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the crowded city ; but social and public worship requires the open and manifest expression of our thoughts and sentiments in religious respects . No religious assembly could associate to worship , with one common consent and with one common thought , on the ground of that worship , which has no index but in the heart , and
no eye to see its progress but that of God . God was a Spirit from the beginning , and if this had been the worship -which he required , he would never have established , nor accepted the ceremonies of the Mosaic ritual . The
patriarchs and prophets worshiped God , in spirit and in truth , yet their -devotions were supported by external rites . They truly conceived of Him as a Spirit , that is not to be represented by any visible image . They did not ascribe his glory to any other . No creature shared in the unrivalled
honours of the uncreated , universal Potentate . They worshiped with the understanding Him , whom they knew to be the « only true God . " So Christ , the Aflostle of our profession , worshiped him , and called him " Father . " The title of Son , applied to Jesus as
the Messiah , implies a succession , in point of time , and of existence , to the Father . The Father is first $ and secondly , the Son proceeding from the Father , as it is stated in the Liturgy of the English Church .
What then is that true and spiritual worship , ordained by our great teacher > whose authority was divine ? It is to serve our heavenly Father with just conceptions of his spiritual
nature , and without any superstitious or idolatrous imaginations . He is not to be served by men ' s hands as though he neectad any thing . "Theheavens , the heaven of heavens cannot contain
Him . " Christ said , that to worship what we know , is to worship in spirit and in truth : the Jews , who used rites and ceremonies yet worshiped what they knew , or in spirit and in truth 5 therefore to worship in spirit and in
truth is not to worship without external observances ; but rather with just apprehensions of the divine attributes ; and with hearts and lives coit-* formablc in practice to the principles , which are solemnly professed . I shall Close thene observations on spiritual worship , with a reference to
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the birth of the spirit , which is specified as a qualification of the primitive Christian , in the Dialogue of Christ and the Pharisee , Nicodemus " Unless a man be born of the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God . That which is born of the
flesh is flesh ; and that which is born of the spirit is spirit . " A prosel yte to the Christian church , when he was endowed , like the apostle Paul with the extraordinary gifts and graces of the gospel , might be said to be born of the spirit , or born of God , who is a spirit , and who only
is able to give existence to a spiritual character , a new man created iu righteousness and true holiness . See the remarks of the truly reverend Newcome Cappe , on Christ ' s discourse with Nicodemus .
Our Saviour compares the joy , which his disciples would experience on his return from the invisible state to the raptures of the mother , when she rejoices that a man is borh into the world . This species of parental extacy is admirably displayed by the Grecian Bard .
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Sweet is the lustre of the sun , and fair The ocean , swelling' with the summer-air ; The 'budding' earth $ and fragrant , vernal shower : But nought so dear , as to the longing sight Of childless parents , is the welcome light , That ushers in their first-born ' s natal hour . WILLIAM EVANS . —*« aato » - ~ -
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Nantwich , Feb . ZS > 1815 . Sir , ALTHOUGH interrupted by particular engagements , yet , as the
present communication evinces , Ihay e not relinquished the idea of transmuting to you the various translations ^ the New Testament . ( £ ee Vol . * pp . 180—182 . ) Some are of considerable importance ; all of them are « curious , a » d shevr most evidently i prejudice and partiality of the translators By admitting tyxV **
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1540 Various Translations of fay ?) in the New Testament .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1815, page 240, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1759/page/40/
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