
himfelf an Englifhman, and he may join 
in any meafures againft thofe he conceives 
to be their common enemies, though, as 
a Scotchman, he may have feparate inte- 
refis to difcufs with the fifter kingdom. 
The Diffenters, therefore, do not make 
their own fyftem of belief the ftandard, 
when they call an unbeliever in Chriftiani- 
ty an Infidel, but they refer to the gene- 
val belief of the nation, in the great out- 
jines of which they concur. 
I am far from denying, however, 
that party prejudice, and- party ran- 
cour often fhew themfelves, both in the 
(Jan; 1, 
invention and application of names. In 
the firlt place, in bringing them in 
where they have nothing to do: for this 
reafon, it is not neceflary officioufly to 
throw upon a man the odium of infidelity, 
when giving a charaéter of him as a phy- 
fician or merchant, for with his preferip- 
tions and his warehoufe his creed has no- 
thing todo. It is not neceffary to ftigma- 
tize a man for his want of faith, who 
writes a book of f{cience or general inior- 
mation ; a practice which, I obferve with 
pain, is gaining ground amongft us, and 
which, if it becomes prevalent, will be 
the deftruction of all found literature. A 
perverfe mifapplication of terms, as when 
a Socinian is called an Unbeliever, or a 
Deift an Atheift, is, as the writer has 
fhewn, a firong mark of bigotry, and a 
moft unfair praétice. In the next place, 
all names are the inftruments of prejudice, 
where an offenfive idea is flided into the 
mind by means of fome artful affociation . 
Of this nature is the term Jacobin, as 
applied to the friends of liberty in Eng- 
land, becaufe it infidioufly and falfely iden- 
tifies their principles with the principles 
and practices which we fo much repro- 
bate in a neighbouring country. The 
fentiment, as drawn out into a propcfition, 
ftands thus :—The Jacobins were friends 
of liberty, you are friends of liberty, 5 
therefore, all that the Jacobins have done, 
you would do. Difenter expreffes fimply 
the idea it is meant to convey, and if 
odium is attached to it in the mind of any 
one it cannot be helped ; but Schifmatic 
is a term of reproach, for it throws cn the 
perfon diffenting the guilt of difturbing 
the-unity of the church. Terms of af- 
fumption are equally unjuftifiable with 
terms of reproach. Such. is the term or- 
thodox—bholding the right opinion; for you 
have no right to affume that you do hold 
the right opinion. Rational Diffenter isa 
term of afiumption, which I amafraid can- 
not be juitified, at leaft, without beftowing- 
upon it a great deal cf explanation. The 
French Philofophe, and the Englifh Free- 
thiiker, are inftances on the other fide; 
for a man is not lefs a philofopher becaule 
heis a Chriftian; and he may think as 
freely who embraces a fyfiem, as he who 
rejeéts it, theugh not, it muft be confeficd, 
it he begins his enquiries with a determi- 
nation to embrace it. The Hiftory of 
Party-names would be a curious and a . 
fruitful fubjeét, nor fhall we ever get rid 
of the rancour and bitternefs they excite, 
till we have charity in our hearts, and 
fimple truth upon ourlips. Your's, &c. 
‘ A. Lhe 
To 
