On this page

• Text (1)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• 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

    ouyht to be restored . What the restoration of the old law implies , M . B . has fully exposed before the Bishop ' s eyes , and if he can look at this picture of legal p ersecution without retracting his opinion and his wish , we could almost lament that he does not occupy

    a more fitting" seat upon the episcopal bench of Spain , under the patronage oi the belov d Ferdinand , and in the neighbourhood of the inquisition . The old proverd says , " Give a dog

    a bad iicme and hang him . ' lhe Bishop follows the advice , and calls the Unitarians whom he would worry to death with penal statutes—Miscreants J Upon this foul language , Mr . B . has the following very proper

    note : — ci Miscreants , ( mescroyans , misbelieversJ , Such is the epithet which the learned prelate in an extract from Blaekstoiie ' s Commentaries , prefixed to bis preface- and

    likewise m a Note p . 10 . of a late Charge to his Clergy , has been pleased to apply to those Christians vvho disagree with him concerning the doctrine of the Trinity . He qualifies it , howe 7 er , by e ^ : plaining the word , as' an old law term for unbelievers ' But

    hzs lordship could not he ig ; iorant that in common parlance it would be understood in the sense Dr . Johnson gives of the word as signifying 4 vile wretches ? And perhaps his lordship , in his acundant charity , would not be displeased that it should be so understood . For he ri es with approbation

    Blackstone s words , that c it was thought necessa . ry for the civil power to interpose by not admitting those misaeants to the privileges of society , who maintained such principles as destroyed all moral obligation . * And does the good Bishop really think that such men as Sir Isaac Newton , and Mr . Locke

    ind Dr . Clarke , and Dr . Lardner , and Mr . Undsey , and Dr . Jebb , and Dr . Priestly , were miscreants , who maintained principles ivnick destroyed all moral obligation , and tnat they were unworthy of the privileges ° f society , because they did not believe the doctrine of the Trinity?—Shade of Gardiner ! Ghost of Bonner ! How delighted must

    jehe , if such tidings reach the regions of « w nether world f How refreshing , as a drop of ^ ater from the tip of Lazarus' finger ! now must ye grin horribly a ghastly smile , to near , that yi > ur own intolerant and unrelenting- spirit is revived , after so lotig an wterval , in one of your successors in the r e « £ ti of George the Third !"

    * et , let us do the Bishop justice : » e concedes that " the Scotch Jaw ^ acting the penalty of death , required ^ endment and mitigation . " There aie happily lengths in persecution to

    Untitled Article

    which even the Bishop of St . David would not go , in pursuit of Unitarians : but it would be a fearful experiment were the legislature to grant him all that he asks in order to try whether he would be satisfied . We believe that

    the rigour of the Scotch law , as proved in the case of poor Aikenhead , had no light influence upon the minds of the members of the government , in disposing them to relieve the Unitarians ; and we feel much pleasure in reflecting that that case was brought before

    the publi-e by means of our pages . ( See V ^ ol . viii . pp . 17 , 108 and 178 . ) Mr . B . states the case briefly ( p . 45 ) - he might , we think , have done a service to some of his readers , by referring them to this work for farther in formation .

    With wonderful simplicity , Bishop Burgess finds a coadjutor to his mind in Mr . Cobbett , whoselucubrations on the Trinity Bill are fresh in every one ' s memory .

    " The Bishop of St . David ' s and Mr Cobbett contract an alJiance , and combine their energies to resist the repeal of the persecuting-laws . 4 I have read Mr . Cobbelt ' s remarks , ' says his lordship , p . 17 , Note , * with great satisfaction . —Indeed , xny lord ?—Is it possible that your lordship can be serious?—That I suspect is more than Mr . Cobbett himself is . Mr .

    Cobbett professes himself an advocate for liberty ; and I protest I have always read Mr . Cobbett ' s remarks on the Trinity Doctrine Bill with the impression that , under pretence of defending * the persecuting- code , he really meant to expo-se its monstrous absurdity and flagrant injustice . "

    It is scarcely worth while to speculate upon the ultimate ends of such a writer ; but it always appeared to us , we must confess , that Cobbett had a double object in view , namely , to indulge a broad laugh against Christianity and thereby to excite the public curiosity to sustain his declining

    paper . Bishop Burgess insinuates that the Trinity Bill was smuggled through Parliament : where then * was his lordship , where the other overseers ( the English of the word Bishops ) of the interests of the church ? But the

    insinuation is most strange , not to adopt a harder epithet , as the following perspicuous and interesting history of the measure by Mr . B . will shew ; we quote the passage , though it is long , in order to render the account of the Trinity Bill in our volumes complete :

    Untitled Article

    Review — JJelshanfs Reply to Burgess . 509

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1815, page 509, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1763/page/45/