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themselves transgressors against the glorious liberty of the sons of God Top yrsjl in those day * did they deserve the sarcastic remark of Milton , " New presb yter is btit oid priest writ large . " With this party the inexpiabjLe offence of those enlightened statesmen who planned , and who , per . bags , if it hacj qot been for the difficulties created by their pertinacious opposition , pli g ht have permanently established the commonwealth of England , was , not tjieir republicanism , nor even the execution of Charles , but their
attachment to the great principle of universal toleration , and their refusal to carry ijtfo effect the iniquitous ordinance concerning blasphemy and heresy . Nor can we perceive in the constitution and government of the Scottish church , in the proceedings of the famous Synod of Dort , or of their legitimate descendants across the Atlantic , any thing to ward off the charge of a persecuting spirit from the general body , or to call upon us to be much astonished at observing that " the desire of domination still sometimes diffuses its contagion even into the free and peaceful courts of the Presbyterian church / ' P . 21 .
We ought npt to conclude our remarks on this part of the service without adding , that whatever character the temper and spirit of Presbyterians may have too often exhibited , it is impossible for any man to conceive more justly , or to describe more forcibly , than Mr . Armstrong , what their character and that of every Christian ought to be ; as the following passage will fully prove :
" While we cannot but deeply regret that indications of priestl y usurpation and popular thraldom should ever have manifested themselves in any court that calls itself Presbyterian , it must be to us a subject of most gratifying reflection that our Synod has never been disgraced by such humiliating exhibitions . Fro / n the first settlement o £ our congregations—a period of nearly two centuries—our predecessors and forefathers have handed down through successive generations a character of inflexible attachment to religious truth ,
and of unswerving adherence to Christian freedom ;—a character which we may be justly proud to inherit , and which I fervently pray that we may never forfeit or disgrace . While other Presbyterian Synods may have occasionally departed from the true principles of the primitive church , )> y the imposition of human inventions in the form of tests ,, confessions , and creeds , thereby Undervaluing the Holy Scriptures as the all-sufficient rule , —our predecessors have ever resolutely and steadily maintained that in the Bible alone is found the full and complete standard of faith and practice to every genuine disciple of Christ Jesus . While other Presbyterian Synods have felt their
unscnptural impositions to be the fruitful source of discord , distraction , and animosity , and of such dissension , bitterness , and wrath , as have caused their name to- be a by-word and a reproach , —our predecessors , by adhering to the Bible alone , have preserved amongst themselves uninterrupted harmony , concord , and brotherly love . WUile other Presbyterian Synods , by enforcing their iWflcriptural tests and decretals , have laid a stumbling-block and a snare in the way of honest and conscientious men , or have compelled them to withdraw Crop * , t ^ csir comDPunioji , —our predecessors , by adhering to the Bible alone , have kept open an asylum for the advocates of religious liberty , and have even supplied a house of refuge for the oppressed in the day of their persecution .
" I trust , my brethren , that we shall support their spirit and character ; and that , in the present trying times , we shall prove ourselves their worthy successors . Our union is not a bond cemented by exact conformity in- every speculative opinion * ibr such a bond never existed , and never can exist ; but it is cemented by that' reciprocal respect for each other ' s religious rights , which everyfollower of Christ ought to be as willing to concede as to demand ; and by that universal good-will , without which no person of any church can
Untitled Article
412 Ordination Service *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1829, page 412, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2573/page/44/
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