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excluded them . The unanimity of this decision was very much owing to the able speech of the Lord Chief Justice Mansfield in favour of the Dissenters . The following year the Lord Chief Justice had another opportunity of distinguishing himself in the cause of
liberality , on occasion of the last prosecution , which has been instituted against a Catholic priest , for performing the duties of that office in this country . The law , on which the informer grounded his prosecution ,
enacted , that every popish priest , who should celebrate mass in this country should be punished with perpetual imprisonment . The informer , though he swore that the man whom he prosecuted had celebrated rnas ^ , could
not himself tell in what mass consisted , and he could give no proof that the person whom he prosecuted was in priests' orders . On these grounds , Lord Mansfield directed the jury lo find a verdict of not guilty .
In the year 177 1 » an association was formed among many of the clergy of the Established Church , to solicit relief in the matter of subscription . It was set on foot in consequence of the publication of the Confessional , by Dr . Blackburne , Archdeacon of Cleveland , the object of which book was to shew ,
that a subscription to the Scriptures was all that ought to be required of any Christian minister . On this ground a petition was presented to Parliament , from 250 , mostly respectable clergymen , and the rest members of the universities , desiring , that both at the ordination of clergymen , and at admission into the universities , a declaration
of belief in the Scriptures might be substituted for subscription to the articles and the book of Common Prayer , and that the Athanasiau Creed and other objectionable parts of the liturgy , might he omitted or altered .
In 1772 , this petition was presented to the Mouse of Commons , but after a warm debate it was rejected . Thus foiled the last attempt at reforming the Church of England . This evewt , however , was productive of very great
advantages . The first consequence of it was , the secession of Mr . JLindsey , Vicar of Gatterick , from the church . He had for some time had great scruples about continuing in the church , having been gradually forming Unitarian opinions . For some time he had
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entertained thoughts of quitting the church , but had been persuaded first to wait the resiilt of this petition to Parliament . •* But , " says he , " I could not satisfy mvself with any softenings and qualifications of the Trinitarian forms in the liturgy . I wondered how I had been able to bring m \ self to
imagine , that I was worshiping the Father in spirit and in truth , while I was addressing two other persons , Cod the Son and God the Holy Ghost , and imploring- favours severally of them , in terms that implied their personality and distinct agency and separate deity , as much as that of the Father . If
invocations so particular , language so express and personal , as that used in the liturgy , might be explained away into prayer to one God only , I might by ihe like supposals and interpretations , bring myself to deify and pray to the Virgin Mary , and maintain that
I was still orrfy praying to the one G od . " If Jesus Christ be a creature , to call him God and to worship him can be nothing less than idolatry . This Trinitarians themselves admit . l * lf ^ says Mr . Whitaker , " the doctrine of the Trinity be false , then are all Who worship Christ guilty of idolatry , of
worshiping a creature along with the Creator , of giving God a partner in his empire and so deposing him from half his sovereignty . * These are the words of a zealous Trinitarian . Surely then it becomes every one who offers divine worship to Jesus , well to consider the grounds upon which he stands . Much more does it become
the decided believer in the proper unity of the great object of worship , to flee from that which , in his own estimation , and even in that of those who are themselves worshipers of Christ , must in him be gross idolatry and disobedience to the express
command of God , as given both by Moses and by Jesus- — " thou shalt worship the Lord thy God , and him only shalt thou serve . " Upon these considerations , which bught to be carefully weighed by all who , I fear , form no small number , who continue to
conform to the Established Church , though they believe that the father of Jesus is the only true God , Mr . Lindsey resigned his living of 4 OO / . a year , not knowing where he was to live , or how he could gain his subsistence , since even among the Dis&enters at that
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A 5 G JBrief History of the Dissenters from the Revolution .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1817, page 456, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2467/page/8/
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