On this page

• Text (1)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• 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

    furious disputants , inflamed by the desire of authority and power , have all in their turn anathematised each ot&er ; councils in which the victorious party , not contented with forcing upon theif opponents , as truth s all the contradictory article ^ of faith and unintelligible creeds , engendered in the heat of polemical debate , have likewise called in the irresistible aid of the civil

    magistrate , who with his fines * his penalties , and confiscations , assisted to bind down not only those of their own day , but of every succeeding age and generation ! What a creature is man , when ignorance , bigotry , and passion usurp the sway ! In such hands , brandishing such weapons , how should the gospel flourish ?

    Happily however , at least among Protestant Ihssenters , synods and councils have no longer any authority : according to the admonition of an apostle to the first Christian converts , respecting the ceremonial law , they cc stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made them free ; " and so far all is well .

    But are all their preachers equally careful , in their public ministry , to obey another apostolic injunction ?—namely , that of CQ avoiding foolish questions , and oppositions of science ^ falsely so called / ' Do not they also , partaking of the infirmity of ancient times , too often give loose ^ in their sermons , to a lively imagination , and to the desire of being wise above what is written ? Do we not sometimes hear affirmed , as truths *

    wh&t are merely their own conjectures ? or hear advanced , as the undoubted doctrines of scriptures , such things as , at best , have nothing to support them but the questionable ground of mere inference ? This evil , it is admitted , cannot now be productive of the

    direful consequences which sprung from it in the times of gothic barbarism , when the sun of science was beclouded in impenetrable obscurity ; bat if it cannot raise again the demon of persecution , has it not the power of exciting the most violent

    prejudices ? In fact , will they not inevitably be excited , and not only against the preacher himself , but also against whatever cause he may happen to espouse ? His talents , his learning , his virtues will produce no effect on those whose minds have thus revolted ; instead of inquiring farther , will not such

    persons rather retire backwards , and either become unbelievers , or shelter themselves under the cover of articles and breeds , where they think they shall know the extent , at least , of the chimeras to which they are subjected ? Surely this is worthy of the most serious consideration .

    I was led into this train of thought , Mr . Editor , by a very judicious passage in a sermon which lately fell into my hands , where in my opinion , the line is \ ery accurately drawn between

    Untitled Article

    8 Indiscretion of Preachers *

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1806, page 8, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1720/page/8/