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• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    Xhe Committee To Whom The Application To...

    posed by tike Bill is merely optional ; that the party whose attachment to his or toer _particular opinions _wias strongest , would doubtless yield to the otker , and probably _oftener to the Church than against it ; that to send the _pdrttes tQ be married _according to the _xeligious _servieeof each _wottfd not

    remedy thei eYiI _> because where _conscientious _scruples were ent _& rtained , _such a plan would violate the consciences of both instead of one ; aad that the fairest plan seems to be to leave the parties their option . If both were inionthe

    equally firm in their adherence to their peculiar op s , consequence would be that their union could not take place ; _thottgfc it may be questioned whether that be a just or politic law , which should in _afoy case make such a dvU _inconvenience the result of steady _adherence to the dictates of _conscience . Thirdly , _as to the class of persons to whom the proposed relief _shofcld apply y ' it is conceded that doctrinal scruples are _matter of conscience and _desfetriog of relief , but the Bill is objected to as . extending the _same megswe to the general Nonconformist objections to the _discipline ei 'the _GfrtBFch _^ unconnected with the question of doctrine ; and a _question i « raised whether " conscientious _scrtq _^ _ies" can properly be treated as the _g-rotuad of su _^ h dissent _.

    Under the word discipline are usually comprehended the worsjup , services , formularies , authority , and political institutions of the Church ; and it may perhaps be sufficient to ask , what drove the two thousand ministers from its communion in the reign of Charles II ., and what has kept the great ? body of Dissenters separated from it for two hundred years , but grave objections

    to _flie Establishment in these particulars , urged on moral and' _soriptnral grounds of conscientious Christian disapproval ? _Without _entering * oiv the merits of the _controversy between the Church and th _£ general * b _# dy of Dissenters , ( of which mutual toleration and _increased liberality have happily removed the greater part of the acrimony which once existed , ) it will surely

    be sufficient here to observe , that the latter have at any rateever prof & _tised deep _religious objections to such important propositions as , _—fh & t the civil Magistrate has any right or authority over the consciences or _celigioti of men ;—that the Christian Church can consistently with the principles of its founder be connected with the State - _> —that its- _minister ought to

    beamposed without the choice of the people , and required to subscribe formularies of faith;—that _" _* it hath power to decree rites and ceremonies , and authority in c _^ _ntPoversfes of & ith ' _;"—that whoever affirms ** t _& dt the _govetfnmfcnt ol' the Church by Archbishops , & _6 . is repugnant to the word of God /* ( Ckii * VII . )

    or that ** the Common Prayer hath any thing in it repugnant to the Scriptures / _' ( Can . VI . ) or _" that any oB its thirty-nine Artldtes ar _^ in any part supe _* dtitkms or erroneous or such as he may not with a good conscience _subnkflfoti _ixtitfo , ' ( Can . _Vl ) fe _excomniunicrite i _^ so fa _eto _;—tliirt _priests hwep & _rtkr to _fot _^ ire _dir retain the sins of men _;—^ _thkfr he u Wlio wiH * e _3 av _« d must

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• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 12, 1823, page 8, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/smrp_12061823/page/8/