On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
too often clouded with uncertainty and embittered by anxiety . Ministers are no longer monks , and the exercise of the family affections is a school for the most valuable knowledge of human nature . The marriage state is as necessary for their spiritual usefulness as for their private happiness , but the meditations of the closet must be distracted by pecuniary anxieties . A man wishes his children to
inherit his own rank , but this is too often impossible . Trade and labour are at present considered a degradation ; but shonld Productive Societies , with a common capital , ever be established , labour will lose its stigma ; it will be rendered less laborious by the judicious application of capital ; and to be received into a society as a minister , will be to secure an independence for a family . ADELPHOS .
Untitled Article
" True Worshipers' at JVareham * To the Editor , Newport , Isle of fVight y Sir , Feb . 10 , 1829 . Well knowing your unwillingness to permit the pages of the Repository to be occupied by the generally unprofitable
details of congregational disputes , I should have passed unnoticed the statement of Mr . James Brown in your last number ; but coming from the minister of the congregation to which his observations refer , they claim a degree of attention to which neither their importance nor their accuracy would otherwise entitle them .
The circumstances , also , which led to the separation of many of the oldest and most respected members of the Wareham congregation , though painful in themselves , are highly instructive , as they tend to shew that even kindness and forbearance maybe carried to a dangerous excess , as they frequently enable
those who consider that in the promotion of religious opinions the means ^ are sanctified by the end , to take advantage of that charity which thinketh no ill , covertly to advance , and at length openly to avow , purposes which , in the first instance , they could not be suspected of entertaining .
The Wareham congregation was long ranked under the denomination of Presbyterian . The members ' generally were believers in the unrivalled supremacy of the one God the Father , and though as to the pre-existence of Christ considerable difference of opinion prevailed , the majority , probably , inclined to the affirmation side of that question . Mr . HiH ,
Untitled Article
the former minniter , was whaj ; is commonly called an Arian ; and Mr . Thomas , his successor , though he seldom preached on doctrinal subjects , was considered as holding the same opinions : thus much is certain , that he shewed himself friend ' -
ly to Unitarianism by attending the mec £ ings of the various Unitarian Societies which were held in his neighbourhood , though , like many of the ministers of his class , he would probably have been offended at being considered as favouring some of the opinions " " which those societies were formed to ' promote .
In this state of things , a young man , who , though he had usually attended Calvinistic preaching , was not considered as very fixed in his opinions , settled at Wareham , and married a lady of Mr . Thonoas ' s congregation . He expressed himself much pleased with that gentleman ' s preaching , and stated in the hearing of the present writer , that he never met with any one whose opinions so completely coincided with his own .
Such conduct threw our frieuds at Wareham off their guard ; in an evil hour , at his repeated solicitation , the individual in question was admitted as a trustee to the chapel . He now became very active , alarming the minds of the young and inexperienced as to the danger of religious error ; circulated tracts among them of a Calvinistic tendency ; invited Calviuist ministers to his house :
and , when ati opportunity offered , introduced them to the pulpit , taking care afterwards to contrast their style of preaching with that of the stated minister . Things being thus prepared , he personally insulted Mr . Thomas , and that in so gross a manner , that he felt himself compelled to resign his office . By inducing malty small subscribers to enter
their names ou the books , a majority was obtained , and the appointment of a Calvinistic minister carried , who , though he at first professed much moderation , and shewed some degree of respect for the persons of those who differed from him , soon felt it his duty to brand their opinions as unscriptural , and , as E . K . remarks , " to deny the Christian name to those who refuse to worship Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit . "
1 will not tire your readers with an enumeration of the consequences which followed ; suffice it to say , that Calvinism by these means gained a complete ascendancy . At the annual meeting for business , the trustee who held the chapel deeds was requested to produce them : without knowing the motives of the re *
Untitled Article
Miscellaneous Correspondence ^ 207
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1829, page 207, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2570/page/55/
-