To The Editor Of The Time...
ctr,-unougn I tiave no colilloxiOln of any sort with the peCpIe called " Frcethinking Chri6tians," vet r cannot deny that I hiad great pleasure in reading. in your paper of the 17th in *t., an exposi- tion of their views of the c..se of " Dissenters' AMarriages," authenri- cated by the signaturcs of their Elder and Deacons, which appeared to me to be Irawn up witl great ability, andl to exhibit a very clear andt preeise statemnent o'f the whole sub1ject. rn prolortion . however, to the satisfaction derived fronm this well-.written document, was nitv dtsappoinitment andl regret at findinz in the same paper some stric- turcs upon it, which, though purporting to corne from the pen of the editor, seem to be so much at variniee with t'se liberal chairacter of Your journal, that I fully expected they would he immediately no- ticed hy the parties concerned; but as this has not vet heen thec:ase, I trst vou will not reftise adnmission to a few observations on thein from ari impartial observer. In the first place, Sir, I mnight ask you whetiter it is quite consis- tent with candour to call those persons " sceptics on religion," who profess, in this very paper on which you are remarking, to be 'bound in all things by the authority of Scripture '" I night ask farther-hovw does it. appear that the ritual of the Church of hng- land " wars made to correspnnd with the belief of the majority," it heing well known that the public worship was, in the course of a ifew years, first Popish-then Protestant-then Popish-then Protestant again antl that thc tyrants ly whmom these violent cUanges were made hadi chiefly in view the nmaintenance of their owrn autlotitv, witlhout the least regard to the opinions of the people ? But, passing hy thesc mtnor points, I proceed to observe. that in representing the question to bc whe;her " the ecremonies of' tite chiurch are tti be ilteredt to please the fantasy of'every innovator," vou seem to me totallBi to m; I state the subject. Neither the " Freeclinking Chriitians," ner ansv of the " thousand different sects" to whom vou aliltide, arc at ail anxious to itiake any altetationi at all in those ceremonies and' the nmembers of' the clurch may, if they like them, continuie withiout ary distitbance frmn Disseliters. to enjov them to their hearts' content to the end of tim-. The real qujestion is, wt,e ther " the maiority"-supposing it to he realli such, which in th-s case is vcry doubtful-can, coesistently with conimon iJusticet and cnmmon senise, compel the minority to suibntit to the alternative of either toiuiing on ceremony at which thlcir cots- clicc,s revolt. or ot' fbregoring the enjoymnent of thc righis of hutitan nature. Now to this question the Freethinking Chti,tiants, withoutt hesitation, answer No; and to this answer I shoild tiinht cverf rational and impBrtial man miust give his assenit, especially wYheni it is consideretd that thc marriage contract, thougih unquestionably of high imlportance, is in eality altogether a civil one, and in its nature iuo more a raft of r-! ligioni than the indentures ot' tn appreiitice, or a contract of Pirtner- ship between twe tradcrs. May I be allowed, Sir, without offence, to say. that ilie hint vou give tihem about cohabitinig without any lcgat niarril-'c, is open toi such obvious and nmanifold ohjections. that I presume it tmtst have been very hastily written, onr I ihave no deiubL youl norv Xrlil tilat ! it had Dsever beell cotlmitte(d to paper ? But this is not thc onily part of yourstriclures which bears nmarTks i of haste: there is another part wlhichl perfectly astonishes me-I mtan where you seem to think you have coMviete'd the Freethliking Christians of a blunder, in sttpposing that persons 10bz t iarried se I to repeat the names of' the persons in the Trinity. Y'ou tcll them, that the clergymnan * will excuise them fronti repeating theri, if the! will allow lhim to repeat them." Now, Sir, it' voit will take th'e trouble to look into your prayer-book you will find thiat every man t at his marriage is under the necessity of repeating after thc priest the following words :_" W'ith this ring I thee wed ; with my botly I tlice worsilip; and with all my worldily goods I thee endow-iiI the namc of the Father, and of the Son, anti of the Holv Ghost." Now, Sir, if these deRoiminations tlo not mean the persons who are, presently after, called " Go,l the Father. God the Soni, God the floly Ghost"-in other words, if they arc not the names of what are usually called the three Persons in the Tr.iity. then I shnil he gia( too DC ilorne(1 bY Ynt wvhat Ilcy do incan. IV. s. Av%VM b-Ilarli, jjcc. 41. TO TIIE EDITOR OF THE TlIfES.