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cembcr Repository , of Mr . Turner ' s Sermon on the Century from the opening of his Chapel , it strikes me that the above extract might have been enlarged upon with great advantage in the present state of several of our leading congregations , who seem to have been
pursuing a directly opposite principle , viz . to call upon as many preachers to come and display their talents before them , as the fancy of any individual shall prompt him to propose , before the congregation at large should assemble for the choice of its future pastor . The natural
consequence of such a proceeding must obviously be , to divide it into parties , perhaps as many as it may have heard preachers , and to excite in the respective partizans the passions , and give occasion to many of the manoeuvres , of a common borough election ; passions that will probably maintain their influence and shew their bad effects in
the subsequent proceedings of the congregation ; and manoeuvres that will afterwards be recollected with resentment , and perhaps played off against those who have had recourse to them on the next practical occasion . At any rate , both the passions and the manoeuvres are inconsistent with that brotherly love and simplicity of spirit which ought to influence a Christian assembly .
. In the mean time the minister elected comes , if he choose to come , to take the charge of a divided flock ; he knows who in it are his friends , and who have been his opponents ; and it will require great self-government and a spirit well
schooled in Christian principles to behave towards all without partiality , and without , on the other hand , yielding , on his side , to a manoeuvring , perhaps a truckling spirit , unworthy of a Christian minister .
Does it not , besides , betray somewhat of an overweening consciousness of superiority for any congregation to imagine that it has a right to expect that ministers should come from the most distant part * of the kingdom , leaving their respective flocks to exhibit themselves before them ? And may it not also be the means of loosening the bonds of Christian affection between a
minister and his flock ? of rendering the one unsettled and discontented with hia present station in the church , while a higher one is within his reach ; and the other jealous and distrustful , as of one who seems ready to make them only a stepping-stone to this higher station ? I mean not to say that ministers
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should in no case remove from one charge to another , or that our smaller congregations may not be useful nurse - ries for training up ministers for more extended services elsewhere ; still less that our larger societies may not justifiably invite such ministers as they know to have conducted themselves with credit and usefulness in a more confined
sphere : but it does appear to me , that great danger is to be apprehended from the indulgence of an unlimited curiosity on the one side , and from exciting an ill-founded spirit of ambitious restlessness on the other . These observations have appeared to
me of considerable importance to the peace , good order , and Christian edification of our larger societies , and I have endeavoured to offer them in the spirit of peace and love . If I have failed of doing this , I shall indeed be very sorry . V . F .
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Test and Corporation Acts . Sir , To the Editor . I see , with the sincerest pleasure , that my brethren are early in the field , and preparing for a renewed and hearty struggle for the demolition of those two decayed and hateful props of the Establishment , the Corporation and Test Acts . The Address of the Dissenting
Ministers , printed in the last Repository , will have been read with pleasure and profit by all true Nouconfoimists . Thank God ! the spirit of their fathers in the church still lives and reigns among them . Their activity , their union , their firm and uncompromising perseverance
will have its due weight throughout the kingdom . It will rouse us to a sense of our rights and of our wrongs , and it will enkindle a spirit too mighty to resist , and too determined to be turned from its purpose . It would be wise in the bigots to submit with a g > od grace , and not suffer the Dissente : s to feel and
know their own strength . If a determined resistance to their just claims should lead to an organized system of co-operation , should make them feel how mighty they are , the Church may rue the day when such a disclosure shall be made . " Neither their silver nor their
gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord ' s wrath , for they shall be < fts voured by the fire of his jealousy \ and he shall make of them a speedy riddance . " ( Zeph . i . 18 . ) Of one good consequence we may be certain . Our brethren of all persuasions , and especially those who are young , will be led to examine the
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Occasional Correspondence . 133
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1828, page 133, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2557/page/61/
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