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cuJar prayer * that ; they could not sincerely pray for a family of children , or that they do not consider Rebeccah as au unexceptionable pattern of conjugal fidelity , ( seeing she deceived her husband upon a * very important occasion , ) if these or similar difficulties were made matters of conscience , what answer can you
return , but that such consciences are erroneous , and that the legislature is not bound to consult them ? To every other answer there would be a ready reply , and jt would come at last to this : —that there should be no positive law upon this important subject , but that every couple should be linked together in matrimony , how when , aud where they pleased .
But it will be said that a much simpler remedy has been devised by this I 3 ill ; and having shewn the real nature of the grievance by which it has been produced , J will proceed to consider the
mode of cure which it suggests . In the first place , then , we should remark the great difference which exists between the arguments and the enactments of the gentleman who has introduced this Bill . He dates his troubles
from the 26 th of George II . contending that in the interval which elapsed between the passing of the Toleration-Act and the Marriage-Act , Unitarians might marry as seemed good in their own eyes . The obvious and very simple remedy to which such reasoning leads , would be to repeal so much of the Marriage-Act as relates to Dissenters from the Church
and to leave such persons as they were before their grievances commenced . If they are certain , as they pretend to be , that they could have solemnized lawful matrimony out of the Church before the Act of the 26 th of George II ., why do not they petition to be restored to that envied and advantageous situation ? They admit that their forefathers did not
remonstrate against the Marriage-Act ; which is a pretty plain proof that their forefathers were married in the Church , for if they had been accustomed to solemnize marriage in their meetiug-houses , the alteration would never have been submitted to in silence . But the present
generation have discovered that their forefathers were in the wrong ; that they ought to have been , and might have been coupled together in their conventiclesand that it is the Marriage-Act , and nothing but the Marriage-Act , which gives them
so much trouble . If so , they should Propose a general exemption from its enactments ; and the preseat Bill is enough j o satisfy us that they dare not trust l neir own arguments , or do not understand their own grievances , * a the second f > laqe , the . proposal to ° om certain ravages in the Marriage
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Ceremony , although it is smoothed Q ¥£ r in rounded periods as a alight innovation , is sufficient not merely to degrade md disgrace , but to destroy the Ckurch of England . Her Book of Common Prayer , her Rites and Ceremonies , and Article * , are her own , not yours * They were
drawn up in her Convocations under the authority of her Bishops , and proceeded from spiritual , * iot from temporal authority . Parliament adopted them and gave them the support of the civil power ; and of course the same Parliament might have rejected , or may now repeal them . * But the object of the present Bill 13 to
alter the rites of the Church , without giving her a voice on the occasion . There is no saying what Parliament , in its le > - gislative omnipotence , may not do . But you will overset every precedent in existence , you will violate the spirit and principles of the constitution , if you
pretend to turn this House into a synod or council , and waste your time in what you do not understand , the discussion and the formation of Creeds , and Rites , and Rubrics . The king , as head of the Church , may appoint commissioners to take the subject into consideration . The
Convocation may re-assume its ancient functions . But , until the Convocation has agreed to the proposed amendments , Parliamentary interference is tyranny and usurpation . The Church of England has been reproached , by its various adversaries , with being an Act-of-Parliament Church . The Papist has done this in hi *
zeal for the power of the Pope ; and the Puritan , in his affected attachment to the privileges of the people , has imitated the example . But up to this hour the imputation is scandalous and false . I trust you will not entertain a Bill by which the opprobrious epithet would be justified and confirmed .
And if you do entertain it , consider the consequences of such a step . As I said before , with respect to the scruples of an ill-informed conscience , where will you stop ? Have we not innumerable sub-divisions of fanaticism and folly , of vice and unbelief ; and may we not be
told by the advocates of each , that some little modification of a Rite , or a Ceremony , would remove their scruples and promote their welfare ? Give a Clergyman your commands to omit all the Collects and all the Creeds , the Litanies and the Graces , the Prayers and the Praises of
? The repeal of the Act of Uniformity would not be so violent a measure as fihat which has been introduced by Mr . Smith : as Churchnaen would then b * Itft at liberty to use their own forms . Mr . Smith proposes to forbid them .
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u Christian Remembrancer" on the Umtarwn Mar * iag& * &itt * 9 &Z
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1822, page 357, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2513/page/37/
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