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
haughtiness and depression ; pf sectarian animosities ; the TO arch of truth obstructed ; the force of intellect cowed ; the originality of superior minds amerced ; the priest in opulence ^—the people in penury ? * Canst them expect to delude the nation yet much longer with the notion that the Church of England is coincident with the Church of Christ ; that thou hast the truth , the whole truth , and
nothing but the truth ; that the welfare of religion is involved in the welfare of a sect ? The nation is beginning to feel a doubt even of the value of religion , if , as tjiou sayest , religion arid thou art one—if it is only to be purchased at the cost of freedom and brotherly love—if with it the nation must take also maimed and crippled liberty , and all the debasing and malignant passions which an unjust domination engenders equally in the lord and the serf . O ! why should not this great nation live together over tjie face of the land in mutual love , with
minds as free in their exercise as the winds of heaven , striving one with another , —not by monopolies , exclusion , and privUege ,- ? - not by princely wealth and abject poverty , —not by the favour and coercion of the magistrate , arid the anger and combination of the people , —not by the decisions of selfish and ignorant and bigoted councils , in opposition to the sole and pure records of the gospel , *—but by the conflict of mind with mind— -a mutual interchange of good will and free thought and free speech , —by honourable ,
because unbridled and unchecked , competition , —by comparing scripture with scripture , and gathering light in all quarters of the horizon , wherever the smallest particle is found , gathering and combining its rays , not with opposing aims , —not with malevolent words , —not with injury to character ,- —not as the Jews in rebuilding their temple , each with arms in his hands , and the Samaritans , albeit their brothers , reviling , hindering , envying , — not thus , not as now , but harmoniously , as fellow-citizens and fellqw-Christians , as fellow-seekers of truth , each interested in
every discovery , and each honoured in proportion to his actual rnerit . But this pleasing vision never can be realized while a dominant and powerful hierarchy have an interest in existing abuses—in a particular system of doctrines— -in privileges both in church and state , which gratify at once the love of power and the love of opulence .
* Why should there not take place at the present a revision of the practices and sentiments which we have inherited from the past ? The voice of analogy suggests the revision . What department of knowledge is there but theology , and what system of discipline but that of the Church , in which the increase of knowledge , the improvement of the mind , the vigour and activity of intellect , for which the age is distinguished , have not made most valuable discoveries , and effected most extensive and valuable changes . But , inverting the miracle of Egypt , the
Untitled Article
102 Question between tfie Nation and the Church *
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1832, page 102, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1806/page/30/
-