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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Ush theglorious Revolution . of King William the Thy ^ , arid active in opposing tlie criminal . struggles which were subsequently made in favour of the deposed Monarch * . and that your , petitioners ,
early trained in these principles , have ever steadily maintained them as the only solid and rational ground of union between the sovereign and the subject , in the reciprocal bonds of generous confidence and affectionate duty *
That your petitioners have always been accustomed to regard the exercise of private judgment in religious affairs , as a right , natural , absolute and inalienable ; supremely important as affecting the highevSt interests , and involving the most sacred duties of man ; and necessarily including the liberty , not merely of
worshiping in the mode his conscience approves , but , also , of publicly declaring and defending the opinions he entertai / js ; without which , indeed , scarcely could any religious freedom be said to be granted ; for as freedom of thought cannot be restrained by human power , its most unlimited exercise cannot be the
subject of human concession . That your petitioners bow down in the sincerest thankfulness to Divine Providence , for having so accelerated the progress of light and knowledge in the
world , that these truths , which but a few generations ago could not have been asserted but at the risk of personal liberty and even of life , are now almost universally and completely recognized in all Protestant and in many Catholic
states . That your petitioners are farther desirous of acknowledging , with grateful satisfaction , the large improvement of their legal situation in this country , during the life of his late Majesty , in which period more was effected than under any preceding reign to emancipate religion from the civil thraldom to which
it was formerly subjected . That , nevertheless , this freedom cannot be complete , as far as respects your petitioners , while they remain proscribed and degraded on account of their nonconformity to the National Church ,
That while such nonconformity was held legally criminal , ( however unjustly , ) it might , consistently at least , have been visited with punishmeirit . But since the religious rights of your petitioners have been acknowledged , and their profession
and worship legalized , the continuance of punishment on these accounts , in whatever shape or under whatever pretext , i $ not only unjust in itself , but inconsistent with the principles on which every relaxation in their favour has been granted . That your petitioners are not ignorant
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at the pleas on which their request has ^> ee n resist ed ^ but they < flatter j them- * selves that the justice aad liberality of the present times will no longer urge against them , that to be debarred from the common advantages enjoyed by other innocent citizens is not punishment ,
especially when such degradation is , indeed * well known to the Jaw , but only as the appropriate penalty upon heinous and disgraceful crimes . They trust that eligibility to office will no longer be refused ; to them when asked as a pommon right , from the palpable error c ^ confounding it with the actual possession of office ; which latter mo Dissenter was ever so
absurd as to expect , otherwise than in the same course with their follow-sub * jects ; but in their claim to be held equally eligible , they are corroborated by the well-kuowu declaration of King William the Third , — that " he wished a door should be open for the admission ,
into his service , of all Protestants who were able and willing to serve him ; " and when it is obvious that the principle of the arbitrary exclusion of some from all offices of power , trust and emolument , for the imagined security of others , may
be used to justify every species of restriction and degree of severity , extending to the deprivation of property , liberty , and even life itself ; if ( as has often been the case ) a prejudiced , misjudging , or fanatic majority should choose to deem such extremities necessary for their own
satisfaction or the safety of their religion ; —and your petitioners conceive the infliction of any of these evils , in their higher or lower degrees , on account of religious persuasion or profession , to be , according to the most accurate and acknowledged definition , persecution for conscience * sake .
That with respect to the relief afforded them by the auuual Indemnity Act , so often held forth as amounting to a virtual repeal of the disqualifying statutes , your petitioners decline entering into discussions of its extent or efficacy ; nor will they inquire whether it be not more wise
( as it certainly would be more magnanimous ) at once to repeal laws whose operation is asserted to be thus kept in continual abeyance : it is enough for them to observe , that a partial and discretional indemnity against penalties still left to be incurred , is neither constitutional
security nor equal justice . They well know > that though these Acts may incidentally afford projection to them as well as to those in whose favour they were meant to operate , ( though not to the extent which has been imagined , ) yet that for their ease ok relief they were never intended ; and the injury which your peti-
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^ 80 teiligeme . ' ^^ ParliamentQfy , t Corporation and Test Acts ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1824, page 380, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2525/page/60/
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