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432 History of a Religious Change .
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maintain ( heir own obtrusive Triiiitaffctirtistti , as the sine qu& no ? i of their friendship or goftd opinion , and stigmatise ? every other as Antichristian ? This is ifty cas £ ; not only-am'I interdicted from attending the place of worship which is most congenial to my present made of thinking , but I atti required to bestow additional veneration upon the doctrine I am
convinced is unfounded , and asked to change opinions I have entertained for y ^ ars , without knowing I did so ! And all this &s the pric ^ of friendship , or with thg threat of family dissonance . You may perceive , that it has seldom fallen to my lot to compare 6 pittions , or to maintain religious disputes ' , dkrwa to this moment ; tior shall I now begin : but having to write down sotne family regulations lately , I was requested to " touch upon religion , as a good mode of keeping the household in fear o ( sin . " This was td me
a flew task ; but being naturally of an easy , complying disposition , as the tiint came frortl a superior , I essayed , and failed to please ; for I was not ** sufficiently evangelical , ' I was told , and farther on , that I was « no
Christian" Such was the harsh epithet bestowed by a rnan &H littfe given to inquiry on the subject as myself . I defended my mode of thinking , which I first discovered was not such as it
had been formerly , and differed materially from the church . This arose out of want of self-examination , I snould take it ; but then my — had no more . submitted himself to this
needful duty than myself . However , stubborn people having once set up a standard , generally stick to it , right or wrong ; and I am now assailed at du £ intervals with all the old commonplace arguments which Have ( I am told ) been exploded by the Unitarian
writers ; for 1 never conversed tvith but one person a few minutes on this subject , nor ever read a Word on the subject , but what is contained in the tattdr four Kumben * of your RepositoryiThis is my case , Sir , so nearly
corresponding with that of the Rochdale people , that I could not resist giving ' you a line or two , to 011 up half ari noiir ' s seclusion , to which i am tfiid dtay f ^ y . pte 4 f in consequents of what isa ] boveset down . Only in thfs do £$ itiy case differ from ftkm p £ 6 j > 1 e £ ; i $ -
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astaueh as they # efe inquirers , Metiers after Christ , while I was * going on in the way my ancestors have done , so far as I tvtt heard , from remote time . % neither asking for fr&ti light , nor Peking to refornnf .
So nearly do rny professions and practices agree , that 1 have taken into tny service persons £ f every deftoftiination of Christians that have presented themselves ; so that t have extended toleration to . the Roman Catholic , or Papist , the Methodist ,
Anabaptist , Church 6 f England , Moravian and Swedenbdrgten seGt * 5 otice td an Atheist , ( as 1 apprehend , ) feat never to a Quaker , nor to &n Unitarian ( so it turned out ) . From these Employed persons I have exacted but
one stipulation , and that is , to " frequent some one place of worship or other , but tet that plate b £ specified 5 " if any deceived me , he deceived hinfc . self , as 1 have acknowledged it happened in one instance , to nay mortification .
Notwithstanding all thisr I am nojt lukewarm either $ the course of trade rendered the eittploym ^ nt of people of one persuasion indispensable ; s ^ iid nd mart of proper feelings could make
exceptions oti matters of toleration of religion . I hope they ' vtill all reach the seat of bliss , and 1 believe it . From what I have said ybu will draw the conclusion , if vou have not
already done so , that the Unity of the Godhead is strictly impre&ted upon every tnind imperceptibly from the beginning ; it inters with the first ideas and perceptions itohich we imbibe from the great volume of nature , from our earliest instructions , artd , finally from a perusal of the Scripture ^ . ** That there is a God all nature cries
aloud ; " our first inquiries go to thai point , and , aftc ^ r exhausting th ^ sources of infortaiirttiori , on the existence of God , as manifested in the works of creatidn , our instructors bid us pray ( invairiably ) to Htm for pro - tecitiori . This orir yctitft-g ihincfs i&toir prdhedd , arid \ t& obe ? v : from him of ard
ttflibm so marry bett ^ ftt ^ corrt e , W ^ ^ k atri absrtrart bo 6 rt , arid We hstv ^ r ^^ on to exp&t rt vtitl he gtknted . But I 4 riiert out < yatrth sllid ine ^ j ^ riefic ^ drt d ^ efCt ^ d ! tt tWo 6 th ^ s ^ tirc ^ s Of goodness and mercy , we are distracted M fH& iAcdtigtUitf $ ^ e ^ rie f ^ ld to believe what can neithe * be '&spWn < £ iL
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1818, page 432, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2478/page/24/
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