Current:

Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 1828, Edition 1 of 1, Page 469, Untitled Article

Page 469
Page 37
37 of 80

On this page

  • Text (1)

      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.

    • Untitled Article

      Untitled Article

  • 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

      may serve God at home with godly servants and other people . I am for the observation of a day as much as any man ; and though there were no precept for it , every man by nature is tiea to it . I would have it adjourned . " —Pp . 266—268 .

      In the same month there is much and earnest debating on the subject of the oath of Government to be administered to His Highness , and of the oath to be imposed on the people . < c Colonel Sydenham . This is a new motion to me , so you will pardon me if I speak without premeditation . I am confident it is made with a good

      intention . As to that of an oath , this nation has had no great settlement by oaths . We ought to be tender in such cases . I had rather live under a magistrate that is under no oath . If it once begin , it will go through . Some , haply , will stick at nothing ; others will be left behind . There will be a great discrimination .

      " . Promissory oaths to me are not so safe . How often have governments been well thought on for a time , and afterwards pulled up ! To swear to things that are so alterable ! It is said they bind but to honest things ; a Parliament may alter it . If it bind not as to that , I pray what does it bind to t L doubt it will prove a stumbling-block . I wish I may be a very false prophet ,

      that you may not find it a snare to the people of God . I wish it may be my single opinion . If you will have an oath , I would have it congruous to former , oaths . I doubt it will otherwise be but to appoint a Committee to ensnare men , good men . I must bear my testimony against it . "—P . 275 .

      "Mr . Highland . I doubt they are oaths that make the land mourn : what need of any more ? His Highness was once sworn as Protector : he is no more , now . After a justice of peace is once sworn , be the commission never so often renewed , he shall swear no more , unless he have been put out . His Highness is not . put out , or deposed . I find not that magistrates in Scripture did often take oaths . His Highness is under as great an obligation as you can tie him to . Your best friends expect no oaths , though it be told you the people expect it . The learned judges attended at that time , and swore his

      Highness . * I know not what you swear him to more . It was their opinion , that they were upon a good foundation . I shall humbly move , no further oaths may be taken by my Lord Protector . "—Pp . 276 , 277-" Colonel Sydenham . We are under a great mistake ; whence it comes , I know not . I onl y spoke to be tender of putting oaths upon his Highness : He is already obliged by an oath . There is never a word in that book , to impose an oath upon Parliaments , or upon the people . I said , I had rather

      be under a magistrate that is under no oath , than have , by an oath , all the nation and people consequently drawn in . I may say , at any time , nay cloak is mine ; but I need not always swear it . His Highness and the Council , upon taking away the Engagement , published a declaration against all oaths . } t was a sad thing of that cavalier who denied a Parliament could do any thing . Answer : They could not make such an oath as he could not swallow . "— -Pp . 278 , 279 .

      " Mr . Bampfield . In all history that I have read , I never found that oaths have been any great tie upon the Chief Magistrate , not to reflect upon all . But if the persons were not bound by a principle of conscience , it will be hard to find that an oath bound . If you see that the tie of conscience , will

      • " ' Many eminent statesmen / says Mr . Herport , * sensible of the abuses of oaths , allow that , under the most reasonable form , the duties implied in . them are hf such extent , as to render the performance of them extremely difficult . Whoever obtains an office , civil or military , must swear to so many particulars of various kinds , and confirm his oath with such imprecations ou himself , as if it was on this Oath , ami not on the coercion of the taws , that the good behaviour of the subjects depended j and this is a mistake common to all governments . '" ¦

      Untitled Article

      Review . —Burton ' s Diary . 469

  • Citation
    • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1828, page 469, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2562/page/37/