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Untitled Article
consistency , for whieh , from the period of tn an hood to ths close of life , he was so distinguished * There was nothing in the entire range of the Thirty-nine Church of England Articles , the sense which they put upon these articles was found to be in some instances different from the sense put upon those same articles by those their interrogators . " After having forcibly depicted the iniquity of this sentence , he proceeds thus : — ' * By the sentence by wliich those readers of the Bible were thus expelled from the Udiversity , tnat affection which at its entrance had glowed with so Sincere a fervour—my reverence for the Church
of England , her doctrine , her discipline , her universities , her ordinances , was expelled from my youthful breast . I read the controversy—I studied it—and , with whatever reluctance , I could not but acknowledge the case to stand exactly as above . Not long- after ( for , at my entrance , that immaturity of age which had excused me from the obligation of signature , had excused me from the necessity of perjury ) , came the time for my attaching my signature to the Thirty-nine Articles , Understanding that of such signature the effect and sole object was , the declaring after reflection ; with solemnity and upon record , that the propositions therein contained were , iri my opinion , every one of them true ; what seemed to me a matter
of duty was , to examine them in that vieWj in order to see whether that were really the case . The examination was unfortunate ; in some of them \ no meaning at all could I find ; iri others , no meaning but one , which , in mj ^ eyes , was but too plainly irreconcilable either to reason or to Scripture . Communicating niy distress t < 5 some of my fellow-collegiates , I found them sharers in it . Upon inquiry , it waff found that among the Fellows of the College there was one to whose office it belonged , among other things , to remove all such scruples . We repaired to him with fear and trembling . His answer was cold ; and the substance of it was , —that it was not for uninformed youths such as we * to presume to set up our private judgrrients against a public one , formed by some of the Holiest as well as tJest and wisest men that ever lived . When ; , out of the multitude of his attendants , Jesus ch © s"fc
twelve for his apostles , by the men in office he was declared to be possessed by & devil ; by his own friends , at the same time , he was set down for mad . The like , fate , were my conscience to have showed itself more scrupulous than that of the official casuist , was before my eyes . Before the eyes of Jesus stood a comforter—^ his Father—an almighty one . Before my weak eyes stood no comforter . In my father , in whom in other cases I might have looked for a comforter , I saw nothing but a tormentor ; by my ill-timed scruples and the public disgrace that would have been the consequence , his fondest hopes would have been blasted ; the expenses he had bestowed upon my education , bestowed in vain . To him 1 durst hot ho much as confess those Scruples . I signed ; but , by the view I found myself forced to take of the whole business , such an impression was made as will never depart from me but with life . "
' The difficulty which he thus felt in committing an act which , however sanctioned by custom , his conscience disapproved of , shows that the love of truth was beginning to occupy his mind ; but the fact that he did commit an act not approved of b y his conscience , proves that it hall not taken full possession of his heart . At a inatur&r age , he would no more have committed such an act to gratify a father , than he would have murdered that father to become his heir . ' An anecdote , also related by himself * and which refers to a period that almost immediately succeeded the former , shows the further progress of this principle , in the shape of a settled and influential feeling of disinterestedness : it relates to the
circumstance that led to his retirement from the bar . ** By the command of a father I entered into the profession , and in the year 1772 , or thereabouts , was called to the bar . Not long after , having drawn a bill in equity , I had to defend it against exceptions before a Master in Chancery . * We shall have to attend on such a day , ' said the solicitor to me , naming a day a week or so distant ; * warrants for our attendance will be taken out for two intervening daya ; but it is not customary to attend before the third . ' What I learnt afterwards was , thai though rid
attendance more than one was ever bestowed , thre& werd on every occasion regularly charged for ; for each of the two falsely-pretended attendances , the client being by the solicitor charged with a fee for himself , as also with a fee of 6 a . Qd . paid by Him to the Master : the consequence was * that , for every attendance , the Master , instead oF 6 « . 8 rf ., received 1 / . ; and that , even if inclined , no solicitor durst otnit taking out the three warrants instead of one , fdr fear of the not-to-be-hazarded displeasure of that subordinate judge and his superiors . True it is , the solicitor is
Untitled Article
Critical Notikes . —A Lecture , &fc . 707
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1832, page 707, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1822/page/57/
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