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Untitled Article
is necessitated by his Creator , namHy , following in his faith the convictions of his understanding . —** The good of the community /' ^ nd the like terms , express only fallacious Conditions who is to
judge of the common-weal ? The legislature , the government , the magistrate ; i . e . the very indivi - dual , or body whose right is under discussion * Provided the individual or body is satisfied that the proscription of a sect , obnoxious to such individual or body , is for general good , a right to persecute
is thence at once acquired ; which is a right to persecute in all cases , without exception—because , ignorant and intolerant men , sueh as have for the most part flourished jn the high places of the state , fia ^ ve always been satisfied , or , which is tfVe same thin » to our
argument , have always professed themselves satisfied , that the exclusion of some religious sect from
civil rights was essential to the public safety . —There must , surely , be a flaw in the doctrine which pronounces the will of government
to be the sole measure of right ; especially in matters of religious preference and distinction , where the passions are usually up and in action * And there is the less
chance of the will of government being in this case a just standard of the public weal ; because government is so constituted , in cobsequence of religious distinctions , 9 . s , in fact , to represent , as far as relates to religion , only ^ part of
the community . There i » plausibility in the argument that the will of the community , fairly expressed , is an authority for a national establishment of religion ; byt suppose any sect excluded fxotfx the legislature , ( as is the , case with the Catholics , ) or from
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civil / offices , ( as is the case with , both Catholic and Protestant Dissenters , ) and with what propriety can the mere inclination of the
legislature or of the government be urged as proof of a right to oppress a people with whom they have no sympathies and whom they have already deprived of a voice in the councils of the state and
of all part in the execution of the laws ; we say mere inclination , because , in fact , the doctrine we are combating amounts to the right of government to do with religious sects what they please .
Thirdly ) We complain of the use of unphilosophical , illiberal language , when opinions are denominated ^ dangerous . We know but of one case , in which they are
attended with danger ; and that is , when they are proscribed and persecuted . A variety of opinions is no more prejudicial to a state rhan a variety of faces ; though if
an act of Parliament were to pass , forbidding the appearance in public of long faces or round faces , disaffection and perhaps a rebellion might be the consequence .
What , in the name of common sense , is the community benefited or injured , whether A . B . believes 39 articles of faith , or 38 ; whether Y . Z « thinks the Divine
Essence is better described by saying that it consists of three persons or of one only ? A * B . may h&ve held each number of articles / at different periods of his life , without being at all altered in his relations to society : Y . Z . may have
been formerly an advocate 'To * three persons , and may now retain only one , in his creed , without beipg a whit different as a fej ^ ow citizen and h subject . Would Howard have been a ^ reater philanthropist , if he h ^ d said his
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34 f . On a Passage in the " Edinburgh Review . "
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1812, page 34, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1744/page/34/
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