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AA&res $ -4 f ike Umtarian Cangrega * ti < m , Boston * Lincolnshire , to their iate Minister , the Rev . D . fF * Jones , unlh his Reply . Sir ,
THE following address , which was very numerously signed , has \> een presented by the Unitarian congregation of the above place , to their Jate pastor , the Rev . D . W . Jones ,
whose resignation of his charge amongst them , with the purpose of going to America , was lately announced , as a token of their grateful sense of his useful and valuable
labours amongst them . L . " Boston Unitarian Chapel \ September 6 , 1826 . " Rev . Sir , " We , the undersigned members of the Unitarian society in this place , cannot permit you to take your departure to distant climes without
expressing to you our unfeigned regret , that you are not only about to leave us , but that it may be for ever . " When we recollect that , during the long period of our union , the
utmost harmony , social kindness and fraternal regard have uninterruptedly subsisted between us , as men and Christians ; and when we reflect upon the instructions we have received
from your addresses from the pulpit , fraught with classical learning and unsophisticated reasoning , teaching us ' to look through nature up to nature ' s God / and contemplate your unaffected piety in the display of the truths of the Christian religion , your ardent zeal to impress those truths
upon our minds , in order to produce jb us the practice of virtue and philanthropy , as the only foundation of a Christian ' s hope , our minds are "lied with sorrow that the days of your ministration amongst us are no more " . However , though the con"' re . Howeverthough the
con-, nexion of pastor and disciples is now disso lved , and you are going to lat > 01 ^ ' in another vineyard for a few j « ore years , yet we hope and trust J « at , as children of the same almighty fat her , the bond of Christian union *> never he broken .
. * hdt long life , happiness and pros-Pa rity may attend you wherever you " ay happen to pitch your tent ; but , wove all , that the reflection upon a w ai-spent life , accompanied by an
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unshaken confidence in a faithfu l Creator , and a settled trust in the truths and promises of Christianity , may solace you in the hour of death $ and , finally , that you may be received into the kingdom of everlasting joy and felicity , is the fervent prayer of , " Rev . Sir , " Your sincere Friends and Brothers .
" To the Rev . D . W . Jones . " The following is the reply of Mr . Joues to the at * ove address , which was presented , in the name of the congregation , by the two gentle men whosfc names are mentioned :
" My most esteemed Friends , " For the very kind and affectionate address which you have caused to be presented to me by our mutual and respected friends , Messrs . Love and Wright , I most cordially thank you * " To have conducted , for eight years , the religious services of so enlightened , so rational / and so intellect tual a congregation , I consider a high honour , and to me it has been the source of the purest pleasure .
" I have had an opportunity of knowing you thoroughly , and I am happy to say that the longer and better I have known you the more reason I have bad to esteem your characters and to value your principles
-• " Believe me , my dear friends , my mind is deeply impressed with a sense of the many acts of kindness which I have received from you , both collectively and respectively , during the period of our union .
" But now , on receiving this last token from you of your regard for my future happiness , on the dissolution of the relative connexion of pastor and congregation , I am so overwhelmed by my feelings , that I am incapable of giving expression to the fulness of my heart .
" In whatever clime and under whatever circumstances I may be , the recollection of your kindness will live in my heart till it shall cease to beat ; and at the last eventful moment , when my soul shall be summoned to mount on hiirh . mv aspiration . I trust .
will be , May God bless you all . " In the mean time , my prayers shall daily be for my dear friends in Boston , once my spiritual children , that they may increase in comforts and happiness while on earth , and
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Vatetittotory Address to th % Rev . D ** W * Jones * with his Reply . S $ f
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1826, page 587, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2553/page/15/
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