Page:The Mohammedan system of theology (IA mohammedansyste00neal).pdf/282

 adequate to its overthrow, except invasion on a large scale, or such a thorough national revolution as could only be effected by hostile armies; but the Christian must recollect, that such opinions are indefensible, and such maxims receive no countenance whatever from our mild and holy religion; nay, all kinds of violence, even with a view to introduce the purest creed, are, on Christian grounds, utterly inadmissible. Even the reception of truth itself, by compulsion, though good in the abstract, would be evil to the individual. The strong holds of sin and Satan are not to be dismantled by the thundering of cannon, but in a different way; the weapons of our warfare not being carnal. Man cannot properly believe, where his understanding and judgment remain uninformed and unconvinced: it is the height of cruelty and persecution to enforce belief by coercive measures; persuasion and argument are the lawful weapons: at the