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    a powerful and additional reason why all Nonconformists should be exempted from the necessity of participating in the marriage ceremony prescribed by the national establishment . Let the services of the church be restricted to the votaries of the church : let her be consistent with herself ! We are not in the number of those who " inwardly scorn at the mysteries of the holy Trinity , or covertly , yet awkwardly , ridicule them ; " nor , if

    we were " compelled'' or induced to be present at the celebration of the characteristic rites of the church of Rome , would we wantonly offend the feelings of the meanest worshiper ; for we should respect his sincerity , whatever we might think of his opinions and his practice . It is not , therefore , possible that we should have any sympathy with those ( if such there be ) whose demeanour bespeaks " the inward scorn and the ill-concealed

    ridicule , " of which the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry complains . Those feelings we would subdue , we would discourage . But we are not the less solicitous that , on this very account , " the stone of stumbling * ' be speedily removed . If" it must needs be that offences come , " still , theirs is no enviable situation " by whom the offence" either " cometh , " or is deliberately continued .

    Upon our Trinitarian neighbours and fellow-christians we charge not the practice of idolatry , nor stigmatize them as idolaters . We are silent as to what would be our own character and situation , if believing in none other than one God , even the Father , we associated with him two additional persons , or beings , as objects of our worship . It is a matter of judgment

    and conscience with us to abstain from revolting language , especially when it is , at the same time , vague , ambiguous , and incorrect . Let individuals among those who are denominated Unitarian Christians , answer for themselves . We think that we have expressed the sentiment , and described the habit , of the body .

    Bishop Ryder fears that Unitarianism , [" this awful denial of the Lord who bought us , " *] " though little known to the poor , is not uncommon among those of the middle class , who are elevated above their fellows by some degree of superior Jearningf and mental sagacity . " Among these " this mistaken cause" has , perhaps , received some addition of strength . We will venture to state it as our conviction , that , in proportion as sound knowledge and sober inquiry gain ground , such an addition will be larger . It is exactly among the middle classes of society—those whom neither poverty benumbs nor wealth intoxicates—that we may with reason look for an

    augmentation of our numbers . Plain statements and p lain evidence are especially suited to persons of this condition . " The light of sound learning , " is chiefly essential and useful to those whom leisure enables , or whom duty requires , to explore the origin and progress and establishment of human corruptions of Divine Truth . But there are those , and not a few , of "the

    middle class , " who , reading the Scriptures , and comparing one passage with another , and single texts with the tenor of the whole collection , will mark the contrast between the phraseology of our Lord Jesus , of his evangelists and his apostles , and that of later ages—will notice that what Bishop Ryder calls " the doctrine of the Holy Trinity , " is matter of deduction by men ,

    * 2 Pet . ii . 1 . It is painful to find Dr . Ryder making this application of the passage . The original word Seo-ttoth ^ , is restricted ( in the singular number ) throughout the New Testament , to the only Lord God , ( Jude , ver . 4 , ) even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ . f On this account , the Bishop appears to entertain some little apprehension of the tendency and effect of Mechanics' Institutes , &c , p . 14 .

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    Bishop ofLichfield '' s Charge . 13

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1829, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2568/page/13/