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    C3b* the Decline of Prestiyterian Congre...

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  • 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.

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    To The Editor Of The Monthly Repository.

    doctrines dealt out to them from which they had not swerved , and iritapable of relishing ; refinements for which they were not suited . Or which were insufficiently . ex * plained ., left their societies , and attached themselves to those

    Christians , the meridian of whose intellect and knowledge was the same with thei r own . The more cultivated professors-, already mistaking indifference for'candour ^ either withdrew to a more

    fashionable religious circle ^ or rejnained in a state of inanity , in the Connection to which they found themselves from their youth attached . If any were lpst , few came to supply the deficiency , as

    there was little to interest the byeatancfers . A popular minister could not remedy the declension occasioned by his unpopular predecessor * Frequent causes of desertibct occurred . Few

    occurred of increase or revival . TJius stood our interest for a long period : thus it now stands in several places . A refined people , without zeal , advanced beyond their neighbours , grown

    indifferent , and , eventually , through indifference , become but slenderly acquainted with the principles of that improved profession $ o which they had been imperceptibly led *

    And ini this state they mtfst remain , until the indifference of the last fifty years shall be shaken off , until they come to attqbqte ungortance to truith until the world also aidvances to their station of

    implement . This time dp $$ not seem tgl be distant . However , we mi ^ st nqt depeiye , ourselves . A nation is not ^^ refined . A civilized relfgipn , if I may so sj > ea . k , must be somp tipie ln " ^ frfg its progr ^ . ChapgQ

    To The Editor Of The Monthly Repository.

    in this , as in every thing else , must bej slow . It commences with the more opulent and honest part of a community , from whom it is tardily diffused among the

    multitude . The people , every where , are dull scholars- The people have not the moans of acquiring knowledge . We may hope that the commencement of a

    rational sera of Christianity is . not distant . We must wait patiently ? for its completion . But , as the community advances in ii / mrovement , the progress will be constantly accelerated . Its pwn success will continually lend to a refined religion an increased support . Those who have first started must , however ,, he contenZ to wait the sluggish raarcii of rLosis . > vho are in their rear . The palliatives of th ^ acknowledged evil , which are surges ? « . i by some of your corrGbporui < uis will probably afford but iiule . relief . Our clergy must go on to

    preach in Latin , as ojie of them merrily describes their more

    Hegant mode of preaching , it 6 h <» uJ 4 not be required of them to renograde to the miiltituclt \» This would be to leave the worid , without remed y ^ in its uncultivated state . No : some must go

    before , and exhibit models of ci * vilization to excite the emulation arid imitation of those who stirrouud them , of those rather who follow them at a humble distance * It woulcj be useless for them to preach to . accommodate the intel

    lectual state of tbpse who do nof attend . They must adapt thpir discourses to the more advanced kaowledge and more pure * taste of the people to whom they minister . For an ipcre ^ se of oi ^ r i ) umi ^ ra yfq wust lpok to t | K ) 3 q , who , ij *

    C3b* The Decline Of Prestiyterian Congre...

    C 3 b * the Decline of Prestiyterian Congregations . £ 37

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1810, page 237, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_02051810/page/21/