On this page
-
Text (1)
-
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
ters of congregations , are in their humble judgment calculated to be of serious detriment to a large and respectable class of men , and to deprive them of rights and advanages admitted to pertain to them
by the Act of the First of William and Mary . The conditions proposed in the Bill before your Lordships require the party applying for qualification to be a minister before it is possible he can appear legally in that character , impose
iipon him the imperative necessity of procuring a certificate , such as it will in many cases beimpractable for him to obtain , even without any impeachment of his character , and constitute the subscribers of his certificate , the
judges of his intellectual' fitness for the duties of an office , his ability for which it will be impossible tor them , without ft violation of law on his part , to have had an opportunity of estimating .
And in regard to the clause relating to probationers which will embrace , and seems chiefly if not wholly to refer to students in divi «
uity , or persons who may have concluded theiracademical studies , your petitioners conceive that it cannot fail to prove in every instance a measure of vexation and
oppression , both to the probationers themselves and the congregations which may be desirous of hearing them on approbation . The process here prescribed for obtaining the certificate and the qualification must often be tedious and
expensive , and occasion considerable delay in circumstances that call . for prompt and immediate decision . Your petitioners have farther to object that the certifi - cate required by the Bill in this itase implies and goes to establish
Untitled Article
a principle and proceeding whick few if any among the Protestant Dissenters of the present day will admit , or can complv with . It is
theiruniversal sentiment that every congregation has itself an exclusive right to choose its own minister , and to determine who are proper to officiate to them as probati . oners : —this great and
fundamental principle of their religious freedom in regard to divine worship , the provisions of the Bill on your Lordships' table go to violate and overturn by appropriating to certain ministers the sole right and
authorrty ofadmi tting and appointing probationers to preach to vacant congregations , and thus investing Protestant Dissenting Ministers wit h a magisterial character , which your petitioners are persuaded most of them will utterly disclaim .
The provisions of the Bill in other respects , are in the humble judgment of your petitioners calculated to operate vexatiously and oppressively in the case of the persons of each of the classes applying
at Quarter Sessions , appointing as they do the magistrates to be inqui * sitorsand sole judges of the respectability and the consequent fitness and compentency of the
householders , on whose certificate the application may be made , an ( ^ leaving the applicant himself open to the charges , how heavy or exorbitant soever they may be , which the court may in its discre *
tion impose . Your petitioners object lastly to the Bill as containing no provisions in respect to some of their Dissenting brethren not of the ministerial profession , who with competent ability , with unimpeachable characters and with motives of
Untitled Article
340 Toleration Act ,
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1811, page 340, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2417/page/20/
-