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. ft is a thing of general notoriety , that great difference of opinion exists between very worthy and good men . Now , is human natufe , improved by religion too , really 50 constituted , that the avowal of our belief , and the
defence of our principles , must necessarily lead us to hate and injure one another ? And ttiust wise and good men mutually conceal their sentiments with great care , and religiously forbear to urge their claims on the attention of
mankind , lest they should be scandalized , and be led into disputes ? And wouM this kind of forbearance and concealment be that thing which we call Christian charity ? Surely , a very false notion of charity and peace is implied in the above argument . Jesus Christ said , that he came
to set a man at variance with his neighbour , the father against the son , and the son against the father , &c . Here is an undoubted breach of charity . But surely he is not guilty of it , though he be the occasion , wno believes in
Christ , and follows him ; but he is piiltyof it , who suffers the conscious integrity of him who honestly avows his belief in Christ to be the occasion of enmity and variance . * ' Offences must come ; " but the woe is to him by whom they unreasonably come , not to him who is the innocent occasion of them .
If we allow its full scope to this argument , it proves too much , and is plainly inadmissible . If peace and harmony are the only things to be coiysulted , Jesus Christ should not have
preached repentance , a change of religious sentiment and practice , to the world , nor should he have , so vehementl y attacked the Jewish Scribes and Pharisees because he ^ differed from them . The apostles actdd very wrong
unsettling % he > minds of men ,, arid 8 ettni g them at variance by their novel opinions , and , as it were , turning tfye world upside down . All missionary undertakings since the days of the apostles to our own , must be regarded ^ crusades against peace and chari ty . We should never assail the idolatry an ^ superstition of the Heathen ,
bewise their minds , of course , are scan-Tr « £ j ! and ' offended : the Mahometans ) un be left ijti quiet pnd peaceable pps-^ oh of the erro rs pf their false prd-CiKSC tH - seven heiiveri ^ thei r li / 'fifeiK / &cV : tttr Catholic ' s
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barbarous and priestfy-tyriarifiical stK perstiti ^ n substituted for the rel igion of Christ : and , in a word , if this argument means any , thing , we must Ieav £ the world for peace and harmony ' s in
^ dke quiet possession of all its multifarious idolatries , errors , superstitions , vices . O , all ye holy martyrs and confessors , what infernal enemies were you to the peace anii tranquillity of thfe
-world : the holy zeal with which your noble army was animated , was a brand from Hell . Thou Martin Luther , with thy undaunted host of reformers , what a pest wert thou to the world : —how much malignity was . displayed in consequence of thy reformation ; how manybloody w ^ ars wire kindled : how
many cities reduced to ruirtsj and how many fair provinces laid waste and depopulated . And thou , O Priestley , ( famam qui termtnet ctibris , )' whose iin * common sagacity in discovering , and unappalled courage in publishing to the world , truths long obscured and lost , naturally attracted the enmity of mobs and interested priests ; though thou hadst enli g htened and benefited Europe by thy discoveries , and thv
native country might be proud of numbering thee amongst her most honoured sons 5 yet , enemy of tranquillity ; welj didst thou deserve th y fate : laudable was the design of the infuriated mob * instigated to burn thee , together with th y library and apparatus j holy were the maledictions , lies and calumnies of
tfcy interested enemies £ arid gtoriouk for the conclusion p f the eighteenth ceriturV ' was thy banishment to a dis * tant region , beyond the confines of civilized inhumanity ' / I am afraid that the spirit 6 f rational inquiry has beeti lone decliningamong the Presbyterian and rational Dissent er £ ; ' and ^ he richer class , I am well 'ifcfX&i fr 6 ex 6 eedipgl y aveijrse to evferf Inn 6 Viti < iii , ^ o every improyetnent , to all fchurfcH- ^ cipIine , to doctrinal preaching , to tl ? e expo ^ iifion of the / Scriptures : they will jj ive no couriienance to catechizing , to lectures , to associations : for information . It is ' no wonder that our societie ' s in niany places are in a d ^ - ptesse ^ d stat ^ in some extinct , Thei
will became , extinct in . njitiy more , wiihtint . arenov ^ tion ,. I could disclose more ^ oTSthe evil , if thfe were the prober *> Uc $ . I think I c ^ ^ oHttt Wi « i tiicfical ^ aii ^ s i > f our decay Ife have Vet you "have "putiKklJeu , Ibut "ima ^ toes ttSt
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On Doctrinal , or Omtrm&rsiarPteadkwg / c
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1816, page 459, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2455/page/23/
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