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Untitled Article
initiis jacta spero siint libertatis et pacis fundamenta , quibus stabilienda olim erit Chmti ecclesia . Nulli h culta suo penitus excluduntur , nee painis objiciuntur , nisi Romani , si modo juramentum
fidelitatis praestare velint , et renuntiare transubstantioni et quibusdam dogmatibus ecclesiae Ro . manse . De juramento autern Quakeris dispensatum est ; nee
illis obtrusa fuisset maloexempla , ilia quato in legeVidebis confessio fidei , si aliqui eoruni isiam fidei confessionem non obtulissent , quod imprudens factum multi inter illos et cprdatiores valde dolent . "
The confession of faith , the imposition of which upon the Quakers Mr . Locke here regrets , is in these words , — I - profess faith in God the Father , and
in Jesus Christ , his eternal Son , the true God , and in the Holy Spirit , one God blessed for evermore ; and do acknowledge the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by
divine inspiration . " It is added by Mr . L . that this Declaration would not have been imposed upon the Quakers but for an
interference by some of their own society , which others , eminent among them , highly disapproved . Some of your correspondents , connected with the Friends , can probably explain this circumstance * That Mr . L . should consider the provisions of this Act as falling short of what sincere , unambitious and truly Catholic
Christians might desire , is not extraordinary ; but how he could regard the Act of Toleration as laying a proper foundation of Christian liberty I cannot understand , while it established the magistrate ' s right of interference , which
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in his own Letters he had ably opposed . Yet the most extraordinary passage in the letter is that where he declares , that this Act secures freedom of worship and exemption from penalties to nea rly ' all but the Romanists . Besides the obligation to subscribe thirty , six and a half of the thirty-nine Articles , which was even then felt
as a grievance by Baxter and many of his brethren , " any per . son who shalL deny in his preaching or writing the doctrine of the blessed Trinity , ' is expressly
excluded from any ease , benefit or advantage / ' ' However Mr . Locke might thus pass over these glaring defects in this Act , his tc Letters
concerning Toleration / ' had prov . ed , that in civil policy ,, like Milton in poetry , he surpassed his co . temporaries by , at least , a century . The purblind politicians of his time , had just made the wonderful discovery , that it might
unite their majesties' Protestant subjects in interest and affection ^ to afford some ease to scrupulous consciences in the exercise of re . ligion . " At the same time , this real statesman and true philosopher , had demonstrated by a chain of reasoning , strictly infrangible , that u the commonwealth" is a
society of men , constituted only for the procuring , preserving and advancing their own civil interests i > that " it is the duty of the civil magistrate by the impartial execution of equal laws , to secure unto all the people in general , and to every one of his subjects in particular , the just possession of the things belonging to this life ; " and 4 i that the whole jurisdiction of the magistrate reaches only to these civil concernmen ts ;
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526 Sketch of English Protestant Persecution .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1811, page 526, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2420/page/14/
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