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Untitled Article
From such views Mr . Combe concludes , and all who desire the happiness of their fellow-creatures will cordially agree with him , that our first step , as a nation , ought to be , to teach the natural laws , in connexion with the great moral doctrine thus founded upon them , to the young . Their minds not being
occupied by prejudices , will recognize them as congenial to their constitution ; and the first generation that has embraced them from infancy , will proceed to modify the institutions of society , into accordance with their dictates . A perception of the importance of the natural laws will lead to their observance ; and this , says Mr . Combe , " will be attended with an
improved development of brain , thereby increasing the desire ana capacity for obedience . " In answer to the very mistaken , yet dangerous , because popular and often conscientiously urged objection , that there is impiety in , supposing that any other guide than the study of the written will of God in his word is necessary to the
attainment of wisdom , virtue , and happiness , and in support of the opposite opinion , that the study of the manifested will of God in his works is an indispensable part of piety ; an essential portion of the devotion due to the Creator ; a necessary use of the means appointed to secure man from mis-interpretations of the written will of God ; Mr . Combe instances , the demoniac
form assumed by partial ignorance , from the latter end of the fifteenth century up to the year 1722 ; during which frightful period jhouaanujs of human beings were ferociousl y dragged to the st ^ ke , and publicly burnt alive on the wildly irrational
accusation of witchcraft ; and this by fellow-creatures possessing the light of the Gospel , and calling themselves Christians ! In Germany alone , 100 , 000 victims are computed to have so suffered * with incalculable numbers in France , in Switzerland , in Scotland , and all over Christendom . While , in our own
fair England— -old England—merry England , 30 , 000 human beings , with a nation of reformed Protestant Christians looking on , were subjected to this cruel death , on the single , direct charge of having ridden through the air on broomsticks ! a charge at which a child of the present day would know how to laugh !
It is matter of history , too 9 that it was after the Reformation , after the supposed conscientious return of those calling themselves Christians to the purity of primitive Christianity , that the raviuff thirst for destruction became the fiercest , and literall y desolated the land ; and all tlna under the sanction oi deliberate Act * of Parliament , royal commissions from the Privy Council , JKnd Lu Scotland , solemn acts of the General Assembl y wfrilq the clergy , with the lamp of revelation in the one liana , and that of reibrmation in the other , but with the eyes of intellect still unopened , therefore deriving light from
Untitled Article
156 On the Constitution of Man-i
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1836, page 156, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2655/page/28/
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