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charge , that a natural and close alliance subsists between Unitarians and Unbelievers / ' I hope Unitarians will never deem it unnatural to form an alliance , as close as the fair pursuit of a common object may require , with unbelievers or misbelievers of anv
description , who may be willing to join them with the laudable design of contributing " to let the oppressed go free and to break every yoke , " A very opposite design appears to have been attributed to Unitarians , on a late memorable occasion .
Mr . Gurney , whom " the Society for the Suppression of Vice" retained to prosecute Mr . Carlile , seemed to connect the Unitarians with the promoters of that prosecution , in his reported speech at Guildhall , on the 15 th of October last . Mr . Carlile
pleaded , not legally indeed , yet not unfairly , a 3 argumentum ad homines , that the Trinity being confessedly an essential article of the religion established and enforced bv the State , Mr . Smith ' s Bill , which released from
penalties the irupugners of the Trinity , had virtually repealed the Blasphemy Act . To this line of defence , Mr . Gurney is reported to have replied , " In the Act of William and Mary , which exists now in full force , there is a passage stating that he who denies that the Old and New Testaments are
of divine authority , shall be subject to certain pains and penalties . The defendant declares that the whole Act has been repealed , whereas it is evident , beyond doubt , that but one line upon the subject of the Trinity has been withdrawn . The new Act , then , tacitly
re-enacts all the rest of the former statute ; for it shews that the latter had undergone thorough consideration , and the plain meaning of the former is equally the design of those who solicited and those who granted the indulgence . "
I copy thi 3 passage from the Morning Chronicle of Oct . 16 , which agrees with the Times of the same date . From the word design , connected with thorough consideration , a readey would , I think , be lively to conclude that the Unitarians had shewn themselves read y to make a common cause wth Mr . Guriievfe dipnts , considering their own relief as . the only proper relaxation of the statute , and j qiutG satjsfiM jftat /^ i ^ > j | dv ^ nexcalption in their favour , " the Act of William
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and Mary exists now in fall force . * " " Yet those who solicitedthe indulgence ! , " while they £ diild * cfflriy act for themselves exclusively with any chance
of success , had neither a ^ design to encourage , nor a disposition to approve the late prosecutions ; but were among the first to regret , while they relied on the omnipotence of divine truth , that Unbelievers were not allowed with
impunity to assail the religion of the Bible , not only with argument , but even with misrepresentation and ridicule , should they be disposed thud ' to injure their own reputation as sober disputants .
It appears , then , that " of all men , Unitarians have the greatest reason to approve of this Sermon , " and that they would indeed " have the greatest reason to complain" had no one of their number been found promptly to bear in their behalf a testimony against
persecution . Should any of your readers still doubt whether the prosecution of Mr . Carlile be a species of which persecution is the genus , I wish they would inform us , according to their nomenclature , on what page of history , ancient or modern , persecution can be found . GAMALIEL . ¦^^ fc
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Remarks of an Unitarian Traveller . No . I ; 4 J \
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—^^^ mm Remarks of an Unitarian Traveller . , No . I . Sir ,
MY employment will not lead you to expect from me any logical reasoning . I am in trade , and perform iny own journeys . This leads me to see a variety of persons and places . On these 1 am accustomed to make
my remarks , not with a design to find fault , but to put down what I think may be useful to myself or to my children , when I am dead . Some of my observations have been communicated to friends , whose partiality led
them to believe they might serve our common cause . With this wish they are sent ; and if you judge them worthy of a place in your theological Repository , they are at your service . If the plan I have puisued were followed by other Travellers , you would have many Correspondents who could give you fetter means than . are now possessed for ) determining : the . question ,- —Is Unirtariatnsm ijaore ^ iBg or tdec ^ eaaing !^ A general spirit of inqukyiis increasing ; _ av greater readiness to hear what we
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1820, page 471, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2491/page/27/
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