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Untitled Article
the good that Mission is doing ; it is very provoking to be so thwarted , by men of consequence , too ! iV . C . and R . have come to a different conclusion , however ; and the question is , whether we are to be tolerant or intolerant to them ? good a work being checked in any degree . N , Very true ; just as the Church of Home was vexed at
Luther ' s attacks on that great instrument of good , the Romish faith ; but take good heed , friend L ., the vexation of being thwarted broke out in some slight overt acts , such as burning , hanging , and torturing . L . Well , sir , you are on your old subject , I see—toleration . Have you anything more to say ? JV . Plenty , of the same kind ; but I principally object to the habit of test-making ; when tests are once made , numbers will apply them ; but the greatest sin is with the test-makers . L . How do you mean , sir ?
N . AVhen a church or society selects some , non-essential observance or form , and , calls it distinctively Religious , when she stamps with the brand of irreligion all who , for one . reason or other , cannot submit to that observance or form . When this is done , 1 call that Church intolerant . - L . Can you name your example ? iV . Sir , I am sorry to say I know few churches or societies
which are not examples of the truth of what 1 assert . Individual ministers , and individual members may endeavour to redeem the character of their sect or society by their own liberality and mildness , but practically , I fear the spirit of the people is against them . I will not take any matter of mere trivial importance , let me take public worship itself , which of course must be to the bulk of us , public worship under some one or other of the forms in which it is embodied in our native land , and is it not true that
most of our ministers , and nine-tenths of our people , if they do not regard a man as necessarily religious becaSse he goes to church or chapel , consider him as irreligious who stays away ? Now I , sir , you know , attend my chapel , and approve of the worship ; but I should be very glad to be sure that you yourself , and many more , would not think me the less religious if I differed from you , and absented myself . Ah , I see I have pressed you too far , friend L . ; that was a melancholy and doubtful s * h ake of the head .
L . Well , sir , we will pass on ; anything more ? iV . When men select from among their fellow-men an order specially appointed to preach the Gospel of freedom , and then hedge and fence these men all around , so that this ministry of liberty is to them a very prison of oppression . L . Ah ! you mean by subscriptions and articles ; bad , indeed ; yes , we shall not differ there .
Untitled Article
DIALOGUE . 137
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 1, 1833, page 137, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2613/page/9/
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