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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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172 . UNITARIAN CHfcONICLE .
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the information I have been able to obtain on that point , it seems to me that the Government found their objections to the St . Simonian system not so much ( if at all ) on religious as on political grounds ; and some of the best friends of religious liberty
in Paris admit that the forms of worship wHi ^ KTTaYel 5 eerI " aBopteSTBy ^ trie " sect in question , have been adopted rather as a cloak for other purposes than out of any respect for religion , for which they do not hesitate to avow their dislike , if not a stronger
feeling ' . The French Catholic Church , as will be seen by their Confession , is avowedly a religious , and not a political sect . It has sprung up within the bosom of the Roman Church itself , and all its ministers are
persons who have either been actually in orders or educated for the priesthood . This party has had ^ its origin amongst a few individuals of independent minds , who felt how much religion had been " debased by the clergy of the Roman
Catholic Church , who yearned to throw off its yoke , and to exhibit the great truths of divine revelation to the people in their simplicity and power . They saw clearly into the absurdity and wickedness of many of what were regarded as the most important dogmas of the Church ,
and perceived that as long as infallibility and its associates were ,, upheld there could be no hope for any genuine or efficient reform . They have acquired strength and courage sufficient to enable them publicly to avow their opinions , and their present
success seems to me to justify the expectation of the most splendid results . The question is not at present now nearly they have attained the truth , but how far they have departed frorn cross error ; and in this point of view
I think your readers will agree with me in believing that , for a first effort , they have made an astonishing departure ; and they have laid down as the basis of their system that which
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will assuredly lead them on : ward , With ' increasing knowledge and experience , to the confines of the simplicity of the truth , as it is in Jesus Christ !
They avow the imperfection of their present views—they look anxiously for enlightenment — they cultivate scriptural criticism—they encourage -ffee ^ i ^^ y ^ tirey ^ ^ judgment ; and , in fact , they embrace
the Protestant principle in its fullest extent . They adopt , as their principle , what may Jbe expressed by the term f erf edibility , and regard their present efforts as merely the commencement of a series of means for promoting the knowledge and propagating the truths of the Gospel . The Abbe Cliatel , whois the head
01 the sect , is a man of no mean erudition , and of great popular talents . He has engaged a church , or a large room which he uses as a church , in the Rue St . Martin , in Paris , where he preaches twice every Sunday to crowded -congregations ,. I am ' well _ informed , of not less than 2000 persons . - One . of ' the best possible
proofs which I can give you of the success of the party , and of their acceptableness with the people of Paris ; is the fact that a much greater num * her of baptisms and marriages are celebrated in the church of the Abbe Chatel than in any other in Paris , and that there is also a greater and increasing number of communicants .
The services are . performed in the vernacular language : the priests are constantly engage ^ in instructing the young in Scripture knowledge : they give a copy of the Scriptures to every young person at confirmation ; and distribute books of a religious description as prizes for excellence in examinations ii po"rt the various " subjects in which they are instructed in
the churches . There are several other churches belonging to the society in the neighbourhood of Paris , and they are receiving numerous applications from different parts of France , either from churches already in existence , to be
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 1, 1832, page 172, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1819/page/28/
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