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Untitled Article
of this paper to' inquire , whether this judgment be equitabteo One observation naay guide us In our examination , viz . that approbation of an action does not always Imply approbation of the reasons on which
it is founded- I admire tlie step taken by Archbishop Sancroft and the nonjuring clergy at the Revolution , though I'hold the principles on which it proceeded to be extremely erroneous and perniciouso In fact * it is impossible to behold a strict adherence to the
dictates of conscience without reverence ; at least in those cases where conscience requires acts of disinterestedness , humility and self-denial . This is a spectacle which the human heart
is formed to admire ; whether we resolve our admiration into sympathy , into the pleasure taken in beholding moral consistency and uniformity , or into the lower principle of approbation of that conduct in our
fellowcreatures which lays the surest founelation for our own advantage * as far as we are connected with them » The motives by which men are led to any great resolution are commonly
mixed , and in so large a body as the Ejected Ministers , there were probably many individuals who were swayed by some sentiments of dubious character . There is not a virtue which
may not be exercised under the in ~ fluence of some passion or prejudice which robst it of its merit . But though no one is ignorant of this , we all love ¥ irtue , and place confidence in the virtuous . If it be allowed , therefore , that many of the ever-memorable two thousand
were actuated by some reasons which in the present day appear weak * and that few of them were guided by those great general principles on which their posterity justify their own nonconformity , it will not follow that , in their peculiar circumstances and with
their habits of thinking and feeling their self-denying conduct was not magnanimous and entitled to the highest praise . Kneeling at the sacrament , the sign of the cross in baptism , bowing at the
name of Jesus , and other ceremonies of the same class , may be mere trifles , but their insignificance , though a good reason for not imposing them upon Christians , is none for submission to them , in opposition to the judg-
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ment , , To comply with any rite which is regarded as unscripjtural and superstitious in its tendency , is hypocritical in a Chrtstiano Any contempt that attaches to the frivolbusness of the
rite , belongs not to him that resists ? but to him that would enforce it , The imposition can be designed onl y * in the waatonaess of power , to exact obedience at the expenserof conscience * If one sacrifice of this kind be made
for the sake of peace , another may be demanded , and where is compliance to end ? Princzpiis ohsta , is the only safe maxim , with regard to such unjust and tyrannical demands . Whilst the Ejected Ministers scrupled , for various reasons , to submit to these ceremonies , they protested
against the right of the supreme power to make them compulsory The C © inferences at the Savoy , in which , according to our present notions , we must pronounce the Presbyterians sufficiently yielding , turned chiefly upon this point It is indeed the hinge of the controversy between conformists and nonconformists ., To
admit the imposition of the cross in baptism or any other frivolity upon human authority , is to give up religion wholly to the magistrate to be moulded by him at his pleasure 5 for he has
only to represent any imposition * however grievous , as a thing indifferent , in order to stand justified upon this principle in its rigorous enforcement . But it is not the amount of
the tax upon cdnscience , but the right to tax conscience ^ that is in dispufe « ITanipdens portion of ship-money was inconsiderable , but had it been Iess and as small as it could be , resistance of payment would have been equally the part of enlightened patriotism , because the power that could assess him without the consent of the
Commons , in the lowest possible sunij , could , at its arbitrary will , strip him of all his property , and even overturn the constitution . In the present instance , a power to cause the knee to bead before bread and wine , woi ^ ld be equivalent to the power to
constrain the prostration of the body before an idol , in short , a power to annul the plainest com man d ments of Almi g hty God . There are other points of view in which the case of the Ejected Ministers requires no argument whatever
Untitled Article
A Vindication of the Two Thousand Ejected Ministers 4 S
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1818, page 43, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2472/page/43/
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