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will any man abuse this , so as to encourage a disregard to health or safety , or to discourage the use of means for preservation ? We are expressly assured that neither tribulation , nor distress , nor persecution , nor famine , nor peril , nor sword , shall separate from the love of Christ : but who will
sa ) r , * Be not careful to avoid poverty , or contagious diseases , or robbers , or fire , or inquisitors ; —none of these tilings can hurt a believer I Leap from St . Vincent ' s rocks , or throw down your child from the precipice ; — neither broken bones nor loss of
children can hurt a believer ! ' You would not tell a consumptive friend , or one in danger of any infectious disorder , * You need not be fP careful of your bodily health , for sickness
and death cannot hurt you . / ; And will you tell a poor , imperfect nrpfcssor , before he become ^ exposed to any particular temptation , that , if it should come in his way , and he should comply with it , it can do him no harm ? Can that man be a believer
who fears nothing but final damnation ; who cares nothing for the dishonour of God V ' -r-The same Author s Serious Remarks , p . 69 . J . PYE SMITH .
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grounds than this—as an infringement on Christian liberty ?" If I 'understand the import of this phrase aright , it presumes that the service under consideration deprives the individuals concerned in it of some
Christian privileges which they previously enjoyed . The only parties whom it can affect are either the congrega ^ tion or the minister : and upon the liberty of which does it infringe ? Tlie minister is already the fixed and unbiassed choice of the society with which he is connected . He seeks not the
counsel of his brethren to qualify Yam for the work whicfc he has undertaken \ for previously to this service he has fulfilled all the duties of his office . He makes no profession of opinions
which are to fetter his investigations , or to prevent any future change in his sentiments . He makes no promises , he enters into no engagements , except that lie " will devote his time and his
abilities to the discovery and diffusion of truth , and to the peculiar duties of his office . If , then , the mutual privileges of the parties remain the same ; if the right of private judgment is uncontrolled , and the independence
of each church is strictly preserved , how can there be any infringement of Christian liberty ? Such a power is specially disclaimed in the " Services " already alluded to . " Never , indeed , *' says the author ( of the passage in
question , ;— e never may any of us forget that the whole business of this day and place has our common advantage for its object ; that we are all brethren in the midst of brethren :
that we humbly aim at recognizing and aiding a fellow-labourer in our Master's household ; and that your appointment and admission here are exclusively the acts of the Christian society who have chosen you to be their pastor . " *
But Ruris Colonus further inquires , whether the service " is not objectionable as a practice not enjoined by Christ , or authorized or used by his apostles , and , as such , partaking truly
of the character of will-worship V To the first part of this objection , it might be enough to state , that there is no precept in the gospel for the
* See the Services at the Ordination of the Rev . F . Baker , Mr , Kentish ' 3 Charge , p , 40 .
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Mr . Baker ' s Defence of Ordination ¦ Services . 81
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Sir , HAD I be ^ n less connec ted with the Services at Boltqn which have called forth the animadversions of your correspondent Ru ^ is Colonus , ( pp . 27—2 & , ) I might have felt
disposed to trouble you with some remarks in reply to his paper : but , under present circumstances , something more than inclination—a sense of duty—compels me to come forward in defence of the service of
Ordina-; since , in my own case , ; was neither determined upon without an anxious and careful examination of its propriety , nor adopted in connexion with any circumstances that could legitimately give it even the appearance of superstition . The Services of that occasion are
now before the public , so that your correspondent will have an opportunity of judging for himself whether , " in its present form , its liability to be abused to superstitious purposes is not guarded against . " But he adds , " Was it not objectionable on far other vol
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1825, page 81, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2533/page/17/
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