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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.
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Intelligence . ' — -FreethihkingChristian ? Petition . 485
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Bi&tical courts—those hateful remnants ef spiritual tyranny and Popish oppression ; whilst , upon some occasions indeed , the liberality of the officiating minister hath rendered the situation of your petitioners even the more painful and embarrassing .
That your petitioners implore your Honourable House to put an end to a state of things painful to all the parties concerned therein—necessary to no existing interest of the couutry—compelled by no avowed object or policy of the laws—and affording neither support nor the appearance of support , to the religion established by law .
That whereas the right to contract marriages before their own congregations being by law allowed to Jews and Quakers , your petitioners trust it will appear to your Honourable House , from the above statement of their doctrines and principles , that their scruples agaiust conformity with the Established Religion are as serious and as valid as those
entertained by Jews or Quakers ; whilst , from the statement of their discipline and church government , it will appear that they are as closely united and as distinct a body as Jews or Quakers , thus offering to the Legislature equal securities against the performance of clandestine or unlawful marriages . That further evidence cau , if required , be offered at the bar of your Honourable House , as
to the unity and identity of your petitioners as a body , so as fully to justify and superinduce the conclusion , that , with reference to all the objects of civil society , touching the marriage contract , such contracts may be entered into before the people known as " Freethinking Christians , " with the same security as those contracted among the people called Quakers , or the members of the Jewish
persuasion . That whilst your petitioners will not venture to dictate to your Honourable House the mode of relief now prayed for , they take leave to state , that , as far as their own body is concerned , the extending to their members the same exemption from the operation of the
Marriage Act as that which is enjoyed by Jews and Quakers , and upon the same principle , or the permitting them to contract marriages before the justices of the peace , as in the days of the Commonwealth , would be a simple process of legislation , and that the same would be satisfactory to your petitioners . That regarding marriage as a civil rite , your petitioners seek only to obtain
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the civil magistrate to Interfere in religion or usurp authority over the consciences of men—as the Church of God , bound , like its Master and Head , to ( t bear witness of the truth ; " and appealing , in the lauguage of the apostles , to the rulers of this world , " whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God—judge
a legal sanction thereto , without a violation of their consciences ; that they ask this as . the free citizens of a free state—as Protestants resisting all spin * tual domination , and appealing to- the Bible as the great charter of their liberties—as Dissenters denying the right of
ye . " That regarding the comiexion of religion with the State as the primary cause of the grievance of which your petitioners complain , and deploring the same as having mainly contributed to the corruption of revealed religion , as giving occasion to the infidel and scoffer
to speak evil of religion , and above all , as being denounced by the judgments and threateniugs of God , as made known in the Scriptures , your petitioners , besides the relief now sought to be obtained , pray your Honourable House to put an end to the connexion between Church and State—that so the power
and simplicity of divine truth may appear—that so the word of God may no longer be blasphemed — that so the judgments of God may peradventure be averted from our country , when " Babylon the Great" shall be had in remembrance , and her sins shall " have reached unto heaven . "
That all and several the allegations contained in this petition , whether as regards the grievance sustained by your petitioners — their claims as a true church , or all the matters and things urged against the Established Religion , and the Marriage Ceremony , to which they are by law required to
conformyour petitioners are prepared to support and prove at the bar of your Honourable House , or before a Convocation of the Clergy for that purpose assembled , and they pray for such alteration in the law as in the premises shall see in meet to your Honourable House . And your petitioners will ever pray .
At the same time similar petitions were presented from Dewsbury , in Yorkshire ; Loughborough , Leicestershire ; Battle , Sussex ; and Cranbrook , Kent .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1827, page 465, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1797/page/73/
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