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Untitled Article
that their future interpositions would be Rewarded by similar
success . In the late proceedings , to which they had alluded , he had also considered himself as advocating the cause of religious liberty . To civil freedom he was sincerely attached . That attachment did not
proceed from an inconsiderate regard to the name of liberty , or from the perpetuation of the feeling excited in his boyish mind by the narratives of the fabulous and
tinphilosophicai historians of antiquity . He now loved freedom , because he knew its moral and practical influence on individual character , and on social happiness * He therefore admired those
writings which explained its principles ^ and regarded with hallowed veneration the memory of the immortal pa « n who had died iq its defence ? Religion possessed yet greater influence on man ; it presented more powerful motives to the human mind than the
calculations of morality or the terrors of Jaw ; but to be effective , it must be spontaneous and free . He was therefore yet more attached to religious liberty than even to civil freedom . He regarded all
legislative interference with religU on , as resulting from equal ignorance of the rights of society , the rights of man and the rights of God . Religion might be consi ^ dered as a sentiment of grateful affectiou to the beneficent
Supreme : —and who should presume to . compel the existence of the sen * timent or to direct in to hat Jan *
gu ^ ge , by what rattitudes , # t what times , that sentiment should ( be ^ xpresfted . ? yrtyat map oncombination of men should prf ^ umeitorte ; Jl another man how and whom he
Untitled Article
should love , and then dare tb punish inattention to their rules by disqualification , by penalties ^ by tortures , by death 2 He could not describe the indignation such
canduct excited in his mind . —It was of all tyrannies most tvrannous and it was a presumption he must invariably oppose . It was there , fore he opposed the bill introduced by Lord Sidmouth into parliament , which imposing new restrictions on Christian ministers limited
existing toleration , and was hostile to religious liberty . By generous and general efforts , and especially by the vigilance and energy of the liberal and active committee for whom he acted , and
of which their Chairman and Secretary constituted most useful members , the attempt had been resisted with complete success .- — At that result he rejoiced with a joy which they . must reciprocate . For in that assembly religious
liberty must have m every man a champion , and every champion was himself an hosU They daily proved that their professions of regard to the rights of conscience were " not an empty name / ' for
they avowed their belief in principles to which our imperfect Acts of Toleration did not extend , and they were therefore exposed to all the proscriptions and penalties which the bigotry of Elizabeth and the Stuarts bad imposed .
They however possessed jone advantage over their tolerated bretb ^ ren . Their sincerity could not beimpugfied . Fpr whoever might disapprove their doctrines roust yat regard with respect the integrity of tfyose men who maintained theiV doctrines , although the sword of punishLrae&t wa . s suspended bu t by a thread .
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S 6 & Intelligence . — -Unitarian Fund .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1811, page 368, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2417/page/48/
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