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we to be indignant and vindictive on account of things which , with our frail reason , we presume a man capable of doing- ! After the most sedulous search , in the whole range of philosophical and ethical learning , I have not been able to find a single passage to
justify sovereigns and governments in persecuting Sectarians or Dissenters from the established religion . If these Dissenters are occasionally in the wrong , they are not wilfully so . The Creator implanted in them , as in all
men , a longing' after knowledge and perfection ; they suppose themselves to be in the path of truth ; if they swerve from it in the integrity of their hearts , is that a sufficient reason for hatred and persecution ?" €
* Beware then , brethren , of judging uncharitably of your neighbours ; desist from dealing out anathema and excommunication on him who falls inadvertently . Rather draw him unto you with mild words and gentle persuasion . Forbid him not your
meetings ; let not the doors of your assemblies and places of worship be shut to him when he comes to pour out his heart before his Maker . If ye do , if ye cast him off , and consider him as a stranger , ye cut off the return to repentance ; the' guilt is yours , he is
doubly innocent . The house of God should be accessible to all : it is properly the abode of universal love , and peace should encompass it ; let then every mortal enter it , and adore the Supreme Being as his individual feel ings guide him . And ye , esteemed
Christians , eminent for wisdom and learning , if it be your wish to promote peace and brotherly love amongst mankind , do not countenance with the force of your intellect the sway of one
man over the religious opinions of another . God alone searches the heart \ and knows our secret thoughts . We are but of yesterday , and know nothing . Leave supremacy to Gody and love each other like brethren *
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Dublin , Sir , Oct . 10 , 1825 . HAVE long been of opinion that I a Church might be formed which would embrace all the necessary
Christian doctrines without giving offence to any well-minded Christian : of this I am fully persuaded , that there is enough on which all Christians are agreed to join in social worship . My
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wish is rather to form a truly Christian Church than to adopt the peculiar opinions of any sect . When I was lately in London , I found some , whom I thought firml y attached to the Established Church , had
found their way into the Chapel in York Street , St . James ' s , and who were pleased with the service and the facility with which they were accommodated . If their form of service , or somewhat similar , was adopted '
( for I am not anxious for adherence to any particular form or any set words or expressions , ) so as that nothing revolting to the feelings or sentiments of any conscientious Christian be introduced — I think a truly Catholic Church mav be constituted to
unite all Christians in holy communion , as the memorable John Hales says in a Tract on Schism , published in 1667 : €€ Were liturgies and public forms of service so framed , as that
they admitted not of particular and private fancies , but contained such things as in which all Christians do agree , Schisms on opinion were utterly vanished . For , consider of all the Liturgies that are , or ever have been , and remove from them
whatsoever is scandalous to any party , and leave but what all agree on , and the event shall be , that the public service and honour of God shall no ways suffer ; whereas , to load our public forms with the private fancies upon which we differ , is the most sovereign way to perpetuate Schism to the world ' s end . "
If in the formation of such a Church we were to take a hint from Ramraohun Roy and confine ourselves to the Precepts of Jesus , why should not such a Church become universal ? If any friends of the gospel of peace would open such a place of worship and fully announce to the public their liberal views , I can have little
doubt but the Church would increase and multiply with the increasing liberality and extended knowledge of the age . I repeat that my object is not to add to the number of any sect , but that the true and genuine
spirit of Christianity should extend over the habitable globe . While scientific and general knowledge is rapidly diffusing to the uttermost parts of the earth , why should Christian knowledge be suffered to be comparatively at a stand ? The signs of the time *
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224 * An Universal Church
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1826, page 224, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2547/page/36/
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