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themselves the name of Christian churches . Our Saviour frequently foretold his disciples , that they should be persecuted , imprisoned , brought before
tribunals and kings , &c . for his name ' s sake j but he never told them that they should serve others so , if ever it should be in their power . How is this ? But what is blasphemy ?
Until lately , it was blasphemy in England , a country of boasted freedom , to speak against , or deny , the doctrine of the Trinity ; but thanks to the bishops , the English meaning of the word blasphemy has undergone some little modification . We are now
allowed to speak against that mysterious and unintelligible credendum . But a sapient critic , if I remember right , has told us by way of monition , that we must use this liberty very gingerly : and so it seems .
- Blasphemy is , to speak injuriously of or concerning God , his attributes , his works , his word or his providence , and that intentionally ; for without the intention there can be no injurious
meaning , no impiety in the speaker . A person may speak in an injurious manner concerning God through mere ignorance or prejudice ; in that case , however , he is chargeable with error , not with blasphemy .
In this free and happy country ( who will not blush for England ?) it is the daily , habitual practice of more than one half of its inhabitants to commit the sin of blasphemy intentionally . For what is the profane language which assails our ears so incessantly ;
the impious oatli 3 , the savage curses , the hellish imprecations ? And the blasphemers are totally destitute of the plea of ignorance and intending well . On the contrary , their habitual conversation possesses all the character of presumptuous sin , of spontaneous
wickedness , of wanton guilt , of professed conscious profligacy . In this I am not aware that there is one syllable of exaggeration . No ; blasphemous curses urge down the vengeance of heaven on everv city , on every town ,
on every village , on every hamlet , and almost on every house in England . Where are the informers ? Where are the prosecutions ? According to the usage of the times in which we live , denying the truth of the Christian religion , or of a future
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state , or speaking irreverently concerning curious specimens of composition , which derive their religious character wholly and entirely from acts of the English legislature , is blasphemy .
It must be confessed , that on comparing the evils respectively stated in the two last paragraphs , tfye latter are much more aggravated than the former ; and no one surely can be surprised that their demerits are so admirably appreciated in so enlightened an age . But how in the name of common sense
and consistency , are the Voltaires , the Humes , the Gibbons , the Rousseaus , allowed the privilege of a free toleration , and appear to be welcome guests in the highest circles , in the most genteel society ; while poor Tom Paine , and Wat Tyler , and such unfortunate urchins , must hide their diminished heads ?
I will next , Sir , state what I am afraid is blasphemy . If a poor preacher , having been himself convinced by the authority of Martin Luther , the renowned Reformer , the potent reasons of the late Dr . Edmund Law , Bishop of Carlisle , father of Dr . Law , the
present Bishop of Chester , and of the late Dr . Francis Blackburne , Archdeacon of Cleveland , that the soul has no separate existence from the body , that with the body it dies , and that it will be raised again with the body—should deem it his duty to declare the whole counsel of God to his audience , and
this among the rest ; and if some blundering wrong-headed animal , with just as much theology in his head as charity in his heart , should choose to understand this as denying a future state , and should make a deposition before a magistrate to that effect ; I am afraid , Sir , it would turn out in the end to be blasphemy .
If a person tired with the dulness and ill-success of reasoning soberly against a favourite abracadabra , consecrated by the prejudice of the learned and the ignorance of the vulgar , should amuse himself with burlesquing it , in these good times , he would be charged with blasphemy . And . though there should be in this self-same abracadabra
some impious expressions , this would by no means , alter the blasphemous character of the travestie ; it being in that case the blasphemy of a blasphemy . And that certainly must greatly en-
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What is Blasphemy ? 405
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1817, page 405, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2466/page/29/
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