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the Wolverhampton deed , upon which so much stress was laid , as evidencing the intention of the founders to establish a society to which the Toleration Act extended , and consequently excluding necessarily any Antichristian . worship . We have no doubt our readers , on perusal , would come to the same conclusion as he does , —that
66 The only evidence which this clause supplies , is , that the persons who inserted it in the deed , had still in their remembrance ( how could they indeed ever forget them ?) the prohibitions and proscriptions of the preceding times , the suppression of all opinion and worship apart from those of the Established Church . " —P . 33 .
" The Society at Wolverhampton , ' he proceeds , " was once Trinitarian r , its first members were Trinitarians : it is now a Unitarian congregation . Jt has " become such through the prevalence of error among its members . No bodv of Unitarians from
another society has forcibly invaded and taken possession of the place but the present profession has sprung- up and acquired its strength in the original soil , precisely as other errors have predominated in places once pure in profession . Antinomianism
in like * manner has changed the face of * many religious societies- and Antinomianism is surely an error of the worst kind . Is the latter to be cured by either attaching * illegality to the persons who profess it , or by expelling them from the situations in which another doctrine was once
maintained , that is now subverted by their anti-evang-elical creed ? Every person acquainted with the writings of the Nonconformist divines , knows , that many of them entertained the strongest possible aversion to Armiiiianisui , against which they manifest the greatest hostility , classing it with
Arianism , Socinianism , Deism , and even Atheism . Not a doubt can be felt respecting their opposition to the introduction of Arininian sentiments into the congregations of which they were the pastors , and , in
connexion with others , the founders . Bat if , in any particular case , it sbould be proved , as it is believed it easily might , that the minister and congregation who have succeeded seriatim these professors of high Calvinism , are , in sentiment , jmore nearly allied to the Arminianism which their predecessors abhorred , than to the rig-id
Calvinism which they avowed ; will it be contended that they ouglit to l ) e expelled by a legal interference from the place which they occupy ? 1 could refer to Several cases of unquestionable deviation in religious opinions , in the present occupants of meeting-houses , professors of evangelical principles , from the tenets as-* erfced by the original worshipers ; and
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these societies , according * to the doctrine of the nine ministers , are to be ejeeted on account of these differences ! What becomes then of religious freedom ?"—pp 38 , 39 . u number of persons professing Unitarian principles , unite in erecting a place of worship : in the course of ti ure , the-congregation assembling * in the place as regular successors of tfce original occupants , become , on tlie conviction of their own minds , of different sentiments , and avow the
doctrines usually held by Trinitarians . WiJJ it be contended , that they should be cast out as the unworthy occupiers of the place ? What principle , I should be glad to learn , would require their forcible expulsion ? What right , I wish to know , would any persons hare to interfere with the ehange , and discharge the congregation from the
occupancy of the premises ? If this be good reasoning , as applied to a change from Unitarianisai to Trinitarianism , it is equally good when applied to a change oi a contrary description . And whatever may be the feeling of persons who can
allow themselves to expound religious opinions according to the common law , it is the only reasoning which a man , understanding the nature of religion and the means of supporting it , will permit himself to use .
" The same reasoning applies to other cases . It is of no importance in the consideration of the question under discussion , whether the change be in doctrine or in rites ; whether it be a difference of great or of minor consequence : that it be a
deviation from the original constitution of a religiows society , is sufficient . A pagoda built for Hindoo worship , can never , it seems , be used for Christian devotion ; a Mohammedan mosque mtist remain in statu qnOy and can never be purified for the use of the followers of Christ . The
chantries founded by the lords and knights and dames of other days , with good a llowances to the priest for saying daily mass , must be revived ; and creeds and aves and paternosters , must be repeated for the repose of Christian souls . Monasteries must be raised from their ruins ; abbeys must again elevate their pioud heads ; and the followers of St » Francis and St . Benedict
crowd to » their restored habitations . " If many societies once Trinitarian are now Unitarian , it is also true that many societies , a considerable number of the old Dissenting * congregations , were oncePiesjbyterian . I could give a list of places ,
now before me , the title-deeds of which specify , that the property which they are intended to secure , shall be for the use of Presbyterians . ' These places are now in the hands of Independents , who , according to the very elegant representation of the authors of the ' ReplyS < hare witU
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714 Review . —Case of the Old Meeting House , Wolverhampttin .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1818, page 714, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2482/page/50/
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