Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Bearing of Religious Equality on the Rights of Individuals and Spiritual Communities: A Lecture Delivered in the Memorial Hall, Manchester, January 14th, 1873
Do they regard us as bound in reason to stand by the premature judgments of the Nonconformists who have gone before us? Well, but how is it they do not call to mind the canon of their Master: With what measure ye mete, it shall be meted to you again? Why, the predecessors of our modern Establishmentarians are left quite as far behind by their successors as the old Puritans and Nonconformists are by Liberationists. They reviled, ejected, imprisoned, pilloried, and branded the very men whom their ecclesiastical descendants held up before us as bright exemplars'of Spiritual wisdom and virtue. We do not accept as oracular every thought expressed by our Nonconformist forefathers, especially on questions which had scarcely been pro pounded in their day. The subject of religious equality, like that of personal slavery, and that of war, has had more abundant light cast upon it since the generations which the glow of their spirituality adorned. But when we are taunted with our de generacy, on account of the more decided views we hold than theirs on the question of Church Establishment, might not they who taunt us do well to remember that they also have advanced beyond the position stiffly maintained by Establishmentarians of between two and three centuries back and that tp such of them as now plead the authority of Owen, Baxter, Watts, and Wesley in condemnation of the doctrine Of religious equality, and in disparagement of the spiritual character of those who profess it, there is danger lest they Incur the woful heritage of them who were charged with building the tombs of the prophets, and garnishing the sepulchres of the righteous, and thereby witnessing unto themselves that they are the children Of them which killed the prophets.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
