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Untitled Article
tile to the right of private judgment , to public peace and order , and to the , sympathies and charities of life . "But we need not look beyond the boundary of our national history for melancholy proof of the results of this alliance . What made the reign of Elizabeth -one scene of-eonfusion and alarm ? The Queen , possessed of that ambitious and unbending spirit which marked her father ' s character ,
believing that her authority extended not only to the affairs of the State , but of the Church also , and judging that it was a duty to her conscience and the constitution of the country to uphold the system of political government as it came into her hands , could not allow the enemies of the Church to deny its authority or to impugn her jurisdiction . The Church being entirely engrossed in the political constitution , the distinction between heresy and rebellion
was lost , and an offence against that part which regarded the Church was esteemed equally heinous with that which affected the nearest interest of the State . Thus the Queen was placed in unnatural and unnecessary hostility to those subjects who , on no other account , dissented from her administration , and who , had they lived in these days of improved liberty , might have been esteemed good subjects .
" The troubles and ruin of Mary Queen of Scots may be attributed to the same cause . JEducated in the errors of Popery , and professing herself a zealous member of the Romish Church , she could not consent that she should be severed from her ancient ally , and therefore opposed her barons in their attempts to remodel the constitution of Scotland . The barons , possessing a large share in the legislative power of the nation , zealous for the natural rights of the subjects and in the cause of the Reformed religion ,
judged that they were bound by the nature of their duty to dethrone the error and superstition of the Romish Church , and that the Queen had no right to enforce a system ef religion against the inclination of so influential and disinterested a portion of her subjects . Thus , while the Queen esteemed them to be rebels , they looked upon her as a tyrant . Civil war took place ; the nation was deluged with blood ; the Queen was eventually deposed , and the sacrifice of her life followed .
" To pass over the reign of that sage monarch James I ., let us exhibit a few of the evils of the reign of his ill-fated son , which resulted from this fruitful cause . Trained up in the most extravagant notions of prerogative , and of the necessity of the ecclesiastical domination to support its preposterous claims , he ascended the throne at a period peculiarly unfavourable to the indulgence of such sentiments , both from the example of the French Court , which appears to have been that of tyranny and oppression , and from
the irritated state of public feeling , which for twelve years had been excited by the unbounded insolence and cruelty with which his father ' s creatures had administered the government . Supported by the Clergy in his extraordinary notions , and believing that his will was the essence of all legislation , he engrossed the legislative department , and thus became , de facto , an absolute monarch . He resolved to reign without a Parliament ; but , that the people might not be without a court to protect their interests and redress their wrongs , gave them Star Chamber and High Commission Courts , in which his priests were judges , and in which the chief reward for the obedi-
Untitled Article
6 ^ 4 Hie Church \ Establishment founded in Emor .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1831, page 524, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2600/page/20/
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