I am not over-fond of calling for the secular arm upon these misguided or misguiding men; but if ever it ought to be raised, it ought surely to be raised against these very men, not against others, whose liberty of religion you make a pretext for proceedings which drive them into the bondage of impiety.
Burke argues against using force against those who mislead others, advocating for the protection of religious liberty instead.
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More from Edmund Burke
But the course of succession is the healthy habit of the British Constitution.
If kings who did not owe their crown to the choice of their people had no title to make laws, what will become of the statute De tallagio non concedendo? of the Petition of Right? of the act of Habeas Corpus?
We procure reverence to our civil institutions on the principle upon which Nature teaches us to revere individual men: on account of their age, and on account of those from whom they are descended.
The people of England will not ape the fashions they have never tried, nor go back to those which they have found mischievous on trial.
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