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
has opposed no bar to the advancement of unbelievers and scoffers , who regard It as a mere civil ceremony * That , as ministers of the gospel- of Christ , your petitioners cannot but look upon every religious test of civil and
political merit as pregnant with injury to the sacred cause of religion ; and that they deem it their bounden duty humbly to state to your Lordships their deep conviction that the use of the holy and solemn ordinance of the Lord ' s Supper , as a qualification for civil and political office and trust , ( a thing unheard of , as your petitioners believe , except in this
Protestant country , ) is a degradation and perversion of a rite of pecnliar sane * tity , instituted by our Saviour for high and momentous spiritual purposes , and enjoined upon all Christians to the end of the world , as a memorial of the love of their common Lord , and an instrument and pledge of peace and nuiou aud brotherly love .
That , in the candid judgment of your petitioners , the administration of the Lord ' s Supper , as a passport to civil and political office , must be no less a burthen and a scandal to the consciences of the ministers of the Church of England who are called upon to administer the Sacrament for this end , than to those of Protestant Dissenters who may be reluctantly compelled to this occasional conformity .
Your petitioners , therefore , humbly implore of your Lordships to take the premises into consideration , in order to relieve their consciences from a grievous burthen , and at the same time to rescue a most holy ordinance of the Saviour of the world from abuse and profanation , and to remove a bar to the uuion and
co-operation of all classes of his Majesty ' s subjects by the repeal of the Corporation and Test 4 ct $ , in so far as relates to the Sacramental Test . And your petitioners , as in duty bound , shall ever pray , &c .
Untitled Article
intelligence , —Uorpwation and Test Act * . 451
Untitled Article
tfnder heavy penalties , require the partaking of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper according to the rites of the Church of England , as an indispensable condition of holding any place of trust , emolument or honour under his
Majesty s Government ; with which condition the greater part of the Protestant Dissenters are withheld from complying , by their deep sense of religious duty . That it appears to your petitioners , that the exclusion of so large a portion
of His Majesty ' s subjects as the Protestant Dissenters from rendering such services as may be in their power to their King and country , is inconsistent with the first principles of civil policy , and is , moreover , productive of division amongst those whom Divine Providence has made
brethren . That your petitioners are not ignorant of the wise consideration shewn by the Legislature in passing an annual Act of Indemnity for the benefit of such persons as may have incurred the penalties enacted by the Corporation aud Test Acts ; but they beg humbly to represent to your Lordships that the efficacy of this Act , in protecting conscientious Protestaut Dissenters , is held by some of the learned
in the law to be very doubtful ; and fur * ther , that if the protection afforded by it were complete and certain , they could not reNt contented under the imputation , which an Indemnity Act implies , of their being offenders against the law of the land , since the Toleration Act , which was happily enlarged in his late Majesty ' s reigu , during the Regency of his present Majesty , virtually declares Nonconformity to be no longer a crime .
That in the only construction which your petitioners can put upon the Sacramental Test , it is designed as a solemn overt declaration of entire communion with the Church of England , and that , therefore , the enforcement of it is a snare to the consciences of Protestant
Dissenters ; and your petitioners are utterly unable to conceive in what manner au act of insiucerity can promote the good of the community , or how an occasional compulsory conformity can add to the security or dignity of the Church as by law established . That your petitioners have witnessed with grief and shame , that whilst conscientious Protestant Dissenters have
been restrained in numberless instances by the Sacramental Test from taking offices to which they appeared to be entitled b y their rank and talents , or to which they were actually called by the voices of their fellow-citizens , this test
Untitled Article
Corporation of London . A Special Court of Common Council was held on Wednesday , the 9 th of May , pursuant to a requisition to the Lord Mayor , signed by about one hundred members , for the purpose of
considering the propriety of petitioning both Houses of Parliament for the repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts , and to take such other measures aa might be deemed expedient for the same purpose . Mr . Favell introduced the subject by observing , that he felt peculiar anxiety
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1827, page 451, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1797/page/59/
-