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Untitled Article
fJSfe * ilfcaf , HdW happens it that these ~ t 49 i $ tflasses enjoy this high privilege , iflftffle other classes equally respectable ) Sb ttot ? And is there any justice in | Sftfitirig so partial a favor r To the nftt ( question it can only be replied , ij k ^ h as happened , because these two ljfrge' bodies of men have stood up fmnly for their rights , and would not fcu \> mit to any of the ceremonies of the dlfckblished church ; and because gowrnment men were aware that if
tlfese people were to be compelled to V $ flate their consciences , in orde * to l ^ &piH ze their marriages , they must incvTtably lose the whole body of th ^ m , arlfr all the advantages of a political atjjii social nature which are derived to tnra country by their residing within i tf ~ "i't is much to be regretted that
tBreact was suffered to pass with so ' eOttrteo ' u ' s a silence on the part of the 'otfifer Dissenters , in which no provftidh was made for them . For what possible reason can be assigned , Why two classes of dissentients fron > the established church
should follow the dictates of conscience in so high a civil concern , however respectable we must acknowledge them to 'be , while to us it is forbicjden ? ^ fi ^ irat possible reason , except on the gfSund of a religious scruple ? and th 4 t religious scruples equally strong do * Wist in the minds of other
Dissenters will appear in our subsequent reinarks ; while if the Quakers and th £ Jews are competent to make registers of their marriage contracts , and in base of need to prove the validity of 8 ut * H engagements , the other dissenters arei equally qualified , and may do it wflftt as much safety to the state and to
the ' pubhc at large . When the District Meetings of the u rifted Dissenters took place in the y < £ fir 17 # 9 in all parts of England , th&e were three objects in their view : To ^ bbtain the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts , which was their
principal object ; to obtain the repeal tof ^ the penal laws relative to religious prfifBssions , and to get an emendation pf the Marriage Act ^ It was thought fx ^ edient , in consecju ^ vice of circumstarl ^ s which then occurred , to drop the design of those meeting . But , ^ o jfriuch is tli e spirit of the trmfcs improved , ' ' and so much are the minds of the men of tajent and' authority in , ouf *' country enn&hC £ ned' since that ^ M ^ Wffimm obtectf
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* •* has been obtained in the triost gentle and gratifying manner , in a manner highly honourable . to the feelings arn ^ the liberality of our houses of parlia , nient . The penal laws against certain religious opinions and professions , are no longer a disgrace to our Statute Book : that which was an offence to a :
respectable and valuable body of- tim subjects of these realms has been i ? eK moved , without the safety of the Statfc . being even supposed to be endangered . Now , whatever opinion may be entertained of the Test and Corporation Acts , of the merit of which I am not
now going to inquire ; the question of the Marriage Ceremony stands exactly on the same ground as that of the penal laws . To the Government of Jhis country it cannot be a matter of the smallest consequence in what way Dissenters form their marriage
contract 3 nor can they wish the established clergy to be engaged in the celebration of that rite which unites a man to a woman until death , any more than in that which unites an infant to the Christian Church , or which
consigns a human being to the land of fprgetfulness . We are allowed to bury our dead and to baptise our children , and our registers of such acts are received as legal documents , why may we not also marry our young people by such rite as we shall approve , and give ; our legal certificate of auch a
marriage ? Great objections are made against the marriage ceremony itself as it is performed in oqr churches , because , although in point of fact it is a civil
contract , it has been made by the lawa of our land a religious rite , —thus completely changing its character and design , for no other purpose than to make it a source of wea th to the
established clergy ; for admitting that there is a propriety in a public avowal of a marriage contract in the society of religious professors to which the parties belong , according to the practice of both Jews and Quakers in this country , yet we hare the greatest ground of complaint to our legislature of the service itself we are compelled to g <* through when entering into wedded life . In the very exordium of tjhat servic * we are struck with the following abr
$ urdity—" that matrimony is a honourable state , instituted by God in the time € > £ jma $ * s innocency , signifying unto us the mystical union that " b *?
Untitled Article
Wf $ Jiff * . JPbrstejfi'dh the Marring * Ce * efntsny . 4
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1816, page 210, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2451/page/22/
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