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ON THE SEPAHATION OF CHURCH AND STATE.
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Untitled Article
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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Transcript
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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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The phrase g Separation of Church and State is coining into such frequent use , as ( expressing the prayer of petitions to Parliament , the object of public meetings , and even that of permanent associations , that a few remarks on the precise nature of the change
which it describes may be of use to all parties . We would not have the great struggle for religious liberty degenerate , in any case , into a mere war of words . We would not have those who petition or associate , allow their purpose to be vague and undefined ; nor those who are attached to the Episcopal Church to become
unduly excited to resistance from not understanding the position in which it is desired by many , both on reli g ious and political grounds , to place that institution . We shall therefore enumerate the chief points in which the Church is in contact with the State ; the links of the chain which holds them together , and by which , in our apprehension , each is fettered to its own injury .
Obvious as the distinction is , there are yet many who confound the separation of the Church from the State with the abolition of the Church . They imagine the question to relate to the very existence of the Church . They talk portentously of its danger , and vigorously of its defence and support . There is neither occasion for their alarms , nor need of their courage . Nobody menaces
the Church . Nobody seeks the proscription of the episcopal order ; or objects to its support in any splendour which its votaries are willing to support , or in any authority to which its votaries are willing to submit . No one desires to prohibit its worship , interrupt its ceremonies , or despoil it of any civil rights or pecuniary possessions which fairly and rightfully belong to it . There
is no effort to put down any form of religion , or commit any injustice on its professors . All that is desired is to substitute reli gious equality for sectarian ascendency . The Church may not only survive the separation , but there is no reason , external to itself , why it should not become a far more flourishing and useful Church in all that constitutes spiritual prosperity and influence .
Its reall y religious votaries have no reason to deprecate a separation . Those who have most reason to dread it , are the irreligious portion of its priesthood ; those who have no more godliness than makes for gain ; worshippers of Mammon with the name of
Christ upon their lips ; but what good man desires the permanence of this tribe in the Church ? Who would not rather get rid of the money and the hypocrisy together , than retain possession of the one , in defiance of a nation * s cry for restitution , in order to preserve a succession of the other ?
The first link , and most binding one , between the Church and the State is that the State pays the Church , or rather allows
On The Sepahation Of Church And State.
ON THE SEPAHATION OF CHURCH AND STATE .
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313
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Wo . 89 . 2 C
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1834, page 313, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2633/page/1/
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