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    very many of them are exemplary , are not , speaking of them as a body , such regular frequenters of alt the services of the house of God , ( there are very few , we believe , who habitually or wantonly absent themselves from one service , ) as the members of other sects ; but we will not consent that what we both lament and blame should be considered as proving the absence of interest in religion , knowing , as we do , that many who will

    ordinarily attend but one service , will devoutly join in that one , and seriously endeavour to profit by it ; knowing also that many will attend three or four services in a day , thinking that in so doing they are performing what is required or highly acceptable , and yet not seem much wiser or better for the whole . In short , we allow that Unitarians attach less importance to the ordinances and public exercises of religion , as compared with its feelings and its other duties , than their fellow-christians in general ; that , in

    consequence , some may estimate their value at too low a rate , and indolence will more frequently tempt the less serious among them to a partial neglect of what ought , for our own good , and the good of our brethren , to be strictly observed by us all : but we deny that our body is chargeable with a general or habitual neglect of this kind of duties . There is a considerable proportion of it whose zeal for the public exercises of religion goes quite as far as is reasonable or useful ; and we deny that the partial neglect ( though an

    evil ) by any means constantly implies indifference or impiety . Dr . S . has shewn his want of any solid grounds for the accusations be has made , as well as the kind of spirit by which he was animated , in the most unfair use which he has made of a passage from an anonymous letter in the former series of this work * ( Mon . Repos . December , 1817 , p . 717 . ) The writer of that letter is evidently lamenting that persons belonging by

    education and habit to the Establishment , although brought to perceive the truth of our doctrines , as they are ready in conversation to avow , often cannot be induced so far to break through -old habits and connexions as to join our worship , either continuing to frequent the church , or going nowhere * This Dr . S . represents as a testimony coming from ourselves to the neglect of religious ordinances amongst us . We give him credit for having mistaken , not wilfully falsified , the author ' s meaning ; but with what views did he

    read ,, when he justified so serious a charge by evidence of such a character } The following passage , being part of the additional matter with which our author has enriched his second edition , may , perhaps , be best noticed in this connexion ; we feel it to be the more necessary to offer some remarks upon it , because the subject is one which has excited some uneasiness amongst ourselves , and Dr . S . ' s information has probably been derived from papers , inserted in a former volume of this work ( Mon . Repos . Vol . XXI . ) :

    "" But I go farther , and make my appeal to intelligent and candid Unitarians themselves , whether they are not perfectly aware that a proportion , not inconsiderable or uninfluential , of their congregations , at the present time , throughout our country , consists of persons who do not disguise their scepticism or even settled disbelief with regard to the divine origin and paramount

    authority of the Christian religion ? What has produced this coalition ? Why does it continue * with every appearance of mutual contentment ? Is not the undeniable cause a congeniality of spirit , and a conviction , on the part of those sceptics and infidels , that the theory of Unitarianism approaches so nearly to their own , that any remaining differences may be well accommodated Co the satisfaction of each party ?" Exaggerated as we believe the statement here made to be , we acknowledge that it has a foundation in truth . We are aware that in some few

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    10 Dr . J . P . Smith's Scripture Testimony to the Messiah .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1831, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2593/page/10/