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perhaps with some justice , that , in the preseut day , an undue stress was laid on mere cultivation of intellect , and that . sufficient importance was not attached to a corresponding improvement of moral character and the growth of religious principle . In some respects , he might , perhaps , be over-cautiou . s and
over-distrustful ; but his error , if it was one , was intimately connected with the predominant excellence of his character , his scrupulous desire to do what was right , and his unwillingness to relinquish an opinion except an conviction . He was , however , very far from being uniuterested in the progress of human improvement . Once convince him that a
measure was really calculated to pronjote that end , and , however unpopular or unfashionable it might be , you might rely on his steady , consistent , and zealous support . His views on civil and religious liberty corresponded to the general rectitude and simplicity of his mind . He was a thorough Protestant Dissenter in principle and in practice .
He carried the doctrine of the right of private judgment and free inquiry to its utmost extent , maintained the absolute immunity of opinion from all controul of human tribunals , and thought that speculative error , if entertained with sincerity and associated with a pure lifein other words , that error , merely as error—could in no case whatever be the
subject of moral reprobation . His retired habits and aversion from public business withheld him from taking any active share in the politics of his day . But he never concealed his opinions . Though strongly opposed to Republicanism , and attached to that form of limited monarchy which the theory of the British Coustitutiou exhibits , he was ,
nevertheless , a staunch asserter of popular rights , and regarded all the powers of government as a trust to be exercised for the general well-being of the whole mass of society . Oppression and injustice , under all forms , invariably excited his strongest indignation ; nor will his friends soon forget the generous and fearless ardour with which , both in private and from the pulpit , he always
defended the cause of a wronged and persecuted Queen . In the contemplated reform of the British Legislature , he took a deep interest ; and till within a very few days of his death , iuquired repeatedly concerning the results of the geueral election , which was then engrossing the universal attention of the country . Though he had composed with much care and diligence for the instruction of
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his flock , he published little . He has left behind him in print a Sermon ou accepting-the Pastoral Office at St . Thomas ' s ; another , on the Death of the Rev . George Walker - and a third , oil
Zeal , pieached before the Warwickshire Tract Society at Hinckley : besides these , a Sermon in Mr . Bransby ' s Selection , on Prayer ; and another , in Mr . Beard ' s volume , on the Reward iu Heaven . He also priuted and circulated anonymously a small tract on the Evideuces of
Christianity . Such was the Rev . James Tayler , —a man honoured by all who knew him for the genuine simplicity and unbending rectitude of his character , and tenderly beloved , throughout the whole of his domestic and social circle , for the affectionate kindness and disinterested
benevolence of his heart . In attempting to retrace the general outlines of his character , even his peculiarities' seem to have arisen so entirely from the excess of what was good in itself—to have been so blended with purity and uprightness of spirit , and to have been so wholly unmiugled with the ambition and
selfishness of the woild—that they only serve to give a pleasing individuality to the picture , which brings it home to the remembrance , and makes it recognized at once . Those faithful lines prove that it is a reality on which we gaze , and which the affectionate heart would ill exchange for a more faultless model of ideal
excellence . We have before us one of the infinitely diversified forms which the minds of good men assume in their passage through this world of discipline . We see the general excellencies of the man and the Christian fully developed , while the identity of the individual is preserved . For - the delightful prospect of once more beholding our departed kindred and friends , with still enough of
earth to assure us they are yet the same , but clcaused from all the imperfections which dimmed the brightness of their virtues heie below , we must look forward iu the quiet and enduring faith of Christianity to a more happy and holy state , ' * when that which is perfect shall be come , and that which is iu part be done away . " Meanwhile , be it the consolation of survivors to cherish the
remembrance and emulate the example of departed excellence . The friend to whose honoured memory these few pages are dedicated with a deep and grateful sense of filial obligation , has passed from his scene of earthly trial ; the opinions of men can no longer influence his condition or impair his happiness ; but where
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Obituary . —Rev . James Tayter 565
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1831, page 565, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2600/page/61/
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