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Untitled Article
We are not disposed severely to criticise this paper . The confession of an egregious lack of proper feeling and becoming energy / and its very modest and humble contrast with the 4 € tivity of the < limited class of Dissenters called Unitarians / Way atone for the assumption of the ' more numerous and
influential denominations ; ' and if we may venture to interpret this confession as a pledge of amendrnent , as an indication that the power of the dissenting body will make itself more felt than heretofore on great questions of public good , we may be thereby indisppsed to comment on the selection of a merely dissenting grievance for the first exertion of this power , while so many more
and fixes an unmerited stigma , on the Protestant Dissenting Ministers of England , Who are thereby treated as unfit to be trusted with the celebration of marriage ; while their brethren in Scotland , Ireland , and the British Colonies , and Christian ministers of all varieties of sect and denomination in the United States of North 4- meric % universally possess that privilege . 7 . Because it imposes an unjust and oppressive tax on Protestant Dissenters , b y compelling them to remunerate the clergy of the endowed Church , for services which might be more advantageousl y performed t > y ministers or magistrates of their own ¦ election , who would cheerfully give them , on so interesting an occasion , their unbougkt blessing , or gratuitous services .
8 . Because the marriage service prescribed by the Book of Common Prayer , was notoriously borrowed from the ritual pf the Romish Church , and is founded on the assumption of a tenet peculiar to that Church , viz . that matrimony , having been consecrated by Divine authority , to he a sacred sign , or mystical emblem , is an affair of ecclesiastical cognisance , belonging exclusively to the province of a priesthood connected with an episcopal hierarchy . 9 . Because many persons feel conscientious objections to a form of words which one of the parties is invariably required to repeat : —With this ring I tkce toed , with my body I thee worship , and with cUl my worldly goods 1 thee endow ; in tub nave of
tre Father , ano . of rrHB Son , and of this Holy Ghost : the former , or 4 ec ^ ^ y part of these words , containing expressions , the meaning of which , in the judgment qf persons learned in the law , is highly equivocal ; while their combination with the solemn formula introduced at the conclusion , renders the lawfulness of the whole e » - tremely doubtful . 10 . Because the repeal of this intolerant law will wipe off one reproach , which has long attached o the gpreat body of Dissenters , who are justly chargeable with having rqade a pusillanimous compromise of the rights of conscience , as well an a lamentable defection from that zealous regaid to the purity of Divine worship , and the honour of the Divine name , for which their puritan forefathers were eminently distinguished
-11 . Because the society of Friends , so long since as the year 1752 , in consequence of their previous uniformly consistent refusal of compliance , procured a recognition of the validity of their marriages , in the very act which compelled all other DUaenteis to conform to the ceremony of the endowed Church . 12 . Because the spirit and character of the present times imperatively demand that the more numerous and influential denominations , of Protestant Dissenters should no longer exhibit to their fellow-countrymen that egregious luck pf proper feeling and becoming energy , which their past conduct has betrayed .
lo . Because the limited class of Dissenters called Unitarians , upon whom this law certainly presses with aggravated weight , having , during several successive Parliaments ,, brought the subject before the legislature , it lias already undergone full discussion , in both Houses , where the principle ha * been universally conceded , on wliich an efficient measure of general relief iqay he founded . 14 . Because t ^ ie way having been thus prepared by others , and the only obstacle which imneded
the successful prosecution of th , t ) oUioct beiu ^ removed by tl >« roctJut accomplishment of parliamentary reform , the orthodox DUsenter « will be utterly inex cusable , if , when a new House of Commons is to \> $ freely elected , they longer hesitate to take iuch steps as may be necessary to secure the speedy passing of a decisive ab 4 effectual measure of redress for a grievance which , having long been oppressive and vexation * , hat now become utterly intolerable .
Untitled Article
188 The Dissenting Marriage Question .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1833, page 138, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2608/page/70/
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