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But when bs&ides these impertinent forms arid inj , unctions * the church with whom , I jpiu , does absolutely require its members explicitly to profess and maintain a doctrine
not only contrary to my natural conceptions of the Divine Being ; but which on the strictest enquiry I likewise find to be contradictory to the express revelation of his will : When its offices are blended
throughout with such essential errors , as ascribing the supreme glory of the God and Father of all to subordinate beings ; of whom the same scriptures , which inform us of their existence , have assured
us that all that power they possess is derived and delegated to them from him who has expressly declared that he is jealous of his honour and authority ! and that
he will not g ive his glory to ano . ther : —When this church persists in retaining and inforcing these errors , agaiqst the remonstrances of the worthiest and most
conscientious of its members , requiring them , ih the participation of its most solemn rights , to declare , that what they believe of the glory of the Father , the same thev believe
of the glory of t | ie Son a ? id of the Holy Ghost , without any differ-, ence of inequality : and on the the anniversaries of its solemn festivals , impiously denouncing damnation on all such as shall
presume to think'contrary to her determinations—To separate from and enter my protest against such si society , 1 cannot butt conclude to be my indispensable duty ; even though my separation were likely
to be attended with the greatest secular disadvantages . For if this be not a sufficient reason for the leaving jany religious society , I am at a loss how to vindicate the con-
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duct of ev ^ ri ose « martyrs and confessors , who shine so illustriously in the annals of former ages . I am sensible , Sir , thai the general excuse alleged by those who statedly attend on divine services which they do not approve is , tbat they take care to separate in their ideas , and ta assent or dissent
according to the fiaatfer delivered . — But as the vigour and ardency of our devotion must be much interrupted by such a practice , so it is certainly much more expedient to offer up oyr addresses to the Fa ~
ther of Spirits with tho ^ e ( jf such there are , ) of wriom we cannot reasonably entertain any doubt or suspicion of being unadvisedly led into what we cannot but pronounce to be a considerable
species of idolatry ; for as a very late writer justly observes , * ' a man ought to beat all times as ready to give his unfit igned assent to the truth and equity of every thing contained in that moc ^* of worship , with which he ventures to
approach the throne of grace , as he * is willing to justify hjn ^ elf in the use of it ; otherwise he seems to betray the necessity and reasonableness of tfye form itself , and
that by thus equivocating with his own conscience he turns the public worship of God into a solemn piece of mockery . '* Knuwles ' s Answer to an Essay on Spirit * London ^ 1754 * With rega rd | tp the author of
your £ > qok ; as I $ fyoi ^ d lay very Hi tie stress on so partial a controvert ist , as he declares in the pre ~ face to his work , that he had rather maintain an error in such company , as thjat wherein he is listed , than profess thq ( ruth with some others ; so I aij * surprised that ypu , Sir , ( whom I have fre ^
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£ } $ Letters of Mr . Bartholomew Hodfe *—? fatten lit
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1812, page 216, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1747/page/8/
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