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Untitled Article
the repeal of thflse falsely-imagined bulwaAs of the Ciwtfeh * and whie& were very early p * it upon record in A Protest , by several noble Lords , against the rejection of a clause for takiiig Dissenters out of their operation , in the first session after the Revolution . *
• The following are the principal heads of this interesting document , extracted from a collection of the Lords' Protests , Vol . I . pp . 121—123 . " 1 st . Because it gives great part of the Protestant freemen of England reason to complain of inequality and hard usage ,
when they are excluded from public employments by a law , and also , because it deprives the King and kingdom of divers men fit and capable to serve the public in several stations , and that for a mere scruple of conscience , which can by no means render them suspected , much less disaffected , to the government .
" 2 dly . Because hie Majesty * as the common and indulgent father-of his people , having expressed an earnest desire of liberty for tender consciences to his Protestant subjects ; aud my Lords the Bishops having , divers of them , on several occasions professed an inclination , and owned the reasonableness of such a
Christian temper ; we apprehend it will raise suspicions in men ' s minds of something different from the case of religion or the public , or a design to heal our breaches , when they fiml that , by confining secular employ merits to ecclesiastical couformity ,. those are shut out from civil
affairs whose doctrine and worship may be tolerated by authority of Parliament , there being a Bill before us by order of the House to that purpose ; especially wheu , without this exclusive rigour , the Cliarch its secured in all her privileges and preferments , nobody being hereby let into them who is not strictly conformable .
" 4 thly . Because it turns the edge of a law ( we kirow not by what fate ) upon Protestants and friends to the government , which was intended agitinst Papists , to exclude them from places of trust , as meu avowedly dangerous to our religioti
and government ; and thus the taking the sacrament , which was enjoined only as a means to discover Papists , is now made a wattnguishing duty amongst Protestants , * ° Weaken the whole by casting off a part ° f them .
Sthly . Because mysteries of religion and divine worship are of divine original , » nd © f a nature so wholly distant from | be secular affairs of public society , that jjjey cannot be applied to those ends ; and there fore , the Church , by the law of the
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Bat amongst the opponents of the more recent applications of the Bisgospel , as well as common prurience * ought to take care not to offend eit ^ r tender conscien ces withia itself , ot give offence to those without , by mixing tnieit sacred mysteries with secular interests , " 6 thly . Because vve cannot see hoW it can consist with the law of God ,
common equity , or the right of any rree-bom subject , that anyone be panfehed without a crime : if it be a crime uot to take the sacrament accordiag to the usage of the Church of Rnglacid , every one ought to be punished for it , which nobody affirtng ; if it be no crime , those who are capable and judged fit for employ meats by the
King , ought not to be punished with a law of exclusion , for not doing that which it is no crime to forbear : if it be urged still , as an effectual test to discover and keep out Papists , the taking the saetament in those Protestant congreg&tidrttf Where they arc members and known , will be at least as effectual to that purpose . "
J subjoin an extract from Mr . Beaofby " * long and able speech upon his application for the Repeal of the Test arid Corporation Acts in 1787 , as reported in E > o < te «* ley ' s Annual Register for that year , p , llfu "The former act , which passed in tfe § year l /> 72 , at a moment when the first minister of state and the
presumptive heir to the crown were professed Papists , and the king himself generally believed to be one in secret , bears the express title of " An Act for preventing Dangers which may happen from Popisft Recusants . " The minister , Lord Clifford * who was a Catholic , attempted-to persuade the Dissenters to oppose the Mil *
as subjecting them to penalties , wn <* confessedly were not in any res'fltegt tfeg objects of the law . The Dissenters , drt the contrary , through the mot » th of Alderman Love , member tor the t&ty > declared , that in a time of public winger +
when delay might be fatal , tfoey Wottfd not impede the progress of a frill VvfrtcH was thought essential to the safety of the kingdom , but would trust to the t ^ ood faith , the justice and humanity of Parliament , that a bill for tho relief of the Dissenter * should afterwards be
passed . The Lords and Commons' admitted , without hesitation ! , the equity of the claim , and accordingly passed # btll soon after for their relief ; but its' success was defeated by the sudden prdrogation of Parliament . A secofir ^ bill ^ vafc brought in , m the year 1680 , and pastied both Houses ; but while it lay ready for the Royal assent , King Charles the Second , who was much exasperated with th *
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The fronconformktt . Ho . XXIV , % & \
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1822, page 131, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2510/page/3/
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