The celebrated Dr. Price, in his valuable “Observation on
the Importance of the American Revolution,” addressed to the
people of the United States, observes that, “It is a common
opinion, that there are some doctrines so sacred, and others of so
bad a tendency, that no public discussion of them ought to be
allowed. Were this a right opinion, all the persecution that has
ever been practised would be justified; for if it is a part of the duty
of civil magistrates to prevent the discussion of such doctrines,
they must, in doing this, act on their own judgments of the nature
and tendency of doctrines; and, consequently, they must have a
right to prevent the discussion of all doctrines which they think to
be too sacred for discussion, or too dangerous in their tendency;
and this right they must exercise in the only way in which civil
power is capable of exercising it--'by inflicting penalties upon all
who oppose sacred doctrines, or who maintain pernicious
opinions.' In Mahometan, countries, therefore, magistrates would
have a right to silence and punish all who oppose the divine
mission of Mahomet, a doctrine there reckoned of the most sacred
nature. The like is true of the doctrines of transubstantiation,
worship of the Virgin Mary, &c. &c., in Popish countries; and of
the doctrines of the Trinity, satisfaction, &c., in Protestant
countries. All such laws are right, if the opinion I have mentioned
is right. But, in reality, civil power has nothing to do in such
matters, and civil governors go miserably out of their proper
province, whenever they take upon them the care of truth, or the
support of any doctrinal points. They are not judges of truth, and if
they pretend to decide about it, they will decide wrong. This all
the countries under heaven think of the application of civil power
to doctrinal points in every country, but their own. It is indeed
superstition, idolatry, and nonsense, that civil power at present