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Untitled Article
are not yet rectified , and the restrictions of which we still complain . We might find the halls of learning open to them as to ail * marriage vows divested of the obligation to perjury , and religious liberty the law of society as it already is the law of the land . Those will be stirring times . Men will then be at liberty to forget interests which , however important to us , will to them appear petty in comparison with others which will be opening upon
them . War will be waged against oppression on a larger scale , and the rights of nations will be urged and established when those of sects and parties are no longer in question ; and thus , we trust , will society advance with a continually accelerated progress , political liberty pioneering the way for moral and Christian freedom , till He who ordains and overrules the revolutions of human affairs ^ shall see fit to end these contests by visibly centering in himself all rule and authority and power .
By such works as the volumes before us , we are carried back into the midst of the excitements of the time to which they relate . The court , with its intrigues and factions—the dissensions in the royal family , extended and aggravated among their adherents—apprehensions of heresy in the churchrumours of treason in the parliament—protracted and sanguinary wars on the continent—mighty contests of fleets at sea—plots , real or pretended , among the Catholics—vigilant measures of defence on the part of the Protestants
appear events of so much importance as to leave little room for lesser cares , and small opportunity for the lighter occupations and amusements of life . Yet Bolingbroke found time for philosophy and theology , arid many less harmless pursuits . The licence of morals and manners which accompanied the restoration were still prevalent , and pleasure was the aim and object of multitudes who were wanted for a higher service . This was the Augustan
age of our literature , and a new energy pervaded the world of letters . Fierce contests were waged in the bosom of the church , and its agitations were spread through every rank of society . Suspicion and dissimulation reigned in the court ; angry debates , with an occasional mysterious agreement between adverse parties , fixed men ' s attention on both houses of parliament ; wit abounded at Wills * s , and literature at the Kit-kat Club ; licentiousness
prevailed at places ot public resort ; the Papists were scowling abroad or plotting at home ; bishops scandalized their profession by their feuds ; while * ' the Body" with whom we have the most to do , were concentrating their wisdom in defence of their rights , looking complacently on all who courted them , congratulating one another on every escape from the seducing temptations of flattery , but withal , highly elated wilh every mark of royal favour . They met , they consulted , they contrived , they suggested , and listened to
suggestions , hoping , longing to be admitted into the bosom of mother church , but too honest to secure the privilege by a sacrifice of conscience : seizing every pretence for going up to court , to make the most of their loyalty , and most humbly grateful to any who would point out to them a method of conciliating the powers that were . Inasmuch as they hoped for a union with the church , they happily failed ; and thus far their amiable exertions were in vain . Their numbers dwindled away , those who
remained became subject to new oppressions , and many a venerable member of the Body left the world with a sigh at the darkening state of the political horizon . The Act of Toleration was hailed as the bright morning star of religious liberty : but the clouds again gathered . They are however , dispersed . We have passed through the twilight , and can now reckon with cheerful hope on the full noon of unintercepted Christian liberty . When at this distance of time we look back on the struggles of the Non-
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yO Calamtfs Life .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1830, page 90, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2581/page/18/
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