Chapter 27

SECTION II.

1. All religious Assemblies of Protestants, not exceeding Twenty Persons, besides the family of the person in whose premises such Assembly shall be held, are lawful without registeringthe place of Meeting, so that there will be no absolute necessity to register the houses where Prayer, and other Social Meetings are held. However, as it is attended with scarcely any inconvenience, it is recommended thatall Placeswhere, in probability, more than Twenty Persons may assemble for Religious Instruction, including Sunday Schools, be certified and registered.

2. It is not necessary to register any place, which has been registered previous to the passing of this Act.

3. It is not necessary to wait till the place is actually registered, but a Religious Assembly may lawfully be held after a certificate that the place is intended to be used for Religious Worship is lodged with the person or any one of the persons mentioned in the Section.

4. The following form of Certificate to be sent to the Bishop, or Archdeacon, or Justices of the General or Quarter Sessions, is recommended, to sign which only one person is necessary, that is to say,

“To the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of ________ (as the case may be) or the Reverend (A. B.) Archdeacon of ______ (as the case may be) and to his Registrar, or to the Justices of the Peace (of the County, Riding, Division, City, Town, or Place, as the case may be) and to the Clerk of the Peace thereof.”

“I,A. B.of (describing the christian and surname, and place of abode, and trade or profession of the party certifying) do hereby certify, that a certain Building, (Messuage, or Tenement, Barn, School, Meeting House, or part of a Messuage, Tenement, or other Building, as the case may be) situated in the Parish of ______ and County of ______ (as the case may be, and specifying also the number of the Messuage, &c. if numbered, and the Street, Lane, &c. wherein it is situate, and the name of the present or last Occupier or Owner) is intended forthwith to be used as a place of ReligiousWorship by an Assembly or Congregation of Protestants, and I do hereby require you to register and record the same according to the provisions of an Act passed in the 52d year of the Reign of His Majesty King George the Third, intituled An Act to repeal certain Acts, and amend other Acts, relating to Religious Worship, and Assemblies, and Persons teaching or preaching therein, and I hereby request a Certificate thereof. Witness my hand this __ day of ______ 181__

A. B.”

The address to be used must depend upon the person or persons with whom the Certificate is to be deposited. Between the different Sessions, the Bishop and Archdeacon’s Registry is generally open.

It is not necessary that this Certificate should express that the place is to be registered for protestant Dissenters, the Act mentions only Protestants, and it is recommended that no Certificate be accepted from the Registrar of the Bishop, or Archdeacon, or from the Clerk of the Peace, which narrows the term, or which states the place to be for any specific denomination of Protestants. The Certificate should mention Protestants only.

Two copies of the above Certificate should be prepared, and signed in the presence of a respectable witness. One to be delivered to the Bishop, Archdeacon, or Clerk of the Peace, and the other to be kept by the party, signing the same, who is to require from the Registrar or Clerk of the Peace, to sign a Certificate on the part to be kept, that such Certificate as above has been delivered to him. Such Certificate to be written beneath the name of the party or parties signing the original Certificate, in the following form:

“I,C. D.(Registrar of the Court of the Bishop of ______ or Archdeacon of ______ or Clerk of the Peace for the County of ______ as the case may be) do hereby certify that a Certificate, of which the above isa true copy, was this day delivered to me, to be registered and recorded pursuant to the Act of Parliament therein mentioned. Dated this __ day of ________ 181__

C. D.Registrar, or Clerk of the Peace.”

Thus in case any accidental delay in the Registration should take place, and it be needful to use the place, as a place of religious Assembly, proof will exist that the Certificate was duly delivered and consequently the parties be free from penalty, if they use the place for Religious Worship after it is certified, but before it is registered.

5. At the time the Certificate of the parties is presented to the Bishop, or Archdeacon, or to the Sessions, the Fee of 2s. 6d. should be paid to the Registrar, or Clerk of the Peace, for registering and certifying the same, and his Certificate should be required accordingly.

SECTION III.

Before, it was made penal by this Section to preach in a house, without the consent of the Occupier, a person doing so was liable to an Action by the Common Law.

SECTION IV.

The first Section having repealed altogether the Five Mile and Conventicle Acts, and an Act relating to the Quakers, by this Section all Protestants, whether Teachers or Hearers, whether Dissenters or Churchmen, attending a Place of Worship, certified under this Act, are exempted, even before actual and formal registration, from the penalties of all the Acts recited in the Toleration Act, or in any Act amending the same.

SECTION V.

A Preacher may be required (if he has not already qualified) to take the Oaths, &c. after he has actually preached, but it isnot necessary that any person should take the Oaths and subscribe the Declarations required, as an antecedent qualification to preach. The requisition must be made by a Justice of the Peace in writing.

The following are copies of the Oaths, &c. referred to in the Section.

OATH OF ALLEGIANCE.

“I,A. B.do sincerely promise and swear, that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to his Majesty King George.

“So help me God,

“A. B.”

OF SUPREMACY.

“I,A. B.do swear, that I do from my heart, abhor, detest, and abjure, as impious and heretical, that damnable doctrine and position, that Princes, excommunicated, or deprived by the Pope, or any authority of the See of Rome, may be deposed or murdered by their subjects, or any other whatsoever. And I do declare, that no foreign Prince, Person, Prelate, State, or Potentate, hath, or ought to have, any jurisdiction, power, superiority, pre-eminence, or authority, Ecclesiastical or Spiritual, within this Realm.

“So help me God,

“A. B.”

DECLARATION AGAINST POPERY.

“I, A. B. do solemnly and sincerely, in the presence of God, profess, testify, and declare, that I do believe, that in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, there is not any transubstantiation of the elements of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, at or after theconsecration thereof, by any person whatsoever, and that the invocation or adoration of the Virgin Mary, or any other saint, and the sacrifice of the Mass, as they are now used in the Church of Rome, are superstitious and idolatrous; and I do solemnly, in the presence of God, profess, testify, and declare, that I do make this declaration, and every part thereof, in the plain and ordinary sense of the words read unto me, as they are commonly understood by Protestants, without any evasion, equivocation, or mental reservation whatsoever; and without any dispensation already granted me for this purpose by the Pope, or any other authority or person whatsoever, or without any hope of dispensation from any person or authority whatsoever, or without believing that I am or can be acquitted before God or man, or absolved of this declaration, or any part thereof, although the Pope, or any other person or persons whatsoever, shall dispense with or annul the same, or declare that it was null and void from the beginning.

“A. B.”

DECLARATION OF CHRISTIAN FAITH.

“I,A. B.do solemnly declare in the presence of Almighty God, that I am a Christian and aProtestantProtestant, and as such that I believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, as commonly received among Protestant Churches, do contain the revealed will of God; and that I do receive the same as the rule of my doctrine and practice.

“A. B.”

SECTION VI.

The Preacher is not now required to go to the Quarter Sessions for the purpose of making the Oaths, &c. but is to go before a neighbouring Magistrate for the purpose.

SECTION VII.

1. Any person, being a Protestant, whether Preacher or not, may require a Justice to administer the Oaths, &c.

2. The person requiring a Justice to administer the Oaths, &c. must take a fair copy of them. The forms of the Oaths, &c. are given in the Notes on Section V, which, after substituting his name forA. B., are to be signed by the person who desires to take them.

3. No person need be at the trouble of applying to take the Oaths, &c. unless he be a regular Preacher, wholly devoted to the Ministry, who intends to claim exemption from civil and military services agreeably to the 9th Section.

SECTION VIII.

This Section supplies the form of the Certificate of taking the Oaths, and subscribing the Declaration, which the Justice is to give in all cases, and for which he may demand 2s. 6d. when the Oaths, &c. are taken on the requisition of the party taking them; but this Fee is not payable if the Justices require a person to take the Oaths, &c.

SECTION IX.

To entitle a person to exemption from civil or military services, he must be altogether employed in the duties of a Teacher or Preacher, and not engaged in any secular employment for his livelihood, with the exception of that of a Schoolmaster.

SECTION XII.

This Clause subjects to a penalty of £40, any person or persons who shall (whetheron the outsideof within a place of religious Assembly) wilfully and maliciously, or contemptuously, by any means disturb a Congregation, or disturb, molest, or misuse any Preacher, or other person there assembled.

This clause, of extensive operation, will be found most ample for the protection of all persons meeting for the worship of God, and is a great and beneficial addition to the law on that subject.

In order to excite sentiments of gratitude in our hearts for the invaluable religious privileges secured to us, as subjects of the British Empire, by the above recited Act, and to evince that these privileges ought to be very highly estimated by us, I shall here insert, as a striking contrast, a copy of a most intolerant and horridEdict recentlyEdict recentlyissued by the Emperor of China, against the introduction of Christianity into his vast Empire. An Empire that is said to contain about a third part of the population of the world! The inhabitants of which are immersed in the grossest superstition and idolatry, and are sitting in the “region of the shadow of death, without light and without vision.”

The Roman Catholics indeed, have for many years had Missionaries in China, but they have degraded the doctrine of the Cross, by blending it with Pagan rites, and by withholding from their own converts, the grand means of correcting their errors, and illuminating their darkness, even theWORD OF ETERNAL LIFE.

The means of obtaining a version of the scriptures in the Chinese language, have for several years past occupied the minds of the Provost and Vice Provost, of the College of Fort William, in India; and they considered it an object of the utmost importance to introduce the Gospel, into that immense empire.

After much enquiry they succeeded in procuring Mr. Johannes Lassar, an Armenian christian, a native of China, and a proficient in the Chinese language. He relinquished his secular employments, and entered immediately on the translation of the Scriptures into that language; and in this work he is still engaged. Several young men also, who are under the tuition of Mr. Lassar, are now studying the Chinese language, have already made considerable proficiency, and are assisting in the translation of the holy Scriptures. A printing press has been procured, and a considerable part of the New Testament has been printed off, from blocks, after the Chinese manner. WhileMr. Lassar and Mr. Joshua Marshman, (his elder pupil,) are thus translating the Scriptures at Calcutta, Mr. Morrison is prosecuting a similar work at Canton, in China, with the aid of able, native scholars. Thus have the founders and supporters of the College, at Fort William, admitted a dawn of day through that thick impenetrable cloud, which for many ages has insulated that vast empire from the rest of mankind.[Ag]

These efforts to introduce theWORD OF LIFEinto China, seem to have excited the jealousies of the Emperor and his Court, and to form the basis of the following Edict.

EDICT AGAINST CHRISTIANITY.

Canton, April 4, 1812.

The following Edict was translated from the Chinese into Spanish, by a Roman Missionary, at Macao: and translated out of Spanish into English. I have not seen the original Chinese paper. I have seen several papers in the Pekin Gazette, of which the following is indeed the substance. In those papers, however, the magistrates also are threatened with degradation, dismissal from the service of government, &c. if they connive at the promulgation of what they denominateTeenchu Keaou(The Religion of the Lord of Heaven)—the name which the Roman Missionaries have adopted.

R. M.

The Criminal Tribunal, by order of the Emperor, conformably to a Representation made byHan, the Imperial Secretary (in which he desired that the Promulgation of the Christian Religion might be obviated) decrees as follows:

The Europeans worship God, because, in their own country, they are used to do so; and it is quite unnecessary to enquire into the motive: but then, why do they disturb the common people of the interior?—appointing unauthorised priests and other functionaries, who spread this through all the provinces,in obvious infraction of the law; and the common people, deceived by them, they succeed each other from generation to generation, unwilling to part from their delusion. This may approach very near to being a rebellion. Reflecting that the said religion neither holds spirits in veneration nor ancestors in reverence;—clearly, this is to walk contrary to sound doctrine; and the common people who follow and familiarize themselves with such delusions, in what respect do they differ from a rebel mob? if there is not decreed some punishment, how shall the evil be eradicated?—and how shall the human heart be rectified.

From this time forward, such Europeans as shall privately print books and establish preachers, in order to pervert the multitude,—and the Tartars and Chinese, who, deputed by Europeans, shall propagate their religion, bestowing names, and disquieting numbers, shall have this to look to:—The chief or principal one shall be executed:—whoever shall spread their religion, not making much disturbance, nor to many men, and without giving names, shall be imprisoned, waiting the time of execution;—and those who shall content themselves with following such religion, without wishing to reform themselves, they shall be exiled to He-lau-keang, &c. As for Tartars, they shall be deprived of their pay. With respect to Europeans at present in Pekin, if they are Mathematicians, without having other office or occupation, this suffices to their being kept in their employments; but those who do not understand Mathematics, what motive is there for acquiescing in their idleness, whilst they are exciting irregularities? Let the Mandarins, in charge of the Europeans, enquire and act. Excepting the Mathematicians, who are to be retained in their employment, the other Europeans shall be sent to the Viceroy of Canton, to wait there, that when there come ships from the respective countries, they may be sent back. The Europeans, in actual service at the capital, are forbidden to intermeddle with the Tartars and Chinese, in order to strike at the root of the absurdities which have been propagated. In Pekin, where there are no more Europeans than those employed in the Mathematics,they will not be able clandestinely to spread false religion. The Viceroys and other magistrates of the other provinces shall be careful and diligent. If they find Europeans within theirterritoriesterritories, they shall seize them, and act according to justice, in order, by such means, to exterminate root and trunk.—You shall conform to this decision of the Criminal Tribunal.

It is an awful reflection that at this age of the world, in the nineteenth century, there should be found any of the potentates of the earth who should dare thus to oppose the introduction of that gospel, which the Lord Jesus Christ, who isKING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS, has commanded to be preached toALL NATIONS, and toEVERY CREATURE IN ALL THE WORLD. But we remember it is said in the sure word of prophecy “The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought, he maketh the devices of the people of none effect. Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel against the Lord and against his annointed, saying, let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision: He hath placed his King upon his holy hill of Zion: And the kingdom, and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the saints of the Most High; whose kingdom is an everlastingkingdomkingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. And the nation and kingdom that will not serve him shall perish, yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted. Let the potsherds strive with the potsherds of the earth, but woe unto him who striveth with his Maker.”

He which testifieth these things saith, Lo I come quickly.Amen.—Even so, come Lord Jesus!

FINIS.

292. L. 2. Sect. 36. § 83.

293. Ibid. Sect. 13. § 43.

294. Ibid. Sect. 36. § 83.

295. L. 3. Sect. 8. § 28.

296. L. 3. Sect. 27. § 3.

297. L. 3. Sect. 32. § 125.

298. L. 2. Sect. 6. § 11.

299. Sect. 17. § 47.

300. L. 3. Sect. 6. § 15. Sect. 13. § 41. Ibid.

301. Bez. in vit. Calvin.

302. Biblioth. Raison. Pour d’ Octobre, &c. 1728. Art. VIII.

303. Epist. ad Farrel.

304. Epist. ad Farrel.

305. Calv. Op. Vol. ult.

306. Ibid.

307. Ibid.

308. Ibid.

309. Ibid.

310. Bez. in vit. Calv. B. Aret. Hist. Val. Gent.

311. Brand Hist. Book 3. p. 77.

312. Book 2. p. 57.

313. Beza, Epist. 1.

314. Vit. Lub. Præf. Hist. Reformat. Polon.

315. Lub. Hist. l. 2. c. 5.

316. Brandt. Hist. V. 2. l. 17.

317. The Council of Dort, A. C. 1618.

318. Act Syn. Dord. Sess. 22.

319. Burnett’s Hist. Ref. Vol. II. p. 106, 107.

320. Queen Elizabeth.

321. James I.

322. Wilson.

323. Heylin’s Life of Laud, p. 58.

324. Wilson.

325. Life of Laud, p. 58.

326. Wilson.

327. Wilson.

328. Ibid.

329. Charles I.

330. Rapin, vol. II. p. 278. 2d edit.

331. Wilson.

332. Rapin, vol. II. p. 240. Com. Hist. vol. III. p. 35.

333. Rapin, vol. II. p. 286.

334. Rushw. Tom. II. p. 153, 156.

335. Com. Hist. vol. III. p. 73.

336. Rapin, vol. II. p. 291.

337. Rush. ad An. 1634, p. 270, 280.

338. Id. v. III. p. 1326.

339. Vol. III. p. 82.

340. Hist. of Stuarts, p. 118.

341. Com. Hist. vol. III. p. 90.

342. Rapin, vol. II. p. 244.

343. Com. Hist. vol. III. p. 30.

344. P. 32.

345. Vol. III. p. 67.

346. Com. Hist. p. 67.

347. Rushw. vol. I. p. 196.

348. Rushw. vol. I. p. 196.

349. Com. Hist. p. 67.

350.Com. Hist. p.Com. Hist. p.

351. Com. Hist. p. 58. Notes.

352. Wharton, vol. II. p. 233.

353. Rapin, vol. II. p. 300.

354. Vol. I. p. 26.

355. Presbyterians.

356. Charles II.

357. In 1736.

358. Nelson’s Life of Bp. Bull, p. 275, 276.

359. Sewel’s Hist. p. 161.

360. Id. p. 1

370. Id. p. 195.

371. Id. p. 199.

372. p. 567.

373. Luke ix. 3.

374. Matt. x. 17.

375. Theod. E. H. l. 18. c. 5.

376. Apud Cotel. p. 173. Edit. Amstel.

377. Greg. Naz. Vol. II. p 81.

378. Bishop of London’s 2d Pastoral Letter, p. 24, 25.

379. Bishop of Bangor’s answer to the Dean of Worcester, postscript, p. 207.

380. Matt. v. 5, 7, 9.

381. Matt. xxii. 35.

382. John xv. 12.

383. xiii. 84.

384. 35.

385. Matt. v. 10.

386. 12.

387. Luke xi. 47, &c.

388. Luke ix. 55, 56.

389. Matt. xxvi. 52.

390. xx. 25, &c.

391. Matt. xxiii. 8, &c.

392. Luke xiv. 23.

393. Matt. xxii. 9.

394. Christianity as old, &c. p. 305.

395. Matt. x. 34, 35.

396. Luke xii. 49, 51.

397. Ibid.

398. John xvi. 1, 2, 3.

399. Rom. xii. 9, 10.

400. 18.

401. xiii. 10.

402. Rom. xiv. 1.

403. Ibid. 3, 5.

404. 17.

405. 4.

406. xv. 1.

407. 5.

408. 6.

409. Rom. xv. 7.

410. 1 Cor. i. 10, &c.

411. xii. 27.

412. xiii. 1, &c.

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