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    gul&r instance of retributive justice , that the Test law has rebounded upon the heads of its contrivers and supporters : the Nonconformists urged it on as a punishment of Roman Catholics- , and it has proved the great

    scourge of their own body : Churchmen have maintained it in order to keep down the Dissenters , and it has been one of the most annoying and disgraceful of the tasks imposed upon their own clergy .

    The question of the propriety of continuing the Corporation and Test Acts , is quite distinct from that of the necessity or use of a National Establishment of religion . Were there no such Establishment , there could , of course , be uo sacr a mental Test , but the discontinuance of the Test

    would not affect the Establishment . It existed before the Test , and would continue , to exist after its abolition , in so far , at least , as the Test itself is concerned . Would the imposition of a Test in Scotland strengthen the

    Establishment in that part of the United Kingdom ? Why then should it be thought to have any beneficial influence upon the Church of England ? In the Test'laws , the State recognizes the Church only in the character of a

    servant bound to perform any work , however uncongenial with her character , which it pleases to demand ; in repealing those laws , it would emancipate her from a servitude in which she has acquired neither power nor wealth , in return for the suspicion and odium which she has incurred

    from within and from without . The Church of England reposes , and at present reposes securely , upon Acts of Parliament ; and were she to lose any guard or support by the fall of the Test Laws , let her seek to repair the loss by some new legislative enactment .

    I have not gone , nor am I disposed to go into the inquiry , how far a Protestant Dissenter may conscientiously submit to the Sacramental Test , For others I cannot judge , to others I wish not to dictate ; it is sufficient for me

    to declare , that I cannot conceive of any circumstances in which I myself could conform to it without selfdegradation , and a violation of the principles which I hold most sacred * But it must not be overlooked , that

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    there are certain pleas made use of in this case , of which we are disposed to admit the force in other cases . The complying Dissenter urges that he is called by station or profession to serve his country ; that the sacramental ordeal is to him a mere civil

    regulation ; that the priest is iu his view onl y an officer of the State , and that he is as innocent in taking bread and wine from his hands , as he is in count * ing hob-nails before a baron of the Exchequer ; and that whatever be the absurdity , or impolicy or profane *

    ness of the whole proceeding , he washes his hands of the blame , and refers it wholly to the legislature of his country . This justification savours , it is true , of worldly-mindedness , and countenances a laxity of principle which in other cases might be most mischievous : but what other

    justification have we , as Unitarians ^ for bowing down to the Trinitarian matrimonial service ? In truth , the most powerful argument against this interference of tlie State with conscience * this mixture of spiritual and secular concerns , is the necessity which it lays men under of resorting to mentnl reservations which are

    unfavourable to that purity of moral feeling , on which depend the sanctity of civil obligations and the healthiness of the public mind . It is curious that while Churchmen have been anxious for the preservation of the Test Laws in order to

    discourage and repress nonconformity , Dissenters themselves have sometimes been indifferent to their repeal , on the ground of a belief that such a measure would tempt the more wealthy of their members away from their com *

    mutiion . These conflicting fears destroy each other , and leave the subject to be regarded in the light only of justice and civil policy ; in which view the Corporation and Test Acts must ever be condemned as invasions

    of natural right ,, as snares to conscience , and as a flagrant abuse of the Christian religion . Whatever interest , whether it be conformity or nonconformity , owes its prosperity to such

    laws , is in itself bad , and the sooner it parishes the better . But 1 need not remind you , my brethren , that the true principles of nonconformity are those of the New Testament ; princi-

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    The Nonconformist . No . XII . 4 $ 9

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1819, page 429, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1774/page/29/