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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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probably excite the admiration and regret of , your readers , as they have wine . A due consideration of them may operate as a caution against the reprehensible conduct which they e » vince , and be of essential service to
society in the way of instruction and advice . A preacher of unpopular doctrines having been appointed to harangue a congregation from the rostrum on such subjects as his and their sentiments of religion warranted him to
do , took occasion in his primary address , or in one very soon after his inauguration , to assure them that he would never be deterred from speaking- out what he deemed true , without restraint or reserve , let who would b ^ offended at his freedom , or accuse him
of his carrying * speculation to excess and extravagance . Having given an ample outline of the topics on which he meant to insist , he declared his intention , in the most solemn manner * of never declining to discuss them as occasion might offer , and to confirm
them by arguments the most convincing that should suggest themselves to him , and in language the most explicit and forcible he could . adopt . But not content with the most positive and unrestricted asseveration of his purpose , he concluded with
affirming in the exact form of words used by those who bind themselves by the awful sanction of an oath , that he would uniformly preach in the manner he had described , " So help him , God I" It is unnecessary to say precisely where or when this was done ; suffice it to observe that it was in a
large manufacturing town , before a considerable and not unenlightened audience , and by a young man who had enjoyed the advantages of a learned education of the second class , and who was himself no mean proficient in biblical lore and general knowledge . A second instance of a voluntary and uncalled-for use of the same form
is still so fresh in the recollection of the public , that it will not be requisite to allude to it in more than a few words . It was at the close of a defence set up by a person of respectable family , who stood at the bar of justice charged with the perpetration of a deliberate and barbarous murder * He had accumulated a variety of instances professing to be taken from
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the Accords of crirninal law , froui wbfch * it appeared that mere cifcttrki .. stantial evidence against a prisoned was not td be relied on so as to jnsi tify a condemnatory verdict , even when it assumed the most specious
and plausible aspect . ~ J > istrnsting ; however , the operation of this address on the minds of the jury , he appealed 3 k the most confident manner to the Searcher of hearts in support of his innocence , and declared in the firmest
and most determined tone , that he was guiltless of the crime laid to his charge , " So help him , God !" The third instance is still more recent than the one just mentioned , and
the impression it made upon many minds ' Was- more deep , and probably will be more lasting , than that made by the preceding * cases . A prince of royal blood , pleading the eventual scriipJesof his conscience , should he
ever succeed to the throne , and lamenting * the safferfri ^ which the agitation of a certain -question had excited in the bosorri $ ; Ws | venerable sire , assured the august * as&etbl / ly to which he had presented & petition from aclerical btfdy against the claims
of Catholic Chrtsft ^ ns , that for bis part lie nfeve * wotiltT concede those ctainVs , that he ; ivottlH Oppose them npon evc ! ry ocbi ^ ron of their assertion , and that he would invariably refuse his concurrence with every proposition of this son , "So help him , God I" It is very singular that three such very dissimilar characters should , upon three very dissimilar occasions , agree in this one point of having recourse to the language of an oath m confirmation of their purposes and intentions , thus overlooking the prohibition of the divine law , which
requires men to " let their yea be yea , and their nay , nay , " and solemnly pronounces in regard to antijudicial proceedings at least , " that whatever is more than this cometli of evil . "
The preacher ' s act reminds one of the offence which Henry the Seventh alleged against a noblerpan by whom he had been entertained , namely , that " of violating his laws in hfe very presence . " . , . ; w ¦ r-: r' .-. t - " tlic
Whatever may < $ &' i > lead ^ d extenuation of thfc ^^^ % f ciiflrfnai ground ^ ^ niii ^ ii ^ ng Und d&P seated love of JJ # , Itt Wte «? # d i *? fy no words em * # pre * f « the horrid eiibr-
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396 \ «« So help , m * 9 God > "
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1825, page 396, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2538/page/12/
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