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    timentg or affections , its views of truth , or its sympathies of benevolence within the contracted walls of the synagogue or the tabernacle , but which extended its thoughts

    through the universe , and made its tender regard co-extensive with the race of sentient man . When Jesus composed this prayer , lie fitted it for the use of all the devout worshipers of the Father of Spirits in the temple of the universe .

    " Had Christians uniformly adhered , in their fotrns of public worship , to this incomparable model of simplicity , sublimity and benevolence , so many tempestuous feuds would not have been engendered ,

    and so many ang'iy sects would not have arisen in the sanctuary . All Christians , of all denominations , might have combined to worship the Father of the universe iu the kind sympathies of love , and in the gentle spirit of peace . "—Pp . 37—41 .

    The Author next proceeds to trace , in the narrative called the Acts of the Apostles , the creed which these inspired teachers themselves inculcated upon the first professors of

    Christianity : and lie proves from numerous passages , that the principal point of their preaching , as far as regarded matters of faith , was the all-iinportant and well-attested fact of the resur

    rection of Christ , considered as the earnest of a future life , and the pledge of immortality to man : " If religious concord in the Liturgy of a National Church he at all desirable , how is it to be obtained except by rendering ' the points , in which an agreement is required , as few as possible , compatible with

    the glorious ends of the doctrine we profess ? Now that great doctrine of the resurrection of the dead , which is the corner-stone of Chrisfrnnitv , and which the -Acts of the Apostles prove to have been almost exclusively impressed upon the first believers in Christ , seems to he better calculated than any other tenet to form the

    bond of union among-Christians in modern times . For whatever contrariety of opinion there may be about the nativity of £ hiist , there is no Christian of any denomination who does not unfeignedly assent to the truth of h ? s resurrection . There is no

    Christian who will not readily say with St . Paul , that if Christ be not risen , then is ©« r faith vain . Bui if Christ be risen from the dead , then have we good grounds for the hope of i in mortality . Then may the persecuted rejoice , and the wretched cease to mourn . On this fundamental

    article , therefore , a National Church may lr * y the groundwork of i-eligiong peace . This essential tenet of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is very comprehensive ,

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    not only in its practical inferences , but in its speculative results . For it , of course ,, includes belief in the divine mission of

    Jesus , of which it was the evidence and the consummation Re , therefore , who sincerely believes in this all important fact , cannot doubt but that Jesus was a teacher who had a commission from God to make known bis will to mankind . It includes a belief in the fatherly concern of the Deity for his creattnes , in 3 iis superintending * providence and his moral government of the world . He , who believes in this essential tenet of the Christian faith , cannot hj » t be strongly impressed with the importance of a viituous life , as he is convinced that death does not terminate his existence , but is only the passage to a stale of . retribution . 19 —Pp . 60—03 .

    The Author flatters himself that the reformation iu the Liturgy of the Establishment , for which he strenuously pleads , might be easily accomplished . " The Liturgy of the Church of England

    might readily be simplified , so as to admit all Christian sects into its spacious sanetuary . Not many alterations would be requisite for this purpose ; and . these would chiefly consist of omissions . We should retain all that was essential to

    render it a service worthy of a great national communion , calculated to nurture the growth of virtue , and to diffuse , ihrough the different orders of the people and the different denominations of believers , a spirit of universal charity . —Pp . 74 ,

    75-We agree with the Writer of this tract , that though the demand for religious reform may , at present , be only a still , small voice , yet that it will soon become » loud and

    imperative cry ; and that it would be wise to anticipate the progress of opinion , and not to wait , with inconsiderate temerity , till reform is clamorously demanded . But- when wo observe

    the obstinacy with which every particle of the system is maintained , we are led to conclude , that the guardians of the edifice are themselves imp res * sed with a conviction flint the

    structure is so crazy and tottering , that the removal of a single stone would endanger the whole fabric . Entertaining this opinion , we apprehend that the sensible and temperate remonstrance of the Writer of this tract

    will not meet with the attention it so justly deserves . J ^ . R #

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    43 B Review . —The Essentials of a National Church briefly explained .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1819, page 438, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1774/page/38/