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get upon the debateable ground of theology , all payments ought to be voluntary . The * final grievance' the Dissenter e is that of the State preferring one denomination of religionists before others . Here the writer goes to the root of the evil ; and . this
allegation is followed b y about five-and-twent y pages of clear and vigorous argument , showing that ' the predominant evil is that of UNIFORM , EXPRESSED , IMPLIED DEGRADATION . ' We hope this masterly summary of the case will obtain the general attention which it deserves . It cannot be presented in an abridged form ,
being itself a brief condensation , though most clearly and ably put . We must content ourselves with a few extracts , partly as specimens of the writer ' s manner , and partly for the sake of the facts stated . The distinction between reli gious and civil concerns . ' In the complicated science of government , there certainly is no distinction clearer and broader than that existing between what is civil and
what is religious ; and one should suppose that no proposition could be more palpably just than that what is civil alone , falls within the province of civil government , and that what is religious is , from its very character , necessarily beyond its control . But it is confounding to find , that a truth which might be deemed self-evident , has not yet become a principle of government ; and that , with all the disastrous evidence of an opposite course before them , no statesmen have been found wise enough
to shun the evil and pursue the good . A state religion under Pagan governments , brought on the early Christians all their severe persecutions ; yet the Christians no sooner obtained power , than they allied their religion with the civil establishment . A State religion brought on Europe all the curses of Popery ; yet the reformers sought to elevate Protestantism in its stead . A State religion in our own land brought Charles to the scaffold , and spread massacre , martyrdom , and proscription over the empire ; yet the " pilgrim fathers" who fled from it for life
to foreign shores , were scarcely weaned from this folly , and left much for their noble offspring to effect . A State religion , at this moment , is threatening us with convulsion at home ; and abroad—in China , in India , in Spain , wherever it exists—with the greatest obstacle to Missionary lahour we know ; and still we cling to the luscious error . How hard is it for any man , however enlightened and wise , to deliver himself from the seductions of error , when it seeks to retain its possession of the mind by flattering his pride and enlarging the region of his power !'—pp . 43 , 44 .
Voluntary contribution said to be inadequate . * It will not work , it is said , so efficaciously . This , as a general assertion , is so strange and so directly in the teeth of evidence , that one is disposed to ask , can we and our opponents be agreed on the import of the term ? If by not being so eflicacious , is meant , that it will not so
readily provide some 12 , 20 , or 30 , 000 / . per annum , for the bishop or archbishop ; that it will not provide for some 4000 clergy without cure of souls ; that it will not supply some 300 , 000 / . for sinecure allowances , then undoubtedly it is not so efficacious ; but if it is meant that it will not so well provide the means of instruction and worship to the people ,
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Case of the Dissenters . 67
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1834, page 67, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2629/page/69/
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