Excerpt from The Monthly Miscellany of Religion and Letters, 1843, Vol. 9 Yet, notwithstanding the absurdity and mischief which are ia separable from positiveness in religion, it has a wonderful effect upon many minds, bringing them under its power, and conquering them - not convincing nor persuading, but subduing them - by its tone of authority alone. There always have been those who seemed to be overpowered by the assertions Of dogmatism, as the torrent sweeping down the hill bears the loose soil along with it. They attempt but feeble, if any resistance. The effect of mere positiveness in this community, at this time, is amazing. It is thought that men who speak so confidently must have better grounds for their opinion than those who show more modesty and more candor. Yet positiveness in the advocates of a doctrine is no proof of its correctness. Do we not see this every day The grossest outrages upon reason and Scripture are perpetrated by men, who talk of the wickedness of rejecting their belief with a flippant solemnity which it is difficult to reconcile with the supposi tion of a true reverence in their hearts. We mean not however to call in question the depth of their religious sentiments but to ex pose the error Of judging others by the measurement of their own creed. Still as long as men shall tremble before the judicial acts of dogmatism, it will doubtless continue to exercise the functions of high Heaven and parody almighty judgment on earth. Such methods of conversion ought not to move us from our integrity. What reason is there for changing our faith, in another's assertion that it is a dangerous faith? His assertion does not make it so. With equal propriety we may pronounce the same sentence on his faith. Neither our arrogance nor his would prove that either was right in point of doctrine, but only that both were wrong in spirit and practice. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.