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hearing the testimony of denial read , if it contained any . new grounds of accusation- He was solemnly assured if did " not * hut when he received it he found that it did , so that in fact he > vas condemned for crimes with which he had never been charged , and that
too unheard . On the following Monthly Meeting " , Mr . Foster addressed a letter to its members claiming the right of being heard on these new charges , but this letter was not even allowed to be read * Mr . Foster , under a full conviction that there was no rule of the Society which would authorize
his disownnient , and feeling the injustice that had been done him , determined to appeal to the Quarterly Meeting . As there had been some fresh regulations made £ > y this Meeting respecting appeals , he desired a copy of them , that as an appellant f he might neither lose any privilege
nor transgress through ignorance . " He also desired to consult the records of the Yearly Meeting . The former part of this request was granted , the latter denied . After several sittings of the Committee appointed by the Quarterly Meeting , in which both
parties were htard , the decision of Katcfiff Monthly Meeting was confirmed . In the course of these examinations several new charges were made against Mr . Foster , of which the following exhibits a curious mixture of ignorance and intolerance . w Their ( the respondents of the Monthly Meeting ) next charge was ,
that I did not put the same construction on some t ; ex ts of scripture , w hich they did r P . 185 . In another part of the accusations Gf these respondents , they adduced sey ^ al p&ssages from an anonymous Jo * supposed to have been written
Dy Mr . Foster , in which they said , Wendy implying that this increased J » crime ) that the writer had intro-« " {*? a quotation from Dn Priestley ! "is but justice , however , to this jWy Meeting to state , tliatfe-» w i . members expressed their l
r ?» g disapp robation of the charges 2 l ^ . C ^ din £ 8 against Mr- Foster , iZ lt llot been for the delusive J ^ m which the sense of &i * ch ^ JWies i 8 taken , it is more than Smk * the decision of * *•* - v erted ^ "i WOIJ W ^ ve ^ een refrom ** I : '"rter has since appealed * Quarterly to the Ynarlv
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Meeting , whose proceedings -will , we believe , soon be laid before the'public . Such is an epitome of Mr . Foster ' s case . Our readers will scarcely believe that such proceedings could
originate from the Society of Friends , proceedings which are at variance , not only with every principle of religious liberty , but also with their own constitution . Mr . Foster from the
first denied that he had offended against any rule of the Society , and besides shewing that his opinions w « re consonant to those of their most approved early writers , he argued also their consistency with scripture , and therefore contended that he ought not
to be expelled from a church which professed to have no creed but the scriptures . His accusers , however , took advantage of their want of a creed , and in their proceedings substituted in place of it , what they called the general belief , or general
principles of the society , and on a vague charge of an offence against these , Mr . Foster was disowned . Thus has a precedent been established , which , if followed , may lead to the expulsion of men of all sentiments .
The Ratcliff Monthly Meeting proscribes an Unitarian , another meeting may proscribe a Calvinist , and a third an Arminianj each alleging that these opinions are contrary to the general belief of the Society .
In confirming * the decision of the Ratcliff Meeting , the Quarterly Meeting of London and Middlesex have set up claims in behalf of the Society , which shew an entire ignorance oT a thorough contempt of all the rights of conscience , and which are a
disgrace to persons who live in a country wliere religious liberty is almost proverbial . These claims are well expressed in the following extract from Mr . Fosters Appeal , with which we shall conclude , leaving our readers to make their own comments .
u To confirm such a decision , is in the first place , to pronounce , that the proceedings on which il is founded , have been conformable to gospel order , and the rules of the Society . 44 2 ndJy . That Monthly Meetings are at
iiherty to set up each athi&own discretion , articles of faith , ex pressed in unscriptural terms . —To exercise inquisitorial powers over their members ^ concerning them , and to enforce their reception , upon pain of disownment , without the sanction of any rule of the Society .
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JfcWcttv—Foster ^ Narrative * 5249
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1815, page 249, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1759/page/49/
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