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Church Intolerance II

upon than the inability
of Divines
to find out any other
objects of controversy
besides these, that
their claim able to that
quality would
have been in still
worse reputation
than it is at present.

To do them justice
it is the
Magistrate that
has spoilt them
much more than
they themselves.
It is he who took
in hand the snake
and fastened a bag
of poison venom to his her
its tooth.


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The shortest and
most prudent way
of preventing differences
of in opinion,
is the preventing
any opinion from
being given formed.

Two things only
are necessary requisite for
this, so stopping all
the press presswork, and silencing
all conversation.

During the days
of my Undergraduacy
at Oxford a
Club was instituted
of young men who
met at one anothers
Chambers to read
Essays and hold converse
upon literary
subjects. The
Ecclesiastical Governors
took the
alarm, and the
meetings were
suppressed.

Prudence can not
be carried too far.
Young men's thinking
in company
produces infidelity,
as men &
women's walking
in company produces
fornication: the


---page break---

the two sins, to
which, according
to the most approved
opinions
empires owe their
fall.

I was an un
inactive and therefore un
unworthy member:
nothing that seemed
to me to possess
either tendency
happened to reach
my ear. Some
of the Members
occupy I see occupying at present
distinguished
stations. The
prospect of distinguished
stations
is a distinguished known
to the
as towards
those whose assistance
on the
road to those stations
may be expected
to be of use.
Whatever effect
the prospect of
those stations might
have had upon
those members,
One who was to
whose heart the
constitution appeared
to stand nearest
whose share in
the institution
appeared at the time


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time a principal
one who appeared
to take
a principle note
out in the institution, has
since been distinguished
by nothing so
much as by the
violence of his
opposition to what
appeared to him
in common with
many others abuse
of authority,
and Ecclesiastical authority
in particular
of that
of in which Ecclesiastics
are most
concerned.
production I
have heard attributed
to him,
but which is
known to be only
by its title is
the Infernal
Magazine, set
up on foot as any in the report
formation said
for the express
purpose of propagating
those
opinions which
are most obnoxious
to Divines.


---page break---

Within the same
period four or five
young men regularly
entered at
one of the Colleges
were observed to meet
together and converse
with a Bible
upon the table: one or two men who were no

who had not had not possessed of that <add>who were no </add>
privilege that advantage
and if I misrecollect
not an
person of the
other six compleated
the quilt, and what
was more fatal
perhaps the ridicule.

This alarming circumstance
led to
an inquisition into
their opinions: they
underwent a self-
examination,
and discovering
in the
course of that examination
(though
not at any of the
abovementioned meetings
a degree of
pertinacity in
the Articles of the
Church England too


---page break---

too great to be
endured by the
subscribers and
exacters of
to those
Articles, their
meeting was
pronounced ex
post facto an
illicit conventicle,
and themselves
expelled
for it. A Reverend
Divine, since
stigmatized by the
House of Commons
for preaching
principles adverse
to liberty was
at the head of the
business and drew
his pen in its
defence. The
strongest joined in
applauding this
process for composing
differences.
the rulers as crushing
a set of
whose
consistency veracity shewed expos'd
their prevarication back sliding
and whose activity
in the common
reflects duties disgraced
upon their sloth


---page break---

the thoughtless
part as purging
the society of a
pack of muzzy low bred
fellows, adverse to
mirth jollity and useful
for the company of
gentlemen. An
attachment to liberty,
especially particularly
religions has
never yet been among
the distinguishing
features of that most
ancient and most
frequented favoured seminary.

Whatever other
good effects this
species of Justice
produced, its effects
upon the good humour
of the parties
concerned were certainly
not to
boast of: piles of
pamphlets
on the occasion are
pretty sufficient
.

The quality opposite
to good
humour is apt
to be contagious:
and the contagion will sometimes
diffuse itself beyond
the sphere
of interest.


---page break---

To the decision which
suppressed the Library
Society (that
I think was its name)
I had submitted without
much concern.
It marred no mans
prospects, it involved
no inconsistency,
it singled
not out the obscure
for their obscurity
nor there religious
for their religion.
If to any are
there should be appear
any deficiency
in that amiable
quality
should betray itself
in this plan for
toleration, they will
perhaps not be wide
of the mark in attributing
if they
attribute a considerable
share on
the production of
the effect to my
sincerity to that
scene: the same
observation of it was what
stamped upon a tender mind the first
impression that
observation had
presented of Ecclesiastical
tyranny
and injustice: and
that in characters too
deep to be likely ever to be defined


---page break---

so much for the
skill of intolerance
in composing
differences.

One thing must
be confessed. One
ill soever adapted <add> for</add>
to produce any good humour
nothing can
be better imagined contrived
to produce falshood:
but this depends
upon a particular
mode of application,
of which
further on.




Identifier: | JB/005/043/001
"JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 5.

Date_1

Marginal Summary Numbering

Box

005

Main Headings

church of englandism

Folio number

043

Info in main headings field

church intolerance

Image

001

Titles

Category

rudiments sheet (brouillon)

Number of Pages

2

Recto/Verso

recto

Page Numbering

Penner

jeremy bentham

Watermarks

[[watermarks::l munn [britannia with shield emblem]]]

Marginals

Paper Producer

benjamin constant

Corrections

Paper Produced in Year

Notes public

ID Number

2460

Box Contents

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