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" Sir , —Whether we regard the time or the circumstances connected with our assembling this day , our meeting may be justly considered extraordinary . We hare come together in the uineteenth century , upon an unusual day of the week , to consider the case of a Presbyterian Minister shut out of his Meeting-house , without notice or without crime , and
committed , by order of a Protestant Landlord , to the custody of an armed Police upon the LordVday , whilst proceeding to enter the House of God for Divine Worship 1 I shall not detain you , by a recital of the dissensions in the Synod of Ulster , for some years past , which , in their melancholy details and results , are but too well known to the public . I
shall not speak of broken faith , and violated laws , and injurious enactments : bat I must speak of the courteous language of our brethren of the Synod , when they urged us to leave them , on the plea , * that , although we could not amicably conduct our affairs in conjunction , we might be excellent friends , if separated . ' I do well remember the
benignant declaration of the ascendant power— ' We wish to curtail none of your rights aud privileges we wish for none of your loaves and fishes ; we wish only to pursue our own plans in our own way , and to leave you at full liberty to do the same ! This gracious profession , of the sincerity of which we have since had so many and such striking proofs .
was hailed by the assembled Synod with acclamation , as finding a responsive chord in every heart ! We calculated , therefore , that if there was faith in man , or honour in a Christian Syood , we should see the halcyon days of religious peace and brotherly love restored , after our separation . The Committee of the Synod and the Remonstrants accordingly
met in September last , and arranged the terms of ' an amicable separation ;' which , on the whoJe , were liberal , and generally satisfactory . By this arrange ^ ment , the Remonstrant ministers aud their successors were , with some slight provisos , secured in all the rights and interests enjoyed by members of the Synod .
" So far , all was , geperally speaking , fair , open , and Christian ; but , no sooner had the Remonstrants been thus singled yut , than a most violent and unprincipled crusade was commenced against them . Worthless emUsaries and calumnious publications were sent into their congregations , to excite contention , by the foulest wiarepreBcutations . aud the most
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disgraceful arts . Of the five Remonstrant ministers in the Presbytery of Templepatrick , one only has escaped persecution from his clerical brethren . I need nut detail the sufferings and the honourable triumphs of those exemplary ministers , some of whom have been nearly forty years in the sacred office ; for they are well known to the public . In the
Presbytery of Bangor , we were more happy : we lived in peace , for upwards of three months , until the following * < Advke ' was published to the members of our congregations , by certain individuals calling themselves the conductors of p Monthly Periodical , issued iu this town :
' No matter how small the number of the Orthodox * let them apply to a Presbytery for preaching . ' Fear not , little flock ; it is your Father ' s good will to give you the kingdom . ' Luke xii . 32 . Let them , under advice of Presbytery , claim the use of their Meeting-house for preaching . Let them consider themselves as the
original and endowed congregation ; and , by preserving their congregational form , continue to assert all their congregational rights . ' Is it possible that this * Christian Advice' was given by the very man who exclaimed , when a popular effect was to be produced , — ' We wanted none of your loaves and Ashes V Be this as it may , the advice encourages both private and public robbery—private robbery , inasmuch as it would give to any two or
three worthless- individuals who might not have contributed one peuny , a Meeting-house built at the expense of the congregation : public robbery , as it would give the Bounty , liberally granted by the country to the people , into the hands of any few , who might profess Orthodoxy , in order to gratify their vanity or their spleen . This odious and disgraceful advice was not lost on certain individuals
in Greyabbey . A person holding , not a seat , but one sitting , for which he paicj , perhaps , two shillings a year , determined to become the champion of Orthodoxy , and to secure both house and bounty for himself and some half-dozen worthy coadjutors . By way of preparing the soil , however , for the good seed , some of the party , I know not who was the ingenious
man , set afloat a story of an alleged immorality , against Mr . Watson , the minister . Two Orthodox ministers in the vicinity , having been a few years ago degraded for a similar offence , the allegation would have been calculated to obtain credence , had not the story been got up so badly , and under circumstances so improbable , us to baffle all belief *
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Intelligence- —Meeting of Remonstrant Presbytery of Bangor . 207
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1830, page 207, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2582/page/63/
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