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Untitled Article
If it be alleged , that it is hard the Dissenters should be compelled to pay for the established worship , while they support their own ministers , it may be answered , that it is no more than a reasonable
tribute , since they differ from the majority of their countrymen : but in fact they do not pay for the established worship ; the church is endowed with ample estates , which if they were properly and
equitably applied , would be sufficient for its support . And the oppression of tythes might be removed by selling them , as the land-tax has been sold , and laying out the
produce in land ; or by converting them into corn-rents . For my part , I hold an established church , provided for by the state , without any distinction between Churchmen and Dissenters as to their ad .
missibility to civil offices , which , in fact , amounts to nothing more than a public leading in religion , and a provision for the instruction of the great mass of the people , who , without it , would be in
danger of losing all religious impressions , —to be . very expedient and necessary : and that , those who maintain the contrary opinion have a tendency , without perhaps knowing it , to fanaticism . 1 cannot but remark , and I do it with
concern , that the Society , like most of the Dissenters , is very fond of extempore or , as they call it , free prayer . Now I conceive this to be a sort of Popery , compelling the congregation , if they will pray
at ell , to adopt the sentiments , and pray in the words of the mi . nister , and that without examination ; for if they stop to consider , ttiey criticise instead of praying , and lose all devotion . To make
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this worse , the prayers are usually very long , dftd Weary the attention , even when good . If they be written beforehand , which is better , they come nearer to a liturgy ,
but a liturgy that no one but the minister has read , A liturgy combines and unites a congregation , which otherwise has really no bond of union * If well-composed and
approved by the congregation , they may all join in it with understanding and devotion , and individuals may apply it to their own particular cases .
Another objection to the conduct of the Society is a very important one . This is the uniting with their teaching of gospel truth * , such as the Divine Unity and placability , several dogmas on dark , mysterious subjects , beyond the ken of
mortals : to which , however- they mortals ; to which , however , they seem to require assent , to round their system . Such , I mean , as the materiality of the human soul , and that it , together with the body , totally perishes and is dissolved at
death . To decide such a point as this , concerning which we ore wholly ignorant , seems very presumptuous , especially considering how many among the learned and the wise , philosophers and
Christians , have thought and still think otherwise . It appears like a contradiction and impossibility , that when a being , like man , has been totally destroyed and mould *
ered into dust , he should , after many years , be revived , and be the same man , with the same thoughts and dispositions ) . A new man may be created ; but how this » ew man can be the same as the old
one seems to be incomprehensible * Wo firmly believe that we shall live in a future * tate , and b # re-
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322 Objections to the Unitarian Fund *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1813, page 322, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2428/page/38/
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