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Untitled Article
hoped that the demand would * fail , and every inhabitant of Birmingham wan interested in its defeat . THe right to mortuary money i& ancient , but there are few parishes in which it can be sustained . It must have been claimed before the reign of Henry VIIX . ; and if disused , cannot-be revived .
But for clergymen , th * situation of the Committee would be comparatively a sinecure . This statement war illustrated by most of the cases , and confirmed by one from Tremtrdock i in Wales . In that dis-1
tant retirement a youngman , member of a congregation under the pastoral care of Mr . John Jones > went to assist a neighbour in hay-making , and by the consent of the family read a chapter and prayed . In the afternoon be read another chapter ,
and again they went to prayer . This house being a" public-house , the rector of the parish , who is a magistrate , happened to be there ! { Laughter . ) The family , which , including all who were in the
lrouse , amounted to fifteen , attended the devotions of the young man . The rector began cursing and swearing , laid hold of the yottng man by the neck , in the act of praying , and actually turned him out of doors ! ( Shamei shame !)
Mr Parry of Chester , wrote also to complain of another clergyman in the county of Denbigh . He was offended because a new meeting-house was erecting within , what he thought , some hallowed circle round the parish church . He must have feared the internal attractions off the
building , as the humble edifice couhi not vie in architectural splendour or costly adornment with his Established Church . This gentleman wrote , that the clergyman had burt one arm , yet threatened to knock down the rising meeting-house . The Committee re plied , that if the clergyman instead of one arm had been Briareus
with one hundred arras , he would find the law had a still stronger aim , should he presume to execute his threats . ( Loud applause . ) From SoAam , in Cambridgeshire , complaints ? were made that the Clergyman refused to marry Dissenters . In
Northamptonshire certainly the fact occurred . The Clergyman actually refused the performance of a marriage ceremony until the bridegroom had been rebaptized . ( Laughter . ) Two respectable families assembled to witness the marriage ceremo intended to unite two estimable ng pe
y ^ JJ rsons in " holy matrimony . " JJJnat was their surprise to > hear the ^ fc rg ^ mdri , previous to the cawinriertce-Wiertt of the ceremony , ask the g'entfeman " n « bad been baptised ? The bridegroom replied ainraratfrefy , that hfc was baptized foy a Dissenting Minister . The Clergy
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man rejoined , **¦¦! consider all scefc baptism as illegal , it is only lay-baptism . J * do not consider you a Christian , and " therefore I shall not marry you / 7 Wa * . i * possible to conceive a situation more em ^ barrassing- arid unfortunate ? What wmedy would the Clergyman propose ? Rebaptism only would satisfy his modi The demand was disgustful ; hnti the&the mortification of disappointment at sneii » moment , was it not even more intoicrable ? ( Laughter . ) The parties
weretherefore compelled to submit , and' the respectable families were detained whilst the sexton was sent for a bason of water , with which th « adult persons were aetaally sprinkled by this zealous priest , and to two sacraments of this Protestant reformed qbureh the Dissenters were oh *
hged to submi t . ( Cries of shame . ) If there be any proper feelings among * Protestant Dissenters , they must be escited by circumstances like these . He had com batted one prejudice as to churebyards , and was not the marriage of Dfesentevsf by Clergymen an equal prejudiced Why should they not also be freed' front the compulsory administration of this same rite also , by ministers of a cbarch to whieh to
conscientiously they are unwilling ^ nform ? ( Applause . ) What is there in this same sacrament of marriage ? Is- matrimony a civil o > r religions ceremony ? . I # it be civil , abstain from tbe priest ; if religious , let the ministers of religion Vntlt whom they are connected , utter the useful exhortation and breathe oat the- pious prayer . ( Applause . ) Are Dissenters ta
submit to an arbitrary form , from wh 4 ch by more consistent attention , and merevigilant care , the people called Quakers and the Jews are exempt ? Why should they not apply for , and obtain a similar exemption ? ( Applause ) The Unitarians , unwilling" to recog-nize the doctrine of the Trinity , according to the established form , have resolved on such an application ; and who will not wish them success ? What is
marriage , by the law of England , bat a civil contract between two persons , competent and willing to contract ? These ceremonies too are a remnant of Catholic superstition , improperly retained by the
Reformers : By the Reformers , those great inei >; those g-iants of a dwarfish a # e ; those lights amidst deep darkness . ; but who were yet only men , and whose Peering splendour was occasionally obscuredas an envious haxe lessens the lustre oi the
fitll' -orbed moon . ( Applause , ) Bewwfe him ( Mr . W . ) was a copy of a certificate ^ of marriage in the Protectorate of Oliver Crofnwell , before a Justice of theFteacej uric ! in that period of I * aritanism , were not husbands as gtwd , and * wire * aa ftuir « nd cliastt , m ih the Mk ^ optAlaii ma < i voht ptw *
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-we InteUiffence . —Protestant Society . 3 SE&
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1819, page 335, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1772/page/55/
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