what but this are the lovers of truth even yet too often
punished, directly or indirectly, for inviting others to participate in
the benefits which they believe they have gained. Stephen was stoned
because he was a heretic; Paul worshiped the God of his fathers
according to a way which was then called heresy, and for which he was
persecuted through life and unto death. Peter and John were brought
before the high priest and rulers for publishing their heresy, and
punished for refusing to cease to publish it. Yet has this their heresy
prevailed; and thus shall every new truth prevail, and its promulgators
be honored, in despite of the wrath of man; while the more freely errors
are canvassed, the sooner will they be exposed. What was once said with
truth in relation to the Gospel of truth,--'If this counsel or this work
be of men, it will come to nought: but if it be of God, ye cannot
overthrow it,'--may be said with equal wisdom of every other kind of
truth and the test of investigation is a much surer one than that which
is furnished by the prejudices and the passions of men. There is no
natural, no Divine law which sanctions the infliction of pain for the
exercise of the intellect, or for communicating the results of that
exercise; and that any human law or custom should have existed by which
injury of mind, body, or estate is made the consequence of the formation
and publication of opinions, is a proof that the natural rights of man
have not been understood, and that the spirit of Christian liberty has
not pervaded Christian society. As long as reproach is attached to the
act of promulgating opinions (independent of the manner,) as long as the
holder of opinions is treated with the same reprobation as the opinions
themselves, as long as he is prospectively consigned over to perdition
as they are to detestation, as long as ideas of merit and demerit are
associated with the convictions of the understanding, or blame is
attached to the act of making those convictions known, not only will the
subordinate principles of the Gospel remain in part unrecognized, but
its essential principles will be violated; for it is clearly a duty of
piety to reveal all that is believed to have been discovered of the
works and ways of God;--and of benevolence to communicate what, being
conceived to be truth, is conceived to be intended for the universal
benefit of the race.

It may excite surprise that we have not here examined the claim of th