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the most miraculous proofs afforded of his superhuman character, and after the most zealous professions of support. Our Lord had predicted the consequences of his over-zeal: and when Peter had denied him in the hall of the High Priest, "the Lord turned and looked upon Peter! and Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him. And he went out, and wept bitterly." (Luke, xxii. 61.) The remorse and fears of the unhappy apostle were doubtless of the most piercing agony. The persecutor would say, that his flagrant apostasy called for the most signal vengeance, both as a punishment, and a warning to others. Not so the principles of Christianity. And there is an incident in the account of the resurrection, connected with this distressing scene, the most touching and unartificial coincidence in the whole internal evidence of Scripture. Early in the morning, when the women visited the sepulchre, the first appearance of our Lord's resurrection addressed them-" Be not affrighted: ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified; he is risen, he is not here. But go your way; tell his disciples, and PETER, that he goeth before you into Galilee: there ye shall see him." (Mark, xvi. 6.) The mixture of sublime generosity and deep knowledge of human character discernible in this affecting anecdote is most truly striking. Our Lord doubtless foresaw, in this former conduct of his fallen disciple, a debasing consciousness of self-degradation that would have banished Peter from his presence. Peter "came running to the sepulchre," oppressed with grateful contrition. The fourth evangelist continues the same undesigned and beautiful consistency in the narrative of a subsequent appearance to the apostles, in the repetition of that searching question, "Simon Peter, lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus said unto him, Feed my sheep!"-(John, xxi. 17.) I have quoted this artless and inimitable story, from its unanswerable support of my position. Peter was restored to the bosom of the church. This was the disciple who afterwards, by his zealous and apostolic exertions, made such ample atonement for his former errors, and so full a return for the generous forgiveness of his divine master-the same disciple who counsels the Asiatic Gentiles, "Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly." (1 Peter, v.

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Thus, Sir, have I incontestably proved the example of Christ opposed to persecution: his doctrine, as taught in that divine sermon on the Mount, was, "Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods, ask them not again

and as ye would that men should do to you, do ye to them likewise. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged; condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned; forgive, and ye shall be forgiven." (Luke, vi.) Christ repeatedly reminded his disciples, "Ye are witnesses of these things;" and his last parting injunction was, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." Who is therefore guilty of blasphemous calumny, in imputing force to the permission of the Gospel? If its sanction is there to be discovered, a greater mass of hypocrisy than the New Testament never was put together. In an old tract against the presentments of a Middlesex Grand Jury, a century since, are some most apposite remarks. It says: "To suppose the practice of punishing men for not professing the Christian religion, or for professing the contrary, to be pleasing in the eyes of our Saviour, we must suppose him to have spoke thus to his apostles :- Go ye and teach all nations: preach up the duties which I have commanded you, and which you have seen me practise, meekness, charity, and mutual forbearance of one another. And to convince men the better, lo! I give you power of working miracles, whereby the divinity of your mission may be evident to the senses, as well as reason of mankind. Behold, I send you forth as sheep among wolves: Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. But mark me: I would not have you keep to this behaviour too long. What I direct now is only for twenty, or thirty, or a hundred, or two hundred years, according as you succeed in bringing over the powers of the world to your side e; as soon as that is done, you must be quite other sort of men. Don't suffer any body to say a word against my religion; or if he do, and offer to bring never so plausible reasons for his infidelity, take care he be despatched, or soundly chastised some way or other-by sword or famine, poison or presentment." "

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Thus I have contrasted the life and doctrines of our Saviour with the conduct of modern Christians. It cannot be necessary to enter at any length into the subsequent practice of the apostles, since it cannot be doubted, by Christians, that they strictly followed the precepts of their divine Teacher. Throughout the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles, they are represented as courting the most public examination of their opinions and testimony, and they every where addressed themselves to the understandings of their hearers. Indeed an hierarchical principle of obedience to State religion would have come ill from those who appealed to the natural right of propagating truth, and who publicly sought to overturn the religious establishments of the whole world. As St. Paul accounts charity the very corner-stone of Christianity, so, on the other hand, he rates persecution as the vilest crime; and it was for the

commission of this offence he describes himself (1 Tim. i. 15.) the "chief of sinners." When brought before the kings of the earth to answer for his "seditious and blasphemous" attempts against their native gods, does he not on all occasions plead the liberty of human nature? In his apostolic character, although frequently called upon to reprove the additions and subtractions made to Christianity by the heathen superstitions and mistaken zeal of the primitive converts, he no where enjoins pains or penalties, but, in the utmost severity of indignant anger, he counsels them to expel al! the obdurate (after repeated exhortations) from the communion of the church; he enjoins them not to associate with blasphemers and evil-doers, but their judgment and punishment he always concedes to the tribunal of the last day. "Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with with meekness and respect." (1 Pet. iii. 15.) But the Scripture no where says, When the unbeliever states to you his doubts and objections, destroy his books and imprison his body: no; Christianity distinctly declares, “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal." (2 Cor. x. 4.) The apostolic church was a spiritual militia of volunteers, not of pressed men; and it was a noted saying of St. Ambrose, "Fides voluntatis est, non necessitatis." But two instances only can be cited having the least countenance of persecution-the awful visitations on Ananias and Sapphira by Peter, and the punishment of Elymas the sorcerer, struck blind by Paul. Their entire irrelevancy, however, to the argument, is known by every critical reader, and may be seen in Chandler's Introduction to Limborch, and Bishop Barlow's Treatise on Toleration. They were miraculous incidents under peculiar circumstances; and, if the narratives are attentively read, will be seen to originate more in the immediate act of the Deity than with the apostles. first planters of Christianity resided and lived with Pagan idolaters; the Epistles are filled with exhortations to gain them over to the faith by Christian conversation; and it would puzzle the persecutor to explain how converts were originally made, if the primitive believers were interdicted the society of Jews and Pagans.

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I am aware of the arguments drawn from the Old Testament in favor of coercion by the civil magistrate; but he who cannot discover the total opposition of the two covenants in the inspired writings themselves, never will be convinced by me. I shall not, therefore, enter on an endless desert of controversy. The books of the Old Testament are of various and partial authority-some historical, others prophetical. The Jewish religion was a mixture of human and divine law: Christ declares his kingdom not of this world. The great object of the Jewish law appears to have been directed to the preservation of one nation in the belief and worship

of one God, and, by a series of periodical revelations, finally to lay there the foundation of the Christian religion; from whence, as from a centre, might afterwards radiate, in proportion to the increasing maturity of human reason, the same light and knowledge throughout the whole earth. To this great end, much ceremonial and ritual form was necessary in the early ages of the world, when the human understanding was only impressible through a sensible medium. But as mankind emerged from ignorance and barbarism, and the effulgent light of the Christian revelation spread itself far and wide, these forms and ceremonies became useless burthens, and were superseded by the Gospel liberty. St. Paul, in explaining this gradual maturity and completion of the scheme of Providence, exhorts his fellow Christians "Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free, and be not again the slaves of bondage." True it is, that our Saviour declared to the Scribes and Pharisees, that he came not to destroy the law, but to support the law: this explains nothing, till some definition is attained of the meaning of the law alluded to. The Jewish theocracy was a mixture of the political, the ceremonial, and the moral law. It cannot be contended that our Saviour, who predicted the present dispersion of the Jews-that standing miracle of Christianity-ever meditated the continuance of their political power; or that, in the prophecy of the total destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem, when he wept over the prophetic anticipation of his country's ruin, he ever contemplated the perpetuity of the ceremonial law: there remains, therefore, only one choice of this threefold mixture-the MORAL law. The analogy of natural and revealed religion is the grand basis of our belief; and is the argument so ably managed by the great Bishop Butler. The authority of the commandments, recognised in the New Testament, is acknowledged, not as civil, but as moral law. The great Author of revelation is equally the author of natural religion; and reason is itself described in the sacred writings as the "inspiration of the Lord, which giveth us understanding." In this light, the Gospel system assumes and incorporates with itself every precept of the Mosaic law, which is declared of universal and perpetual obligation. When the mission of the Messiah was accomplished, "the sceptre departed from Judah." For the violation of the moral law alone are we amenable to human tribunals; our faith and motives are the subjects of future jurisdiction. The practice of the moral law is alone necessary to the civil character, and its violations only ought to be the ground of civil disabilities and punishments. Will our clerical tutors and professors teach us the love of our country and of truth from the classic examples of Greece and Rome, and yet deny that an unbeliever can be a good man, or a trust-worthy

citizen? If they would so convince us, let them prosecute the works of Cornelius Nepos and Plutarch-let them burn the Morals of Plato, Seneca, and Marcus Antoninus-and interdict the books of Euclid, because they do not come through the medium of revelation. Miserable and devastating bigotry, which would make man a mere cultivated ape, and the restraints of the dogkennel his only safe abode ! I shall close this argument, drawn from scripture, with an extract from Bishop Barlow's tract on Toleration, 1692 :- "We find no warrant for it in the Gospel; there is neither any precept or practice of our Saviour, or his apostles, to compel any to be Christians. The means they used, either to convert Pagans, or continue and confirm Christians, were constant preaching and a rational pressing that truth to others, which they had received from God, and believed themselves; a prudent and meek disputing, and reasoning men out of their errors, a pious life, and patient suffering for the truth they preached: verbo et exemplo agebant, non gladio; it was their Christian patience, not any coactive violence, which converted the world; it was dying themselves, not killing others, which planted and propagated the Gospel: sanguis martyrum semen ecclesiæ; it was the blood of the martyrs, not of murdered heretics, which made the field of the church so fruitful: and by what authority we should do that now which they thought not fit to do then, I know not. Certainly, as they best knew what means were most proportionable and congruous both for the plantation and propagation of the Gos pel, so we have reason to believe that those mediums they made use of were such; and, on the other side, we may rationally conclude, that had there been any other means as congruous and conducible to the end they aimed at, as those they used, they would not have omitted them. Seeing, then, neither Christ nor his apostles ever commanded, or (by their example or practice) commended violence, or any coactive means to make or confirm Christians, we have great reason to believe that they conceived such means not congruous; and if so, why should any think otherwise?" I cannot refrain from here noticing the sad effects of a bigotry which restricts the investigation of many authors, from whom the youthful reader would gain the most virtuous impressions. The writings of Hobbes, Lord Shaftesbury, Lord Herbert, Bolingbroke, of Hume, and many modern unbelievers, contain inestimable dissertations on morals and the human mind ; but such is the timorous prescription of parents and tutors, that the index expurgatorius of mental cowardice prohibits the use of what made some atonement for their infidelity. What is the consequence? The youthful mind, when it escapes the thraldom of tutorage, instantly seeks this forbidden fruit; and, totally

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