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produce some useful discussion . If he cannot find them , whe * ther he is not called upon to defend the charge of Mr * Orton against Mr . Godwin and his friend Holland , it becomes him as the responsible editor to consider .
It appears from these letters , that Mr . Orton was a warm advocate for extemporary prayer , and particularly deprecated the introduction of liturgies into dissenting congregations : his arguments for the-former are undoubtedly deserving of consideration : but , on the other hand * it mav be useful to consult
what , in his Miscellanies , Watts has urged in favour of forms of prayer , and , particularly , a little work entitled cc Free and Candid Disquisitions relating to the Dissenters . " Names certainly are not authorities ; but if the latter work had been owned by the author , it would not have hurt his integrity , though it might his reputation , among the defenders of extemporary prayer .
Mr . Orton , however , seems not to have done justice , either to the Liverpool Liturgy , or to the views of its composers . It was written , without doubt , for the sake of conciliating persons who were attached to forms , and yet could not receive the doctrines , or conscientiously join in \ the prayers of the church established by law . Certainly it savours oHngotry to affirm , that they are not Christians who do not regard Christ ' s Heath as an atonement for sin : nor was the assertion consistent
with the manly tribute paid by Mr . Orton to the integrity and worth of the venerable Lindsey ( i . 158 . ii . 159 . ) ; for in Essex-street , it is well known , a liturgy has always been used , which does not in any shape countenance the commonly-received doctrine of the atonement . That the Liverpool Liturgy
was not such a hobby-horse" of Jts composers as Mr , Orton Jias declared , may be justly argued from the well-known fact , that none of them ever made the slightest attempt to introduce a liturgy into any of their congregations : they merely wished to try an experiment where it had not been tried before . The institution failed , from other causes than the introduction of a
liturgy ; but whilst with happier auspices the experiment has since been tried , the state of several congregations where that mode of worship is adopted among the tTnitarian Dissent Jters , may be a sufficient refutation of puritanical prejudice against it . At the same time , the excellencies and the defects ot forms , of liturgies , and of extemporary prayer , should be separately considered . They are three different and distinct modes , of which , whether fprms may not secure the advantages , whilst they exclude the disadvantages of the other two methods fas the author of the Ci Frp and Candid Disquisitions * ' has argued ^ , may deserve very seriously to be considered . Against the prac-
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Remarks on OrtorCs Letters . 465
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voi- u . ' 3 o >*
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1806, page 465, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1728/page/17/
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