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
fyylon , the seat of Antichrist ^ possesses a degree of ubiquity * Babylon is the seat of Antichrist , and Antichrist is he , or the ^ who oppose the laws of Christ . Antichrist is rather a great community than a great city : even the streets of this city may be equal to some of the kingdoms of the world ; its senators may be sovereigns / and its merchants princes * the optima tes 9 the \ yv 7 topo % t 5 } s- yr ^ s ( Apoc . xviii , 3 » 11 * 15 , ) and its river , or Euphrates , equal to the whole ocean ? It is therefore an instance of considerable short-sightedness to fix the odium that may have belonged to so vast a power
as this , upon the inhabitants of any city , or any religion , ever * the Roman Catholic , which has derived its name from a city * It has been the policy , the government , and not merely the religion of Rome , that has formed the Antichristian part of it : Home has been truly Antichristian , but she is not j ^ ntichrist : so every Christian must partake of the nature of Christ ; but
every Christian is not a Christ . Christian chanty teaches us tQ bear with Roman Catholics as individuals , and to honor tfem as believers , differing in their mode of faith , because as such we find . their moral conduct varying to good and evil , like that of other men ; but if ever Roman Catholics should again be united in a powerful community , where the persecution of others is adopted as a principle , then it becomes a part of Christiaft prudence , while we pity the perpetrator , to execrate the prac tiee , and guard against its effects by all lawful means . If tfee Roman Catholic religion considered in itself , and divested of its accustomed politics , had been so banefulty Antichristian as the common run of bible-expositors have imagined , the ever * memorable Dr . Priestley would never have contended for the
Roman Catholic ' s privilege of educating his own children at one of his natural rights ! In fact , if \\ e wish to witness the decay of the Roman Catholic reli gion , as well as its politics , which have been radically changed by the French Revolution * let us betray na anxiety , no uneasiness at its toleration . If ^ however , we are inclined to combat its principle ? ,, let it be
doi > e with temper , and the utmost eare m shunning any thing that may bear the least appearance of personality * la tact , if we labour to establish a good practice , first in ourselves , and secondly in others , it is more than a hundred to one but good principles follow of course . Besides , though ignorance has been the mother of devotion in the old apostate church , under
the crqoked policy and alliance of ecclesiastical and secular Koine . , the more grand and simple doctrine of the one God 9 and one Lord Jesus Christ , supported , by th « progress of human knowledge , containan host in themselves . So great is the po \ jrer of truth , that spnietimes only a single ray flashing in the fac 6 of error will reflect it * rpctpstrosity , make it start appakd
Untitled Article
2 ^ 2 The Pope nQt ^ dntichris t *
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1806, page 252, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1724/page/28/
-