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Untitled Article
are branded with the name of religious persecution . It would not be more preposterous to give the political restrictions under which aliens are placed the name of religious persecution , than it is to apply to it the political disabilities of the Dissenters from the Established Church . The cause of
exclusion , with regard to both , arises out of political caution ; it is the same in principle , but different , in its degree . The one owes no allegiance to the government generally , the other disapproves of the ecclesiastical part of it— " neither regards it with that undivided attachment which would render it expedient or safe to trust him as fully with political power , as we do those who labour under no circumstances of suspicion .
" Again , these laws are called a ' restraint upon conscience ; ' but in what way is not pointed out , nor is it possible to be discovered . These acts do not compel Dissenters to do any thing * which could arouse the reproaches of conscience ; they are onl y a restraint upon holding offices in corporations , or under the crown ; and his conscience must be very nice indeed , which ,
smites him because he has not an opportunity of serving his country and himself in some corporate or government office . Can we conceive conscience to mean eli g ibility to office—the capacity of becoming a lord of the treasury , or a tax-gatherer , or an attorney-general , or a special bailiff ? If it be not so , J cannot perceive what restraint of conscience the Dissenters suffer . " - ~~ ¥ p . 7—9 .
" There is , in truth , no such thing now in this country as religious persecution , or restraint of conscience . The question between the supporters of the Corporation and Test Acts , and those wha seek for their repeal , is purely a political one , and to confound it with religious intolerance only serves to perplex , mislead , and inflame those whose passions are more easily spoken to
than their reason . "—P . 11 . The author disavows any imputation upon Dissenters , but states , that «« it is impossible to forget that they are still Dissenters . " This is coming to the point . It is not arguing for laws of exclusion on any particular facts or circumstances . It is contending for the necessity of such guards against all persons under any government who separate from its establishment .
No one can expect that any establishment will embrace every one . There must be Dissenters , and , therefore , wherever there is an establishment there must , on this writer ' s principle , be privilege and proscription . What a recommendation such a necessity gives to institutions of this sort ! " The argument has been urged , that , as the Episcopalians do not profess to wish the destruction of the Dissenting societies , nor to covet the revenues of their ministers , they have no right to impute any such wish to the Dissenters , with respect to themselves . But this argument seems to be founded
upon the erroneous notion that matters of doctrine , discipline , and church property , are the only distinctions between Dissenters and the Establishment ; and it seems to be forgotten that the Establishment has a large share in the government , and , therefore , exercises , and must exercise , power and authority over the Dissenters . " Suppose , then , it were granted that the Dissenters owed the
Establishment no ill-will on account of its doctrines , its discipline , or its property , yet still they may , and it is natural to suppose they should , be impatient of its government ; and upon this presumption , those who speak not as theologians , but as politicians , heartily approving of this participation of the church in the government , consider it quite necessary , on the ground of political prudence , tha ^ the Corporation and Tes t Acts should not be totally given up , though it jpaay be safe as well as generous policy to suspend them . "—Pp . 12 , 13 . " dome people havepecome so accustomed to speak of Church and State as things having a divisible and separate existence , that they do not perceive the cOntr&iUctwn into which they fall , when they say they are attached to the fovemmeiit , but not to the eutabHehmeiH of the Church of England . The
Untitled Article
178 Review . — Defence of the Corporation and Test Acts *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1828, page 178, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2558/page/34/
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