THE PRESENT STATE OF RELIGIOUS PARTIES IN ENGLAND REPRESENTED AND IMPROVED IN A DISCOURSE DELIVERED IN ESSEX-STREET CHAPEL, MAY 17, AND REPEATED OCTOBER 18, 1818: ALSO IN RENSHAW-STREET CHAPEL, LIVERPOOL, SEPTEMBER 20; BY THOMAS BELSHAM. = "If the contending parties were left to themselves, after they had reasoned, and railed, and wrangled, and declaimed, and preached, and written against each other, and eased themselves in that way; they would at last sit down and be quiet for very weariness, or for want of hearers or readers...Which advice was favourably received, BUT NOT FOLLOWED." Holstenius to Pope Innocent X. in Jortin's Pref, to Eccl. Hist. SECOND EDITION, LONDON: PRINTED FOR R. HUNTER, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD. To the CONGREGATION of UNITARIAN CHRISTIANS assembling in Renshaw-street Chapel, Liverpool. MY CHRISTIAN FRIENDS, AGREEABLY to the desire which you so kindly and respectfully expressed, I now present you with the Discourse which you honoured with your approbation; though I must request to be excused from acceding to your generous offer of bearing the expense of the publication. I shall think myself amply remunerated if this little tract should contribute in any degree to promote its intended object,-an active and enlightened zeal for uncorrupted christianity, combined with candour and good-will to those who are equally sincere with ourselves in the investigation of truth, though from circumstances over which they had no controul, they may not have been equally successful. To be ready to acknowledge and approve that which is excellent in all parties; to be candid to the errors and failings of our brethren; to be thankful to those who remind us of our own, and to avail ourselves of faithful reproof; to vie with each other in love and good works; and cordially to unite with our brethren, without distinction of party, in every scheme that is adapted to dispel ignorance, to diffuse knowledge, virtue, and happiness, and to diminish the sum of human misery,—this is the true spirit of Christianity, without which mere knowledge is as the sounding brass or the tinkling cymbal. And I am happy, my friends, in the persuasion that this is the spirit which you have learned to cherish and to cultivate in connexion with my amiable friend the reverend George Harris, your able and active minister. It is hardly probable, considering my advanced time of life, that I shall ever have another opportunity of addressing you in public; but I shall always feel a deep interest in your intellectual, moral, and christian improvement. And that by your rapid advancement in knowledge and faith, and your superior attainments in piety, charity, humility, and benevolence, you may fulfil the joy of your faithful minister, may animate and encourage his labours, and finally become the crown of his rejoicing in the day of the Lord Jesus, will to the latest hour of life be the ardent desire and prayer of Your faithful, affectionate, and obliged friend and servant, T. BELSHAM. Essex House, October 25, 1818. |