On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
will recollect that , after that law was repealed by Mr . W . Smith ' s Act , Dr . Burgess , one of the most learned and amiable of the English prelates , published a pamphlet , in which he admitted that the punishment of death was too severe , but
asserted , that his Right Reverend Brethren had been tricked into the lamented concession , and recommended that those cruel and disgraceful laws , with the excep ion only of the statutory infliction of capital punishment , should be re-enacted .
Indeed , I am persuaded that , notwithstanding our boasting accusations against the professors of Islamism , we are quite as intolerant as they . I do not mean that they have written large books , such as " Locke on Toleration * but that they have in many instances inculcated the principles of that book by their practice . The publication of such learned and laborious treatises would have been useless
among them , however necessary for us . Nor was it possible that the learned Mohammedans , however liberal , could have written such a book as Limborch ' s History of the Inquisition , not because they had not draughtsmen and engravers to execute its heart-withering decorations , but because the ingenious and protracted
tortures , the gorgeous array , the secret tribunal , the classification of penitents , distinguished by the different furms and arrangements of flames and devils painted on their robes , the banners of the various inquisitorial colleges , and the whole pomp and circumstance of the Auto da Fe , were unknown among them .
There has been , I believe , one period , and one only , since the general establishment of Christianity , when Spain might be said to enjoy the blessings of toleration . This was the splendid period of Moorish domination . Under the government of the Moors , liberty of worship was granted to both Christians
and Jews ; but since that time the Catholic Church , far from permitting Mohammedans and Jews to worship at their ease , has not been able to endure that eveu Christians of another sect , though varying ever so little iu doctrines or ceremonies , should establish themselves in Spain .
We call ourselves an eulightened nation , and on this ground assume to ourselves the right of waging war again > t the Turks , whom we stigmatize as ignorant , ferocious bigots . Let us suppose , then , that a numerous company of Moslems were to arrive in London and to express their intention of openiug a mopque . In the first place , a question
Untitled Article
would probably arise , whether snch a thitig could be |> ermitted . The Act of William and Mary , and the decisions of various Chancellors and Chief Justices , would be quoted against it . Bat , sappose the legal difficulty could be got over ,
how would pioas Christians of every sect be dismayed and horror-struck at the proposal ! Not many years ago , a mob was raised in Glasgow to prevent the Catholics from building their intended chapel . With what ten-fold repugnance would they have heard of the erection of a mosque !
If we go to Rome , the metropolis of Christendom , we go from church to church , survey its works of art and its relitjues , and find each attendant ready with a lie for every paid we give him . Amidst other wonders , we are told of one , which is a real fact , the opening of an English Episcopal chapel , which Pins VII . allowed to be established without the watts , as a special favour in consideration of the services rendered bv the
English authorities in preserving his dominions from spoliation at the Congress of Vienna . In England , we often hear this Protestant chapel at Rome mentioned as a gratifying proof of the increasing light and liberal spiiit of the age . Rat the fact is one which should give us more cause for shame than
triumph , at least if we apply the circumstance to the comparison between Chris ~ tiauity , so called , and Islamism . The Mohammedans have commonly acted on the priuciple of Solyman the Great , that , as iu a collection of flowers the beauty of one kind is augmented by contrast and combination with the re > t , so
mutual advantage is derived from the mixture of different nations and religious professions under the same just and equal governinent . Hence , not only is there no exclusion of Mohammedans by other sects of Mohammedans , but Jews and Trinitarian Christians are allowed to exercise their various rites aud forms
of worship . It now only remains for me to add a word or two in reply to your correspondent's last paragraph , in which he refers to the result of the late var with Russia , to disprove the " steady patriotism ' of the Turks . On referring again
to my lettrr , he will observe that the evidences of Turkish patriotiMn , which I produced frcm Tournefort , did not consist in military achievements , but in the acts of a peaceful and enlightened patriotism , Mich an a consistent Christian can commend and justify , namely , in en do wing colleges for education , in build-f
Untitled Article
Miscellaneous Correspondence . 129
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1831, page 129, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2594/page/57/
-