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men , and what is , at least , of equal importance , the minds of women , awake to the importance of such inquiries , and the design of the Creator will soon be more completely accomplished in the felicity of his creatures .
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Church Reform . " 207
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CHURCH REFORM .
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members of a community so divided in opinion as ours is on questions of religious faith . His Majesty ' s Ministers are found among those who
acknow-A crisis seems , at last , to have arrived in the affairs of our national religious establishment . Reform is called for from within , by not a few of the most intelligent and serious members of the church itself , as essential to its usefulness , and as the only chance for its stability . Change is loudly demanded from without , by a great , powerful , and energetic body of dissenters of various denominations , as being equally required by justice and by sound policy ; as absolutely necessary to allay existing and increasing dissatisfaction , and to preserve a tolerable degree of harmony among the
ledge the necessity of improvement and they have announced their intention of promoting it . Judging , indeed , from the language they have held on the subject , and from what they propose to do in Ireland , we cannot expect from them any very decisive or satisfactory measure ; but as it seems certain that something will be attempted , it is proper that the people should apply themselves to the discussion of the subject , and should consider well how
much they will think themselves authorized immediately to demand , and what part of the good which they expect to be ultimately attained they will deem it expedient to defer any pressing application for , to some future period . It is very desirable that the first step should not only be itself attended with important advantages , but should be a natural and suitable preparation for the farther progress which must be anticipated .
Although its several creeds , when properly understood , are found to express different and inconsistent doctrines , and one of them is , in its damnation of all who do not receive it , disgraceful to any church which adopts it ; although its articles may , perhaps , be regarded as neither a very honourable nor successful attempt to compromise between the opinions of the principal parties existing among Protestants at the time of their composition , and
there are many things in its ceremonies and forms which seem at variance with the spirit of the present times , and might be omitted or altered to its own credit , yet it will be generally felt that as the public at large are interested in church reform only in consequence of its connexion with the state , so it is in what belongs to that connexion that all improvements which can be said to be of national importance are to be effected .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1833, page 207, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2610/page/63/
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