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
If these arguments haye no weight , 1 would then . ask the Jaymaii , why did two thousand clersymen leave the church , in
consequence of the act of uniform - ity ! certainly not one of them would have refused , to engage to make " the scriptures the rule of his preaching . " But they were honest , conscientious , though perhaps mistaken men , and disdained to impose upon their bishops , with distinctions fabricated at St * Omers , and only calculated for the convenience of impostors
and knaves . Unlike our modern discontents , they could agree in the main to the doctrines of the church , though they could not-to her ceremonies , and they knew that the nature of her
constitution was such , that she could no more dispense with the one , than the other . When therefore they objected to the sign of the cross in baptism , to the ring in marri - Hge ^ to the surplice in the
reading desk , to the consecrating of churches and cemeteries , or to iuiy other ceremonies 'appointed and rendered indispensable by the chu * rch ; they were sensible that they thereby as effectually prcqli } d-
ed themselves from it , as if theyjhad denied the Athanasian creed itself . Liule did these honest n * en thiqk of remaining-in the church , and enjoying its te top oral itics whilst they were at the same tune boldly preaching against her , as en
joining ceremonies and professing doctrines repugnant to the holy scriptures . No ! they were too upright and consistent to practise i > uch tergiversation ! instead of sheltering themselves under the ambiguity of a general declaration of their belief , in the holy scriptures ,, or in a fraudulent ,
Untitled Article
immoral distinction between thei /* assent ar . d belief ^ they magnanimously resigned their , livings ; in , consequence of which faithful ^ a j € r quiescence to the dictates of , co , nscience , ( though perhaps rather
erroneous , ) they are deservedly held up as objects of imitation tQ all honest men in the like chS . cumstances . It is obvious too , that if they left the church in , consequence of their disapprobation , of her ceremonies , . jhosc
who disapprove her doctrines are under additional obligations to follow the example * A clergyman might hesitate at , ox occasionally omit the sign of the cross without being guilty of hypocrisy ; but when a professed Unitarian mounts the reading desk , and boldly reads the prayers which ave drawn , up on the * Trinitarian hypothesis , he is in faqt worse than an infidel .
A clergyman cannot but know * that whilst he officiates ii ^ the church , fye is bound to Conform alike to her doctrines and ceremonieS } according to the explication of them , which she has set forth in her articles and ca ^ nons . No choice is left , no demur is admissible ! conform or
resign , is her emphatical mandate and though , fojc reasons peculiar to the singularly awful times in which we live , she often connives at the disobedience of her children , her principles are invariabl y the same ' as they were when she was first established . Your ' s , CLER . EBQJL
P . S . The layman writes about Act * of - Parliament-Christians , — he must know that the church is protected by acts of parliament ,
Untitled Article
T&e Yorkshire Clergyman on Subscription . 2 § l
Untitled Article
VQL . 1 IJU 2 hi
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1808, page 261, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2392/page/33/
-