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Christian Prayers and Discourses ; an Extract from an American
Sermon . Sir , PERM IT me to occupy a small portion of your valuable pages , by givirtg an extract from a Sermon delivered at the opening of the Congregational Church , in Salem ,
Massachusets , on the 7 th December last , by the Rev . Henry Col man . It contains sentiments worthy to be recorded in golden characters . The entire sermon is replete , with good sense and earnest piety , and , I am glad to find , has lately been reprinted in Liverpool .
H . T . " Serious prayers are not those elegant and eloquent addresses to an audience of which we sometimes hear the world $ pe # k in terms that make our hearts acjie - but they are the sitpple and unaffected effusions of a grateful , humble , and d ^ voiit soul .
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whepMt places itself in the conscious presence of God , and comes to hold communion with tke Father of our spirits 5 > and when , overwhelmed with the refcolteetion of God'i goodness mercy / aud forbearance , it presses forward with the feeble offering of
thanksgiving , and , trembling ana humbled under a conviction of its own sinfulnes 9 , ingratitude , and defective obedience , in the spirit of the prodigal it pleads for mercy for itself , and for those frail , imperfect and sinful creatures in the same condemnation , whose feelings and purposes it eadeal vours to utter before God .
" Serious sermons are not those rhetorical and philosophical orations , which dazzle us by the beauty of their imagery , or confound us by the abstruseness of their speculations , and leave us only in admiration of the talents of the speaker ; nor those beautiful and superficial moral essays on the nature of virtue and vice which
fall upou the heart like the rays of a December noon ; nor those learned displays of biblical criticism concerning some disputed reading , which , however useful to the theological student in his closet , only serve to unsettle the faith and lessen the
reverence of common Christians for the Scriptures themselves ; nor philosophical defences of the gospel against objections which never entered into the imagination of any but the vain man , who wishes to display his skill in their refutation ; nor vindictive denunciations of the sentiments and
characters of Christians vvhodiffer from you , which only serve to inflame the worst passions' of man , and bring to our rennetarbrance , with feelings of extreme mortification for our present degeneracy , the times when it was said by the Heariien of the disciples of Jesus , c Behold , how these Christians love
one another ! ' nor those pouring " foirth of unintelligible jargon , and those dark smugs of counsel by words without knowledge , concerning points of faith , which , according to Milton , furnished a subject of interminable discimiou to Che spirits of Pandemonium V-where
" ' Otberis apart sat on a hill retired , hi thoughts more elevate and reasoned Wgij ... Of Providence , foreknowjted&e , WIII > and fate ;
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booksellers * Every effort in our denomination should be made to encourage and indemnify such , for we cannot suppose that the time is come when public patronage will entirely supersede , the necessity of private recommendation . Has the valuable
edition of I > r . Priestley ' s Works met with all the encouragement and timely attention which its vast importance to generations yet unborn so richly deserves ? Has the sale of
the Examination of the Charges of Archbishop M ^ gee , yet justified the learned author in undertaking * his more direct reply to the doctrine of Atonement and Sacrifice ? Or has
the sale of the principal scriptural work issuing from the British press in the present century , viz . Belshani ' s Commentary on St . Paul ' s Epistles , remunerated the publisher , as he may reasonably expect from so wealthy a
body as the Unitarians ? The object of these remarks will be answered ^ if a determination is strengthened to promote the publication and disposal of able works , which explain the Bible
according to the Unitarian scheme . Thanks to the labours of Lardner , Wakefield , Priestley , Lindsey , Kenrick , Beisham and Wellbeloved , &c , this is not a vain attempt , B . M . i ^^ mm
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< IO 0 E&tract from an American Sermon *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1825, page 400, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2538/page/16/
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