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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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Untitled Article
aiul integrity of its discipline and wasy and ever rniwt l > e , ooasfe deredtheaci and the era of usurpation . As long aa jk wum + acted only from those who voluntarily joined their ^ toifflh rafi tffi faking upon themselves its pains and its privileges , it was atethMj y
to its own body , and at least innocent to its native legislation ) rn * long , as this order of things had continued—professing one belieft conjoined in one body , and under one head , —had it been to the 100 millions of the present day , it had not been unjnst ( hmdit been necessary ) to have enforced from a disobedient member tfoa fulfilment of the laws to which he had bound himself ; or , in deM fault , to have deprived him of their protection and immunities . <
Providence has not permitted that so happy a state of things should continue- —that a spirit of divine unanimity shoukl aniu mate the whole Christian world—that it should be one fold ^ having one shepherd ; it has not allowed such brotherly love ta draw close the social bond : but , divided as we are . reason , ther
practice of the Jews , —who constrained not the stranger and idolatrous nations that surrounded them—of the early Christianswho pretended not to coerce the pagans , the Jews whom they succeeded , or even the members of their own body , but received only voluntary gifts—in fine , common justice , that requires peoK pie to be bound but by the laws of nature , virtue , and of God r without their own consent , but in laws of human institution by . their consent alone—all attest that tithes should be enforced
only upon those who acknowledge the right , and reverence thm claim . No one who has not blinded his reason , or warped the affections of his heart , but must feel that God , who demands th 4 voluntary offering of our hearts and souls , must look with abf lmrrenee at the forced oblation of our bodies and goods to thos * who are , or profess to be , His ministers . Neither can / help an *
proving the tenth offering as a most wise and equitable exeurplas to be followed by all classes of religionists , to be collected df their own particular members , for all those laudable purposes to n ' hiok they were anciently applied : for raising and repairing cburobe % maintaining the clergy , succouring the poor and infirm , &c < &OiU Man is a religious animal—and where is the monster that 1 mk
no religion ? Every man ou <* ht to be a rnemberofiowitf retigmfc 4 community , if he hope for the society of his fellow men , or tb » favour and protection of his God : if he wish not , indeed ,, to out * law himself to men , to nature , and to hearen . Each man would then have a body to whom voluntarily to pay his tenth , even # trade-get tings and earnings , brought freely for the best , onii
humane , and Christian of purposes : for who , having wl lweifoto reli gion , which is a love of God and one ' neighbour , would dmjr his twilling , share of assistance to the great encb of aoiiitiy t \ ikm wrifan * sfcrt ( d happiness of his bratber men ? What theAjkbiAtflt bm-tJ ^ k'tovbr ^< m * ii in tbi » realm pay a fme j—dHrilUnytiflm tff k the benefit of > hi % > fedfefw » . eaqfa ita tb « tt relifiiata c # pnmunity to
Untitled Article
Opinions of a Modern < h * kbtic upon TUhc * . 9 ti
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1835, page 513, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2648/page/13/
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