But How Has It Happened That Millions

There Exists, I Believe, Throughout The Whole Christian World, A Law Which Makes It Blasphemy To Deny Or Doubt The Divine Inspiration Of All The Books Of The Old And New Testaments, From Genesis To Revelations. In Most Countries Of Europe It Is Punished By Fire At The Stake, Or The Rack, Or The Wheel... Now, What Free Inquiry, When A Writer Must Surely Encounter The Risk Of Fine Or Imprisonment For Adducing Any Argument For Investigating The Divine Authority Of Those Books?

Tis Impossible To Judge With Much Præcision Of The True Motives And Qualities Of Human Actions, Or Of The Propriety Of Rules Contrived To Govern Them, Without Considering With Like Attention, All The Passions, Appetites, Affections In Nature From Which They Flow. An Intimate Knowledge Therefore Of The Intellectual And Moral World Is The Sole Foundation On Which A Stable Structure Of Knowledge Can Be Erected.

The Dignity And Stability Of Government In All Its Branches, The Morals Of The People, And Every Blessing Of Society Depend So Much Upon An Upright And Skillful Administration Of Justice, That The Judicial Power Ought To Be Distinct From Both The Legislative And Executive, And Independent Upon Both, That So It May Be A Check Upon Both, As Both Should Be Checks Upon That.

The Question Before The Human Race Is, Whether The God Of Nature Shall Govern The World By His Own Laws, Or Whether Priests And Kings Shall Rule It By Fictitious Miracles? Or, In Other Words, Whether Authority Is Originally In The People? Or Whether It Has Descended For 1800 Years In A Succession Of Popes And Bishops, Or Brought Down From Heaven By The Holy Ghost In The Form Of A Dove, In A Phial Of Holy Oil?

That The Desires Of The Majority Of The People Are Often For Injustice And Inhumanity Against The Minority, Is Demonstrated By Every Page Of The History Of The World.