I have been the longer on this head, that I might fully vindicate the christian revelation from every suspicion of being favourable to persecution. Notwithstanding some late insinuations of this kind that have been thrown out against it, by its professed adversaries, let but the expressions of scripture be interpreted with the same candour as any other writings are, and there will not be found a single sentence to countenance this doctrine and practice. And therefore though men of corrupt minds, or weak judgments, have, for the sake of worldly advantages, or through strong prejudices, entered into the measures of persecution under pretence of vindicating the christian religion; yet, as they have no support and foundation in the gospel of Christ, the gospel ought not to be reproached for this, or any other faults of those who profess to believe it. Let persecution be represented as a most detestable and impious practice, and let persecutors of every denomination and degree bear all the reproaches they deserve, and be esteemed, as they ought to be, the disturbers, plagues, and curses of mankind, and the church of God; but let not the religion of Jesus Christ suffer for their crimes, nor share any part of that scandal, which is due only to those who have dishonoured their character and profession, and abused the most beneficent and kind institution that ever appeared in the world.
It is in order to expose this shameful practice, and render it the abhorrence of all mankind, that I have drawn up the foregoing sheets; and, I presume, that no one who hath not put off humanity itself, can read them without becoming sentiments of indignation. The true use to be made of that history, is, not to think dishonourably of Christ and his religion; not to contemn and despise his faithful ministers, who, by preaching and practice, by reason and argument, endeavour to propagate knowledge, piety, righteousness, charity, and all the virtues of private and social life. The blessing of the Almighty God be with them. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ succeed and prosper them. I say therefore, the use of the foregoing history is to teach men to adhere closely to the doctrines and words of Christ and his apostles, to argue for the doctrines of the gospel with meekness and charity, to introduce no new terms of salvation and christian communion; not to trouble the christian church with metaphysical subtleties and abstruse questions, that minister to quarrelling and strife; not to pronounce censures, judgments, and anathemas, upon such as may differ from us in speculative truths; not to exclude men from the rights of civil society, nor lay them under any negative or positive discouragements for conscience-sake, or for their different usages and rites in the externals of christian worship; but to remove those which are already laid, and which are as much a scandal to the authors and continuers of them, as they are a burden to those who labour under them. These were the sole views that influenced me to lay before my reader the foregoing melancholy account; not any design to reflect on the clergy in general, whose office and character I greatly reverence; and who, by acting according to the original design of their institution, would prove the most useful set of men in every nation and kingdom, and thereby secure to themselves all the esteem they could reasonably desire in the present world; and, what is infinitely more valuable, the approbation of their great Lord and Master in another.
Finis.
The following Appendix by the Editor, contains hints on the recent persecutions in this country; a brief statement of the circumstances relating to Lord Sidmouth’s Bill; a circumstantial detail of the steps taken to obtain the new Toleration Act, with the Act itself, and other important matter.
