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Untitled Article
We are not speaking of those who are ostensibly Catholic , ( it is not for us to question their faith or their sincerity , ) but of those who to all appearance have forsaken the Romish Church—who have condemned it , but have not replaced it . The dread of making an open profession is the actuating motive with all these , though it presents itself in a thousand different forms . Sometimes it is the vague idea that ** we ought not to forsake our religion . " Undoubtedly not ; while it reigns in the heart , so long you ought to abide by it . When it has lost its power over the heatf , is its place to remain for ever unoccupied ? Is it your religion when you have ceased to trust in it ? No —the religion you believe in is yours , and you ought to profess it . Sometimes it is the notion that ** we should adhere to the faith of our fathers and
of our country . " Right , as long as that faith is yours ; but what if it be so no longer ? Besides , what is the faith of your ancestors ? Are we to be Christians according to our genealogical tables > Shall we resume the controversies of the seventeenth century , write a new history of Diversities , and discuss what Bossuet and FeneJon , Arnault and Pascal , thought of the worship of the Sacre-Cceur ? And what is the faith of our country ?
Under the Imperial Government it was " the religion of an immense majority of the inhabitants of France , * ' and since the Restoration it is " the religion of the State ; " but our own opinion is , that the charter o ^ Louis XVIII . has determined every thing except our religious opinions . Let us not forget that the Jews rejected the Messiah , under this pretext of inviolable attachment to their national and hereditary religion , when they said to him , " We are the children of Abraham . " Another maxim , which has a more
specious appearance , is , that we should abide by the religion in which we were born ; but this is only another form of what we have already considered , and if this convenient arrangement were in force , human nature would be parcelled out into districts of religion , ( as ancient Egypt and modern India were into castes , ) with a prohibition of crossing the line . Superstition and error would thus become inviolable and interminable : Jews would be
for ever Jews ; Mahometans for ever Mahometans ; Budhaists for ever Budhaists ; Pagans for ever in Pagan darkness ; and it would be only wonderful that there should be any Christians in the world ; for the assembled Sanhedrim would have been justified in saying to the Saviour , * ' We mean to abide in the religion in which we were born ! " These pretences , however , these worn-out sophisms , would have little influence unsupported by circumstance , by interest , and by timidity . Patronage to secure , a place to obtain ,
a fortune to make , false shame for fear of being talked of and charged with presumption , the odium attached to the character of a new convert ( so hard to be borne , ) the fear of being charged with sinister motives—in a word , the multitude of petty troubles which are inseparable attendants upon the great affairs of life , all these things operate in deterring from the open profession of Protestantism an immense number of timid proselytes , who , like certain crusaders of old , wear the cross hidden under their garments , and do
not set oft for Palestine . It is our duty to proclaim , at the risk of offending some of our readers for their own good , that all this is disgraceful cowardice . Our age has been reproached with wanting civil courage ; it is also deficient in religious courage , which is the worst species of cowardice . If it became universal , the church would be annihilated , and the spirit of tgoisme would be substituted for the spirit of the gospel ; for if one individual has a right to conceal his belief , all have that right . This kind of silence and concealment is contrary to the very essence of Christianity , which belongs to and is addressed to all . Religion is a public concern ; it is not designed to isolate
Untitled Article
Duty of avowing our Religious Opinions . 399
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1830, page 399, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2585/page/39/
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