Letters between Rev. Jos. Cornish, of Colyton, and Mr. T. Williams, prosecuted in 1798, for selling Paine's " Age of Reason." (Communicated by Mr. Cornish.)

No. I.

Mr. Cornish to Mr. T. Williams.

SIR,

TH

Colyton, Sept. 1798. HOUGH an utter stranger to your person, my feelings at your treatment are most indignant. Firmly believing the Christian revelation to be the best gift of the great Father of mercies, and that the evidences of its divine original must prove irresistible on a candid examination, unless to minds very peculiarly disposed, all attempts to stifle objections appear to me not only unwise, but directly contrary to its spirit and design.

The blessed Jesus and those who were commissioned by him, appealed to the reason and understandings of men; the Sacred Scriptures also repeatedly commend attentive hearers and diligent inquirers. Scoffers are sharply rebuked, and awful threats denounced against them; but the New Testament in no place countenances the infliction of penalties, by the civil power, on any who should reject or deride its teachings, leaving men entirely, as to belief and profession, to God and their own consciences. "What," said St. Paul, “have I to do with those who are without? Those who are without, God judgeth." The regulations of a Christian Society had nothing to do with Jews or Heathens. Concerning your ideas on religion, I am as much a stranger as to your person. If you have not already attended to the subject, Lord Lyttelton on the Conversion of St. Paul, Dr. Doddridge's three sermons on the Evidences of Christianity, price 6d., not to mention innumerable other brief and valuable publications, would probably remove all doubt and create a firm belief in truths which yield the most effectual support under every worldly sorrow. Dr. Leland's Advantages and Necessity of the Christian Revelation, besides being highly entertaining and interesting, carries conviction in each important page, and richly deserves the attentive and frequent perusal of all who think religion an object worthy of serious consideration.

A cheap edition of it would prove a public benefit.

Not, however, to intrude on your time, your acceptance is requested of five guineas, as a small help under the expenses of a prosecution so injudiciously, some think wickedly, encouraged by political religionists,-the worst enemies, and in general the greatest strangers, to the religion of the heart.

Public wisdom, for which many profess a wonderful reverence, is, to adopt the language of the admired Dr. Jortin, " a mere Proteus, and, not to consider it in Pagan or Mahommedan countries, it was once the wisdom of Ahab and Jezebel, and afterwards of Annas and Caiaphas; and in Christian countries it hath appeared in a hundred shapes. It sets out with a great show of religion: it begins with the Gospel according to St. Matthew, and it often ends in the Gospel according to Mr. Hobbes."

This gospel according to Mr. Hobbes, who teaches, "that religion is merely what the civil power in any country hath decreed to be so named," is the gospel of too many politicians, and it is to be feared of not a few priests in every establishment now existing on the face of the earth. The gospel of real Christians is that of the blessed Jesus, "whose kingdom is not of this world," therefore, its true subjects in defending it will employ no worldly arts or weapons.

The times are now so difficult, that the generous find it necessary to set bounds to their exertions, very painful to their feelings, and the friends of liberty particularly have been called to repeated pecuniary aids. It may, however, be hoped, that a sufficient number of genuine Christians, or, to use Mr. Wilberforce's expression, friends to "vital Christianity," will be found disposed to manifest their regards to the gospel, which they value more than their own lives, by effectually expressing their abhorrence of a prosecution so disgraceful to all who took a part in it.

If they were actuated by a zeal for God, it was not according to knowledge, and no way becoming the disciples of the meek and holy Jesus, who came to promote peace on earth and good-will towards men. Clearly,

however, did this Divine Instructor foresee that numbers of his professed and pretended disciples and ministers would excite division and wield the sword.

The truth as it is in him will finally prevail, and then no civil forms of religion will domineer, or rational beings, whether professing Christianity or not, for their mere profession, either in speaking or writing, be domineered over. The ablest advocates for Christianity, like the great Lardner, have decidedly expressed their abhorrence of persecuting measures.

This little help would have been forwarded long ago, but it was thought best to wait till the sentence was passed, and opportunity did not immediately offer.

It would be worthy of the ministers of the gospel, publicly to petition the King to give orders for your immediate release and the remission of your fine, and, like a true Defender of the Faith, discountenance and reject every other mode of defence but reason and argument.

That you may be delivered from every effect of the prosecution under which you suffer, and be savingly enlightened in the knowledge of the best things, is the fervent prayer of

Yours, most sincerely,
JOSEPH CORNISH.

SIR,

W

WITH heartfelt gratitude I return you my sincere thanks for your liberal donation in support of my family; and believe me, as God is just, the persecution of me is unjust; for I am not publicly charged with any thing but selling the book which was answered by the Bishop of Llandaff, Watson; and it was his answer that induced me to publish it, conceiving the work was sanctioned by his publishing an answer to it, and physically no man can be considered capable of forming an idea of an answer, (whether it be to the purpose or not,) unless he be permitted to peruse the work which gave cause to it; and if I have been guilty of any crime in publishing it, the Bishop of Llandaff was the cause of it, and would have evinced his affec.

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tion for the Christian religion if he had used his influence to suppress the prosecution; and if he could not have accomplished it privately, he, as a servant of Christ, should have published to the world the words of his Lord and Master, who metaphorically says, St. Matt. xxvi. 52,"All they that institute persecution shall perish with persecution."

With respect to my ideas on religion; I presume when I inform you that I am by trade a book-binder, and that for six years last past, my chief support has been by binding the different works of the late venerable John Wesley, for Mr. G. Whitfield, one of the preachers and bookseller belonging to that Society at the New Chapel, City-Road, Moorfields, you will be satisfied that I am not a very immoral character; for it is to be presumed that no Christian Society will prefer supporting a person of that class to one of their own principle.

In regard of petitioning the King, I am satisfied there is no chance of one being conveyed to him, for the hearts of those through whose hands a petition must go, are as callous as the stone-floor of the melancholy cell I am now locked up in; and I conceive the only effectual means of procuring me any liberation, would be for some philanthropist to write an energetic letter to the Bishop of London, who is president of the conspirators against the gospel of our blessed Saviour and the liberty of religious opinion. Permit me to inform you that I have petitioned the Society before I received sentence, to stop all farther proceedings, when Mr. Wilberforce, the Bishops of London (Porteus), Durham (Barrington) and St. Asaph (Bagot), with other persons, came to the following unanimous decision: "That they did not feel themselves justified in intimating a wish to shew lenity;" which answer precludes me from making any further personal application, although by my being kept from my business my family are literally starving to what they would be if I was with them to render my efforts in their support. And permit me to picture to your mind what my feelings must have been since the first of May last, in the course of which month I was so ill, that I lay without the least expectation of seeing the month through; in which time I had one of my children died of the

small pox, and the other, immediately after her decease, was taken with a putrid fever, and for a month was given over by the physician: on her recovery, my wife was taken ill; and it being Sessions time now, my wife has not been allowed to see me all the week, and the last time I heard of her, I was informed she was very ill. When I was presented this morning with your kind letter, I was almost afraid to open it for fear of its containing some fatal news, but happily I was disappointed.

I have got nearly ready for the press, a letter to the Bishop of London, as president, and another to Mr. Wilberforce, as vice-president of the Society who prosecuted me; and, with your permission, I will send you a copy of each as soon as they are printed. I must beg leave to inform you, that I am not allowed to speak privately to my wife, and that neither pens, ink or paper is (if known) allowed, therefore must intrude on this letter of mine being kept a profound secret, as the channel of my information would be shut if it was known, and most likely I not be allowed to see my wife again during the remainder of the time I have to remain here, which, to all outward appear ance, will be till the 28th of April next. I remain, Sir, Your most obliged,

Humble Servant,
THOS. WILLIAMS.

I have this day received a fresh wound from my inhuman persecutors, orders being given to have my husband closely locked up to prevent his communication with any one, in consequence of a manuscript of the intended publication being found upon him. Although it contained no subject of crimination, being purely intended to shew that the conduct of his prosecutors was quite opposite to the spirit of the gospel; yet a handle is made of it for fresh severity, and to what length they will now carry it, I cannot tell; but with constant gratitude to you, I shall ever remain,

Your much obliged Servant,
E. WILLIAMS.

SIR,

September, 1822. Ifaith of Unitarian Christians in [T is very gratifying to view the connexion with a manly freedom of mind and a fearless exercise of the understanding, such as the history of religious inquiry has never before exhibited. It is still more delightful to see its appropriate effect on the temper of a man's heart; to view it preeminently favourable to an amiable mind; an enlarged Catholic spirit; a spirit friendly to social charities and private affections; in a word, a kind and candid temper, without which religion has no beauty, and human nature no loveliness. One is naturally desirous that such a spirit should "go on to perfection;" and that every thing in the conduct or writings of our Unitarian brethren, really or apparently inconsistent with it, should be done away. Permit me, Sir, by your useful pages, to throw out a hint or two for so good an end. With a very distinguished zeal and ability, the Repository and Reformer have protested and argued against the popular creed; and, with most of your readers, I have no doubt the name of Calvinism is tantamount to every thing unamiable and bad. I cannot but think, Sir, we have somewhat erred in this course of proceeding; and that the effect has not been good, either to our own minds, or in facilitating the conversion of our brethren. Should it appear to my fellow Unitarians that some ignorance of human nature has been betrayed, some disingenuousness discovered, and a forgetfulness of the requisitions of the Christian character, I shall be confident of their candid acknowledgment and ready correction of the error. To come to the point: If the wise and the good and the amiable (and who will say there are not many such?) amongst our Calvinistic brethren, deny the truth and correctness of the consequences we charge on their creed, and say, (as they do,) "Were Calvinism the odious thing you describe it, we would fling it from us," shall we continue the disingenuous practice of taxing the system with them? It has ever appeared to myself, Sir, bad every way,

bad to the best Unitarians, in embittering the temper towards their fellow-christians, strengthening prejudice against them, and increasing the coldness and distance between them.

The

obliged to you for the first article of your number for August; the subject, "Unitarianism in the United States of America." Many, I am sure, would read with as much delight as myself, the following passage; and I trust, with equal admiration of the spirit of the writer, (a Calvinistic Trinitarian,) and the excellence of their Unitarian brethren at Boston: "Boston is the head-quarters of Unitarianism; and many of the Unitarians there are so amiable and so intelligent; possess so much practical kindness, and so many social virtues, as to exert a powerful influence in favour of their opinions, and to shame many a narrow-ininded, indolent professor of a purer faith; a faith which too many of us are apt to forget it is our duty to illustrate, as well as to maintain," &c. I would, Sir, that we ever made it our aim to present to our fellow-christians an amiable character and manners, as well as an amiable creed; and if we must think proselytism a bounden duty upon us, and are convinced we could make the conscientious Calvinist more zealous and more devout; more earnest in religion, purer in his morals and more active in benevolent usefulness; more amiable and more happy by making him a Unitarian; let us do it by shewing him the superior excellence, in theory and practice, of our faith, rather than by pressing upon him consequences of his own system, which he very properly denies because he finds none of them in himself.

I

HAVE lately perused Dr. J. P. Smith's " Scripture Testimony to the Messiah" with considerable attention, and with a sincere desire to be informed on the important subject which it attempts to elucidate. Whilst I admire the learning, and reverence the serious piety and amiable temper which are displayed in this laborious work, I must confess that I have risen from its examination with a strengthened conviction that the author's views are altogether untenable. On the result of one of his critical arguments only, it is my intention, at present, to trouble you with a

few observations, but the consequences arising from it appear to me so remarkable, and to involve so much inconsistency and contradiction, that I should really be glad to learn how the difficulty is to be explained. The Doctor maintains, that the word D's, when applied to God, indicates the Deity in a threefold mode of existence, or, in fact, the Trinity; that Edox, in the first chapter of John, refers to the same period before time, as in the first chapter of Genesis, or its translation, Ex dex, in the Septuagint. He asserts also, in reference to John i. 3, and other passages in the New Testament, that Christ, or the second person of the Trinity, is the creator of the whole visible universe. Whatever significa tion the word ons may bear, it is evident that the Being thus designated, was, according to the Old Testament, the sole operative creator. If, then, ons mean the Trinity, it follows, that the Trinity is or are represented in the Old Testament as the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and all things therein. But, admitting this to be a faithful witness, how then can it be true that, according to the New Testament, only the second person of the Trinity was the Creator? The only rational conclusion appears to be, that the Doctor must be mistaken in attributing the natural creation to Christ, unless he can prove that D, in the beginning of Genesis, refers exclusively to the second person of the Trinity, and then I cannot conceive how he is to avoid the consequence, that this word is not indicative of a plurality in the Deity.

I cannot conclude this letter without expressing my regret and astonishment, that a person of Dr. Smith's high character, and the general tenour of whose writings is so upright and amiable, should condescend to introduce his Scripture Testimony, by giving the Unitarians a bad name, and endeavouring to excite a prejudice against them as members of Christian society. He represents that they are generally persons of gaiety, addicted to the pursuit of frivolous and worldly gratifications, and destitute of religious seriousness. I hope and believe that his charges are unfounded. But before the Searcher of hearts they must individually stand or fall; and what