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the true gospel faith , and who excluded from the pale of salvation all who refused credence to their own-peculiar doctrines ; , but he looked upon the condition with praise instead of blame , and he rejoiced that in the operation of such a system they would extinguish sectarian animositie& , Jih £ 5 Lj&Qj 4 djJi £ n
rooms of the schools friendships and affections which in after life would smooth down the asperities of political and party distinctions , and promote that harmony which would increase our national strength and ensure our national virtue .
The Chairman said , that it had " been thought by some friends that the present occasion was a favourable one for expressing their opinion on the question of Church reform . He believed that many of the public were very much , in error as to the notions which dissenters entertained
with respect to the established Church .- -As a proof of this misapprehension , he would mention that on his last journey to York a lady in the coach had gravely assured him , that the puritans of-Manchester were very desirous to pull down the venerable minster at York , the goodly Cathedral of Durham , and all the other beautiful and venerable
ecclesiastical structures of the kingdom , and that with the materials they would build up meeting-houses . This was only one of many instances in which it was supposed that dissenters were iying in wait for an opportunity of appropriating those buildings to their own purposes . Those present knew well that they had no such feelings , —that they had no
hostility to churchmen as churchmen , ¦—no objection to their having . pJa . ces of worship where their own doctrines might be preached to them , —but that they did object to paying for keeping up those fine places . It appeared to him that the case of the dissenters and the Church was something of this kind : —' Here we are , a large party , who have chosen to
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take- tea . Now supposing that in the news-room below there is a still larger party who having chosen to take cocoa , after having taken their cocoa , send their bills up to you and me and make us debtors for a great part of what they had expended in the purchase of cocoa . We should be very much astonished at their
demand * and we should go to them and say , 'We have no right to pay , for we have not had any part of your cocoa . ' ' Oh , but , ' they would perhaps reply , ' the room was open , and you might all have come and each of you might have had a cup of
cocoa if you chose / ' Well , but , we don ' t like cocoa , we don ' t think it so good as tea . ' Then perhaps , might come to us their medical authorities , proving to us that tea is a most pernicious drink , and that we can riot do better than forsake our tea and
go and take their cocoa . And so firmly " convinced of this is the party below , that they would enforce our payment of a-share of the cost of their cocoa , whether we think fit to drink it or not . Really , monstrous as this seemsj I do not see in what it differs from the demand which the
Church makes upon us to support their spiritual cocoa . If this were a new country , and the question for consideration was 4 how shall we support religion V he should certainly agree with the friend on his right , ( Mr . Beard , ) "who had said that religion would support itself ; but . the question was modified in this instance by having a Church establishment already in existence , probably possessing the attachment of a very considerable body of our fellow-men . Their wishes then , he trusted , with respect . to , this Church , were , that , it should continue to exist in such a
form as would make it as extensively useful as possible for the objects which it professes to have in viewthe moral and religious improvement of the country at large . And dissenter as he was , he had a firm wish and hope that some such reform as that
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120 INTELLIGENCE AND
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 1, 1833, page 120, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2611/page/24/
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