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    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 .

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    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 ,

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    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/