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tjuently with pleasure observed to appear quite dissatisfied on receiv . ing any thing that was superficial in answer to your Queries ) should look on what is advanced in this
piece as giving the least solution to a point widely different from the subject , whereof it treateth . This writer aims at nothing more than the justifying conformity to some ceremonial usages in the
Established Church ; which he urges ( improperly enough I imagine , ) from the apostles complying , on a particular emergency , once , or perhaps twice , with the use of some obsolete Jewish ceremonies :
which though at that time superseded by the Christian institution , yet by immediate extraordinary direction of the Holy Ghost they were enjoined to practise on this peculiar crisis , in order to
establish mutual charity ( that bond of perfectness ) amongst the several very opposite sects then-proselyted to the Christian religion . But this , I apprehend , bears no analogy to the case of those persons , whose exceptions lie against the
fundamental and essential part of the Liturgy , in that the ultimate object of worship is so far from being therein ascertained , that a plurality of supreme beings are evidently invoked and worshipped through , out the whole service .
You will certainly be induced . Sir , to pronounce me dogmatical , even to impertinence , in expatiating so freely on the conduct of some , of probably the most virtuous , of my contemporaries . But if it be indeed a matter of indifference
with what society we join in the public offices of religion , provided we secretly maintain our own principles , ahen surely the Reformation itself , and all other endea-
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vours to reduce Christianity to its pure and primitive state- must-be considered as works of Supererogation , as attempts of becoming righteous overmuch , and indeed
as things ( to speak in the softest terms of them ) entirely needless . It might be urged , that there is not perhaps any society , whose religious principles and usages tally in all respects with the jud g *
ment of an inquisitive person , —to which I reply , that if a man can discover any particular society ^ whose profession comes nearest to his sentiments , prudence will
determine him to join practice to opinion ; the transition being ( I speak it from my own experience ) quite natural , if not in a manner irresistible . For I can assure you Sir , that my separation was the result of no small reasoning and
enquiry , but of mature reflection and strong debates with myself ; and not the less , undoubtedly , a * I foresaw that my temporal interest must be considerably affected
thereby . However dissatisfied at the inflexibility of our church governors with regard to any farther reformation ; and observing that in the church to which I now
belong , the necessary distinctions of supreme and subordinate were carefully preserved in the devotional part of their services , and mediatorial worship given to the Son according to scripture , the positive institutions of christjanity administered in their native
simplicity , and proper care taken to guard its members against forming any enthusiastic notions , or irrational and unpromised expectations from a participation thereof ; and that as to the want of a liturgy , ( the only defect I cooJd or can still discover in our mode of
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Letters of Mr * Bartholomew Hoare . —Letter //• S 17
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TOL , VII . 2 F
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1812, page 217, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1747/page/9/
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