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libility denied io the long acknowledged Vi 0 ar < $ Christ , are by this parliamentary Bull attributed to the new usurper of supremacy in the Christian church , cannot fail to excite a smile in modern days ; and this notable statute remains a standing Index of the height to which the tide of intolerant presumption bad mounted , even after the waters of the great flood of Papal pretension had partially reeeded , and the everlasting hills of truth and Christian science had begun to
re-appear . It is not competent to the partisans of that undefined and fluctuating abstraction , called the Church of England , to urge that the Roman Catholic religion was still the ruling religion of the country : the separate
existence and moral reputation of their church must be dated from the period when she cast off her allegiance to the Court of Rome , but deliberately regained all the prominent points of the Catholic doctrines aud ritual , in opposition to the arguments of more
enqf most high prudence and no le * ss learning , opened and declared many things of high learning and great knowledge , touching the said articles . With such princely help it was finally resolved as to the first article .
" That in the most blessed sacrament of the altar , hy the strength and efficacy of Christ ' s mighty word , ( it being spoken by the priest , ) is present , really under the form of bread and wine , the natural body
and blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ , conceived of the Virgin Mary , and that , after the consecration , there remaiaeth no substance of bread or wine , nor any other substauee but the substance of Christ , God and man . "
The other articles received a resolution equally favourable to the good old practices and notions , and thus far his Majesty '« faithful Parliament may be tolerated in lauding his *< godly studie , paine and travell ; " but his godly enterprise was not thus to be accomplished : and it
vvas , tjierefoi-e , ordained , that if any persous by word , writing , imprinting , cyphering or in any otherwise , did publish , preach , teach , say , affirm , declare , dis ^ pute , argue , or hold any opinion to the
cpntr&ry , they and their aiders , camfqirters , counsellors , consentors and abettor&theivu ^ should he acjj udged heretics , a # 4 . * tf * ouM suffer death , by way of buru ^ $ P «* without any aitfiiratiou , clergy , or sanctuary .
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130 TVie Nonconf&miitt . No . XXIV .
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lightened Protestants in this and fa reign countries . The Church of England has , how . ever , reluctantly ? lowered her pre ] tensions , both in theory and in p ractice The statute-book has recognized the right not only of thinking , ( which no
law could ever controui , ) but also of professing religious opinions inconsistent with those established as the national creed ; and some of her most illustrious members have si gnalized themselves by the most enli ghtened principles of religious liberty : ye $
there are several civil inconveniences and disabilities to which Nonconformity still exposes its professors , the continuance of which can be justified by no reasonings in favour of the utility of civil establishments of
religion , which must and ought to fall to the ground , if they can only stand by paralyzing the bonds of civil union , and erecting invidious distinctions between subjects equally attached to the constitution and well-being of their country .
It is well known , that , out of the phalanx of statutes behind which the Church of England was entrenched , before the Revolution in 1688 , the Acts , commonly called the Corporation and Test Acts , are , at the present day , the most extensive infringements of the civil rights of Protestant Dissenters .
I shall not attempt imperfectl y to echo the general arguments which have been so unanswerably urged for * I say reluctantlyy because every con * cession to the consciences of others has been opposed by a host of those of her members who have sustained her
highest offices , or have put themselves forward as her only true champions . There never was an aera in her history in which the heads of the Church generally admitted the possibility of extending toleration without risking her existence . The majority are , indeed , satisfied when
once the to ] erant decree is passed ; but a more consistent minority still indulge fond retrospections towards the golden days of proscription and penalty . These ecclesiastical curs will snarl over and
guaw the bare bones of intolerance , nntii they are wrested from their gripe by animals of a more generous breed . Their miserable feast is , 1 trust , for their own sakes , swiftly verging towards H » »** dose .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1822, page 130, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2510/page/2/
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