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    powerless if there had not . been feelings in the breasts of the laity which responded to theirs with pretty accurate accordance . Indeed we see , that wherever the sympathy fails , a difference of effect is visible . We never find the church able to enforce the payment of her revenues with the terrors with

    which she guarded her dogmas : there her interests acting in opposition to those of the laity , her power would be proportionably diminished . If the suggestions which have been thrown out are at all founded in truth ,

    it should follow that three causes may abate the ardour of persecution . 1 st Increase of knowledge . This cause operates by accustoming the public to ^ examination and discussion . Sects arise , and each man learns from the

    necessity of the case to bear that want of uniformity in belief which was at first so irksome . 2 nd . The diminution of either the power , the wealth or the numbers of the body whose interests are dependant on the prevalence of certain opinions ; and ,

    3 rd . Indifference to the subject on which the opinions are held . It has been a favourite indulgence with writers against Christianity , to declaim against it as peculiarly a religion of persecution . That the professors of Christianity have too often

    disgraced their religion by a , direct opposition to the precepts . of their Founder , cannot be denied ; but that the superior liberality of the Pagans ( even admitting the fact ) arose from any knowledge of the true principles of toleration , or any instinctive

    application of them , may well be doubted . The great plasticity of Paganism must nev , er be forgotten . A religion , of which the scriptures were to be found only in the work 3 of the poets , could not be bound , up in articles , and

    consequently nothing more than a ge * - neral faith could be demanded or professed . There were no books among the Greeks and Romans set apart as peculiarl y sacred ; every writer took the traditions of the vulgar as they floated down to him , and modelled

    them to suit his imagination and his subject . A nbw God , therefore , no more shocked them than a new saint would a Roman Catholic , In fact , their mythology \ vm jrathei * a plurality of religions , \ vhe * e every worshiper

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    might choose his particular divinity , than a faith where the object or objects of worship are common to all . The very loose notions which the ancients had , even respecting the identity of their gods , may be seen in Tacitus , who represents the Germans as worshiping Mercury , Hercules and Mars , although we know , nor could Tacitus have been ignorant , that the deities whom he calls by these names , had few attributes in common with their classic brethren . *

    We then cannot wonder that as long as innovators were employed in adding to the Pantheon , they would excite no hostility in the public mind , and if the Christians had chosen to act in like manner , they would have escaped the dreadful persecutions which they

    endured from their liberaL-antagonists . In truth , until the establishment of Christianity , there had been little opposition to the prevailing opinions : that little , however ^ though extremely guarded , as in the instance of Socrates , met with no indulgence .

    The philosophers I put out of the question ; they never seem to have attacked the priests or attempted to influence the minds of the people . They joined also in the public rites ; and such a conformity in a religion which had so little else than ceremony in its composition , was all that could well be demanded .

    Let their treatment of the Christians shew how any real and substantial reform would have been received among them ; and when we talk of their liberality , let us remember , that although they were indulgent enough to those

    who increased their stock of superstitions , they seldom extended any mercy to those who attempted to diminish it . In considering the persecutions which have arisen in the Christian world , we must also look at the social state of

    Europe , during the period of their birth and progress . Among the hordes which peopled the North , the great object of human existence was war-Fighting was at once their business , their amusement , their morality and their religion * Their revenues were the plunqer of their enemies . The pleasure of desfructipi * , if we may

    * De Mortbus Germawormn ; and see the Eddas .

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    454 The Nonconformist * No . XXI .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1821, page 454, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2503/page/14/