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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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Untitled Article
ttta& by this Bill bo qualification was required from preachers or teachers , but that all persons , whatever might be their ignorance or : their moral , character ^ nvigfcu
pn their taking the oaths , be preajchej-s , and S : teachers * He thought that some qualification ought to be required bofotfe they yvere allowed to . preach of teachfj instead , of their being self-elected and sel / ., appointed , as they wovrld be Under this BLH . "—Hrs LoroM
sj * ip , then , would have established by-law ,, ( to use his own w ^ r < tej ) " some test of qualification , " a 3 to the learning and the character of * Pisse . Htrngo teachers . Such a test woujd necessaril y -have thVowti great powers iwto the bands of the
magistrates , that is , of the clergy * who swarm . upon the bench and influence all . its decisions ; and under such a , new power , what would have , beeri the condition of Dissenters ? Bat . suppose the Test not to h&ve haxi this effect ; it
must have been exercised by some individuals or , some body of individuals : and these , whoever they might have been , would have had the real nomination of Dissenting miuisrters , in violation of the-
independence , of . . the nonconformist chuijches . If a church should h ^ ve chose n a minister for whom the certificate of- qualification coulcj not have been obtained , they nuist have foregone their election or must have had a teacher
subject to direct legal penalties / f be certificate might , indeed , h&ve bee n ^ eq ' ajned ., on | y of the Congregation exposing , and appointing a teacher , but this w , ould not have answeretl the professe < l purpose of 5 e curi ag his competent learning ^ ^ good character ; for with re-
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gard to settled teachers m > sJtera * tronrwould' have beeu effected by this enactment ; they who are no \ r content to hear or support amiimi
ter ; would in that case have signed his test ; the oa ^ y good o ^ ' ttve regnlatron would have beto its troubling and puzzling the pwret Dissenting congregations .-
The test for siudertts , supernumerary preachers , &cv rau ^ thave be ^ n obtai ne d ( if obtained at all ) ircym ministers' hi the same ^ cb tu ncction as th « e applicants ; . and it would have depended upon a synod appointed by law , rmt by th& Christian peOpl ^ Aeth er
young men aspiring to the pulpit should be kept down of brought forward *
On this plan , a . teacher of a doc-Uine not already professed amongst the Dissenters could not have risen up ; aiVd if a country gentleman ^ led by > his sfiadies into a difterent faith fi < om that of alt
his neighbours and acquaintance ; should have estabJished worship in his hous ^ e , and invited more than five persons besides his family ( the regulatiort of Lord St&mouth ^ s fa « ± vuurite Conventicle Act , ) to join his devotions ^ he might have been indicted for a misdemeanour : he
would have had neither congregation nor connection to crive him a passport to the pulpit and to save him from prosecution . W ^ hether dissenting minister * might not be improved in point of learning a ^ nd fcft ^ acfer , is a ques , J tion which Lord Sldmoiith may
fairly discuss , if he pleases ; but it is the height of absurdity to think that hii act of Parliament would have made them either learned- oi moral . In point of virtue , it is- 'a fact notorious as the
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Lord Sidmxyuth and the Dissenters . 503
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1812, page 503, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1751/page/27/
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