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levers which moved the Synod of Ulster to enact the infamous overtures of 1828 Yet now , hi the spring of 1830 , when a brother minister is to be secretly maligned and injured , and the very contrary assertion suits his purpose , it is , without hesitation , put forward . For shame ! * ' Now that Mr . IVatson hast been pleased to avow sJrian sentiments . * Mr .
Watson never has avowed Arian sentiments . " And connect himself with a body of avowed Arians . " Mr . Watson has not connected himself with a body of avowed Ariaus . The Remonstrants are not Arians , aud have never pretended to be
so . Some individuals among them have entertained and professed opinions which are commonly called Arian ; but others disclaim both the doctrine and name . The cQunexion is declared to be founded on the principles of church fellowship , not of theological sentiment .
Nearly one hundred seat-holders have applied to us for preaching / ' To a certain length , this is true . Ninety-seven persons , calling themselves seat-holders , did apply , not to the writers of this letletter , as they falsely assert , but to the Presbytery of Bangor ; and we have been told of one man who denounced his pretended signature as a forgerv . and of
several who have expressed their contrition for yielding to their fears and allowing their names to be appended . However , in the main , the thing is fact . Ninety-seven names were obtaiued , by calumny , busy interference and undue influence , —to be affixed to a Memorial to the Presbytery of Bangor , which was drawn up by the Presbytery of Baugor
itself , and hawked about from house to house for , we believe , upwards of a fortnight . But when this fact is so pompously stated , why is it not likewise stated , that a resolution of adherence to the Kcmonsirauts had received , on Sunday , January 24 th , the signatures of nearly 150 bond Jide seat-holders ; and that iu the course of two days others came forward , making in all two hundred
and sixty ?—a number , the magnitude of which is truly wonderful , when we consider the influence used by the clergy and landlords ou the other side , aud the absence of such , motives ou the minds of those who took part with the Remonstrants . Why was not this fact mentioned to Mr . Montgomery ?—Because it would have opened his eyes to the iusiguiftcaucy of that party in . the congregation into whose hands these Reverend
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Gentlemen wished him to be thrown-View their statement alone , and we have no doubt it would lead any person , not otherwise informed of the circumstances , to imagine that the adherents of the Synod constituted a majority , or at least a very considerable proportiou , of the congregation ; and such was clearly its effect ou the mind of Mr . Montgomery , of Kosecaount . After such premises , so fairly stated and so satisfactorily
established , we can only wonder at the modesty of the petition with which this part of the document concludes . " We therefore respectfully request your countenance in retaining the original right of the orthodox members of the congregation to the use of the meeting-house . " They might as well have requested the landlord to dispossess the majority of the congregation of the farms which some of them hold under him as tenants at will .
On Saturday , January 30 th , Mr . Montgomery issued his proclamation , declaring that , at the request of the Presbytery of Bangor , he had agreed to allow the use of the meeting-house to the ministers appoiuted by them to supply the dissatisfied members with preaching . On the following day , Mr . Macaulay preached in the chapel , and Mr . Watson , having been
excluded by armed police from the regular place o worship , performed divine service in the vestry . The Sunday followiug , Mr . Henderson , of Lisburn , appointed by the Bangor Presbytery , preached , the pulpit being vacant in consequence of the arrest of Mr . Watson at the door of the chapel , after the Riot Act had been read by a Serjeant of Police It was Mr . Montgomery who gave the order , " Seize that man ! " Mr .
Heuderson , the brother-minister of Mr . Watson , before leaving Greyabbey on his return to Lisburu , addressed the following note to the strenuous landlord and magistrate . The harmony which exists between the matter , the devotional style , aud the very date of Mr . Heudersou's billet , cannot fail to strike every attentive reader , lu another place , Mr . Henderson saya he is a young man , and has his character to make . It would be well for him if thu
were . 4 ' Sunday Night . " Sir , " The trouble that you have been kind oitough to take on the subject of the present unhappy differences in Greyabbey , cannol be too highly appreciated . 1 cannot permit myself to leave this , without expressing my Acknowledgment for
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Intelligence . — The Rev . John IFatson and Congregation of Grewbbey . 283
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1830, page 283, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2583/page/67/
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