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Untitled Article
V * lively emotions , while it enables every man to understand as well as to feel the pious sentiments expressed at the footstool of Almighty God . Variety is the most p lausible advantage ' that can be p leaded in favour of unprescribed , but prepared forms , which , I think , is » neither necessary nor desirable . I could advance
reasons , from speculation and experience , to show that variety is even injurious to true devotion , and hostile to the piety of the most numerous class of mankind , the poor , who are most indigent of edification .
2 . A public liturgy is a bond of union among Christian people , which experit nee has proved * to be of the greatest power and duration . It is desirable that those
who hold the same sentiments on important doctrines , if all are not to be comprehended in one community , which might be easily effected , should be formed into sects , or , in more respectful hm-& ** & ? * churches . No cause can
stand against the zeal and influence of opposing factions , unless it be patronised by the united ability , influence and virtue of all who espouse it . This union h produced by a public liturgy , where a great variety of
sentiments , on most important points , prevails * For such reasons a public form of devotion seems to be preferable to any other hitherto adopted by Christian people . Let me be allowed fn * fcher to
tirge some reasons wto < i * ch seem to plead for the adoption < rf a com' mon and uniform public liturgy , by all the , Unitarian societies in England . 1 . Is it not very desirable that we should ut last be incorporated .
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by common consent , into a church ? Why should we not at last , form the English Unitarian church ? Why should we not have an existence as a body ? And what can so conveniently effect this purpose as a common form of worship ? There is something grand and consoling in the circumstance , that the whole body is , at the same instant , speaking to the Father of Mercies the same
words , and indulging the same feelings oH piety , benevolence and devotion . Our cause will thus have something palpable in it . Its form may be thus recoct
nised by all who may choose to contemplate it , 2 . A public liturgy will very much facilitate the propagation of Unitarian sentiments , and remove the scruples of many to join in our worship who are attached , from education and reflection , to forms of prayer . Our liturgy will be an
arunt-courier , announcing to every place what we propose to the judgment of our fellow men . At present , on the entrance of our missionaries , into any district , they have to explain , at great
length , that they tiesign to call men to the worship of the one true God , in opposition to that pwid to a trinity of person ** , by the generality of Christians . But our form of prayer , with a clear
and plain introduction will , with little explanation , put all men in possession of our idvas , and objects , and the very comparison of it with other modes of worship , especially as far as concerns the object of worship , will half effect
our purpose . For such reasons I call on Unitarian societies to consider rtoo subject seriously . I trust that the
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Of an Unitarian Uiurgjfm 35 Q
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1809, page 359, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1738/page/5/
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