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June 4, 1817-JVhat is Blasphemy ?
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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404 What is Blasphemy ?
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s begun , gives despotic power , and constitutes the condition of slaves . Although a man may forfeit his own life or liberty by invading or threatening another ' s life or liberty ; yet the
> aggressor ' s posterity or children cannot forfeit thereby their lives or liberties ; the miscarriages of the father being no fault of his children . An unjust aggressor can never gain a just right by conquest ; as a robber , who breaks into your house , and forces you , with a dagger at your throat , to seal deeds conveying your estate
to him , gains not thereby any title to your estate . For your plundered property is equally your right when in your plunderer ' s hands , as while in your own custody , and ought to be restored to you during every minute he withholds it ; and while withheld ,
it amasses the guilt of a continued robbery . Also , the promises extorted by force without right , bind you not at all ; in that the law of nature , laying an obligation on you only by the rule she prescribes , cannot oblige you by the violation of her rules .
The trustees of the public may not only forfeit their power to their constituents , but put themselves into a state of war against them ; and this they do whenever they manifestly endeavour to destroy the people ' s authority , or to invade their rights and properties , or to reduce them to a state of dependence , which is slavery , and unnatural . And this endeavour ,
when overt and manifest , will justify the forfeiture ; because when a man ' s chains are on , it may be too late fur him to complain 5 and to bid him then to beware of his liberty , were mockery instead of relief . . Lib . 11 . Ch . xix . No body of people can , by the faults of others , lose their natural rights .
That , AS TO REBELLION , The use of force without authority puts him who uses it into a state of war , and renders him liable to be treated accordingly . The word rebellion imports a putt ing one ' s self into a state of war . Me who begins this
state of war , by exercising force without right , is the rebel . When they who rebe . 1 , or bring back the state of war , by exercising force without right , are the very people chosen to be their protectors and guardians ,
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whose right they invade , they are rebels with the greatest aggravation of guilt , and the true causes of all the disorders and bloodshed occasioned in the society by its members ' efforts to recover their risrhts . The
consequent evils are the effects of the unjust invaders * acts , and must and will undoubtedly be chargeable upon them . Lib . II . Ch . xix . Usurped power having no title to a people ' s obedience , the rebelling against : it is innocent 5 so we read 2 Kings xvii .
17 , " And the Lord was with Hezekiah , and he prospered , wherefore he went forth , and rebelled against the king of Syria , and served him not . " If to shake off power gotten by force , and without right , were in itself wrong , it would follow , NOT ONLY , that people are sufferers by being innocent , and that they forfeit their natural ricrht of self-defence
and protection , because they deserve to enjoy it ; BTJT ALSO , that it is right for the innocent to quit their all , for peace' sake , to every plunderer ; and then the labours of mankind would be pursued , and their peace maintained , only for the benefit and enjoyment of robbers and oppressors ; which is absurd . Lib . II . Ch . xvi . xix . These are the prfnciples of Mr .
Locke , and I might cite many other approved writers , speaking the same things $ but Mr . Locke ' s universal credit , and renoVvn all over Europe , is a sufficient evidence , that the little above advanced by me on this subject is no novelty , it being fully comprehended in these quoted passages from Mr . Locke , and , I apprehend , justified by them .
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OF this horrid crime , Sir , our Saviour was frequently accused by the Jews , who were so blindly attached to their established church ; and he forewarned his disciples , that if they called the master of the house Beelzebub , much more would they those
of his household . And so indeed it has been . Those who have been most courageous in exposing error , and most active in disseminating truth , can best speak , of the tender mercies of those institutions which arrogate to
June 4, 1817-Jvhat Is Blasphemy ?
June 4 , 1817-JVhat is Blasphemy ?
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1817, page 404, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2466/page/28/
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