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Untitled Article
at its own features , or retire in silence , as the birds of mghtare known to flit before the orb of day . The truth of what I now assert is confirmed almost by every wind that blows from th& continent . Persecution on account of religion exists no longer there , unless it be in the hard restrictions that are still laid upon the Bohemian brethren , and others in the Emperor of Germany ' s own dominions . Force is not used , either in Italy or other
parts of Germany under French influence , to introduce reform but a great and splendid example having been set in the present laws of the French empire , so far as they relate to religion , it operates in silence in the more distant regions . Even Italy is now said to be upon the point of being relieved from the inconveniences ot auricular confession ; and that church that used to forbid to marry , and to abstain from meats , is about to be deprived of some of the last of its political resources . The
religious houses , for the seclusion of both sexes , have long been abandoned , and are falling into decay and disuse . The former lords and tyrants of these rieh domains have been deprived of their enormous revenues , and in many places the industrious shuttle now plays where the monk only snored before . A happy toleration obliterates , on the continent , former cruel distinctions among mankind ; the prelates follow the example of civil rulers , and amicably associate with people of a different worship from their own . Hence the bishop of Ratisbon lays
the first stone of a Protestant hospital , and thus , instead of the ancient practice of pulling each other down , men may be literally said to build each other up . Now indeed the wolf that used to devour begips to lie down in quietness with the lamb that used to suffer . Time it is , indeed , that we Protestants
should begin to imitate these Papists . All of us have been persecutors in our turn . I here except the Quakers and the Unitarians . What can have been the cause of this honorable exception , unless it be the plainness and simplicity of their faith , compared with the obscurity and complexity of other churches ?
Does not an easy and rational belief naturally leave the professor very little to contend for , but a good life , and a mode of conduct consistent with the gospel ? On the contrary , is it not evident that the Athanasian , orany other creed , full of distracting dogmas , perplexing mysteries , and nugatory non-entitie ? , enforced under the pains and penalties of eternal damnation , fa&ve
a natural tendency to create doubts , disputes , and animosities ? And while the shadow only of piety and virtue is pursued , is it not a fact that the substance is too frequently lost ? The indifference , the-formality , and even the intolerance of some Christian communities , I think , result more ^ from the turpitude of
Untitled Article
The Pvpe not Antichrist . fi 53
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1806, page 253, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1724/page/29/
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