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Untitled Article
observance of the Sabbath > and yet it is so consistent with the tenour of Christ ' s teachings and practice , that no sound argument can be urged to controvert its expediency and usefulness * Upon the same groaads we
plead the propriety of Ordination Services . Neither the present manner of conducting them , nor the present style of preaching , is strictly agreeable to the original model . Circumstances of time and place have compelled us to depart from the primitive mode of
worship , and circumstances , equally uncontrollable , have given a different character to the service in question ; but the object of each is the same , distinctly and essentiall y the same , as in the days of the apostles * The Sabbath is still dedicated to moral and
reli g ious purposes ; Ordinations are still intended to recognize the public teachers of religion , to recommend them to the favour of God , and to aid their inexperience by tried wisdom and affectionate counsel . It is granted that , in the earliest age of the
Christian Church , some special powers were communicated by prayer and ordination : it must also be granted that the preaching of the apostles was by Divine inspiration : yet who contends that there should be no public instructions on the Sabbath because
the days of inspiration have passed by ? If it be admitted that the teachings of ministers endowed only with ordinary intellectual and moral powers , are agreeable to the spirit of Christ ' s intentions , it must also be conceded that the service of
Ordination adapted to the present state of mankind , must be equally proper and obligatory , and equally removed from the character of will-worship . No facts are more plainly recorded in the New Testament than the ceremonies
which accompanied the ordination or setting apart of persons for special employments or different offices iu the church . * They wight be pr incipally used for conveying to them
supernatural powers in proof of tkeiu * appointment . But , besides these gifts , they received directions peculiarly suitable to the work they had to perform and the difficulties they had to biirmouat , and were commended to
* See Acts vU 6 , be . 17 , xlii . 3 , 4 ; 1 Tim . iu ' - 10 .
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tlue protection of God by a solemn act of prayer . It is these latter instructions that we can imitate and employ ; and , as long as no pretensions are usurped , there must be
considerable propriety in following a scriptural practice to aid the inability of youth , and supply the wants of inexperience . I argue only On the proper use of the service ; for * as to the communication of spiritual
authority by the Imposition of hands , * ' every rational believer in the truths of Christianity discards at once the idea of a ceremony founded upon such an utter misapprehension of the meaning of scripture and the present state
of society , and which can be entertained for a moment only on the supposition that the miraculous gifts enjoyed by the first promulgate rs of the gospel , have been transmitted , in regular and unimpaired succession , to the religious teachers of modern times . ** *
Again , your correspondent asks , whether the service " is not objectionable as accompanied , in many cases , with a considerable degree of
usurpation , and , in general , calculated to impress men ' s minds with superstitious notions , especially with regard to the validity and sacredness of the clerical office and character ?"
This objection is clearly founded on the abuse of the service . It would be very easy to select the corruptions from the best institutions in order to fix upon them the stigma of superstition * Neither " priestly Usurpations , " i €
nor ghostly pretensions / ' are at all necessarily connected with this service . We may associate " superstitious notions" with any rites * however rational and obligatory ; in proof of which I need only allude to a too general
feeling respecting one of the positive institutions of Christianity : but even Rur % ' 8 Oolonus + 1 am perauaded , would not argue from that circumstance that it should be altogether abandoned . It ought to be an additional reason for
enforcing its observance , by rendering it simple as itt object is important , and stripping it of those repulsive corruptions which the superstitions of former ages hare thrown around it . The same reasoning will apply to the * - " —" ¦»¦¦ i v'M ^ .. « ,,....,, ¦ ¦ —
• See the Rev . J , J . Tayler ' s Ordination Service * p . iv-
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82 Mr * Baker ' s Defence of Ordination Services .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1825, page 82, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2533/page/18/
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