The Pamphleteer (Volume 1) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Parliament, and to place us on the same footing with the Catholics at the commencement of the present reign, would that be no infringement on religious freedom ? This would still be no positive persecution; we might still enjoy our prayer-meetings and conferences?at least as long as the government thus constituted would permit us; it would still be as much a question of political power as the present. To be eligible to places of trust and responsibility?to be able to serve our country in an exalted sphere?is as much our birth-right as the choice of men to legislate for us. If our right to be chosen be taken away, our right to choose is equally liable to be wrested from us. And should we then remain silent ? Should we then content ourselves with our religious assemblies, and our hopes of a better country ? Certainly not. And why ? It would be a deprivation that would come home at once to every mans bosom; it would not affect the aspiring few only, but the humble many.?Protestant Dissenters! is this your patriotism, is this your zeal for religious liberty ? Have you no regard to the finer minds, who would reflect immortal honor on your illustrious body, if allowed the common chance of obtaining the prizes of pure and lofty ambition ? Have you no regard to the welfare of your brethren?none to the rights of your children ? Is all your zeal for religious liberty a mere desire of private convenience, without aspiring after general advantage, and future security If the virtuous feeling you have derived from your ancestors, be more than a wish to preserve your prayer-meetings and chapels from outrage during your own lives, comeforward manfully to petition for an investigation of the rights of your brethren, and of yourselves?to raise the dignity of your cause, and assert the purity of ...