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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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tnatlori , ari the tneahs equally of purifying h ( s dwn chiirch , and of Restoring religious liberty to the world * * The Reformation wa& indeed the occasion of much religious persecution , a state in which there always prevail great crimes and great miseries ; but this is only one side of the picture : by the sharp discipline of persecution hare beefl formed some of those noble minds on whose constancy and moral
heroism history delights to dwell , and to whom the Divine promise assigns the brightest crown of heavenly glory . Nor is this all ; the school of persecution can alone , perhaps * teach communities the great lesson of the sacred rights of conscience . In the beginning , men seriously think that they ought to do many things contrary to peace and freedom , and that they reiider God service by making one another wretched . Tired at length of the interminable warfare , they allow
each other time for reflection ; by degrees * they see and feel and deplore , the eVils of strife and violence on account of opinions ; in the calm , philosophy puts forth her strong arguments , and the still small voice of revealed religion is heard urging her powerful persuasions , until in the end , thfe sitifulness of persecutions Is generally admitted , and the right of all men to freeddm of conscience is jplacedamotigst the axioms and elementary truth ? that no man in his senses dares to
dispute . When , again , the chain was broken that bound the souls of mankind to the papal throne , it was rightly enough foreseen that the Christian world would break into innumerable sects , and prodigious calamities were predicted as the fatal consequence : we can now smile at the gloomy prophecy : none of the evils arising from sects are at all comparable to those springing of necessity from the insolence and imposture of one dominant church , whilst many blessings have flowed
from the exercise of private judgment : the various Christian parties have served as balances or checks in the social machine ; the spirit of emulation has excited them on all sided to greater efforts for the attainment of intellectual and moral eminence ; controversy has promoted free inquiry , which has led to the acknowledgment of certain general truths ; in these , the wisest and best ttieh of all parties , after a time , are disposed to take up their rest ; and in this manner
sects , like softie dreaded serpents which carry with them an antidote to their venom * cure t , heir own evils , and terminate , by a natural and easy death , in that rational arid charitable faith , the last attainment of human reason , but the first lesson of the Gospel * in which all men of all nations may agree , a moral and devotional , rather than a doctrinal creed , and a creed which allows , respects , and cherishes , those
diversities of persuasion which the Creator has made inseparable from the human mind , and which are thrown into the social system in order to quicken the intellectual powers * and to save society from supineness and sloth , the worst state into which man can fall , and the worst , because a nearly hbpteless stat * . p . 32—35 .
The euthanasia of sectarianism here described , is , indeed , devoutly to be wished . We should rejoice to see stronger symptottis of its speedy ftpprofech . It is tb be feared , that in Dissenting , as well as in Established Churches , there are too many obstacles created by petty interests and passions to the simple pursuit of truth and the honest expression of opinion . The more imperative
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1833, page 563, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2620/page/51/
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