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Conjoined Meeting of the General and Remonstrant &ynods of Uister . ( The following report , with the comments , is abridged from the Northern Whig . ) These two Beverend Bodies held a Joint Meeting at Cookstown , upon the 1 st September , in order to attempt a settlement of certain points , chiefly relating to pecuniary affairs , which had not been satisfactorily arranged at the period of their ecclesiastical separation .
The General Synod mustered between thirty and forty ministers ; and the Remonstrant Synod , eleven . The first day was occupied in discussions respecting the Widows' Fund ; when it was finally agreed (( to appoint a Committee to in » quire into the expediency and practicability of dividing the capital amongst the contributors respectively belonging to the two Synods and the Presbytery of Antrim . " The two Synods held separate
meetings in the evening , to prepare replies to the propositions mutually submitted for their consideration . On Thursday morning , at ten o ' clock , ** they met for the despatch of business ; " the General Synod haviug- been engaged from six , in framing a response to the Remonstrants' demand respecting the Royal bounty . We shall l * ere repeat their demand , which was in the same words , originally used in September 1829 . ¦
* " We require our brethren of the Synod to declare , that * on our ordaining a minister , in , any congregation now in existence ^ or which may be hereafter erected , their Moderator shall , ,-iu all such cases , anaex his signature , in the usual maun <* r > to the memorial for the lloyal Bounty forwarded to him by such minister : and shall , on no account whatever , withhold his signature , when regularly certified of such ordination . "
lo this very simple , and , as we should think , reasonable request ^ the General Synod returned the following reply : which is not very long , considering that it cost nearly siw hours' warm labour ! " Unsolved—That , as the decision of the case submitted to the Synod in this
proposal , involves a variety of conflicting interests , which the government of the country are alone competent finally to adjust ., the Synod have resolved to lay before government a full representation of the whole matter connected with the late separation ; and do , therefore , feel incompetent to give a specific answer to Kcmoustnmts' request , till the determi-
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nation of the government may'be ascertained . " Now , this is very pretty diplomatic language ; which , being translated into plain English , means neither less nor more than thjs- ^ Thatthe reverend and evangelical gentlemen of the Getieral Synod , having * broken faith with , their brethren , and passed oppressiTe and
unchristian laws , by which the Remonstrant ministers and congregations have been compelled , as honest in en , to separate from them , the worthy orthodox divines of the Synod will do all in their p&tver to enlist the government on the feide of persecution , to shift the odium of the iniquitous act from their own shoulders to
those of his Majesty ' s ministers , and to rob the respectable laity belonging to the Remonstrant body of their just Fghts ! So , so , gentlemen ! The mask has at length fallen of ! Well ; thoiijgli tve knew you , and degraded though you are , we confess that you have plunged into a deptfr of ignominy even feeydnd ^^
expectation . And , have ail yoiir canting professions about " wishing te d 6 no injury to your brethren ; $ o tdncri nbtae of their loaves and fislies , ** ' eiirded in this ? You must vcm&ult the gbntfnmknt ere you perform an act of ctnnminjiistice : then , if they ^ aid your deriign ^; the work of spoliation will 1 ) e theirs ? ' zpa tjot yours : and , if they turn from ' yott With
merited disgust and indignatidrijYou will pretend to be quite pleased tha ^ they have not assisted you in a gfrpss , act of public robbery ! How dare ^ bii , after such a foul purpose glossed over by a tissue of deceitful words , - loot holiest men in the face ! We only hope , rtat you will persevere in going to the government with your proposition . The
act may render'a . n essential service t 6 the public , by inducing tire government to withdraw frpm the tbhole batch of you emoluments which , you so btldlj db&eive . It cannot be , that the coUutry shall be compelled to pay you fbr excitiii ^ interminable contention , and persecuting honest ineii beca ^ ee they will not sacrifice their consciences at the shrine of your
madness or ambition ! , l * he Rempnstrnn ts merit adtfilional gratitude from their 'country ^ for still farth ^ i * Uncloaking you by thefplloWing ^ nestion : " Quitq di 39 atisfied with the reply just made to onr fotitier proposition , we , the Remonstrants , do wow propose to our brethren of the Synod of Ulster , in conformity with the suggestion of some of their own members on d former occasion , to join with us in an aiiplicu-
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Intelligeme . —Hvmonstrant Synod of TJUter . ? 25
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1830, page 725, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2589/page/69/
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