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The Absurdity and Perfidy of All Authoritative Toleration of Heresy in Britain, in Two Letters to a Friend
The Absurdity and Perfidy of All Authoritative Toleration of Heresy in Britain in Two Letters to a Friend Author:John Brown General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1803 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million book... more »s for free. Excerpt: Object. III. " The impofition of thefe covenants tinder civil penalties, proves them to have been merely State-covenants." Answ. i. No more than the requirement of men under civil penalties, to partake, at leaft once a year, of the Lord's Supper, rendered it a merely civil or- dinance. An ordinance may remain religious, though a civil faniStion fhould be finfully annexed to it. 2. If, which I do 1Iot, you believe, that Afa and Jofiah, by penal laws, compelled men to take their covenants, you can fcarce condemn our covenanters' annexing civil penalties to the refufal of their bonds, efpecially as they knew, it would fcarce come from any, but fuch as were malignant enemies to the civil as well as religious liberties of the nation. 3. In 1596, 1638, 1648, and 1649, thefe covenants had no penalty either civil or ecclefiaftical annexed to the not fwearing of them, without any hint from the covenanters, that this altered the nature of the engagement. Object. IV. " Our anceftors gave up with their covenanting work, whenever they got the State of the nation fettled by means of it; and having got their civil liberties otherwife fecured at the Revolution, they never covenanted at all." Answ. i. Did ten years of murderous invafion and outrageous contention, and twenty-eight years of horrible profanenefs and perfecutiun make our nation'fo happy, that covenanting with God our deliverer was no more neceflary ? Or, Have the fearful profanation of the name of God by un- neceffary and wicked oaths, or the (hocking bribery and perjury, too common in the election of our Reprefentatives in Parliament, and our other o...« less