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Untitled Article
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Untitled Article
but one particular exposition of that roost mysterious doctrine . Her general and verbal admission of the right of private judgment is , for our author ' * purpose , completely nullified by the denial pf it , by the fulmination of bee heaviest anathemas upon it , so far as the object of worship is concerned . Is it worthy of a dissentient conscience , does it comport with the simplicity
and frankness of a disciple of Christ , to steal an unmeant toleration by " abstaining from repeating those parts of her liturgy which are contrary to what appears to him to be the meaning of Seripture" ? It is taking what she never meant to give ; -what would not be taken could she prevent it ; and what she accompanies with her malediction . The feelings which should be excited by social worship would not be promoted if any
considerable portion of a congregation were to close their books and hold their tongues , as often as Trinitarian doxologies or invocations of Christ came round in the service . The act , which should be a delightful union of hearts , would then become an occasion for expressing the disunion of opinions * If the dissent were obvious to others , their feelings would be disturbed ; and if it were not , the ** conformity" would be " hypocritical . " How
can the purposes of public worship , so beautifully though briefly described by our author , be realized under such circumstances ? Any " form of words" must " disturb such natural and holy feelings , " which would open for those feelings a channel in which the individual thinks they ought not to flow , and direct them towards ( according to his conviction ) an improper object . He may , in his silence , exercise an * ' inward sentiment of
brotherly good-will and consideration for others , " but he runs the risk of exciting them to an unbrotherly horror at his heresies . We take all the argument against joining in worship where any part of the service does not accord with the opinion of the individual , to be beside the mark . Whom do you worship ? That is the very first question which we imagine a man to put to the worshipers at the gate of whose church he presents himself ,
deliberating whether he should enter or not . So long as he has a choice he should require agreement so far . When there is no choice , it may become him to consider whether he will best discharge his duty to his God , his fellow-creatures , and his own soul , by attending where persons are worshiped , in whose deity he does not believe , or by seeking the apostolic benediction on " the church that is in his house . "
Remaining in the church , in order to promote the reform of the church , is a perilous expedient . Many good men did so in the last century ; and where are the fruits of their conformity ? The fate of the celebrated
" Feathers' petition" extinguished the last hope of the church being liberalized from within . The power is not " within itself to alter or modify its articles and liturgy . " That power is in the Legislature . The nation supports the church , and the church is at the nation ' s mercy for the retention or change of its failh and forms .
Untitled Article
JdaHna Baillie aft the Nutuf * and Dignity of Christ * 515
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1831, page 515, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2600/page/11/
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