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Untitled Article
« r a . solitary advocate in this righteous cause— -a fellow-labourer has appeared ; ami , though not a Unitarian , I hail bis appearance with joy . For , while it is individually encouraging to myself , it is a proof of a growing correctness of feeling on this poiut in the Dissenting body ; and we have , besides , other indications of the fact in this able production
For the author says * that * ' he has frequently directed the attention of orthodox Dissenting ministers to the subject , with a . view of eliciting an expression of their sentiments ; no individual of whom attempted to justify the preseut law , or even to vindicate the tacit acquiescence of uniform , uncomplaining submission . ' ( P . 5 . ) What cannot be justified or
vindicated , is in a fair way vf being sooner or later exploded . Witness the Slave Trade , the . Test ; aud Corporation Acts , the civil disabilities against Catholics , and , now , that iniquitous system of bartering in the representation , which has so long been the disgrace aud curse of the British nation . The evil complained
of iu the present instance—that " flagrant infringement of religious liberty , " which is so aptly expressed by the aurhor in his preface , will share the same fate . And nothing can be better calculated to accelerate its doom , than this powerful Appeal to Dissenters , which has elicited these remarks .
The writer , as a Dissenter , takes a comprehensive view of his subject . He founds his whole argument on the great leading principle of dissent—that the civil magistrate has no right to interfere iu religion—and that , when he attempts to impose religious rites and ceremonies , he usurps the authority of the only Master of Christians , aud ought not to be
obeyed . The argument is conducted in a very able manner ; and 1 know not how any consistent Dissenter can resist its force . Would that all would consider it with that attention which the importauce of the subject so justly demands ! Then would they be resolved to •* ataud fast iu the liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free . "
The remarks of the author apply to Dissenters generally . But Unitarians have additional and still stronger objections to the ceremony , from the very ita ~ ture of the ceremony itself : as recog- ^ » izing in their honest conviction , gross corruptions of Christianity , —the Trinity , and the deification aud worship of a creature of God , as God himself , — ' the man Christ Jesus . " The writer , therefore , candidly admits , that " the grievance presses with aggravated weight on Uni-
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tarians ; " and he says , that "for several years * in spite of many difficulties , they prosecuted an arduous struggle for their natural , civil , and religious rights / ' in reference to this question . ( P . ;* . ) He does not , however , justify their conformity , or even the conformity of auy Dissenters . In fact , he clearly she ws ,
that it is not to be justified ; for he says , that the service is an * ' imposition , " and ** a burdeu oppressive on conscience ; ' * and conscience , * ' be add * , "is sacred ' , and for no consideration to be violated ; its ultimate decision is ever to be regarded as the voice of the Supreme Ruler , whose claims to obedience are paramount to those of any human authority . " ( P . 13 . )
Dissenters , therefore , in general , are unjustifiable in their submission to this religious imposition of the civil magistrate ; and Unitarian Dissenters more particularly than any others ; for they are more seriously aggrieved . Accordingly , the author observes , ** Even Unitartaus , while they profess to object for reasons
of conscience , * do not regard submission as absolutely unlawful . Whether actual compliance can be reconciled with the sincerity of such a profession , appears , however , justly questionable . " ( P . 16 . ) Aud in another place he represents them , in this conformity , as ' * abjuring a grand article of their creed , the Unity of the Divine Nature" ( P . 93 ) ; which , surely ,
is a very serious aud awful consideration . Of the expedient of protesting-conformity , which originated , 1 believe , with the Freethinking Christians , the writer thus expresses himself : — " Of the protests occasionally presented to officiating clergymen by persons of the former class , " ( that is , Unitarians , ) " we dare not trust ourselves to speak ; for the accounts occasionally appearing hi the
public newspapers , always excite in oar mind mingled emotions of indignation and disgust , which no measured terms will serve to express . We will only venture to say , such scenes are disgraceful to a Christian country ; and posterity will scarcely believe that they could occur in the metropolis of the British empire , at the advanced stage of improvement which the nation had reached when they were recorded . " ( P . 44 . )
Kxamining the arguments of those Dissenting writers who have endeavoured to justify Dissenters in conforming to ihis jjervice , our author observes , "
•• It is the whole drift of the author ' s argument , that Unitarians ought to " object tor reasons of conscience . "
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Miscellaneous Correspondence . S $ &
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1831, page 555, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2600/page/51/
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