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the Church / ' perhaps even then Crosier and mitre dancing in his eyes , and he early reached the envied goal the Episcopal otium cum dignitate , which heetijoyed and adorned for thirty
years . His friend ff ^ uitefield , in the mean time pursued a less frequented path with only here and there a traveller ; and could with perfect sincerity thus speak of himself , as I remember to have heard him , on a very interesting
: * ' Every opportunity of worldly elevation and ecclesiastical emolument have I promptly and largely sacrificed on the altar of liberty and conscience : and I stand alone , like a hermit in the
wilderness , reaping a scanty harvest from the hard and barren soil of learning , unpreferred , unpatronised , unpensioned , unregarded , amidst my contemporaries , whom I see risen and rising round me daily , to the highest situations in Church and State , with
original pretensions to distinction far less flattering than my own . " ( Defence in the King ' s Bench , Feb . 21 , 1799 , p . 55 . ) [ Mem . I . 378 . ] '
Now the lordly mitred head is laid as low as that of the laborious scholar , unendowed , except with priceless and imperishable treasure , and who has now long arrived where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are
at rest , and rested from his labours ; it is interesting , and can scarcely be unedifying to look back to the point from which these literary associates diverged , and to observe their very different progress towards that bourn from which no traveller returns . From the
contemplation of such a subject , an unambitious Christian may also be confirmed in the opinion that Articles , Creeds and Establishments are the creatures of fleshly vrisdom , rather than the fair offspring of simplicity and godly sincerity . J . T . RUTT .
P . S . Since writing the above I have observed in the Terrce-Filius , No . XXXI . published in 1721 , some instructions " to all gentlemen schoolboys , who are designed for the Universit y of Oxford /* Among them are the following :
" Your only safe way is to carry along with you consciences chartes blanches , ready to receive any impression that
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you please to stamp upon them . — Never , ' therefore , explain your opinions , but let your declarations' be , that you are Churchmen , and that you believe as the Church believes . For
instance , you have subscribed the Thirty-nine Articles ; but never venture to explain the sense in which you subscribed them ; because there are various senses ; so many , indeed , that scarce two men understand them in
the same . —Suppress , as much as possible , that busy spirit of curiosity , which too often fatally exerts itself in youthful breasts ; but if ( notwithstanding all your non-inquisitiveness )
the strong beams of truth will break in upon your minds , let them shine inwardly ; disturb not the public peace with your private discoveries and illuminations ; no , if you have any concern for your welfare and prosperity , let Aristotle be your guide absolute in philosophy , and Athanasius in religion . "— Terrce-Filius , Ed . 3 , 1754 , pp . 167 , 168 .
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Bristol , Sir , August 17 , 1820 . DULY received the letter trans-I mitted to me by you , from your Correspondent " A Constant Reader , " and having no other means of replying to it but on the pages of your Repository , I trust that you will allow me a short space for that purpose .
We have every reason to believe that there are in various parts of the country , small numbers of Unitarian Christians who are desirous of meeting for mutual edification every Lord * s-day , to worship the " God and Father of our Lord . Jesus Christ / ' and , keeping in mind the very encouraging declaration of our Master , " Wherever two
or three are gathered together in my name , there am I in the midst of them , " it cannot but be considered an imperative duty in them so to do . In few instances can it be supposed that these small congregations have the means of procuring the services of a
regular minister : nor is it needful . Any pious and sensible member , or several of these in turn , may surely with great propriety and usefulness perform the offices of one . I . say this from a most satisfactory experience of many J r ^ ars , —first in attending upon
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514 Mrs . M . Hughes on Sermons in smalt Congregations .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1820, page 514, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2492/page/14/
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