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Untitled Article
to state it is to pronounce their justification *' For example , the Act of Uniformity required such of them as had not received episcopal ordination to be
a * e-ordained by a bishop . Now , to have submitted to this demand * would not only have been at variance with their confirmed opinion of the office of bishop and presbyter , as laid down in the New Testament , but would
also have been a confession that their previous miaiistry ( in a great number of persons , the ministry of a long and active life , ) had been a continued irregularity and usurpation . How could
they stoop to this degradation , without forfeiting , besides their own approbation , the esteem and confidence of their respective flocks , on whose estimate of their characters depended the success of their labours !
Again , the Act of Uniformity extorted a public declaration from all the clergy of unfeigned assent and consent , to all and every thing contained in the Book of Common Prayer . So extravagant is this demand , the size of the book and its multifarious
contents , the work of men of different minds , in periods when contradictory principles prevailed , being considered , that many subterfuges ha \ e been discovered by casuists , in order to evade the plain meaning of the law j and without these , it is not probable that
any considerable number of men , even in these lax times , could be found to conform openly to the church . But no such expedients occurred , or would have been allowed ^ to the clergy in I 662 . The meaning of the legislators was certain ; and an artful course had
been adopted , with regard to the Presbyterians , which reduced them to the alternative of nonconformity or deep dishonour : they had been drawn into public controversy just before the Act was passed , and pressed to explain and defend their objections to the ritual and rubric of the church :
they were then dismissed , and the statute compelled them to abide , as honest men , by their previous declarations , or to subsciribe their own indelible-disgrace . Nor was this all : the Book of Common Prayer , to which entire assent and consent was to foe
acknowledged , was referred to the bishops for revision and correction ; &t * d it is an- historical fact , that the
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anew edition w&& published only fm the eve of Bartholomew Day $ so that very few of the clergy could possibly have read th @ 'book » which they were obliged to profess before God and man to approve in every iota *
Once more ; by the Act of Uniformity , the clergy were compelled to subscribe and declare ,, that it is not lawful 9 upon any pretence whatsoever , to take arms against the King ? i . e . the Presbyterians amongst them
were required , as the condition of retaining their benefices , to acknowledge themselves rebels in resisting the illegal exactions of Charles I . . and , in opposing his attempt to govern without a Parliament . This was aft
unexampled act of tyranny . The most arbitrary rulers had been hitherto content with enforcing obedience and submission , and had never entertained the wish to force their slaves into the hypocrisy of asserting thatP in their consciences , they loved tyranny and hated freedom * Had not
a considerable body of our ancestors opposed this execrable doctrine and profligate demand , is it too much to assert , that the constitution of England would have been broken up and buried under a despot ' s throne ! The Revolution of 1688 , which in fact and in theory declared passive obedience and non-resistance to be
contrary to the spirit of the constitution , was in reality a justification of the memorable 2000 , who , twenty-six years before , had , with immense sacrifices ., maintained the true constitutional principles . *
On either of these grounds , but especially the last , the Two Thousand Confessors , stand justified and honoured in the eye of reason . Their splendid example has associated non-* I use the words constitution and
constitutional ^ to express those fundamental political principles to which all the great acts of the English people ^ whenever they have stood forward to check or reform their government , are referable . The
constitution is the Lex non scripta , which all our great statesmen have acknowledged and revered , the leading- feature of which is , that ours is a commonwealth , under a monarch of our choice . To make the
constitution the whole body of existing statutes is a modern Segal refinement ; sa symptom of bod times , and a plea for bad measures .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1818, page 44, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2472/page/44/
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