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better for the present be suffered to retain a simple error of the intellect , rather , than that ^ bjr having his evil passions awakened , r * e should unhappily fall into some vice of the heart , . Hie preacher in this ease is in danger © £ alarming the prejudices of his hearers -without convincing their
understandings , and perhaps , to shorten his work , will unawares be led into railing instead of reasoning . These remarks do not apply to -tretigious conversations strictl y so called , to printed sermons on particular occasions , or to lectures in the form of
sermons professedly treating , on particular subjects where the hearejtfs : are prepared for discussion , and yvhieh iday all be eminently useful in their way , though even here the character ^> f a sermon should be preserved , but thiefly to general preaching . ** It is a fcihd of sacrilege , " says Dr . Hartley , " to fob God ' s flock of the nourishment due
to them from public preachings , and In its Stead to run Out Upon questions that minister no profit to the hearers , at least to the greatest part . These thrngs are much better communicated to the world by the press than to sl tnixecl assembly by the pulpit . " It may not be amiss here to offiir a
few remarks upon the several names and denominations into which *< the Christian church is divided ; and to which , to names arrd not to things our btesent reflections will be confined . It is indeed certain that as . &" the evil shall bow before the ' good * , and the
wicked at the gates of the righteous ;" so , things as well as names will finally settle upon their proper bases . That which hath an unstable foundation rniist necessarily fall of itself ; and were it not so , the-decree as to all the
^ corruptions religion is final and irrevocable : " every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be' rooted up . " But names may become obsolete long before the things signified by them are fallen into decay ; " that is , the asperities and excrescences
of sects and parties may wear off , and they may learn to view . one another without aversion and disgust , and e \ en with cordial amity and good will , ih . 6 \ igh they shotfTtTstilJ retain many of their own peculiar notions . And this desiraWe event appears to be rapidl y ^ aqcorp p lishijng every day . Sorqe ^ itu' n ^ f ^/< fojLes ^ an . ts , Jh ave writ . ten to prove ' that the Fopc is Anti-Christ , arid in the
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opinion of their own patty they JiaT * writteniwell ; but we must not co ^ W AntitChrist . 40 . aoy partiGular ^ ei ^ i i ration ; * wherever there is--ai dfaiitQf governing consciences or ofifettljqg . u over . God ' s heritage , Uier ^ is Ami . Christ . * ' *¦*
But wherever these obnoxious pr ^ ciples are disowned , we nni ^ fc not judge our brother " because he fojloweth- not with us . " The charity of the great Founder of our religion and of the sacred writers , is extended to a , < Jegree of which a true fcjgot of a * ny denomination , cleric or laick , es * tabli&hed ar unrestablished , can scarce .
ly form an idea . Our Lo ? d would not permit those strangers to be forfekU deja who attempted to cure diseases ia his name - y . and St * Paul permitted those to preach the gospel \ vho built nothing upon it but " woed , hay and stubble ; " and allowed that though their wofks should be made manifest
" b y the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning , " the men themselves might be saved ; and , he rejoiced thai " Christ was preached , " though iroro improper motives : and thus must we act if we would approve ourselves true Christians , though we should find it impossible entirely to coalesce with some particular communities .
If a Protestant of the denomination of " Friends" were introduced into the cathedral of St . Peter ' s at Rome at the celebration of some solemn festival , what would be his sensations?—the gorgeous temple , the holy water , the superb ornaments ,, the pompous precessions , the change , of postures and of vestments , the blaze of candles at
noonday , the smoke of incense , the instrumental music , the chanting of the choristers , the prayers in an unknown tongue—rwould altogether serve in their general effect , absolutely to distract Tlim i Or if perchance he could cain an interval of reflection , it would be to say within himself—is this the relig ion of Jesus Christ ? are these thediaapks
of the prophet of Nazareth , " the man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs . of him who , laid down " poverty o spirit" as tire first stone in Ins spirited building ; of him whose " king dom was not of this world ? " Perhaps hc
j . * " Ignorance in doctrine , superstition ^ worship and persecution \ jx temper , W e proofo of Aoti-Cbri * t . " , - , Robinson on Claude
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5 r ^ 6 Qn Controversial Divintijfc
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1816, page 586, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2457/page/22/
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