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« m the contrary , will keep alive the attention both of ministers and people . In the one it will beget a spirit of devotion , a serious frame ^ and temper of mind ; and
in the other , indifference and coldness will be excluded , and the faculties of the soul fixed to their noblest employment , the social worship of God * Besides ,
free prayer gives room for the adaptation of our devotional addresses to peculiar circumstances , to peculiar seasons of rejoicing and thankfulness , or of
humiliation and affliction , either national or individual , which advantage would be entirely rejnoved by the use of a liturgy . But admitting , fora moment ,
that some advantage might result from the use of a liturgy , I should be glad to be informed who are to draw it up , who are to make this bed of Procrustes , by which the consciences of all Unitarian
congregations are to be measured ? Are we to have a conclave of our divines , at whose pleasure this liturgy is to be fabricated , altered , and amended from time to time ?
Either this must be the case , which I do not apprehend we should be exactly disposed to relish , or the idea of Primitivus must be abandoned , as altogether visionary and impracticable .
Having trespassed so long on your patience and that of your readers , I shall now finish with a quotation from a small tract on this subject , written by Dr . John Taylor , formerly minister in this city " The case , * ny dear country-
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men , in every view , is very plain * You read iri your assemblies the ' pure word of God : your ministers , to the best of their abilities , instruct and pray according to
that rule . And according to that rule , you sincerely endeavour to form your religious sentiments , leaving yolir fellow Christians perfectly free to do the same , and
living with them in peace , and in all offices of love and goodness , though they may happen in some things to diffe : rfrom you in judgment . Thus you improve in
knowledge and piety , faith and charity ; and what would you have more ? You pray as from the beginning of the world the patriarchs prayed ; you pray as our blessed Lord pra yed ; you
pray as the holy servants of God , the prophets and apostles , prayed . I may add , you pray as angels would pray , should they come down and officiate in your assemblies .
* If once you desert your Scripture principles ; and give into the inventions of busy heads , you may be left to wander and lose yourselves in the devious paths of the vainest imaginations . Sortie things have already been moved ,
and others will follow , as ignorance , vanity , assurance , a lust of potter , love of novelty , an aver , sion to study aqd labour , a disregard to Scripture principles , a contempt of gospel simplicity , and other evil effects and
consequences . lam , Sir , Your constant reader , An UjuTAiuAN Christjax .
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The Question of a Liturgy discii $ sed .- ^ -Letter . 295
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1810, page 293, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2405/page/21/
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