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opinion upon religion is right , and yours i / not only wrong when you differ from me but I am entitled to punish you for that difference . " Such an arrogant assumption -of will was intolerable , and was an outrage upon the benignant influence of religion . ( Hear , hear . ) They might ?* iv nf ribaldry aud levity , but there
was nothing more intolerable than the proposition which he had just stated , and which was nothing less than the power contended for by the advocates of these prosecutions for mere opinions upon points of faith . ( Hear , hear . ) Then , as he had said on a former occasion , what an absurd and immoral mode did
the law provide for estimating the credit of a man ' s faith before his testimony was legally admissible ! When the question was put to a witness , " Do you believe in a future state ? " If he were a conscientious man , entertaining seriously such an opinion , his answer must be in the negative , and the law said he should
not be heard ; but if he were an immoral man , and disregarded truth , and said , " I do believe in a future state /* although iu his conscience he disbelieved in it , then his evidence was admissible , and his hypocrisy and falsehood secured him credibility . Now there would be some sense in the law if it declined
tempting the hypocrisy of the individual , or his fear of the world ' s hostility or prejudice , and let in other evidence to establish , from previous knowledge of the individual , whether or not he ought not to be admitted as a witness ; but as
it stood , it was absurd and ridiculous ; and when he ( Mr . Ricardo ) was charged upon this ground with a desire to do away with the sanctity of an oath , his reply was , " I do not desire to diminish
the sacredness of the obligation ; but I do desire to get rid of the hypocrisy by which that oath might be evaded . " ( Hear , near . ) But then , a ^ ain , was it possible for a man not to believe in a future state , and yet be strictly moral , and impressed with the necessity of upholding
credibility m the common obligations of society ? * or his part he tirraly believed in the possibihty of a man ' s being very honest wr an the social purposes and essential Obligations of the community in which * e lived , and still not assentiug to the ^ L ° f a fu . ture « ate . He fully adinat
7 ; religion was a powerful obligation , but he denied it to be the only obligations-it was , in fact , one which ^ n . U ^ 6 radded to the general force of inorai , impressions—it were a libel upon numan nature to say otherwise . ( Hear . ) lowW ° wa V ¦ y »* onWhm in the foltiani ?? i Of thom *«* rrtttts Which Chris" * Qit y > y 8 upoiMis , the * are so much
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both for pur . private and pubjic advan - tage , that ! setting asiefce all considerations of religion , and of the rewards and punishments of another life , they are really good for us ; and if God had not laid them upon' us , we ought in reason , in order to our temporal benefit and
advantage , to have laid them upon ourselves . If there were no religion , I know men would not have such Strong and forcible obligations to these duties ; but yet , I say , though there were no religion , it were good for men , in order to temporal ends , to their health , and quiet , and reputation , and safety , and ,
m a word , to the private and public prosperity of mankind , that men should be temperate , and chaste , and just , and peaceable and charitable , and kind and obliging to one another , rather than the contrary . So that religion does not create those restraints arbitrarily , but requires those things of us , which our reasou , and a regard to our advantage ,
which the necessity and conveniency of the things themselves , without any consideration of religion , would in most cases urge us to . " He read this passage for the purpose of shewing , and from great authorities in the church , that the obligation of religion was not alone con . sidered as the influential test of moral
truth , and that a man might be very sceptical upon doctrinal points , and yet very positive in the controul of moral impressions distinct from religious faith : for instance , there was Mr . Owen , a great benefactor to society , and yet a man not believing ( judging from some opinions of his ) in a future state . Would
any man , with the demonstrating experience of the contrary before his eyes , say that Mr . Owen was less susceptible of moral feeling because he was incredulous upon matters of religion ? Would uny man , pretending to honour or
candour , say that Mr . Oweu , after a life spent in improving the condition of others , had a mind less pure , a heart less sincere , or a less conviction of the restraint and controul of moral rectitude , than if he were more imbued with the
precepts of religious obligation ? ( Hear . ) Why , then , was such a man ( for so by the law he was ) to be excluded from the pale of legal credibility ? Why was he , if he promulgated his opinions , to be liable to spend his days immured in a prison ? With respect to the
exception provided according to his honourable friend ( Mr . Wilberforce ) + for treating such subjects with levity and ribaldry , he ( Mr . Ricardo ) must confess , that he thought it a very singular reservation : for what was it / but to say— «• You may discuss , if you please , in the most solemn : most serious , and therefore inost
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/ t € Uivenee *~*® fc ** nlians' Petition against the Prosecution of Unbelievers . 481
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1823, page 491, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1787/page/59/
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