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233 TJHITAItlAN CHRONICLE ,
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Bemonstrant . Congregation of Ballymoney ? w The persons composing it are not to be allowed to take stones from his quarry , "because they , forsooth , are Arians ! while he himself , as we presume , is a Trinitarian * That is to say , they worship the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ , whom Mr . Cromie also
adores ; but abstain from the worship of two other persons whom Mr . Cromie believes to be entitled to the homage of religious adoration . This is , at the worst , only an error of omission , on their part , even according to the estimate of their conscientious landlord . Were he to enter the place where this Arian
consregation assemble to worship God , he would hear no prayer in which he could not join with perfect propriety ; although there might be something wanting which he would wish had been added . This is the head and front of their offence ; but it appears so great to the mind-of Mr . Oi ^ mie , that he has felt himself obliged to withhold an act of customary politeness from those who are guilty of it ; and to declare that further applications are useless , as he has . made up his mind on the subject . This is his treatment of the unfortunate Arians ,
There is , however , a congregation of Roman Catholics in the same neighbourhood who are , at the pre * sent moment , engaged in erecting a chapel for their worship ; and to them Mr . Cromie has acted a more liberal part ; for he has granted to the Catholics that permission which he has denied to the Remonstrants . Now , as the Roman Catholics are in the habit of presenting religious adoration . to the "Virgin Marx and a .
number of saints and apostles ; and as all such worship must , in Mr . Oromie s opinion , l > e idolatrous , if he be a consistent memberof the Church of England ; it follows , that in his judgment , it is better to commit idolatry than to engage in a worship which , so far as it goes , he allows to be pure , though he believes it to be
imperfect-T—that is to say * it is better ,, according to him , to do a positive wrong , and tp do it repeatedly and habitually , than to omit the perform * ance of one particular thing , which he judges to be right . This is th $ way in which his conscience compels him to act . He feels no scruple in
extending his favour to the persons whose religion he has sworn in his oath of office as a magistrate to be nothing less than idolatry ; while he refuses the common courtesies of a landlord to the Remonstrants , whose form of worship is such that he might
join in every part of it with perfect propriety and consistency . . Truly some men ' s consciences lead thein into awkward situations ! The awkwardness of Mr . Cromie ' s situation is increased by Eis Having sometime since granted the use of his quarry to the Covenanters for the erection , of their meeting-house ; it being a
matter of notoriety that in the solemn league and-covenantrand other-sym * bolic writings of that Church , Papacy and Episcopacy are-both denounced , and condemned to be uprooted by all the means which can be employed for the purpose . Without subscribing this document , no person can be
a minister among the Covenanters , nor , we believe , received into communion with any of their congregar tions ; and these are the persons whom , together with the Roman Catholics , the zealousand : conscien' -. tious Episcopalian , Mr . Cromie , selects for th 0 objects of his especial favour !
Let not the tenour of these latter observations be mistaken . We are far from disapproving of Mr , Cromie ' s ..... fionduct _ in ,. grantingjhe ... rer ™ quired accommodation to the R . oman Catholics and Covenanters of Bally--money . On the contrary , we highly approve of his behaviour in so doing . But we do most decidedly condemn his inconsistency in refusing to others what he has felt no scruple in according to them . It may be thought that in these )
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 1, 1832, page 232, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1823/page/24/
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