On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (5)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
The Nonconformist. No. XXVIII. On Religious Prosecutions.
-
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
IN the numbers of the Nonconformist , no subject has been more frequently discussed than the comparative merits of various sects and
religions , in different ages and countries , as to the advance which they had made , whether in theory or practice , towards a complete admission of the claims of religious liberty . Comparisons have been drawn between the several
denominations of English Nonconformists , as to the degrees of light which they had each attained upon this important subject at the time of the great struggles in which they were engaged in the 17 th century ; and the severe scrutiny to which they have been
subjected , where partial indulgence might have been anticipated , has shewn that many of them were lamentably deficient in a disposition to allow the exercise of religious liberty in others , although to their courage and perseverance in asserting it for themselves
we certainly ought , in a great measure , to ascribe whatever advances our country has made in this respect . Nor hare we been occupied solely by what is to be learnt respecting the progress of tolerant sentiments in our own country . The great religious Reformers of Christendom and their
disciples have , with this view , been in turn submitted to our investigation : and our attention has been called to the light which had faintly beamed in Italy and Spain , and amongst Mussulmen and Jews . And whilst we have had to lament that so many of the Reformers almost equalled the
Catholics in intolerance , yet it has been a truly gratifying employment to point out for merited distinction the names of those who , in times of such general darkness on this subject , boldly contended for the noblest
privilege of man as a rational being . So mucahaving then be ^ n laid before us respecting the opinions and conduct of those who lived iii agefc past , aiixl iii distant countries- with
Untitled Article
regard to religious liberty , —it may be well for us to turn our thoughts to what is passing in our own country and in our own times , and to consider how far we ourselves may merit any of the censure which we have bestowed
on others ? —recollecting at the same time that tenfold blame is due to those who now commit any sin against the right of free discussion , as sinning against the light , —the subject havinglong since been ably argued and well understood , —and as deficient in
gratitude for the liberties which they themselves enjoy , and which they owe to the exertions and the sufferings of their forefathers . It is a truly painful thing , that in this age we should be
roused from investigating the history of persecution as an antiquarian question , by the acts of intolerant folly which are now incessantly perpetrated before our eyes ; but we should prove ourselves but little entitled to sit in
judgment upon the great men of former days , if we remained indifferent spectators of the warfare now , carried on against religious liberty , merely because the persecuted are strangers to us , and their opinions such as we disapprove and deplore .
E « # ry considerable period in the lapse of time seems destined to be distinguished by some remarkable change in the state of the civilized world : and , perhaps , the present ae ' ra of our country is principally characterised by the greatly increased exertions which have been made for extended
education among the mass of the people . By means of the new schools , the Bible and Tract Societies , and the zealous efforts of various sects , the subject of religion , and the discussion of the conflicting- dogmas of
its teachers , have been eagerly pressed upon the qommon people : immense ^ o od " has "doubtless been accomplished by these means , in , brin £ in £ multitudes to" a sense of religion , and in calling itito action- tfieir reasoning faculties : i ;¦ i ; . 1 w ¦ r . •»
Untitled Article
No . CCXI . ] JULY , 1823 . [ Vol . XVIII .
Untitled Article
VOL . XVIII . ' . 3 B
The Nonconformist. No. Xxviii. On Religious Prosecutions.
The Nonconformist . No . XXVIII . On Religious Prosecutions .
Untitled Article
THE
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1823, page unpag, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1786/page/1/
-