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conformists in the reigns of the last of the Stuarts , William III ., Anne , and George I ., it appears almost inexplicable why they did not base their Nonconformity on the broad and firm ground of objection , that religion is injured by an alliance with the state . But of this principle it is difficult to discover a trace among the most honest and the most enlightened of the sufferers under the Act of Uniformity , or any subsequent document of like
impious nature . As the Act of Uniformity contained five despotic requisitions , there were five valid arguments for resistance , and it was not therefore to be wondered at that the ejected ministers vacated their offices for various reasons . The greater number could not give their assent to every word contained in the Book of Common Prayer , especially as it was impossible for many to obtain a sight of this evangelical volume previous to the fatal
St . Bartholomew Day . Others objected to re-ordination ; others hesitated to admit the principle of non-resistance ; while not a few were troubled with scruples about vestments " white , black , and grey , " —postures , gestures , and other non-essentials , unworthy of ecclesiastical authority to impose , or of enlarged minds to cavil at . No common principle of action arose from this variety of objections . While the sufferers courageously underwent the penalties of their conscientiousness , they still sighed for admission within the
pale of the church , and were not a little elated when it came to their turn to be conciliated by the court . When , in the reign of James II ., the dispensing power was declared to be a legal and indefeasible branch of the royal prerogative , and a suspension of all penal laws in matters of religion was proclaimed , the Nonconformists , though not backward in testifying their wonder at this triumph of despotism , could not but express some signs of exultation under the new sense of their importance . While the Lord Mayor
and those of the Aldermen who were professed Dissenters chose to dispute the power assumed by the King , by qualifying themselves for office according to the requisitions of the Test laws , and thus provoked his Majesty to declare that " the Dissenters were an ill-natured and obstinate people , not to be gained by any indulgence , " the greater number of these " obstinate people " were wistfully looking for an entrance within the forbidden pale . Their hopes were raised from time to time by the hints thrown out by the heads
of the church , not only that a general toleration should be declared , but that a liberal comprehension might be rendered practicable by the abolition of the most rigorous terms of conformity . They rejoiced , as well they might , at the Act of Toleration ; but they were still far too easily satisfied . They still were not aware that the authority to tolerate was an arbitrary assumption ; and they yet anticipated the opportunity of conforming , as the happy consummation of the wishes of the body . With feverish anxiety they
watched the three futile attempts to pass the bill against Occasional Conformity , though they differed widely among themselves respecting the honesty and the policy of the practice ; and when at last , after an oblivion of seven years , it was passed in mysterious rapidity and silence , they complained , not of the injustice of imposing penalties on obedience to conscience , or of the radical errors in an Establishment which made such impositions politic .
but of the hardship and desertion to which their particular body were compelled to submit . While suffering under the extreme insult inflicted by the passing of the Schism Bill , their eyes do not appear to have been opened to the fundamental cause of the injuries under which they groaned . While their spirits rebelled against the tyranny which prohibited their interference in the business of education , it does not seem to have occurred to them to investigate the origin of the power by which they were oppressed , or to
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Calamy ' Life 91
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1830, page 91, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2581/page/19/
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