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Untitled Article
specimen of the food with which no insignificant portion of the religious community is fed . The instances given are but a small part of those we have noticed in no very extensive a looking over of the periodical literature of the orthodox body . But there prevail amongst them sins not merely against sound doctrine and human feelings , but also against that liberty of thought and speech which both Christianity and reason permit and sanction .
We deeply regret that we have but too much evidence to substantiate this remark , and in particular that a most remarkable proof has lately been furnished by the report of an Institution supported by Christians of various denominations and of great respectability—we allude to the Stockport Sunday-school . Before we read the Report we did not deem it possible for a passage such as the following to proceed in this day from any hody of
Christians , certainly not from men so well-informed as are many ot ^ the supporters of the above-named institution . These are the words , and they appear to have been called forth by the recent visit of Taylor and Carlile to Stockport : " We do not precisely understand the principle upon which a man is condemned to death without the hope of mercy for killing the body , whilst the murderers of the human soul are allowed to brave the laws of the
country , and escape with perfect impunity . " If language has meaning " , these words contain as truculent a proposal as history with its ensanguined page presents . It is proposed to treat Unbelievers—nay , all those who come under the assumed predicament of murdering the human soul , and therefore Unitarians , whose doctrines are often styled " soul-destroying" — yes , it is
proposed to regard and to treat not only the infatuated and the mistaken , but also the enlightened , the upright , the benevolent , as murderers ! The writers know not what spirit they are of . Certainly they are not of the spirit of Christ , and we have little doubt the } 7 are behind the spirit of the day . Our mind , in thinking over the barbarous language quoted , is forcibly carried back to the sitting of that Parliament which in mercy ( so they stated ) spared the life of Naylor , accused of blasphemy , and condemned him to be set twice in the oillorv . to be whioned three times bvthe common hancrman . set twice in the pilloryto be whipped three times by the common hangman
, , to have his tongue bored through with a hot iron , to be branded in the forehead with the letter B , to be kept in prison and to hard labour at the pleasure of the Parliament , to be debarred from the use of pen , ink , and paper , and have no relief but what he earned by his daily labour . And the dreadful proposals which were in turn made by the members for the punishment of the offender , lead one to imagine what may have passed in the committee of the Stockport Sunday-school ere they were brought to identify the
unbeliever and the alleged heretic with the murderer . * We certainly do not charge the atrocious sentiment on which we are animadverting on each and all \ he respectable persons who support that institution . Where the blame lies we know not . We hope , for the honour of the Society and for the honour of Christianity , and in justice to themselves , that those who have neither part nor lot in the matter will come forward publicly to disclaim and to denounce the proposal implied in the above quotation . From the above premises our conclusion is , that much yet remains for the friends of pure religion and Christian liberty to effect . A better spirit and
* See the Diary of Thomas Burton , Esq ., edited by J . T . Rutt , Vol . I . pp . 153 — 155 .
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Duty of the enlightened Chrhtlan . ¦ 43
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1830, page 43, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2580/page/43/
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