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    to every man of every other persuasion * and that the / victory of Christ is over the heart by arguments of love and truth , t iot by penal statutes and civil incapacities . Still , it ts a satisfaction that the minds of the men of this world are enlarged ,

    and , iti smte of the interested views of jbriesCcran :, and the crafty insinuations © f mistaken policy , the cause of religigious toleration is gaining ground . The ax ^ irtnents against the catholic petition were weakly urged and weakly supported ; and , on the division of the House , it appeared , that the Catholics liad gained considerably since the last

    application . We shall hope that they "Will Continue their efforts - if necessary . : But a new question as arisen * which may supersede their endeavours , and place religious liberty on its proper footing . Soon after the rejection of the Catholic petition , another appeared in £ avour , not of Catholics only , but of every subject of this realm ; for we deem the members of the established churches of the island

    to be as much injured by the intolerant laws on our statute books , as those classes which are the object of civil censure and incapacities . These laws have a tendency to give the favoured party unchristian dispositions ; to place them in an unfavourable situation for moral

    improvement ; to make them haughty , overbearing and arrogant ; to lead them to conceive that they have a peculiar merit and p : ivilege , as being members of an established church ; and thence they forget the great duty incumbent on them , as members of the great kingdom under that Master , whose disciples they

    pretend to be . The oppressor and the oppressed are , we trust , approaching nearer to each other , and will enilirace with true Christian charity ; the one pardoning the wrongs he has suffered , the other lamenting that he should have so departed from the true Christian spirit , as to introduce force in a question

    A petition now lies on the table of the House of Commons , which was drawn tip by that ' mofct venerable champion of civil and religious liberty , Mr , Wyvill , introduced by Mr . Whitbread , and '

    secdnded by Mr . Smith . It is called the Christian ' s Petition , and kb prayer is trjirty Christian . It is to reihove from pur statute book Svery few Wiiich infficttfbUhiia ^ eiit bri aftcttiS ! iita tn ^ of

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    religious opinions , © r subjects to . disqualifications those who happen to differ from the dogmas of the established church- —dogmas , in which the members themselves are far from being united . It was too late in the session to have the

    question argued , but it must be a satisfaction to every liberal mind to know , that between sixteen and seventeen hundred persons concurred in this petition , of whom many -were clergymen , arid the others were of every description of religion professed in this kingdom . We hope that similar petitions will be

    presented in the course of next w / inter from all parts of the kincrd « nu It will be gratirying to see men every where lay aside their religious prejudices ; and , as the church of EngTand forms but a small portion of the Christians of this

    kingdom , and in that church are so many liberal and enlightened men of the same sentiment with the petitioners „ we cannot doubt that in a short time the legislature will accede to a wish , that has in view only harmony and pea ^ e .

    At the same time that religious liberty is thus gaining ground , and men are desirous of seeing the shackles fall from every hand , as far as the civil power is concerned , it becomes every sect to consider how far it indulges a true spirit in its own concerns . It matters not

    whether I am injured by the state or by a private sect , which , overstepping the bounds of Christian love , tears from me the affections of my family , and estranges from me the countenance of my friends . The laws of the sect may be as hurtful as those of the state : and the minister

    of a dissenting meeting-house may , in his little domain , be as bad as a pope . A Christian church is a voluntary society , and a man may be excluded froirh , as well as admitted into it . But , if that exclusion is attended with any violation of

    Christian love ; if it tends to ruin a man in his temporal concerns , the members of that community have not the spirit of which they oiight to be composed . These reflections arise from the

    circumstance of an excommunication being brought into the temporal courts of Ireland , and a popish bishop being subject to a verdict of damages , for the censures he had inflicted on one of his community . We do not know the precise merits of the . case , but what we , have seen © f excommunications is octfous in the extreme ; and bishops ol every description ,.

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    314 State of Public Affa ir **

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1810, page 314, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2405/page/42/