For a time like
ours, it is a great point gained, that people should be taught to meet,
to combine, and to be classed and arrayed in some other way than in
clubs of Jacobins. If it be not the best mode of Protestantism under a
monarchy, it is still an orderly Christian church, orthodox in the
fundamentals, and, what is to our point, capable enough of rendering men
useful citizens. It was the impolitic abolition of their discipline,
which exposed them to the wild opinions and conduct that have prevailed
amongst the Huguenots. The toleration in 1787 was owing to the good
disposition of the late king; but it was modified by the profligate
folly of his atheistic minister, the Cardinal de Lomenie. This
mischievous minister did not follow, in the edict of toleration, the
wisdom of the Edict of Nantes. But his toleration was granted to
_non-Catholics_,--a dangerous word, which might signify anything, and
was but too expressive of a fatal indifference with regard to all piety.
I speak for myself: I do not wish any man to be converted from his sect.
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