On this page
-
Text (3)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
fitehce feH in regard to Mr . Adam an his associates , and & determination to take active measures for their aid * We would gladly publish the minutes of this discussion , which we hate before us j but we must again
regret titir want of room . The resolutions w 6 re unanimously adopted ; arid a comrdittee , consisting of the several ministers , and one layman from each of tlie Unitarian societies of Boston ; vras appointed for carryingthem into effect . They hkve not yet reported their success : "
Untitled Article
have had more respect for holidays than for it . This , while it struck no less deeply against the interest than it affected the piety of the Puritan ministry , whose influence in the community depended on very different principles from an attention to rites ,
meats and vestments , was particularly calculated to gratify the ambition of the ruling party , since it implied a most extensive authority in th § church—in other words , the prelates f and , besides teaching the people how inadequate they were to form any
judgment upon doctrinal points , ever reminded them of the authority which appointed the regular periods of worship , and prepared them for the reception of all the ideas connected with particular days- The Book of Sports had been published
in the preceding reign ; but there had been an express statute passed in the first of this reign against plays * sports , &c , on Sunday ; yet a declaration enjoining * them was now
ordered to be read by every minister , while extemporary prayers , nay , preaching * too , were prohibited . The measure excited general consternation : as it was intended for a test of uniformity , so it was esteemed ; and indeed was
nothing short of demanding" that the popular clergy should , besides doin ^ violence to their consciences , be themselves the instruments of their own ruin in the public
opinion-Many , though with much heart-burning , complied ; hundreds were , as we have said , silenced , suspended , deprived , or obliged to leave the kingdom for a refusal . The spirit with which many complied with it may be conceived from the remark of one .
who , having read the declaration , said , ' Dearly beloved , you have now heard the commandments of God and man—obey which you please / Another , having read it , preached upon the fourth commandment . Mr , Hume
ascribes the Book of Sports to the king * s desire to infuse more cheerfulness into his people ; but it is very unfortunate that this elegant historian had never thought it worth his while to study the subject . Charles was not so insane as to make men
mad by an injudicious attempt to compel them to be merry—against the statute law too . Laud , after reluting in his Diary an accident thafc
Untitled Article
Book of Sports . 597
Untitled Article
Book of Sports , MR . BRODIE in his " History of the British Empire /'* having alluded to the Book of Sports , as jt is called , gives the following account of
it , II . 377—380 : " The Christian church had , from the earliest times , set apart the first day of the week as sacred ; but as it was a different day , so it was held to be a different institution , from the
Jewish Sabbath ;> and entitled to reverence merely as an appointment of the church , ( which was empowered by Heaven to make such regulations , ) not as a direct obedience to the fourth commandment . Many of the reformers , however , regarded it in a
different light , and observed the Sabbath with all imaginable strictness . The Puritan clergy now carried the sanctity of the Sabbath to the greatest height ; and devoted that day to preaching , and to extemporary or
pulpit prayers after the litany . Their hearers frequently permitted the service to be over before they entered the church . The grand object of Land and his party , however , being
m a manner to supersede preachingand lecturing , and , above all , the preaching of those who did not cheerfolly join him an his innovations , it was conceived to be necessary , to lessen the reverence for the Lord ' s-day , t 0
mure the people to sports ., that they be withdrawn from sermons , and to impress upon the general mind wat Sunday was exactly in the same s rtuation with other holidays appoint-! yy the church , and that to regard I ln any other light was an unparuonable impiety . Laud seems to * ' ¦ » ' _ ... ¦¦
1 —»— ¦ -f ^ - im - i- m . _ . i iTii i i- _ i , - | __ — mim n * mm * Four vols , 8 vo . 1822 .
Untitled Article
vo xxi . A n
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1826, page 597, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2553/page/25/
-