be upon his guard. Secondly, we would observe, that from the history of man, as contained in Genesis, and from all his after history, we find, that while all other animals were made perfect in their kind, and governed by unerring instinct, man is a creature imperfect in the first stage of his existence; but so framed and organized as that by instruction and experience he may attain to a degree of improvement and perfection, far exceeding that which other animals possess, or to which by possibility they can ever attain; but whilst he is striving after this perfection, the strength of his passions, yet uncorrected by prudence, and his weakness, yet uninstructed by experience, necessarily lead him into error; but even these, so far from implying or arising from any innate and natural depravity, are all means suited to his circumstances, and intended to develope his faculties, to enlighten his understanding, to improve and strengthen hischaracter, and to give him eventually that perfection morally, which all other animals, as far as their nature and capacities extend, possess physically and instinctively. Thus we find that all the dealings of God, and all his revelations, as recorded in the scriptures, shew that the errors of man are the result of his imperfect, not of his depraved nature; and that they, together with the circumstances in which he is placed, are suited to such a being, and fitted to accomplish the object of eventually making him perfect.

Seeing then, that what is called Christianity, (of which the doctrine of the fall of man is the chief prop and support) has been proved to be false; we have a right, and we hereby exercise that right, to call upon all bishops, priests, deacons, missionary-society-men, and other teachers of these doctrines, upon all, indeed, who have in any way supported or encouraged a belief in such absurd, wicked, and degrading notions, under the pretence that they were the doctrines of Gdd and his prophets, of Jesus and his apostles, to come forward and do justice to the sacred scriptures which they have belied-to the Deity whom they have blasphemed, and to mankind whom they have perverted and deceived; by acknowledging the falsehood of what they have taught, or honestly declaring that Christianity, in their opinion, is a pious or political fraud, a theory of human invention, merely encouraged for the support of kingcraft and priestcraft, to keep the multitude in a state of ignorance, and a servile dependance on their false teachers; and that the religion of Jesus is a religion altogether different from, and opposed to, the

religion taught by orthodox priests, and bolstered up by orthodox establishments.

Compelled as we have found ourselves, to hold up those doctrines so falsely called Christian, to universal abhorrence and contempt, we would recommend most earnestly to every man, that he should search the scriptures for himself, persuaded that he will find the doctrines they contain, the principles they establish, and the motives they hold forth, to be at once rational and important in the highest degree; suited to the most enlightened mind if virtuously disposed; calculated to give the most exalted views of the divine character and government as infinitely wise, benevolent, and good; and containing every thing necessary to make man wise, virtuous, and happy here, and to prepare and fit him for the enjoyment of happiness hereafter: he will find the religion as taught by Jesus and his apostles, to be in every way suited to, and worthy of God to give to such a creature as man, and every way worthy of man's most cheerful and grateful acceptance.

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That the system we have been exposing should have so long prevailed is indeed astonishing; but that such should be the case was foreseen by the apostle Paul, and is predicted in the scriptures.* But, however it may have been permitted to prevail for purposes no doubt wise and benevolent, though to us inscrutable. The sacred writings assure us that the delusion shall come to an end;† and at a time when general knowledge and enlightenment has so extended in regard to all other subjects, it may be hoped that religion may come in for her share: for, in the language of Dr. Geddes, “ It is time that Christianity should learn to walk alone, "without Jewish leading-strings, or Gentile go-carts. It is "time that the pure spiritual religion of Jesus should throw "aside all_the_tawdry, cumbersome load of exotic ornaments, "borrowed either from Judaism or Paganism, from the temple of Jerusalem, or the temples of Jupiter, and reclothe herself in the white, spotless robes in which she was originally invested. "It is time for her rational admirers to vindicate her chaste "character from the aspersions of her professed enemies, and from the false praise of her pretended friends; for the false praise of her pretended friends has been often more injurious

"

"

(

2 Thess. ii. 3-12; 1 Tim. iv. 1-2; 2 Tim. iv. 1-4; Rev. xvii. 5. +See Rev. xviii. 1—10.

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"to her reputation, than the obloquy of her professed enemies! or, rather, she has had no enemies; but because her pretended friends have exhibited her in a dress which she disclaims and despises. Strip her at once of this ungainly meretricious garb-restore her to her primitive simplicity, and she will "need only to be seen to be admired.”

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DISSENTERS' MARRIAGES.

"Let us not be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."-PAUL.

UNDER the above title, in the first volume of our Register, p. 267, will be found an article, designed to exhibit to the reader the history and present state of the law with regard to marriage; to shew its inconvenience to dissenters holding doctrines contrary to those of the established church, and the means which have been used by the Unitarians generally, and by our own body more especially, to obtain legislative relief. The history of this important question, it will be seen, was brought up to the parliamentary session of 1823, and it concluded with noticing the result of the bill then brought into the House of Lords, by the Marquess of Lansdown, for granting relief to dissenters in this case. It is proposed, in what follows, to report the progress of this subject, from that period to the present; and to place upon record such documents as are presumed to be applicable to the merits of this question, and of a nature to strengthen and enforce that appeal which has hitherto been made in vain to the justice of the legislature.

The debate in the House of Lords, June 12, 1823, to which reference was made in our former article, was regarded as peculiarly favourable to the hopes of dissenters: the motion for going into a committee upon the bill designed for their relief, having been lost by a majority of six only, and the objections taken upon the occasion being rather to the mode than to the principle of relief. Since this period, it must be confessed, this favourable aspect has, in some measure, changed; and we have been compelled to experience a further delay of justice, and to witness another triumph of

bigotry and intolerance over liberty and the rights of conscience.*

The Marquess of Lansdown, upon the loss of his bill, in 1823, gave notice of his intention to renew his endeavours early in the ensuing session of parliament, but, during the intermediate recess, some zealot, alarmed for the safety of the established church, betook himself to writing a book, which appeared in the shape of a letter to the Marquess of Lansdown, published at York, and signed by "A Member of the Church of England." The object of the church of England man was to prove, that dissenters are hostile to the church; that further concessions to them would be attended with increased danger to the establishment; that the Unitarians are not actuated by scruples of conscience against the marriage ceremony, as established by law, or the same would have been felt by their predecessors and they would not themselves adopt, in their reformed Liturgy, in the baptismal service, the same words, ("In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost") to which they object in the marriage service. As these objections of the orthodox pamphleteer have subsequently obtained considerable notoriety, we shall notice them with that candour which becomes our profession, and which is worthy of men seeking an honest object by honest means. To the charge then of hostility to the established church, we, as dissenters, and on our own parts, plead guilty. Nothing short of such hostility, arising indeed from a conviction that the church of England is not the church of God, could justify our dissent therefrom. And if other dissenters, either from policy or mistaken candour, do not go the length of this plain, honest avowal, then are they guilty of the sin of schism; then are they heretics in the scripture sense of the term: that is, fomenters of division, for they have divided and weakened that church by their dissent, whose errors indeed they were bound to attempt to reform, but from whose communion they were never justified in withdrawing themselves so long as they held it to be the church of God. Let then the truth be at once, and openly avowed. The great body of dissenters are, or ought to be, hostile to the church upon PRINCIPLE, although that they are so upon other and lower grounds, we have never been studious to

*This article was written early in the month of March, before W. Smith had given notice of a motion in the House of Commons, to introduce a bill for the relief of Unitarians with regurd to the marriage ceremony. This bill is now in committee, and its fate will probably be decided at the time the present article is in the press.

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conceal; for, if the clergy of the established religion feel the value of their privileges, their possessions, their tithes, and all the good things of mother church, they may rest assured, that the dissenting priesthood in general, who are only men like themselves, would be very happy to participate in the same, or even to exchange situations with them, For ourselves, indeed, we are without a priesthood, and, agreeably to the primitive plan, we admonish one another, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; we, therefore, have no craving for the temporalities of the church; at the same time we confess that we have no such stoical contempt for the things of this life, as not to prefer to keep that which is our own; and, as we do not pay the teachers even of our own church, by whom we are instructed, so we confess we had rather stand excused from paying the teachers of another church, by whom we are not instructed. In a word, the established religion takes much from us, and does nothing for us; except, therefore, upon the principle of returning good for evil, it cannot be supposed the church can have any claim upon our goodwill!

If then dissenters generally are so opposed to the church, as is contended for on the one hand, and as we, on the other, so readily allow, will it not follow that further concessions to them must be attended with danger to the church? We hope not, and believe not. We hope not, because, as long as the state deems it fitting to maintain a state religion, we should prefer the church as it is, rather than the church as it would be, if, unhappily, any of the popular sects of dissenters were to be exalted to power, who, to all the evils of an established religion, would superadd ignorance, hypocrisy, and intolerance, from which qualities the church is, in a great measure, free. We believe, in common, indeed, with many of the most enlightened friends of the church, that concession would not be dangerous to the church in the present instance, because the thing to be conceded is just, because the church can only refuse concession by a denial of justice, and at the risk of increasing the opposition of those whom it already regards as its enemies. Concession, therefore, in this case, instead of weakening,would rather give strength to the church, by depriving its opponents of a fruitful source of declamation; and the circumstance of those who prefer the claim being the enemies of the church, is an additional reason why it should be more speedily adjusted; for, whilst indulgence may be taken in settling an account between friends, we are the more prompt in discharging a debt which is due to an enemy.