On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
idolatrous and damnable . Either the Dissenters did not , or the Catholics do still , " suffer for conscience' sake ; or else there is one standard of " entire toleration" and " religious liberty" for the one class , and another for the other . What a pitiful sophism it is , that because Catholic worship is not interrupted , therefore Catholics are not persecuted ! The printing of libels is not interrupted ; only the libeller is afterwards fined or sent to gaol . Does this prove the " most entire toleration" of libellers ? Mr . I . calls the laws
in quesiion penal . And what is penalty but punishment ? And for what is the Catholic punished , but because he is a Catholic ? His religion , like felony , makes him incapable of offices of trust and honour ; and yet we are told that this is not a question of religious liberty ! And suppose it were not ; suppose it were only , what it is allowed to be , " a question of political expediency ; " does this demonstrate that the Dissenters of England should feel no interest , exercise no influence , upon its
decision r Are they to be quiet because it is only a question of national security and peace , of common justice and common humanity ? Is the word " politics" a spell which is to make them indifferent whether the spirit and precepts of the gospel be acted upon , or outraged , towards millions of their countrymen and brethren ? How much mischief has been done by the currency of the cant phrase , that religion has nothing to do with politics ! With mere party politics , with the squabbles of rival factions
for power and place , religion has indeed nothing to do ; but woe to the community whose rulers and members feel no moral obligation , have no conscience , as to public measures , because they come under the head of politics ! Wherever there is a wrong which we can redress , or by our representations can induce others to redress , there religion has to do , and holds our inertness inexcusable . Suppose , when the petition against Negro Slavery was before the Dissenting ministers , some one had said , This is " a
question , not of religious liberty , but of political expediency ; " " such a subject is no more proper far us , according to the constitution of our society , even to discuss , than would be the political question of a reform in parliament / Let us strictly observe the apostolic precept , * and that ye study to be quiet and mind your own business . ' As a society of Protestant
Dissenting ministers , our proper business regards those religious subjects which concern our own civil and religious liberties , and not those political questions which relate to a class of persons with whom we have no connexion . " ( P . 38 . ) With what honest indignation would Mr . Ivimey have spurned the selfish plea ! He would have declared , with a voice of thunder , that we bad the " connexion" of a common nature and a common Saviour
with the oppressed African ; that to relieve his sufferings and redress his wrongs and promote his happiness was " our own business ; " and he would have been right . Hi » qualms about the propriety of " offering advice to Parliament in regard to the laws for governing Ireland , " * have never affected him when the question has been about what may be just as
properly termed " offering advice to Parliament in regard to the laws for governing" the West Indies . And why ? Not that the Slavery question can in any way be shewn to be one of religious liberty , or that it is not much more simply political than the Catholic ; but because , in this case , his theological antipathies do not interfere with his humane feelings ; because he hates the Catholics , and he does not hate the Negroes . They ,
ii . . . ... in ... . . ri i _ f J i ¦ - ¦ - ' - t p " ~ i - * ¦ - ' " ' L - ¦ * ' i ¦ ¦ . 1 i - > t i . . . _ .-. ^ .. _ . —p-p-f p ^ -pj — -Hit ~ . - " , _ 1 _ I Jl . - — ' I ' I II ¦ J . , i I ? Letter to the Deputies ,
Untitled Article
Catholics and Dissenters . 587
Untitled Article
2 t 2
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1828, page 587, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2564/page/3/
-