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ft is riot merely insecure , but mcomolete . They lie under civil disabilities which itiark them out as a degraded caste . Every thing of this nature as impolitic as unjust ; for as union is strength , that must be the
best policy which unites all the members of the state by equal rightswhich avails itself of the wisdom of the wise and the virtue of the good , without regard to controverted
opinions . Tins begins at last , after many ages of experience , to he properly understood : its utility is no longer a theorythe experiment has been made , aud its kneficial results have been seen and
felt . In this the British Empire has not the glory of taking the lead and showing others the way , but the disgrace of reluctantly following , and of remaining for behind . America , Holland , Switzerland—even France , would teach us political wisdom towards religion . As it is impolitic , so it is unjust to
withhold any civil rights from any relirious sect . Is it just in any subordinate authority to punish for obedience to the highest authority ? The man who complies with the dictates of conscience , obeys the highest
authority , and he is punished for that obedience when it subjects him to any civil disadvantage . As legislative interference with conscience is unjust towards men , so it
invades the prerogatives of God . It is a duty , therefore , which we owe to the Most High , to ourselves and to posterity , to insist on complete , unqualified , untolerated religious liberty
-not craving it as a boon , but demanding it as our right . The legislate is not our donor , but our debtor . ' here is no objection to receiving the anount yet due by instalments , if it be inconvenient to render the whole at it be
su one payment . well ""derstood , however , that part has been received , and not the whole - and " ^ pa rt has been taken as a pledge , an not as composition for the whole . J « e most bigoted in the priesthood m the most illiberal in the establish-— - - ~ W B ~ r ~ »— ^»* " — - ¦ - r ¦— ¦—
-^^ ^^ ^ "w ^^™ ^^^^^ m ^^ " ^» - ^*^ » ^*^ - ^^ - ent , are now convinced that some as pect must be shown to the rights ^ conscience " ; and that th ^ old system ^ ¦ tolerance cannot be preserved sariifi They are perhaps willing to Peri h Part that the wbole ma ? £ r * ft ' * in a Hto * > P of the S ° to thrown overboard to save the
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ship . But if such be their sparing mercy towards persecution , Dissenters ought surely to show it no compassion . Long * has it prevailed against them , but if they be firm to their principles , they will behold it fall to rise no more . We have comparatively but little to
do . Other men laboured and we have entered into their labours : they cleared the ground , laid the foundation and raised the bulwarks of religious liberty in perilous times . We have only to add what they left undone , and finish the good work .
Much seems to have been done in our time , yet the good work has advanced but slowly . Some have stood all the day idle—some have said with with the Jews of old , * ' the time is not yet , the time is not yet ; others
have gone about like those who weakened the hands of good Nehemiah , preaching fear and despair , saying it is safer that Dissenters should be only on sufferance , than that Catholics should come into office and
power . Public opinion is irresistible , except when divided against itself , Had all Dissenters been as stedfast and unwearied in their resistance of persecuting principles and measures , as the Quakers have been , intolerance had been long since driyen from the British empire .
That body of public opinion which operates any great change on the state of society , is made up of many individual opinions collected together . ISfo one ought , therefore , to consider himself as the small dust in the balance , but should put his weight of influence into the right scale at the best time . Now is the favourable time—now is
day of salvation ; or at least it is now nearer 1 ha » when we first believed .
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l / nitariun Biography . ggj
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Sir , SEVERAL of your correspondents have at various times given us the fruit of their researches into vvhat may be called the antiquities of English Unitarianism . In reading their communications it has frequently
occurred to me that it would be very useful , if we were to attempt to bring together in your work , the names of all the avowed and publicly-known Unitarians in England , from the times of the Reformation to those of Priestley and Lindsey . The list might ; be attended with brief s ketchen , but not
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1815, page 293, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1760/page/29/
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