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The best means of forming a due appreciation of the liberty which Dissenters now enjoy , is to look back to the times when the venerable champions of Nonconformity prepared the way for the victories over injustice and intolerance which have distinguished our days . Such an appreciation can be complete only when we turn from the historical record of the contests
between religious parties to the private relations of the lives of men who were engaged in these contests . From such narratives only can we learn how oppressive was the sense of political injury to ardent minds ; how sore were the jealousies and the heart-burnings of the discomfited ; how intolerable the exultation , or how insulting the patronage , of the powerful ; how difficult , especially , it was to unite a spirit of Christian liberty and independence with the gentleness , moderation , and disinterestedness required by
a Christian profession . Now that we can worship publicly without incurring penalties—now that offices of public service are open to us—now that our youth can be educated by their parents or by teachers of their choice , we can form no idea of the restraints and difficulties which beset the path of life in every direction , a century ago , if it so happened that the consciences and worldly interests of men were not exactly in accordance . We think that we live in stirring times ; and so we do ; but the stir is perhaps not
greater , but only of a different kind from that which was taking place a century ago . We congratulate ourselves on living at a period when the national mind is in a state of unexampled activity ; and we are right ; and we should especially rejoice that this activity is shewn , not in forging new fetters for conscience , not in elevating certain classes by the depression of others , for the sake of party purposes , but in extending the bounds of political liberty , and yet more eminently in releasing millions from the bondage of ignorance .
By looking" back for a single century , we may become aware how great a pr ivilege it is to relax the unceasing attention which was formerly necessary to preserve the remains , or the slight acquisitions , of religious liberty ; and to transfer the anxious concern which was before engrossed by party interests upon the nobler office of labouring for the advancement of the national mind . If , on thus looking back , we are tempted to smile at the selfimportance , or to wonder at the contracted notions , of some of our
Presbyterian forefathers , we should remember how their minds were moulded by the pressure of their times , and cease to be surprised that , while fought for by contending parties in the state , members of the body should overrate their own consequence ; and that while the only question was between Conformity and bare Toleration , they should not have formed very enlarged conceptions of the principles , the rights and enjoyments , of perfect religious libert
y . Of such principles , rights , and enjoyments , we can now form a higher conception than could have been entertained by them ; and we have happily advanced nearly as far towards the attainment of freedom as is possible under an union of Church and State ; yet changes as important as those on which we congratulate ourselves may be reserved for the coming centur y ; and if we could revisit our earthly homes at the end of that time , we might find our posterity wondering over the abuses in the church which
* An Historical Account of my own Life , with Home Reflections on the Times I have lived in . By Edmund Calamy , D . D . Edited , &c , by J . T . Rutt . 2 Vols . 8 vo . Colburn and Bentley . 1829 .
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calamy ' s life . *
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VOL . IV . If
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1830, page 89, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2581/page/17/
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