The Sun.
London, England, 1839-12-27 00:00:00

ARMY AND NAVY.

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a high sense of justice, honour, humanity, and a tender regard
for the welfare and personal comfort of our soldiers and sea-
men."—Globe.

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H C Z A IL
T By the Author of :" Manuella, the Executioner's

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Early in January,
THE CICERONE FOR 1840.
Under the Patronage of her Majesty the Queen Dowager.
E. Smallwood, Bookseller, Publisher, and Librarian, 17, Old
Bond-street, London.

ADDRESSofthe COMMITTEE of the LEICESTER
VOLUNTARY CHURCH SOCIETY to the DIS-
SENTERS and FRIENDS of RELIGIOUS LI-
BERTY in GREAT BRITAIN and IRELAND.
CHRISTIAN FRIENDS AND FELLOW COUNTRYMEN,
OUR object in addressing you is to direct your
special attention to the subject of Church-rates;
to the violation of conscience and of civil liberty involved
in the enforcement of them; and to the best means of se-
cnring their immediate and entire abolition.
In thus calling upon you we deem it due alike to you
and to ourselves distinctly and solemnly to record the
principles on which we are resolved to act, and in the
maintenance of which we invite your cordial co-operation.
We declare unequivocally our conviction that the Holy
Scriptures alone are the guide of mankind in all matters
of religion. We reverently do homage to their divine au-
thority, and
_profess a simple belief in the doctrines they
reveal.

We hold no less from the testimony and tenor of Scrip-
ture than from the dictates of reason, that it is the natural
and inalienable right of every man to interpret Divine Re-
velation for himself, and to worship God according to the
dictates of his own conscience ; and that the decision as to
his integrity in these high concerns lies without the pro-
vince of any earthly tribunal.
We deem it incontrovertible that the human mind from
its nature and constitution cannot possibly be Coerced in its
opinions by any extraneous power, and wa therefore con-
sider that all legislative enactments designed to secure
uniformity of faith and practice must have one of two ten-
dencies—either the violation of conscience, or the introduc-
tion of the most degrading hypocrisy.
Whilst we revere civil law and Government as one of
the most wise and merciful ordinations of Providence, we
maintain that its functions are bounded by, the purely secu-
lar interests of society ; and so soon as it shall be wielded
discordantly with the higher relations and responsibilities
of the human mind—so seen as it shall encroach upon our
spiritual concerns, we deem it our sacred duty to withhold
obedience, and to transfer our allegiance from all interme-
diate power to the authority of our only Lord and Master.
We solemnly repudiate all human interference with his
jurisdiction as the Great Head of his Church, and regard
such interference as alike irrational and impious.
Sincerely respecting the talents, learning, and piety of
many members of Established Churches, we are still deeply
convinced that the establishment of religion, that is,
the extension of political patronage and power to any re-
ligious sect, has ever been an evil of enormous magnitude,
that it imposes civil degradation and most commonly pains
and penalties oe the best of men and the most loyal of ci-
tizens who differ in religious opinion from the dominant
sect ; that it has ever been the source of persecution and
martyrdom, and of the bitterest feuds and animosities; and
that by secularizing the offices of religion, by pampering
the ambition and cupidity of its Ministers, by interfering
with the independence and Christian privileges of Churches,
by the introduction of irreligious men to sacred functions,
and above all by innovating upon the rites and doctrines of
the Christian religion as settled by its divine Founder, it
has disgusted thinking men and repelled them from the
reception of Christianity ; it has degraded the dignity,
sullied the purity, and in some instances almost destroyed
the vitality of true religion amongst men ; it has turned
the temple of God into a house of merchandise, and has in
all ages formed the most fearful institutional obstacle that
ever was opposed to the progress of the kingdom of Christ
in the world.
Whilst we conscientiously object to all compulsory sup.
port of the religious establishments which have been
set up in these realms, we equally turn aside from every
modification of the principle which they involve, and re-
pudiate any scheme for the extension of similar aid to
other sects ; we recoil from the interference of the State,
as such, under any disguise whatever, with religious ob-
jects, and hold that, to acknowledge its patronage, under
any pretext, is to surrender the great principle at issue,
and to do dishonour to the Son of God ; and that so far
from advancing, such a course must finally prove deroga-
tory to, the great purposes of the Christian religion.
Though unwilling to depreciate the exertions, past or
present, of associations in conformity with these great
principles, and though our thoughts turn with reverence
to the illustrious dead who were once their eloquent advo-
cates and defenders, yet we do chiefly honour the princi-
ples themselves. We cannot but call to mind that they
existed in all their moment prior to all human advocacy;
that they maintain their value irrespectively of associated
bodies—of their successes, their compromises, or their
failures; and that their demand on individual effort will
ever maintain its weight, apart from all temporary and con.
ese. We disown
igts the religious
liberty ventional arrangements.
n,
In declaring, on these grounds, our uncompromising op-
position to all ecclesiastical authority and to all ecclesiasti-
lcialitiny
all sympathy with those clamours raised in the spirit,
whether of a hypocritical or of a timid bigotry, a
imposts,
Queryt s, w e
classof
f comprehend
our f
ei in
o ourw-s
fellow-subjects.
against the
extending influence of any body of religious professors. We
contemplate the right of all citizens—be their creed what-
ever it may—of Catholics, Jews, Episcopalians, Presby-
terians, and the various sects of the Nonconforming body,
as well as of those who subscribe to no creed at all. We
desire on behalf of parties that they be left unaided by
State patronage and unmolested by State control ; and
we ask on behalf of truth, still as in all past times cruelly
fettered and despoiled, that she be admitted to the temple
of universal charity as to her long-sought home.
As the province of One religion is altogether spiritual'
as its obligations cannot be transferred, and as its respon-
sibilities are personal and not national, we believe that the
support of it should be purely voluntary, that all compul-
sory Payments for its promotion are incensistent with its
nature and pretensions, and that their enactment does dis-
honour to its great Founder and Administrator, interferes
with the sacred and inviolable rights of Christians, and en-
croaches on the most valuable liberties of the subject.
On these premises, then, with whose truth and mo-
ment we arc deeply impressed, we enter our deliberate
protest against the imposition of Church-rates, and we
call upon our Christian friends and fellow-countrymen,
ts, second our efforts for their abolition, with all the
z sal and energy which the serious nature of the cause de-
mands. Let us not be considered as engaging in an in •
discriminate crusade against the Episcopal Church. We
believe in many of its doctrines, we honour many of
its ministers, we are thankful for all its usefulness;
but we denounce the civil power with which it has been
invested, which, while it corrupts the Church, insults