On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
period , at a season when tjie dread of being thought to advance claims res ^ nbliijjj those of the Church of Rome was much diminished . * Taking the artiple , however , as we find it , I . proceed to a concise examination of its clauses .. The Church lias power to decree rites or ceremonies . Whence has it this
power ? Is the prerogative derived from Christ or from the civil magistrate ? If from Christ , let the grant , let the commission , be produced : if from tlxe civil magistrate , let as learn in what passage of the New Testament q . record may be seen of the delegation of this authority to the State .
Further , It is assumed that the Church has authority in controversies of faith , that she is a witness and a keeper of / wly writ . Now , receiving this statement in the most favourable
sense , we have here a pretension on the part of the Church to be an interpreter of scripture ; pdnot only so but to enforce its interpretations upon its ministers and members . In the language then of the venerable Lardfieryf Can this be justified ? Is the claim vindicated by any thing which fell from our Saviour and his
apostles ? Assuredly not . But the article goes on—— " and yet it is not lawful for the church to ordain any thing contrary to God ' s word written ; neither may it so expound one place of scripture that it be repugnant to another" Who ,
however , can secure bodies of men more than individuals from fallibility ? And who is to be the judge of the Church ' s ordinances and expositions . ? In her own opinion , they are scriptural and sound : and she punishes those of her officiating members who say that they are otherwise .
We read , moreover , that " as the Church ought not to decree an ?/ thiny against holy writ 9 so besides the same ought it not to enforce any thing to be believedfornedessity of salvation" Now tfris extract admits of the sanie
questions which were occasioned by the foregoing . But , without repeating them , how , let us inquire , stands the fact ? Is the practice of the Church in this instance consonant with her profession ? Would God it were !
* Blackburne ' s Works , Vol . v . 460 . Note , t Wo * k $ , Vol . xi . 177 .
Untitled Article
At least , the creed purporting to h that of Athanasius would not th find a place in her service-book ^ Tlxat neither the sixth nor the twentieth article of the Church of England can furnish a salvo for lati tude of subscription , appears from a judgment at common law , reported Lord Chief Justice
by Coke . " One Smith subscribed to the thirt y-nine articles , with this addition , so fat forth as the same were agreeable to the word vf God . Whereupon , it was resolved by Wray , Chief Justice of the King ' s Bench , and all the judges of England , that this subscripti on was not according to the statute of 13 Eiiz , because the statute required an absolute subscription , aud this subscription made it conditional ; and
that this act was made for avoiding diversity of opinions , &c , and by this addition , the party might , by his own private opinion , take some of them to be against the word of God , and by this means diversity of opinions shoul d not be avoided , which was the
scope of the statute , and the very act itself made , touching subscription , of none effect . " I Such was the decision of " all the judges of England , " at a period not exceedingly remote from the date of the statute of 13 Eliz . : such is the
law of the land at the present day ! In strict conformity with it , I presume , is the above exposition of two of the thirty-nine articles . y N .
Untitled Article
Str , Bristol , April , 1815 . MR . FLOWER says that Cliiron and Thomas are the true cowards ; it may be so ; I say still , however , that to write books in support of Christianity , when the law of the land prohibits nny rejoinder , is to play t lie part of a braggadocio and
co worn . Mr . Flower says that misrepresentation is misrepresentation , to which I agree . Mr . Flower says h e has now heard for the first time , that / " motiea t
dern Infidels had their hands " - hind their backs , " &c . I admit tftis , the gag , and so forth , to be mere amplification , but Mr . Flower shouW know ) that death is a very P 7 ; consequence of long imprison *** 01 ' . —* — ' T - - " ^ " " * " Aj \ 1 X BiackbuineV Works , V * J . * - Note . ¦ :-. - ¦ ¦ ¦ ' ' ¦ ; ' .
Untitled Article
280 Remarks on Mr . JB . JFlower ' s Letter , concerning Unbelievers .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1815, page 280, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1760/page/16/
-