On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
where except in the extravagant ravings of a conventicle , are certainly no fit subjects for admiration ; and we have heard many churchmen regret that the latter remained so indecorous a part of their sacred service . Now if these be blemishes , which we maintain , calculated to disturb the placid , or the more elevated feelings of devotion , it should be recollected that in each year they amount to between three and four hundred passages ^ read with no thought of the sense , which is the only salvo against their being regarded nearly as nonsense in every parish church in the kingdom .
II . We come next to inappropriate petitions and confessions , which sincerity must mourn to be compelled to utter . We know how much imperfection attaches to the best of mankind ; but we know also how powerful is the operation of religion . And with this knowledge , can it be believed that the upright and pious Christian should , every Sunday for his whole life , spite of his
growth in grace , with feelings in accordance with the state of his mind and character , charge himself with * manifold sins and wickednesses ; ' and then join in a general confession which acknowledges himself ' a strayed and lost sheep ; ' a follower of the devices and desires of his own heart ; i . e . a slave to his passions ; an offender against God ' s laws / and * destitute of health , ' viz .
that spiritual health which the means of grace give ; * miserable offenders ? ' In the Litany , again , from the beginning to the close of life , they are ' miserable sinners ; ' they are in the depths of apprehension , if not of despair , and cry , ' Spare us , good Lord . ' 1
They pray , ' Good Lord deliver us * from sins into which none but the most unprincipled are likely to fall ; and from natural calamities which true piety leaves more willingly in his hands who ordains all things ; and amongst these evils they implore deliverance from * sudden death * ' the most enviable death the Christian can
die . The same tone runs through every part . So , when it rains very much , We for our iniquities have worthily deserved this great plague of rain and waters / So , when there is a defective harvest , it is , ' The scarcity and dearth which we do most justly suffer for our iniquity ; ' or they refer to Samaria , and say , ' We are now for our sins punished with like ' adversity / So , in any
' common plague or sickness / they are Miserable sinners , visited with great sickness and mortality / They have , however , c A most religious and gracious king / be he who he may * ;—Charles the Second , or George the Fourth . But will sincerity , if not beclouded with ignorance , calmly join in this solemn mockery ? Deep and unaffected humility before God , is certainly the frame
* In our own copy , which belonged to our grandmother in the rei ^ n of George III . this king is Charley , and she is directed to pray for Jamen Duke of York . In a copy we have borrowed , and which in the pretrcnt reign had been given to its possessor by our worthy vicar , it is George .
Untitled Article
The Liturgy . 301
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1833, page 301, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2614/page/13/
-