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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.
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communicated Dissenter I This j $ npj an uncharitable prognostication , but is grounded upon fact and experience . By the statute 6 and 7 William III ., duties were imposed upon marriages , births and burials , for carrying on the war against France with vigour and by
the 24 th section , persons in holy orders , deans , parsons , &c , were , for better levying those duties , directed within their respective parishes , and to take an exact and true account , and keep a register in writing of all persons married , buried , christened or born , under a penalty of jglOO .
By another Act , passed in the following year , ( 7 and 8 William III . c . 35 , ) after reciting that divers children , who were born within this kingdom , were not christened according to the rites and ceremonies of the Church of
England , and many were christened in private houses , nor were the parents of such children obliged to give notice to their respective ministers , of the births of such children , for want whereof an exacc register of all persons born was not kept , and many persons chargeable with the duties
escaped payment : for remedy thereof it was enacted , that the parents of every child which should be born during the continuance of the Acts should , within five days after such birth , give notice to the rector , vicar , curate or clerk of the parish , of the day of the ui oi ciuiu
uu sucn , unuer penalty at 40 « s \ , the which rector , &c , \ v ; is required to take an exact and true account , and keep a distinct register of all persons so born and not christened , for a fee of 6 d . , under a penalty of 4 () a- .
It is wonderful that a regulation of so much political utility should be made dependant upon the continuance of a paltry tax ; but , at any rate , we possess in these expired Acts that allimportant allv , a precedent , in
attempting , at some convenient opportunity , to impose on the clergy the duty of registering the births of ^ 11 children within their parishes , without distinction of sect , or at least to press upon them the alternative of performing efficiently the office of public
registrars , or ot relinquishing it altogether . It is matter of notoriety , that the Act , passed a few years ago , relative to parochial registers , was rendered very imperfect in its operation through the intolerant scruples of some of the
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clergy , there being , in fact , no pr ©^ sion for recording the date of the natural birth , which is therefore left to other evidence , or to vague pre suma . tion as to the lengtji of the interval
between the birth and baptism . The objections of the clergy on t ^ his point are the more unreasonable , as it ha « been solemnly decided that , according to the canons of their own Church , lay-baptism is as valid as any sprinkling by consecrated fingers .
If this union of the Church and State , of ecclesiastical and civil functions , is like the union of the ivy with the oak , to blast or check all wholesome improvement in the latter , the
more liberal adherents of the Church must admit that the treaty of alliance needs some revision , and that the complaints of their Dissenting fellowsubjects are not , to this extent at least , either selfish , frivolous or vexatious . R . D . ¦¦
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140 Belief of the Patriarch * and Israelites in a Future State .
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»—¦ Sir , IN adverting to the inquiry , so pointedly yet modestly proposed in a former Number , ivhether the ancient Patriarchs and Israelites believed is
a future state it may be observed , first , that the Christian Church in general hath been on the affirmative side of the question ; and though this is not an absolute proof of the fact , yet , in a case which involves no palpable absurdity or contradiction , where it is impossible to prove a negative , and which admits at least of inauv
plausible reasons in its behalf , general consent will operate as a considerable argument in its favour , since it is found , that , in similar circumstances , wise and reflecting incn in all ages have thought nearly alike upon all great and important subjects . If , therefore , under the light of nature
alone , such persons , reasoning from the best ideas tjiey could form of the Divine perfections and character , from the present state of man , his fears and his hopes , his desires of continued existence , and hie anticipations ot futurity ; principles whicfr are not confined to the learned and acute , but
are to be found , iji different degrees , in the lowest and most degraded ionns of human society , and which will bid defiance to all the opponents of i ^ " ral reli gion , whether sceptic ? or ultrabelievers , to the end of time : if fr ° m
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1822, page 140, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2510/page/12/
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