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Untitled Article
man to revile the religion generally prevailing here , or its author ;/ or to impeach or call in question the attributes of the Deity . " While , on the hand /* the learned conti
one judge - nues , " we say to Unitarians , Jews , Mahometans and Pagan , iZnjoy your own religious notions free from restraint , so on the other we say , aid such is the language of the law , Revile not the religion which we profess ' , or its author . " As a reason for this
language of the law , he goes on to say , that " it is from religion that oaths in court derive their efficacy ; and to undermine the religious opinions of men would deprive us of the security we place upon oaths in judicial proceedings and others , and would finally operate to the subversion of civil
society . * The words witnessed against the defendant were sufficiently blasphemous , but the learned judge said , considering the testimony adduced On his behalf— " the testimony of his good character , and his peculiar religious opinion , it was hardly possible that he could have uttered the words laid in
the indictment . " Of his peculiar religious opinion , it appeared in evidence that the defendant had often been heard to express his " conviction of the truth of the doctrine of universal salvation / ' It is only necessary to add in the history of the case , that he was acquitted .
The reporter , at the head of the article alluded to , lays it down &s the law , probably from the decisions * of the learned judge in the cagey ffrat where it ' appeared that blai ^ phemous words " were uttered in the course of
an intemperate political dispute , by one who belonged to a church and frequented it , who had a sense of religious obligation , and otherwise sustained a fair character , it was held that he was not guilty : It is wonderftil that it was not al $ p given as a reason ,
why a man uttering blasphemous words should not \ be held guilty of blasphemy , that he was a man of good education , and inorebver belonged to the prevailing political party . I will not undertake to say how far the part the defendant took in the politick !
dis-* Nemr York jClty Hall tte > ort ^ v Voi ; IV . p . 40 . " ' *
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pute which gave occasion to the bias t > hemous words in question , mitigated his crinW . in the eyes of the learned judge and intelligent jury ; but I am at a loss to conceive in what manner
"" a sense of religious obligation / ' or " belonging to a church / ' could absolve from the consequences of such a crime in a civil , any more than in a moral point of view .
My principal object , however , is not to question the correctness of the decision or the law in this case , but to warn our friends of the First Congregational Society in New York ; who may not have seen the Report , of the dangerous ground on which they stand . It is not to be regretted , that , not
belonging to any Christian' church , they may not blaspheme , in the usual sense of the word , with impunity in this world , and we presume they do not expect , as the defendant in the present
case , an unconditional acquittal in the next . But let them beware of calling Jesus Christ , in the language of Peter , " a man approved of God /* for " in
he language of the law / ' this would be blasphemy ; it would be "to revile the author of the religion generally prevailing" in New York , which considers Christ , and commands us to worship him , as God . They must not Call in question the underive'd
existence , the almighty power , the eternity of Jesus Christ , since , by the same standard , this would be to impeach the attributes of the Deity himself . If the ^ y do not believe , they must not teach any thing in contradiction to the doctrine' 6 f universal salvation , of the Thirty-nihe Articles , or the
Assembl y V larger or Shorter Caterchism , or other Symbols of Christian churches in this land of religious light ana liberty , for this would be to € * operate to the Subversion of civil society /' And let then } no longer blame the angry polemic , or the bigoted professor , who denies them the name of
Christians , sinbe they are , even from the bench of justice , in the very metropolis of our country , the seat of religion of learning , and the arts , ranked vyitn unbelievers , and assigned onl y a fc > rfecedence in the enumeration vrith JeW& , Mahometans arid Pagans . , . . i . . .
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Toleration in New York . 757
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1822, page 757, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2519/page/37/
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