On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
ism , our country lias been great and glorious still ;—yes , (] irough vicissitude , great ; in adversity « nd disappointment , in privation and suffering , in all changes and chances , in arms and arts , in literature and benevolence . The monuments of her
majesty reflect the glittering * of every star of heaven ; and not a wind can blow that has not wafted from her shores some freight of charity . And she would be great , were this assuming- sect lost in
oblivion , with all its robes , and forms , and . wealth , and creeds : still to her would the nations look , " as to an elder sister of the earth , pre-eminent in wisdom , grace and majesty .
" i ' es ; England , independently of adventitious circumstances , or predominant sects , must be admired and loved by all who can rightly think and feel ; nor would the hand that might-not object topull down the clustering- ivy from the oak , whose strength it wasted , and impaired its
beauty , touch profanely one leaf of the hallowed tree . O my country ! land of my birth , my love , and my pride ; land of freedom and of glory ; land of bards and heroes , of statesmen , philosophers and patriots 5 land of Alfred and of Sydney , of Hampdeii and Russel , of Newton , Locke and Milton may thy security , liberty , generosity , peace and pre-eminence , be eternal ! May thy children prize their birthright , and well guard and extend their privileges ! From the annals of thy renown , the deeds of thy worthies , the precious volumes of thy sages , may they
imbibe the love of freedom , of virtue , of their country ! May the pure- gospel be their portion ! Through every future age , may they arise , as of yore , the protectors of the oppressed , the terror of tyrants , the
guardians of the rights and peace of nations , the champions of civil and religious liberty ^ and may they be the possessors and difFuscrs of genuine Christianity to all countries , through all generations ! Ainen !"—Pp . 49—51 .
The subjects of Lect . III . are " Religious Liberty arid Nonconformity ;" 4 < an appropriate transition from the mischiefs and miseries of the Anti-Christian apostacy , to the gospel in its native simplicity , power and blessedness . "—P . 52 ,
A just distinction is made of the liberty of Christian Churches into external and internal , that which they claim of the civil power , and that which they allow to their own
members . The latter , it is truly said , ( p . 53 , ) even by sincere and eloquent advocates of the former , has heen too often misunderstood , overlooked or violated .
Untitled Article
The history of religious tyranny is traced , pp . 59—62 , with the hand of a master . ' In the following passage , the abstract argument for dissent is admirably stated : ct We dissent because human legislators exceed their province when they pretend
to fix the religion of the country . Society cannot exist without government . It j 8 for the good of the whole that we should have laws , and that their adniinistiation and execution should not be left to individual zeal , but be the peculiar duty < jf persons appointed to that office . This requires the surrender of much natural no lit
of how much , human wisdom must decide : it may fairly include even life itself , which when the good of the community requires should he offered a willing and a patriotic sacrifice : "hut the rights of conscience arc , from their very nature , inalienable . Man
never did give tliein 5 he nerer can give them . The right of believing * where he sees evidence of truth , and of worshipping where he finds characteristics of divinity-, as it cannot injure society , cannot , belong to society . It is inherent in man , as a rational creature , and he cannot divest
hraiself of it , till lie can re-create himself , and become another being , and his own God . What , then , does a legislator mean , when he says , Yon shall believe this doc * trine ; you shall worship that God ; you are horn to this religion ; wo decree that
you shall be a Deist or a Christian , a Mahometan or a Pagan , a Catholic or a Protestant , and will punish your disohedience . And who gave you this right ? God ? Produce the commission , and work the confirming miracle . Man ? When and where ? None could do it for
themselves , much less for others . But yon have the power—true ; so had Herod , ( who was devoured of worms , ) when he slew James ; so had Nero , ( who was assassinated , ) when he martyred Paul ; so had Pilate , ( who died in miserable exile , ) wlie / i he sentenced Christ : and so had others who died in splendour , but who wait 111 their graves the righteous judgment of
God . You have the power—to do wjiatr To issue the decree ? And so you hare to decree that robbery is religion , and persecution for the glory of God : so you have to decree that the sun shall shine by night , and the moon by day , and thev will as soon obey your bidding * as the mind and heart of man . But you can inflict the penalties ' : yes , and make martyrs of the firm , and hypocrites of the fearful—» ° - thing more . No human authority has either the rig-Jit or power to malce a « y system the religion of any individual . * ** reverence hunmn laws and governors up to tins point : but with aur consciences ,
Untitled Article
V % . 754 ' Review . —Fox ' s Lectures *
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1819, page 754, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1779/page/38/
-