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¬for public instruction, but by the charity of many pious persons were now universally read. ¬I here interrupted to observe, that I did not altogether comprehend him. — " How," I asjced, " can your people be thus invited by public law to study a book of which they are told that God himself is the author, yet be expected to receive its interpretation from man, and be charged moreover with wickedness for having an honest opinion of their own ; I do not at all object to your national church for adopting and adhering to the most approved doctrines, but upon what principle of policy do you exclude men from your ministry, much more from any office in the state on account only of different impres- sions of the divine nature, or of the hopes and expectations of mankind, as they faithfully be- lieve them to be derived from the word of God, so given to them, without comment, by both church and state, which concur in such exclusions? — I must suppose that the professed beliefs of such persons thus shut out from your ¬com- ¬
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