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intolerant eonfess ions , which still binds so many otherwise excellent and amiable and pious individuals in intellectual bondage , ( koudapplause . ) It is in view of the prevalence of such doctrines and of the
unhappiness of which they are so often indutcjl ^ jjMl ^ e ^ eLaJioLy-constraint upon us to attempt their extirpation , pernicious as they are to man , dis ^ honourable as they are to God . We cannot sit silent and witness the
majesty of heaven degraded ; we cannot but testify that the Bible utters a different voice from what it is usually represented as sending forth . To us the fair face of nature wears no curse ; man appears not to us to deserve the libellous description of an English bishop , that he is ' half beast , half devil , ' but rather that when the social and intellectual
faculties with which he is endowed are exerted strenuously , and devoted usefully , that it is manifested he -Stands forthblessed with the image and superscription of his God . To us it seems that the world is not the mere prelude and preparation for hell , or that finite crimes are to be dealt with by an infinity of torture , and the devil the torturer assuaging his malice in human agony ; but that it is the vestibule of heaven , the
passage to the skies , and that he who formed and fashioned the human mind will , by that chastisement , which ever waits upon transgressions , at length enlighten and purify it , a fitting temple for the Spirit of holiness and of love to dwell in for ever .
( Applause . ) Yes , and I rejoice in thinking that even in the dark regions of Calvinism from which I come , thesei principles are advancing . Even in Scotland , where religious gloom sits brooding over moral corruption and eternal death , there too light is breaking in ; the Bible is coming- to be more venerated than the confession of Westminster
divines , and Christ is displacing Calvin . No one unacquainted with Scotland can . conceive the bigotry which a
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few years since reigned triumphant , and even now exists to a fearful and frightful extent . You have obstacles of mighty force to combat here in a dominant and domineering church , in worldly fashion and sectarian prejudice ; and you have all these too g-uarded-aiso—by-Fecoilect-ions-ofHrhepatriotic struggles of venerated forefathers , and the idea that the glory of those struggles with the tyrant is
reflected on the present generation . But mighty though these obstacles be , they are as nothing when compared with that bigotry which , with the first elements of knowledge , is rooted in the minds of the young , and sears the intellect of the aged , which reverses the parable of the goi > d Sam ^ pitan , and refuses proffered blessings if the prpfferer be a heretic ! -r—which enforces , as the passport to social intercourse , the utterance
of a prescribed shibboleth , which would despoil earth of comfort and heaven of hope to the man who , acting up to the dictates of indi * vidual conscience , dares to worship God contrary to their law . Oh , fearful are the ravages which that bigotry has committed on the peace of families ! to the winds has it given conscience , and duty , and truth ;
and , for innocence and integrity , approaching with boldness in the name of Jesus to the throne of grace , has it substituted the trembling slave offering itself a sacrifice to the uri-t known God , or the hypocrite creeping to the shrine of error , outwardly conforming to observances which are inwardly despised . Misrepresenta * tion , is piled upon misrepresentation , the people are scared from inquiry , and dragodned into implicit faith .
And how shall these evils , these bars in the road to benevolence and freedom and truth , be removed out of the way ? not by mere assertions , that truth is mighty and will prevail . Yes it will prevail—it is omnipotent , but it will prevail only through human agency , aided and guided by God ' s blessing , And vast 13 the variety of
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QQIlRESPONpENOE * 203
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 1, 1833, page 203, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2617/page/11/
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