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Untitled Article
He goes on to speak of the state of the Established Church , with reference to the other chief bodies of Dissenters .: et The controversies with the other chief bodies of Dissenters , relating mainly $ o pointy qf discipline and church government , though far from unimportant in theiuselves , and far from admitting on our parts of neutrality and compromise , have yet lost much of their bitterness and animosity through
increased intercourse and mutual enlargement of views . They have been often merged in combined efforts to defend or to diffuse our common Christianity . " Symptoms of an inclination to abandon them altogether have been manifested by many respectable individuals amongst our Dissenting brethren , and the highly important measure of this year , by which the Sacramental Test has been abolished , while it removes a snare to consciences , and a temptation to profane our holiest ordinance , cannot fail to take away the sense of obnoxious disqualification , and a chief source of ill-will . " *
As to the probable influence of the removal of the Sacramental Test on Conformity and Nonconformity , we shall not hazard a conjecture . One debt of justice has at length been paid : and national justice and national happiness are mutually and inseparably connected . Certainly , not the most auspicious consequence of " the combined efforts , " noticed by his Lordship , has been to render numbers of theological chieftains , and their several retainers , less mindful , both in theory and practice , of the great principles of Protestants—we mean , the sufficiency of the Scriptures , and the right and duty of private judgment ; principles far more solid and important than human formularies and systems .+
Tftere is something conciliatory in the observations and counsels that we shall next copy : " Political disabilities can only be justly imposed upon bodies of men from a well-founded apprehension of danger to the important interests of the Constitution in Oburcfc a , n < J State ^ and should only be maintained , until adequate security against such 4 angers be provided . When that provision is satisfactorily made , let the happy opportunity be seized ; let the restrictions be
readily relaxed , the prohibitions' cheerfully withdrawn , and the privilege of serving , and the benefit of services , be restored , as promptly as may be , to \ he individuals and to the State , so that all may be able to devote their talents , upon a footing , as far equal as tl * e case will admit , to the common good , and erijoy the common product in a fair equality of rights and participation of advantages .
" In the mean time , my Reverend brethren , may it be our care so to conduct Qurselves towards our fellow-citizens of every different communion , ( not excepting even those who din n er from us so widely , as the two bodies to whjcb I tave particularly al 4 u ^ e < k ) as to prpve ttyat it is not against the erring individual , but against tl > e ejrior , that we present tfye countenance of hostility and the sentence of proscription . We should thus forward , not retard , the commencing work of peace , if not of union , and attract rather than repel . "t
Bishop Ryder now calls the attention of his clergy to the doctrine of Justification , as he considers it to be laid down in Scripture , and in the articles , homilies , anxi formularies of the Church of England . In stating , however , the grpunds of his judgment on this topic , he avoids , - for the present , minute discussions respecting the language of Scripture . "
? p . 15 . "' " t Archbishop Nevycome . Preface to ObservMlons , &c ., ( 2 d ed . ) p . xi . x v : i 6 . t v *
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74 Bishop of Lkhfield ' s Charge .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1829, page 74, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2569/page/2/
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