power
of the Inquisition, and the oppressions of all Christendom, these
unfortunate people have not been willingly suffered to offer to the
world one word in their own defence. They have not been
allowed, after hearing with patience both arguments, and "railing
accusations" in abundance, to answer in their turn; but have been
compelled, through the fear of confiscation, persecution, and death,
to leave misapprehensions unexplained, and misrepresentations
unrefuted.

Is it then to be wondered at, that mankind have considered their
adversaries as in the right, and that deserted by reason, and even
their own Scriptures, they were supported in their opinion only by
a blind and pertinacious obstinacy, more worthy of wonder than
curiosity? Alas! the world did not consider, that nothing was more
easy than to confute people whose tongues were frozen by the
terror of the Inquisition!! But, thanks to the good sense of this
enlightened age, those times are past and gone. There is now one
happy country where freedom of speech is allowed, where every
harmless religious opinion is protected by law, and where every
opinion is listened to that is supported by reason. The time, I trust,
is now come when the substantial arguments of this oppressed,
and, in this respect, certainly calumniated, people, may be
produced and their reasons set forth, without the fear of harm, and
with, and with the hope of hearing from the intelligent and the
candid. They, we believe, will be fully convinced, that their
adversaries have for so long a time triumphed over them without
measure, only because they have been suffered to do so without
contradiction.

The reader is assured, that, notwithstanding the subject, he will
find nothing in this volume but what is considered by the author to
be fair and liberal argument; and such no honest man ought to
decline looking in the face. He has endeavoured to discuss the
important subject of the book in the most inoffensive manner; for
he has no wish, and claims no right, to wound the feelings of those
who differ from him in opinion. There is not, nor ought there to be,
a word of reproach in it, against the moral character of Jesus, or the
twelve Apostles; and the utmost the author attempts to prove is,
that their system was founded, not upon fraud and imposture, but
upon a mistake. After the deaths of Christ and his Apostles, it was
indeed aided and supported by very bad means; but its first
founders, the auth