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Untitled Article
that it is absolutely unlawful upon any occasion whatever to propagate religion by force ; and that the Unitarians have no peculiar motive for
desiring the downfal of the Church as by law established . We perfectly agree with Mr . Belsham , and are persuaded that any alteration in the Establishment which should be made
by any of the powerful religious parties now in being would ba at once and decidedly unfavourable to the Unit aria us . But Mr , Belsham goes further , and states that one half at least of the Unitarians " approve ol a civil establishment in religion , are
attached to the hierarchy of the Church of England , greatly prefer the established liturgy to any other form of worship , and reluctantly withdraw , if indeed they do withdraw , from the communion of the Church solely upon the strong ground of dissent
concerning the object of worship . " Does our author mean only that the number of Unitarians in the Church of England is equal to the number out of it ? The last clause of the sentence just quoted suggests this question . If this be meant , no oue can contradict the
assertion , for it is impossible to calculate how many remain in a communion with dissatisfied consciences . But if , as the general argument of the letter implies , it be intended that a moiety of the known Unitarians ,
declared such by their habit of worship , are advocates for a national religious establishment and friends of the English hierarchy , we beg leave respectfully to aver our decided conviction of the extreme incorrectness
of the statement . There is unquestionably a difference of opinion amongst Unitarians on the expediency of liturgic forms , though as far as our Jknowledge of the denomination extends we should not hesitate to
say that three-fourths of them are adverse to printed forms of prayer , with responses . Their practice , indeed , determines their opinion . With no hindrances to anv improvement in
their worship , and with a general marked and eager desire to conciliate their neighbours of the Church of Iliigland , who can scarcely conceive of prayer without a Prayer-lx > ok , there are not we believe half a dozen
of their congregations in England which make use of a liturgy . This practice , however , would not , if it
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were general , infer the principle of a national church . It is not the magistrate ' s imposing a liturgy to which enlightened Dissenters object , but his imposition of any thing in religion . That the Unitarians agree with other
Dissenters in this principle is , we think , evident from their writings : we scarcely know another Unitarian writer besides Mr . Belsham who pleads for a civil establishment of
Christaniry , or rather , we scarcely know , with this exception , an Unitarian writer who has not , in one form or other , protested against the principle of the interference of the secular power in spiritual concerns .
Mr . Belsham thinks , that " if the scriptures were substituted for the Thirty-nine Articles and the Liturgywere reformed upon the principles of Dr . Clarke , the benches of our
chapels would be greatly thinned , and a very considerable majority of the Unitarians , at least in the upper and more cultivated classes of society , would become members of the
Establishment . " With regard to these " classes , " who have never been generally the most laborious inquirers or the most persevering reformers , ft might be so ; this is a mere speculation 3 but ought it to be so ? What " cultivated ' ' mind could safely
declare unfeigned assent and consent to any one translation of the scriptures , or even to any one copy of the scriptures in the original languages ? Who that has just notions of religious liberty would be content with a Liturgy , however " reformed , " which would be unalterable , except at the will of the magistrate ?
With a frankness , which even opponents must admire , Mr . Belshara states " the grand principle of dissent , " as laid down by Dr . Kippjs , and declares his disapprobation of it , viz . " that religion , like philosophy and medicine should be left to itself ,
to make its way by its own intrinsic worth and native energy . " It was not within the plan of the Letters to give the reasons for rejecting this fa * vourite principle of the modern Nonconformists , and , as we believe , of the
Unitarians in particular ; but we should rejoice if Mr . Bdsham would lay them before the public in some other form . We are open to convio tion , but we are at a loss to conceive what arguments can be adduced to
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760 Review . — Belshanis Letters to the Bishop of London .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1815, page 760, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1767/page/32/
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