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7 A Mr. Cornish on the Decline of Presby...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Mr. Cornish On Ike Decline Of Presbyteri...
the ejected ministers , as their owp fathers ^ n Christ , and not as men separated from the Establishment . 2 . Many who greatly preferred the mode of conducting worship amongst th £ Nonconformists , and the privilege
of attending ministers chosen by themselves * were so situated from the first , or afterwards removed to places at such a distance from any congregation , worshiping in the manner they most approved , as to render it exceedingly inconvenient and sometimes
impracticable to give their attendance . The independents and Particular Baptists did not object to lay-preachers ; but those styled Presbyterians felt partial to ministers regularly educated , and qualified by learning , as well as piety , for public duty : such , not from
choice , but what they deemed necessity , attended the Established service , to which their children , being accustomed from ; their infancy , frequently adhered in after life , though settled in places where they might have joined those assemblies which their parents reluctantly forsook .
3 . Many of those who formed our first Dissenting congregations , the services of which they deemed most edifying , if , on the death or removal of a minister they liked , one was chosen , not quite to their taste , especially if his peculiar sentiments did
uot accord with their own , would go to their parish church . Such chose , if they must attend religious services they did not thoroughly approve , rather to join with the multitude than an unpopular sect . Persons strongly attached to high Calvinism and
doctrinal preaching , grew unsatisfied with those ministers whom they suspected of not coming up to their standard of orthodoxy . Ma » y , on the other hand , not approving high Calvinism , and preferring practical
to controversial preaching , if the Nonconformist minister was otherwise minded , would attend on the clergyman of the place , if his strain of preaching-suited their ideas , especially if a good and amiable man . Angry disputes about doctrines , the
Trinitarian controversy particularly , have often rendered excellent ministers uneasy in * heir situations , or driven them away , inucji to the displeasure of those who approved their services ,
Mr. Cornish On Ike Decline Of Presbyteri...
0 and lessening , perhaps dissolving ! their attachment to the Dissenting cause . 4 . Some have forsaken Dissenting worship , because the minister ' s manner or delivery appeared unpleasing .
Very learned and excellent men may have unhappily contracted gestures or tones , to which persons truly religious would reconcile their minds , yet forming a pretence with others , to decline their attendance .
Sometimes little altercations between ministers and a part of their hearers , a degree of blame perhaps attaching to both , have caused a falling off . Not seldom , also , has it happened , that disputes with their fellow-worshipers , quite unconnected with religious concerns , have caused desertion from th £
society itself . Such could not be serious and well-informed Dissenters , but they might , on the whole , have been truly respectable persons , and their remaining firm to the cause have done it service and credit . Nbvv it
happens very seldom indeed , that any desert the public cfaut-ch , on ac » count of disputes with their fellowparishioners , or even a just dislike to the clergyman himself . Methodists , or those styling themselves evangelical preachers , have frequently been very successful in
drawing away hearers from those called by them legalists and moralists ; but personal disputes with the minister or any of the people hardly ever takeoff any from the . Establishment , but often from Dissenting places of worship , standing far more in need of individual support .
5 . It has often happened that ministers of approved character and abilities , on whom age makes its advances , become unqualified for their work , perhaps unperceived by themselves . The circumstances of some , feeling and lamenting their increasing disability , have been such as to render
the salary , though small , quite necessary to their support ; so that absolute want would follow on resigning their office * Such as approved them in their better days , and would kindly bear with their infirmities , death and various other causes may have removed . Persons cowing into life do not feel the attachment which wouM lead them patiently to wait till the aged labourer is called home . Strarn
7 A Mr. Cornish On The Decline Of Presby...
7 A Mr . Cornish on the Decline of Presbyterian Qdnyreqations .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 22, 1819, page 78, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_22021819/page/10/
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