On this page
-
Text (1)
-
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
A reply is made , with much spirit to the chief points in the Bishop of Peterborough ' s Charge . The distinction between the actual possession of power , and the eligibility to offices of trust and honour , has scarcely ever been attended to by the opposers of the Catholic claims . To judge from the generality of the pamphlets that have been written , and the charges and speeches that have been delivered on the subject , we might suppose that the Catholics were seeking for nothing less than the actual transfer of all political and ecclesiastical power from the established sect to themselves .
" Neither do we ask , " says our author , " as the Bishop of Peterborough would imply , for offices of trust and power ; these the sovereign must always withhold or bestow at his pleasure : we ask only for those rights which belong to us in virtue of the constitution of our country ; for eligibility to office ; for those privileges which belong" to our respective states ; for that liberty to serve our fellow-subjects which all others of our own class in the commonwealth possess ; in fine , for that , and that alone , which we should enjoy were we not Koman Catholics . "
The hollow pretence of neutrality in the Cabinet , on the important question of Catholic Emancipation , is well exposed . While it is evident to all , that no man , how eminent soever he may be for piety , for talents , for virtues , can ever hope to arrive at preferment in the Church if he is favourable to emancipation , it is a mockery to talk of neutrality . The twenty-six bishops , with one truly honourable exception , throw their votes into the
opposite scale ; would this have been the case had the Cabinet been in reality what it has pretended to be , neutral ? The spirit of hostility to the Catholic claims is chiefly fostered b y the clergy , and as long as all ecclesiastical preferment is _ carefully reserved for anti-catholics , it may be justly said that the spirit of hostility in the clergy is entirely fostered and encouraged by the ministry , which yet pretends to neutrality .
But we proceed to his Lordshi p ' s reasons for not taking the test , for not conforming to the Established Church , and for not deserting the ancient faith . The oaths and declarations required of members of Parliament call upon them to declare , " that no foreign prelate hath or ought to have any spiritual jurisdiction or pre-eminence within this realm , " whereas his Lordship says , that he solemnly and sincerel y declares , and is ready to attest with an oath , that he firmly and trul y believes in the primacy of
the successor of St . Peter as regulated b y the usages and canons of the Catholic Church . The usual texts from Scripture are alleged to prove the spiritual supremacy supposed to have been conferred by our Saviour on St . Peter , and the usual assertion is put forward that St . Peter is always mentioned in Scripture in a manner that marks his pre-eminence over the other apostles . But it is only a spiritual supremacy ^ vhich the author asserts , an authority over the clergy of his own church to see that they preach only what the Romish church believes , and that authority only to be exercised " in the manner prescribed by the acts of general councils and the canons of the church . " But this interferes not in his view with
pbedience to magistrates and rulers in tempqral afjfairs , ar * d therefore ought lifib tp be atty impediment to the enjoyment of temporal privileges or bo&pws . - ' His Lordship is firmly convinced of the necessity of continuing a supreme head in the church , and is much alarmed M at those mad and foolish heresies" which ha , ve sprung u . r _ > since the Reformation . We cannot think with hin * " that the , } } x * re like porous plants , antf have bwirfj ^ $ P W # i * & $ & wholesome fruit from those portions of the garden of Cltfktiflttrty i » whkfl
Untitled Article
462 Review . —Lord Shrewsbury's Reasons .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1828, page 462, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2562/page/30/
-