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Untitled Article
them loose upon the world , as worse than beasts of prey , escape unpunished . The laws , in fact , have , in such cases , provided no adequate punishment . Several instances I could name , if I durst , where these seducers have been
persons of eminence in society , and have even sat on that bench oi justice , from which , with a shameless effrontery , they have condemned their wretched
accomplices to a doo / n , \ rhich ought to have fallen , and no doubt will one day fall- , with a ten-fold vengeance on their own heads . 461 therefore fear that the at . tempt to reform tbepublic , by
^ establishing an association oi in-. formers , against some offences , while greater and more enormous offenders will necessarily slip through their hands , will not be
attended with the wished-for effects . I am particularly led to suspect that this will be the case , in such hands as theirs who
composed the meeting oi the 14 th instant . Most of them are known to the world , under the character of dissenters , ot one denomination or another : and here they step forward to inculcate religion and virtue by open force . But the weapons of our warfare ought to be spiritual , not carnal ; they ought to consist in doctrine and example : here let us be as diligent and as earnest as we can . Besides , it becomes some of vis , ' at least , to consider that there are
many penal statutes against ourselves . With what face could I , for instance , put the act against blasphemy and profaneness in force against my neighbour , and complain if he should , in his turn , enforce another clause of the same statute , by which * any person who shall deny any one of the
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persons of the Holy NTrinity to be separately and distinctly God , or shall maintain that there arc more gods than one , shall (
ultimately ) become incapable of bringing any action , of being a guardian , executor , or legatee , and suffer three years imprisonment , without bail ? ' This sta .
tute , in my poor opinion , includes within its gripe every reasonable being ; but at any rate , / am not one of those who can wish for its enforcement . Again , most of us who are ministers , have neglected
to qualify according to the lgth , George the Third ; and yet any one of us not so qualified is liable to all the penalties of the Oxford and Conventicle Acts , which those
who know these acts , know to be neither few nor smalU Ought we not then to be very cautious how we excite a malicious man to
enforce the execution of statutes whose penalties it is compulsory in the magistrate , upon informa . tion , to enforce ? 44 For these reasons I confess
myself very doubtful respecting the propriety of ' Associations for the Suppression of Vice / by the enforcement of penal laws . Let us do all we can against it by our instructions and our example ; but
let us remember that religion is a personal and a voluntary thing , and that a man cannot be made virtuous by fine and imprisonment .
While I am writing this , there has come to my hands an excellent discourse by a learned and worthy friend , with a refe rence to an important note in which conclude this long letter . ( &cr " mon at York , June 24 , 1810 , by C , Wellbeloved , note page W 4 Associations of persons , actuated , X have no doubt , by the p ^
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414 On Societies for the Suppression of Vice .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1811, page 414, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2418/page/30/
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