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    > The interpolation of " the oracles of God , " is an offence quite as heinous as the wilful mutilation of them : and in both cases we must be understood as alluding to an act of the will—to more than even blameable inadvertency . Now Biblical Criticism is eminently and strictly impartial .

    This criticism exists , and is instituted for us all . If it expose and condemn mutilations , erasures , and alterations , ( we mean such as are made without and against evidence , ) it equally condemns the additions , the interpolations , which man ' s poor wisdom has superinduced on the original narrative , argument , and declaration ; and this , whether the tenets of Unitarian Christians or those of Trinitarian Christians be concerned .

    It has afforded us pleasure to observe that the present Bishop of Lichneld and Coventry gives his parliamentary suffrage in favour of the relief of those of his fellow-subjects who think themselves aggrieved by the Marriage Act , as it now stands . The broad principle of religious freedom , is the firmest basis on which that relief can be solicited or afforded . This

    excellent person , therefore , whose good opinion all who know him must be desirous of conciliating , and who is conspicuously a stranger to the pomp as well as ** pride of prelacy , " will allow us to regret that , as the advocate of the prayer of the petitioners , he lays greater stress on a kind of odium theologicum than on tne intrinsic and palpable justice of the case . His words are these :

    " Their attempts to obtain Parliamentary exemption from the necessity of participating in our marriage ceremony have been supported , in my opinion , indeed justly , ( so far as the simple object of the petition was concerned , ) but supported upon arguments which , while they assert to its utmost extent the right of toleration , yet stamp the opinions , which in this instance call for the

    exercise of that right , with the strongest reprobation . Compliance with the petition was urged , in order to deliver our temples from such reluctant , such inconsistent worshipers ; and the mysteries of the holy Trinity from the inward scorn and ill-concealed ridicule of those who are compelled to listen with seeming acquiescence to what they , in their hearts , with no small hazard of impiety , dare to stigmatize as idolatry . " *

    We take Dr . Ryder to mean that , as a member and a prelate of the Church of England , he is no less anxious to release Unitarians from the legal obligation to engage in any of its ceremonies and services than Unitarians are to be thus released . This measure would be historically and substantially equitable . When the book of Common Prayer was framed ,

    and , unhappily , long afterwards , Nonconformity was a crime : it was assumed that all the subjects of the realm frequented the established worship ; and the forms of ritual—whether they regarded baptism , or burial , or marriage—were really public forms , and almost daily celebrated , in the presence not merely of interested and official parties , but of a mixed congregation . The phraseology of the services and the directions of the rubric , place this statement beyond dispute ; and here we are furnished with

    gical and literary world , we may consider the famous question of the three heavenly witnesses' as being at rest . That Biblical Criticism deprives Unitarian Christians of a passage or two on which they fondly relied , may be seen in Griesbach on Matt . xix . 17 . They cheerfully make the surrender , and this , even could they less afford to make it . As to the introductory chapters of Matthew and of Luke , many Unitarians ( among whom was Lardner ) have retained them . The question is altogether a question of Biblical Criticism , and has divided even some Trinitarian Christians . Introd . Micbaelia , J . [ 1793 ] , pp . 210 , &c . * Pp . 11—13 .

    Untitled Article

    ' ¦ 12 Bishop o / Lichfields Charge .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1829, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2568/page/12/