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State pf Public Affairs . 313
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iem and Lincoln , * p d Sir "William Scott have caled him over the coals , because according to the doctrine of the church of England , Jesus . was borai of a virgin and conceived by ihe Holy < jhost . However , the question , whether the conception was immaculate or not , is left at large in the church of England . The Span iards make every member declare , that he believes in xhe immaculate conception of 4 : he holy virgin , the mother of God .
How prone is the iiuman mind to folly ! and , how easily it is led from one device of the imagination to the niost contemptible absurdities ! In one part of the world i : hey actually believe at this time , that a young child is god ; in our part of the world the impious term , the mother of God , is familiar to the mouths of numbers , and its shock-• • • . ii » i . 1 not
ing impiety ana biaspneiny are ooserved . In the early ages of the Christian religion , a crucified saviour shocked the feelings of the heathens , and unwise and unscriptural Christians endeavoured to modify the ignominy of his death , by changing the nature of Christ . The heathens , accustomed to the strangest tales of their gods , greedily swallowed
the fiction ; and , when they had made the son a god , it followed of course that the title of his mother should be raised ; and Ephesus , the city of superst tion , exalted the poor woman of Nazareth into the strange character of die mother of God . It was natural , that this should give rise to various fictions and fables ; and amongst the rest , the immaculate conception became a point
of great importance . This is woven into the faith of the Spaniards , and is become a matter of state . This is the test of the members of the Junta . How thankful ou ht Protestants to- be , that they are released from this absurdity at least ; and how careful not to admit into their creed any articles so repugnant to
Christianity . The faith of a Christian ought to depend on Christ ' s own words , and not on the vain and sil . y decrees of a pack of piiests , meeting in councils , and forming heterogeneous creeds , worthy only of laughter and contempt , if they had not , by the perversencss of those priests , introduced so muph strife and bloodshed into the world . ' But , if the . mass of the people in Spain labour under such delusions , it 'is evident by the writings of others , that there areunany enlightened persons in
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that kingdom , who are welt acquainted 'with the general principles of civil liberty . The country is in a very singn ^ lar situation . ' £ ach province is at present under the government of its f 5 eculiar Junta : and these Juntas will be of * great . service in the grand conflict , in which they are likely to be engaged .
But all seem to have seen fully the necessity of a central government , and they have wisely concluded , that this government should emanate from the 'Juntas as at preseiat constituted . DeT puties fcave therefore been appointed from each Junta , and they are to meet in Cividad rcale , to take upon themselves the great concerns of the kingdom . . By
this- a union of action will be obtained : and a ^ long as the inferior juntas act in subservience to this new ^ administration , their affairs are Jikely to be managed with great wisdom and prudence . In this administration probably will be fixed the nature of the future repre ^ en- * tative government , and some general laws will be' determined upon for the establishment of the monarchy .
This is a new occurrence in human affairs . We have seen in France the effects of a Convention to restore tne constitution of the kingdom . The Bourbon family had annihilated all the - restraints oi the monarchy , and the people gained the power of subverting their oppressors , but had not the discretion requisite to establish a good form of government . Running into every excess they soon became tired of anarchy .
and sunk at Javt contented in the arms of military despotism . In Spain there seems to be a disposition to attend to the principles of their old free constitution , to establish a cortez or meeting * of deputies from all parts of the kingdom , and to restore the monarchy jj nder the control of the representative
system . This country has . been so long governed under very bad piinciples , that any change must foe for the better , and the difficulties they have to encounter will rouse their minds from that torpor and sloth , which has so long rendered . useless the g ifts of nature on a country , formed for every comfort and advantage , that the temperate zone can produce .
The south and middle 6 f Spain are freed from , the French yoke \ every where in these parts the French have been obliged to give way , and the F « enclj elected king ha * -retreated with all his
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VOL . ill . 3 X
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1808, page 513, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2396/page/57/
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