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wish to forget ; and , besides , it does not recognize the truth of Christianity , and there is happily a growing conviction that nothing short of thisTcdtn supply the moral wants of the people . The Protestants are , as has been said , an established sect in France , and , as might be expected from their position in the state , are timid and quiet . Their preachers are excellent men , but from various causes they scruple to agitate controversial topics in their sermons . The exceptions ^ to this rule are , it is believed , very few . Amongst the Protestantsate several " peers of
France , and some of the gentry , and many distinguished manufacturers and capitalists—but their Protestantism is rather political thatt teKgibus : they are said not to make conscience of religious worship . The leaven of scepticism has evidently spread amongst this body . The precise theological opinions of the Protestant Churches can scarcely be collected with accuracy Some individuals and preachers have been stirred up by the " Evangelical ?' party in England to avow and to seek to propagate Calvinism , and tKe ^ e accuse their brethren who do not strive for a " revival" of various heresies .
There are without doubt many anti-trinitarians amongst the French Protesi tants , although few of them would agree entirely with the English Unitarians . Some late computations would appear to shew that Protestantism lias been long on the wane in France ; yet the Protestants themselves are at this ^ moroieat cherishing the be lief of a recent turn in their favour , and , to
pifovs the faet , allege the endowment by the government of twenty ne % churches within the last year . They must do much more thari cdnipOTis with their lafe habits before they can hope for any great augipentation df their number * Their main want is books , argumentative and expository religious books . There is , as far as is known to the writer ^ only one period dical amongst them , and this is under " orthodox ** influence . The Rititfe
Protestctnte , which ably and spiritedly disputed the dogmas of Catvin , is dropped , though not from any failure of subscribers . A report is abroad that this work is speedily to be revived under a new and bolder title , and £ 6 be devoted to the illustration and defence of Unitarianism . In Paris there are many American residents , of whom some of the prjiicipal were members of Unitarian churches in the United States . These complain of the want of a public English religious service agreeable td their opinions and taste . Why do they not open an Anglo-American Unitarian
Church ? They would be exposed to less jealousy than any other foreigners ; they would be supported by some of the English ; and in ah easjr ahji natural manner they might help forward the religious reform which so many circumstances point out as the result of the present working of the puWic mind in France . Is not this an object worthy of the consideration of the American Unitarian Association ?
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" The truth shall make you free . " John viii . 32 . There ts not a greater mistake than that of confounding Christian independence with self-confidence and the spirit of pride ; yet , as it is to be feared that many are daily driven from the former duty through dread of the latter error , it niay not be useless to consider the practical bearings of the question .
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780 Christian Independence .
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CHRISTIAN INDEPENDENCE .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1829, page 780, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2578/page/36/
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