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to inspire the mind with the profoundest reverence and love of the Supreme Being , and to give it the most just views of human nature and of human duty ; and the longer he lived , and the more he reflected , the stronger his
conviction became , that this is the best means of inculcating virtue and of cherishing piety . That the doctrines common to all Christians , and the duties and hopes arising out of these , must and ought to form the most frequent subject of the discourses of
the Christian minister , there can be no doubt ; but surely no reflecting person will deny , that there are other opinions which ought occasionally to be discussed in the pulpit , with all possible plainness and freedom . Abstaining from all harsh censure of others :
abstaining even from every expression which , though in itself strictly just , will be deemed offensive , especially when the same idea may be conveyed in language which will give no offence ; it must at the same time be the
imperative duty of the minister of the gospel , to state clearl y and to defend fearlessly , every opinion which he may consider true and important , whether it be popular or not popular , and whether it tend to conciliate favour or
to occasion clamour : for truth is of still greater value than peace . *
* And it ought never to be forgotten , that the Sunday is the only day on which there is any certainty that the minds of the people will be directed to these
subjects : and that , at all events , the public services of the Sunday afford the Christian minister the only opportunity he is sure of , in which he can make the people acquainted with the prevailing and most pernicious corruptions of their religion , and with the evidence on which are
established the pure and cheering doctrines of genuine Christianity . In the degree , therefore , in which Christianity is of value ; in the degree in which an uncorrupted Christianity is necessary to accomplish the moral and spiritual purposes of its institution , in this degree it is indispensable that these topics should be
sometimes discussed in the pulpit . For how , in any other manner , can the people be secured from the general and unwearied exertions which are made to mislead them , by those who possess the public ear , and who have on their side all the influence afforded by long-established and popular systems , supported by splendid establishments ? By what means is this
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That the pious and excellent minister whose loss we now deplore was deeply convinced of this truth , that he thoroughly understood the importance of religious inquiry , and the duty of a fearless avowal of religious opinion , he has left an unquestionable and valuable proof . * " An ardent love of truth , " he says / f " a determination to follow wherever she may conduct the mind , and to obey her dictates whatever may be the consequences ; a zealous attachment to that pure and sublime Christianity
almost overwhelming power to be resisted , if ministers are not to declare to their own people , their own convictions , and the reasons by which these convictions have been induced ? It is sometimes objected , indeed , that to treat of such subjects in the pulpit , is to occupy the time which ought to be devoted to moral
and religious instruction , in the discussion of speculative opinions ; but to this it is replied , that it is precisely because the opinions alluded to are pre-eminently practical , that the frequent consideration of them is contended to be of paramount importance and of indispensable necessity . Will any one say , that the Calvinistic doctrine of Election , for example , ] has
nothing to do with moral feeling and moral conduct ; that it is a mere barren speculation , and that it is not the duty of the Christian minister to give his hearers what he conceives to be enlightened and scriptural views concerning it ? O , whatever prejudice and error may fear , and fear suggest , surely in the serious review of the manner in which he
has performed the duties of his ministry , in that solemn hour when his ministry and his life are about to close , that man will feel , and will have the best reason to feel , self-satisfaction , who is conscious to himself that , to the utmost of his ability ,
he has studied the sense of Scripture ; and that , without hesitation , without reserve , and without fear , he has uniformly and faithfully stated that sense to his people , in language too clear and precise to be misunderstood .
* See The Right and Duty of Private Judgment and Free Inquiry , on Religious Subjects , asserted and enforced , in a Discourse , delivered at Poole in Dorset , on Wednesday , June 27 th , 1810 , before a Society of Unitarian Christians
established in the South of England for promoting the genuine Knowledge of the Scriptures and the Practice of Virtue by the Distribution of Books . [ See Mon . Repos . VI . 177-3 f Ibid . p . 45 .
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Memoir of the late Rev . William Blake , ofCretekerne . 267
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1821, page 267, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2500/page/11/
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