British Quarterly Review, American Edition, Vol. LIV: July and October, 1871Various
History
British Quarterly Review, American Edition, Vol. LIV: July and October, 1871
Various
English periodicals
There is one other aspect of the case to which, perhaps, full justice
was not done by any of the speakers in the late debate, and that is
the influence exerted by the Establishment, in regard to opinion, as
affecting both theological belief and ecclesiastical practice. The
Nonconformist objection to an Establishment, as popularly put, is,
that it appropriates public property to the maintenance of a Church,
the advantages of which cannot be shared by large sections of the
community. That is true, but it is not the whole truth; for even if
the Church found its own capital, and the State gave nothing but
authority and privilege, the Nonconformist would still have ground to
complain of the injustice done to him by the junction of the two
bodies. The pocket objection, strong as it is, is, after all, neither
the strongest nor the highest. To the man who, in these days of
shifting and uncertain belief, holds definite views of truth, and
especially of the highest forms of truth, it is less a grievance that
the State should deprive him of his share of public property than that
it should exert its influence on behalf of what he believes to be
mischievous error--error, possibly, dishonouring to God, as well as
detrimental to men. The member for Richmond says that he is at one
with the member for Bradford in thinking that 'no State authority
ought to interfere with any man's religious belief;' but what is
interference with man's religious belief? Is no one's belief
interfered with when the Canons of a national Church excommunicate
_ipso facto_ all impugners of the Articles, the worship, or the
government of that Church, until they have repented, and publicly
revoked, their 'wicked errors?' Is the Unitarian belief not interfered
with by the state-sanctioned Athanasian creed? Or the Baptist belief
by the baptismal service? Or the Quaker belief by the eucharistic
doctrines of the Church? Or, to put the question in the broadest form,
is the Roman Catholic's belief not interfered with when there is
established a Protestant Church, which asserts that the leading
tenets, or practices, of the Romish Church are damnable and
idolatrous?
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