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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.
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¦ vvould fe / carried ^ into effect . If there must be an establishment , he should delight to see it so extensively useful , that dissenting ministers should be left without congregations , and have to go in search of other employments . It would then be , what
Mr . Smith had described the plan of a systen ^ f jylu ^ aj ^ iiaTional 7 "He was glad to have this opportunity of disclaiming anything like hostility to churchmen , he would have them , if possible , to understand that we did not want to
get the possession of what is properly and justly their own ; but merely to be let alone in our own particular way of religious worship . With these feelings and views he would propose the sentiment , While we shall rejoice in any reform of the established Church by which it can
be made extensively effective for the moral and religious improvement of the people , we are desirous of expressing our conviction that no such institution can have any just claim upon the support of all , unless it can be proved to be for the benefit of all . '
The Rev . Mr . Johns fully acquiesced in the sentiment ; he agreed in the first part of it , because he wished that any reform , anywhere throughout the world , whether among the different sects of Christians at home , or among the followers of the prophet , amongst the Brahmins of India , or the bonzes of China , might alvvavs be of that character which
should be for the good of the great body of the people . From the second part of the sentiment , he . drew the inferences that the establishment had no just claims upon us for support , and that if all were , obliged to support any exclusive system of religion they were labouring under oppression and injustice , for they paid as much as churchmen , while they received no benefit *
The Rev J . J . Tayjler , of Mosleystreet chapel , said he had felt that this subject was , and always must
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be , a delicate one . In connexion with the subject of the Church there were two views which ought to be kept perfectly distinct , and they were these . What is it rig-lit and proper for us as protestant dissenters to do on this as on every other emergency ? and secondly , what we should wish
jtjo-se euioneJin-th e-way-of—practical reform with respect to an institution to which we are on principle opposed , but which , it must at the same time be admitted , in the present state of society , is a great engine of moral influence for good and for evil ? As protestant dissenters , said
Mr . Tayler , I conceive our course is perfectly plain and straight forward . We take our stand upon this principle , ( and it is the ground upon which our forefathers stood , who were taught the lesson of religious wisdom and toleration by stern and suffering times , ) we acknowledge no human authority whatever in
religion , we do not conceive that any man or any society of men has any power or ability to prescribe to us what we ouglit or ought not to believe in religion ; we believe that religion is strictly a personal concern , standing between a man ' s own conscience and his God , and that to God alone he is amenable for his
opinions . These are the principles which I entertain as a protestant dissenter ; and it appears to me that the obvious and necessary application of that first principle is , that we do not recognise in any government or legislature whatever , the ability to decide , among different forms of religion , which is the truest and the best , and to select in
consequence of that decision , any one amongst these forms as the special objects of its own patronage , endowments , and remunerations , These , sir , seem to me to be the principles of protestant dissenters , and they may be expressed in two propositions : —That we acknowledge to the fullest extent the right of free inquiry and private judgment in mat-
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CORRESPONDENCE . 121
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 1, 1833, page 121, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2611/page/25/
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