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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.
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Untitled Article
do Hot easily leave an ihstitutldh Which age and art have alike corisecr&ted ^ Which the civil j > oW §* footers tvith immunities , opulence , and privileges- —&fid which dpens to the lowliest a path to the highest ranks ifr the c ^ rn nionwealth . The amazing extent to which dissent is gone is of itself ah indubitable evidence that thy boasted influence is more in name than deed $ that thy spir itual machinery , however widely extended , is seriously defective in its
workings . The nation , it wbuld seem , has created for itself the good thou didst riot impart . * Let us look back on times pafct , atid see hdw thou hast demeaned thyself . The nation seems deserting thee : the reasons which actuate rnyriads in successive generations tan hardly be wholly Unjustifiable . Hast thbu been the friend of religious liberty ? Thbu art the child , thou shouldst in thy turn have
been the parent , of spiritual freedom . But history declares that thou didst abuse , as soon as thou hadst possession of potver . How large a portion of the statute-book is a record of thy intolerance i Even death thou didst riot deem too severe a punishment for those who were honest enough to think for themselves , and bold enough to differ from thee ; Rather than put away some of the corruptions thou didst borrow from the Pope ^ thou
didst deluge a nation in blood ; and to maintain thy own tottering , because ill-founded , dominion , thoii becamest the abettor of civil tyranny— -taiightest that kings ,- bad or good , bear rule by divine right , and are to be obeyed as God ' s ministers . Thou the friend of religious liberty ! What act of coercion is there for diversities of faith thbu hast not coveted , exerted—which thou hast of thyself resigned- ^ -to which thou hast not clung ? Whatever liberty the country enjoys has been extorted from thee .
Was a voice raised out bf thy pale in favour of the rights of Christians , thou sparedst no effort till it Was silenced . The liberal of thy bwfi body thou hast rieglectedj decried—yes , persecuted . It is yet scarcely more than a century since , in imitation of thy papal mother in her treatment of Galileo , thou didst Compel one Whose name is ah honour to his country , and who will survive and be esteemed in men ' s memories when the herd
of th y prelates shall be covered in congenial and merited oblivion —didst compel the learned &tid virtuous Dr . Whitby to recant , and seek pardon—for What ? Fdr a breach of the Divine laws ? Nb—them he rnight have broken , aiid , with , many others , been preferred by thee to station is of eminent Wealth- — out for daring to surmise th&t thoct Waist hot entirely without spot or wrinkle , and to reassert a pdsitibri which finds its original and sanction in aptostolic authbrity . " I , Daniel Whitby ^ having been the author of a book "—theae &re the words thdu dictatedst to him—" called
the Prdfcestent RScordSh which > thrdugh Want of prudence and dtftTertce to WithoHlk ) , I h&ve caused to be published , am truly arid hefertily £ brry for thd d&kttbi and wfa ^ reaa it contrtiheth several
Untitled Article
Qdieffioh tetrteeh the Natloh dftd the Church , 9 P
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1832, page 99, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1806/page/27/
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