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or to punish him if he is not sitefit . 'Whether the profession of the Unitarian faithbe or be not an offence in common law , it is certainly in the power of the legislature to make it a legal offence ; but whether that has been done already , or whether it evter shall be done , this is certain , that he
who thinks it right that a Christian community should punish the man who declares Christianity to be false , cannot very consistently think it wrong in a Trinitarian community to punish the ma « i who declares the doctrine of the Trinity to be absurdity and . fiction . And the Anti-trinitarian , who would
not tolerate a Deistical writer , may not be so safe as he supposes himself to be from this test of his consistency ; for , to judge from the temper of the times in oar own country , it might not , perhaps , be difficult for a British government , should it ever become
intolerant , after having raised a political alarm at the tendency of Unitarian principles , by asserting , though falsely and absurdly , that they are intimately connected with revolutionary principles , to satisfy a good majority of the people of England , that it is right to
put a stop to the preaching and publishing of such opinions , as being directly blasphemous , and constructively seditious . For myself , Sir , I am ready to confess that I can discover no principle which will justify prosecution for Deistical publications as such , which
is not equally applicable to the defence of mutual prosecution and persecution among the different sects of Christians , as each shall possess the power , till a forced uniformity of profession shall have extinguished inquiry what we ought to believe , by prohibiting the avowal of what we do believe . I
observe , with pleasure , that even your Correspondent , in the last Monthly Repository , [ p . 31 , ] "An Unitarian Christian" " disclaims , as to Deists , the aid of the civil power , leaving * them to the mercies of that God who has the disposal of the world to come ; " but it may be questioned , whether he doea
not concede to intolerance ita strongest hold , when he maintains , as he seems to do , that there are theological errors oT opinion , or that thfcre is at least one ; the rejection of the Gfcristiaft religion , which Christian charity iftust not allow to hmre a « y other * tfrigin than a corrupt ftim of tie heart .
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Before I lay down my pen , permit me to add what has occurred to me on reading the able defence of Philosophical Necessity by my friend Mr . Cogan [ pp . 7—113- To the philosophical argument it has always appeared to me no reply can be made : but to
many , and I profess myself to be one of them , the moral objection , that the doctrine " excludes vindictive pifcniskment , making it manifestly and palpably absurd , ' * seems to require a
more particular consideration . My reason is briefly this ; tfiat ^ whatever may be thought of the scriptural argument on the side of punishment , properly so called , it is a fact , that we are so constituted as to have a moral
consciousness , ( the expression may not be the best , but it will serve to convey my meaning , ) that when we do wrong it is just we should suffer for it . The Necessarian can reply , that on his principles , and on them alone , punish ment , or what he calls punishment ,
is just , for on any other it would be useless ; but the moral feeling which is alleged to make a part of our nature goes further than this . Men feel it to be a right thing , to be Just in retribtition , that punishment , in- the popular use of the term , should follow guilt . Is this a delusive feeling , u £ eftil > indeed , and universal , and a part of our
nature ? Or rather , is not that doctrine false , which would prove , that though the feeling does exist , yet in reason it ought not to exist ? There seems to be fallacy somewhere ; is it ill the reasoning of the metaphysician , or in the common moral fueling of mankind ? Demonstration itself ( such
demonstration as is possible in moral subjects ) looks doubtful , when it demonstrates the proper feeling of bl&ttte , that in it which distinguishes it frona every btlter feeling , and which it is not ctetsy to describe but of which all men are
conscious , to be , though a useful perhaps and necessary , yet at the same time an irrational feeling . This popular objection is the state dbjectidft in the judgment ? of many t 6 t * te Necessarian * doctrine 5 I believe tfiatf > to the understanding of Mr . C , t& 0 rei # tittle in it ; ygtf aifcee to many , wh <* a **> IfiftS "'
ters too of the philosophical arguirfent , it seems otherwise , I shouldr ^ e witfc much satriafactkm , and sd- I ** fciHW > would many of your * ea < ters , th * -fdhfr tion df the difficulty frotok tWpepw
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80 Dr . Morell on the Argument for Necessity .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1820, page 86, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2485/page/22/
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