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Untitled Article
standing at public prayer might be owing , in part , to the disuse of liturgies-=-a cause now happily removed it ! several dis- * senting congregations—and also to their ministers imich-wondered-at use of long recitations of the I ) iviiie attributes , power , &c . in their prayers , though usually ( and it should seem with
inore propriety ) sufficiently recited , and the congregation duly reminded of them , in psalms and hymnsj whether in prose ar verse s ami at which standing appears to be only that requisite respect to the Reity * the omission of which would be deemed often an unpardonable offence in inferiors to their superiors in rank , &c . amongst fellow-creatures , in their intercourse with
each other , on comparatively very trifling occasions . But , be that as it may , such recitals in prayer are always accompanied with supplications for pardon of sins , petitions for mercies , thanks for those received , Sec . ; and a kneeling posture at such
parts , to avoid an improper frequent change , wotild not certainly be more unsuitable , than the less bumble one appears to be , for a devout supplicant . It is true that the humility of the heart is alone acceptable to God ; and whoever is possessed of that essential quality , of which that great and omniscient Being ( with the supplicant ) can only truly judge , though it be unattended with an effect which by others is experienced as an
inevitable consequence of it , must feel that confidence < towards God ' that an acquitted conscience will ever give . Such a person it would most assuredly be criminally impertinent in any fellow-creature to disturb or censure in the slightest degree , and for a difference of opinion as to mere forms , more especially . Yet it may be asked , whilst a due regard to the practice of our Saviour and his apostles is enjoined , as an example
to be followed in most instances , why should it , in any particular , be to appearance so studiously rejected ? For , in the only passages in the New Testament where their praying attitude is mentioned , it is , I believe , always a kneeling one ; viz . by Luke , xxii . 4 !* Acts , xx . 36 . and xxi . 6 . ; and whatever the degenerated Jews might do during our Lord ' s ministry , or may now be their custom , it seems clear to me , from Psalm xcv . 6 . and from c . vu v . 10 . of Daniel ( who is there said to have " kneeled three times ct day in prayer io ~ God , as he did
aforetime" ) , that it had been usual amongst the truly devout of that people , both , in public and private , to address their Maker as supplicants irk a kneeling ( when not , according to the frequent Eastern custom , a prostrate ) attitude . According to information received from some creditable inhabitants of
Warrington , that respectable and much esteemed character , Dr . Enfield . saw this subject in the light it appears in to the writer of this letter , and so judged of it ( as to the propriety * at least
Untitled Article
628 On Kneeling in Public Worship .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1806, page 628, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1731/page/12/
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