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tians of another persuasion : they it was who zealously concurred in excepting from the Toleration Act those who entertained different notions with regard to the Trinity from their own : they are the persons too , who , when
the legislature has repealed , unanimously , its penal enactments against their Unitarian brethren , stand forward to contravene the decision which , when it suited their interests , they would hail with deserved applause from Lord Mansfield- and to contend
that toleration is but exemption from specific punishment , and that nonconformity with the doctrines of the Church of England is an offence at common law ^ and this too , they will do to serve an immediate object ^ even though it is perfectly manifest that such an opinion , if adopted and acted
upon by our courts of law , would reach almost every species of nonconformity , and that they themselves would fall the victims of their own short-sighted policy . Mr , Robertson has made an effort to bring these gentlemen to more disinterested and liberal principles and practice , and we trust his appeal will not be unavailing .
On the first appearance of € t The Congregational Magazine , " which supports Calvinistic views of Christianity , Mr . Robertson was applied to by its Editors to contribute his assistance to it as a writer ; but deferred
pledging himself , till he saw whether the work was disposed to support " the principles of religious liberty in their true and full meaning . " On doctrinal subjects he fully concurs with the Editors . In the first number
appeared a statement of " the Wolverhampton Case , * with the Editors ' sanction . Mr . R . " possessing information too correct to mislead him as to the real character of the case , " immediately addressed the Editors for the purpose of undeceiving them . He
received a reply , in which the Editors acknowledge their want of correct information ou the subject . " It seems , " they added , " that the case , as drawn up , is artfully stated" and they invited Mr . R . to address a public
communication on the subject . He did so \ a rejoinder immediately appeared from the ministers , flatly contradicting Mr , R . ' s statement , "in violation , " as he contends , ** of the regard which they owed t 6 truth ; " and he waa now re-
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fused by the Editors the privilege of vindicating himself . Thus situated , he had no other re * source than to appeal to the public io the present shape ; lie has done so , ably and strongly , perhaps rather more
strongly in some few passages which we could point out , than was to be wished \ but it must be allowed , that the case was one in which the peremptory contradiction of undoubted facts , challenged as peremptory an assertion of the author ' s veracity .
€ i I admit , " says he , ihatl have at least attempted to speak strongly on the subject of the ensuing pages . Could I do other * wist > and be then entitled to hold ray situation as ati Evangelical minister , a servant of Christ , and a friend to the liberties and true interests of the human race ? In all
cases of a similar kind , the consistent Christian has only one duty to per form , —to declare against every appeal to intolerant laws for the purpose of attaching criminality to the professors of religious opinions , even should they he in his estimation
in error , and to manifest this feeling by taking part with the persecuted against their persecutors . —I say persecuted , because , if the attaching of illegality to men on account of their religious profession , be not persecution , I have yet to learn in what manner it is to bedefined . It must be
remembered too , that the author has written in suppoit of statements which , though undeniably true , have been unblushingly contradicted in a manifesto ^ remarkable only for the deception and conceal meat which it is intended to impose upon the public . Its authors have assuredly meddled
with a business remote from their concerns ^ and the manner in which they have conducted it , is in the extreme dishonourable . They hare adopted and sanctioned proceedings in direct opposition to the laws of Christ , from which the sooner they desist the better . Unknown to the author as
they are , he feels no difficulty in believing them to be entitled to much deserved respect , as men and as ministers ; but as they have chosen to avail themselves of intolerant laws , and have directed the application
of them against their fellow-creatures , $ u » d then hare boldly , in opposition to the charge , denied that they have done so it is evident that they have subjected themselves to a severe and just reprehensionto which alone the author confines himself .
It is for them to explain for what reasons they have presumptuously denied what they certainly must have known to be true . * — Fief . pp . x . xi . Considering the importance of the jsubject , and the difference of opinion
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Review * - ~ C < tse of the Old Meeting House , Wolverkamptonj TQQ
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1818, page 709, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2482/page/45/
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