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Untitled Article
instances , in which cc Deacons " have exercised their inquisitorial authority , endeavouring with vulgar curiosity , to ascertain the religious experience , and with ignorant bigotry to discover the creed of those who proposed themselves to be admitted . I have heard them enquire what was the plague of the candidate ' s heart , and pray with characteristic fervour ( for one Deacon was a butcher ) that the Lord would water his soul with marrow and fatness , and all this and much more of the same kind : not in a society obscure and irregular , but popular , highly respectable , and in the metropolis .
But to enter upon the subject—I consider all discipline which goes beyond the preservation of order in public worship , and in religious meetings , discipline which any person undertakes to exercise over others , before they can share in any ordinance instituted by Jesus , as improper . Granting that there are just causes tc lament the want of piety amongst us , that many members of our churches are speculatively Christians , and
in their lives not so strictly virtuous as their Minister or their serious friends might wish , I consider all attempts to correct the evil by " narrowing the door of admission into our churches " as unjustifiable , and I would defend this view of the subject by the following reasons : I . Any such limitations could not be made according to the estimate of morality , which the scripture contains , without injustice in their application . We are mostly conscious
that with regard to particular opinions , it would be improper to establish any rules , because we cannot presume what sentiments are positively right and what erroneous . But if we consider conduct we shall find that the same reason exists , to prevent our fixing any law by which , to exclude or admit persons who choose to unite themselves to our
religious societies . Though in some iew instances there is no dispute about the morality of conduct , in some points of view this is a subject as unsettled and as difficult of determination # s any controverted opinion . The profane , the intemperate , the debauchee we hold in abhorrence ; but is not the man given io the love of riches , who by almost everv effort strives
to gratify his favourite passion , njearly as culpable , considering the influence which his conduct may have upon the cause of Christianity , and upon his own heart ? In some sense , undoubtedly , conformity to the manners , ai ^ d fashions and amusements of the world , may be carried to a degrading and vicious excess . Who then is to fix rules ? Whose scrutiny is to detect the mean but legal frauds of trade ? If then judgment be passed upop him who is more notorious because he i *
Untitled Article
184 Arguments against Ghurch Discipline .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1807, page 184, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2379/page/16/
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