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MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS.
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able . The government are carrying on works upon an extensive plan , according to which all those which are partly covered with rubbish , are to be cleared , and to be connected and grouped , that these precious relics shall present a view at once picturesque and agreeable .
AH the environs of the Vatican , with the exception of the main street conducting to it , are likewise abandoned to herdsmen . I was particularly struck with their desolate appearance , early one morning , when I set out to visit St . Peter's , The sun
had just risen when I reached the great square ; the doors of the Cathedral were still shut ; profound silence every where prevailed , except that at a distance I heard the bells of the cattle returning to their pasture . Not a creature was to be seen , and I arrived in the fore-court without having met with one human being . The
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Account of the Rise and Progress of TJnitarianism at Thorne and Stainforth . Sir , Boston , Nov . 4 , 1817 . Wif THATEVER success may have WHATEVER success may have
attended my labours as an Unitarian Missionary , either in attempting to edify churches already planted , or to plant new ones , there is no fruit of my exertions that gives me more satisfaction than the united societies at
T horne and Stainforth ; and as the success of the cause in those places , under many and great difficulties , may stimulate the persevering exertions of its friends in some other parts of the
kingdom , I wish to communicate to them , through the medium of the Monthly Repository , a short outline of the rise and progress of Unitarianism in the above places .
When I first visited Thorne , a little more than twelve years since , not a single Unitarian was fo befound , either in that town or in its neighbourhood , for some miles round . There were a few CalvinistB , but most of the
religionists were Arminian Methodists . A few persons from among the Me * thoditfte had become , either in whole or * in part , UmversaJists ; of what they called Aria ™ and' Socinians , even
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coolness of the morning , and the tint * of the dawn , diffused an inexpressible charm over the enchanting solitude . I beheld the temple , its colonnades , and the sky before me , and never had my mind so deeply felt the sublime magnificence of nature , at the moment of separation between day and night .
At length the doors of the church opened , and its bells announced the opening day ; but in vain did their sound sumnion the Christians to their devotions . Not a soul came to implore
the blessing of Heaven . This temple , the most splendid monument that the world ever raised to the Divinity—this temple already stands in a desert the grass grows in its fore-courts , and
moss springs upon its walls . It already relates the glory and magnificence of past ages , and prepares to proclaim to future generations the genius and the piety of the times in which it was founded .
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these persons stood in terror . They had heard of me as an Universalist preacher , and knew nothing further about me : as an Universalist my preaching was publicly announced . The first time I visited them I preached in . a barn to crowded congregations ,
the whole town seemed to come together on the occasion : and could I have concealed every other reputed heresy but the Universal Restoration , I might soon have established a large society ; but it never was in my pfctn
to conceal any part of Scripture truth , though I have always thought it right to exercise prudence , and bring forward subjects gradually , where they would appear new and excite alarm . This plan I adopted at Thorne , and it was successful . I had never thought
that the multitude would continue to hear me when my sentiments wer $ known ; but I did expect that a few individuals would think for themselves , follow the convictions of their own minds , aud keep the standard of Ubitarianism erect among them - in this 1 was not disappointed . From this time I continued to visit Thorne about every six , months for several years . ; many books were put into circulation nmojig tt& peofllft . *
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$ 52 TJnitarianism , at Thorne and Stainforth .
Miscellaneous Communications.
MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1817, page 652, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2470/page/12/
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