It is of no use that the Protestant concedes the right to think unless he concedes the right to differ. We may as well be Catholic unless we are free to dissent. Rome will concede our right to think for ourselves, provided we agree with the Church when we have done; and when Protestantism affects to award us the right of private judgment, and requires us to agree with the thirty-nine Articles in the end--or when Evangelical Ministers tell us we are free to think for ourselves, but must believe in the Bible nevertheless, both parties reason on the Papist principle; both mock us with a show of freedom, and impose the reality of mental slavery upon us. It is mere irony to say "Search the Scriptures," when the meaning is--you must accept the Scriptures whether they seem true or not. Of the temper in which theological opinions ought to be formed, we have the instruction of one as eminent as he was capable. Jefferson remarks, "In considering this subject, divest yourself of all bias, shake off all fears and servile prejudices, under which weak minds crouch: fix reason in her seat firmly; question with boldness, even the existence of God; because, if there be one, he must approve the homage of reason more than that of blindfolded fear. Read the Bible as you would Tacitus or Livy. Those facts in the Bible which contradict the laws of Nature must be examined with care. The New Testament is the history of a person called Jesus. Keep in your eye what is related. They say he was begotten by God, but born of a virgin (how reconcile this?); that he was crucified to death, and buried; that he rose and ascended bodily into heaven: thus reversing the laws of Nature. Do not be frightened from this inquiry by any fear, and if it ends in a belief that the story is not true, or that there is not a God, you will find other incitements to virtue and goodness. In fine, lay aside all prejudices on both sides, neither believe nor reject anything because others have rejected or disbelieved it Your reason is the only oracle given you by heaven, and you are answerable, not for the rightness, but for the uprightness of your opinion; and never mind evangelists, or pseudo-evangelists, who pretend to inspiration."* It is in vain the Christian quotes the Pauline injunction, "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good," if we are to hold fast to his good, which may be evil to us. For a man to prove all things needful, and hold fast to that which he considers good, is the true maxim of freedom and progress. Secularism, therefore, proclaims and justifies the right to Differ, and the right to assert conscientious difference on the platform, through the press, in civil institutions, in Parliament, in courts of law, where it demands that the affirmation of those who reject Christianity shall be as valid as the oath of those who accept it. * "Jefferson: Memoirs." Vol. II. Quoted by Sir G. Cockburn, in his "Confessions of Faith, by a Philosopher," pages 4 and 5.