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than of that Church which rose vvith a beautiful simplicity in the regions of J « - dea and of Galilee . ** — Pp , 81 , 82 .
Lect . V . is " On the Principle on which Establishments are necessarily formed : a View of that of England . " Here the Lecturer states " the principal objections to an established form of worship , and to established creeds and catechisms . " as follows :
< That such an establishment implies a right in some one to interfere with the religious opinions of the people , aud to dictate to them the doctrines of belief and forms of worship which they shall follow—a privilege which the Scriptures give to every one for himself , and to no one for another .
" That it makes a provision for its own clergy out of the revenues of the whole community , whether they benefit by the institution or not—and thus lays a tax upon the people which no principle of civil law can justify . * ' That it demands assent and consent
to all and every thing it teaches—which is an arrogant claim impossible to be complied with . " That it imposes ministers upon the congregations , not only without the approbation and choice of those who are to hear and to pay them , but even in direct opposition to their will . 44
That those ministers so appointed are not permitted to study the Scriptures for themselves , and to teach what the Scriptures command ; but are compelled , at the risk of losing their very means of subsistence , to confine themselves to the doctrines of the Church established , and of course often to declare what in their
consciences they believe to be false . And ' * That the boasted argument in defence of establishments , the necessity of preserving Uniformity of faith and preventing difference of opinion , which has
in former ages been the only support of the Papal Chair , is altogether futile ; no such effect ever having been produced , and no such effect possible tp be produced . "—Pp . 107 , 108 .
Of the " tax upon the people" for religious purposes , Mr . Worsley says , < c We are required to pay a tax upon every article of foreign commerce , if we choose to have the pleasure or the advantage of the use of it . We are required
even to pay for the light from heaven , if it pass through well-accommodated windows for our use . But , if we think proper to live without the light of heaven in our houses , arid without the articles of foreign commerce on our tables , we are wot compelled to pay for them ; and that
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would be called a most unjust government , which constrained its subjects to pay for these articles when they have no
occasion to use them .. Yet thus do all those governments act , who lay a tax upon the community for the support of their own Ministers of Religion;—a tax of the most inconsistent and offensive kind —because they call themselves the distributors of the Light of Revelation , which
was given not to them tout to us all alike ; and they compel us to pay liberally for a share of it to light us to heaven , when it is our firm belief and our honest persuasion , that it is a false light which they offer for sale , a light that came not from heaven , and is not able to shew us the way to it . "—Pp . 90 . 91 .
He relates , but without giving nis authority , an anecdote of Dr . Busby , to shew the little inclination of the heads of the Church , " that the young men who receive the honours of the University should be instructed in the Christian Religion /*
C Dr . Busby , a celebrated master of one of the public schools in London , who well knew with what tincture of religion young men went from him to College , offered to found two Lectures , with an endowment of a hundred a-year each , for instructing the under-graduates in the rudiments of the Christian Religion ; re-1
quiringthat they should be compelled to attend the Lectures , and be examined in their knowledge of its doctrines and precepts , and approved of , before they could take the degree of Bachelor of Arts . But this condition being rejected by both Universities , the offer was rejected likewise , and the grant withheld . "—P , 93 . Note .
Lect . VI . is < On the History and Examination of Creeds and Catechisms . " In a note , p . 121 , the author gives us an amusing table of Doxologies , in two columns , one
containing" Scripture Doxologies and the other Church Doxologies ; at the end of which he naturally exclaims—" For what possible reason can men thus invariably forsake the words of Scripture , to adopt those of no one knows
whom I" There is reference m another note , p . 125 , to "A Letter to the Lord Bishop of St . David's ^ containing Remarks on his Introduction to the Doctrine of the Trinity and to the Athanasian Creed , by a
Clergyman of the Church of England , " which is reviewed , Mon . Repos . X . 590 This Letter , which is justly styled
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Review . —fForsley ' s Uecture * on Nonconformity . 415
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1824, page 415, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2526/page/31/
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