ON THE INCONSISTENCY OF Religious Persecutions. BY J. W. Strike! but hear me. THEMISTOCLES. London: PRINTED & PUBLISHED BY R. CARLILE, 55, FLEET STREET. TO THE SOCIETY, SELF-STYLED A SOCIETY FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF VICE. IN dedicating the first volume of this work to you as a Society, I am at a loss how I should address you, whether as Ladies and Gentlemen, or my Lords, Ladies, and Gentlemen, or whether I should distinguish those Right Reverend Fathers in God the Bishops, and the numerous clergy, which are alleged to belong to your Society; however, should I fail in noticing the proper rank to which the more illustrious part of your Society aspires, I trust that you will not attribute it to any inattention or want of respect on my part, but rather be inclined to admit, that it has arisen on the ground of your own neglect in not publishing your names for so many years past, and thereby denying the public the gratification of bestowing that praise on your virtuous and disinterested motives which you might individually merit. You have been graciously pleased to commence a prosecution against the Principles of Nature, by Elihu Palmer, as contained in this volume, which I doubt not you condescended to do in consequence of my request to that effect in a letter I lately addressed to you. Your coadjutor, the Attorney-General, (Shepherd) has as yet done me no further honour than to purchase some eighteen Numbers of this work, which, I presume, were for his perusal and approval: but he has not lately shewn that generous disposition to lay me under so many obligations as your honourable Society has done. I am sensible of the gratitude that is due to you for prosecuting the Theological Works of Thomas Paine, for I have the satisfaction to learn, that if you had not prosecuted the work, the AttorneyGeneral would not have done it. Some persons have ventured to tell me, that the Attorney-General was sensible of the general opinion respecting the Society for the Suppression of Vice, and considered it dangerous to leave a prosecution of that nature in their hands-this I attribute to calumny, and were it only for the benefits I have received from you, I should feel it my duty to check such a slanderous report. I flatter myself, (perhaps vainly) from the deep interest you have taken to circulate my publications amongst the more virtuous part of the community, that each of your Members will do me the honour to grace your libraries with this volume. I feel it incumbent on me to say, that its completion may be fairly attributed to your kind assistance, and have earnestly to entreat a continuation of that assistance to the completion of a Second Volume. I am, &c. THE PUBLISHER. |