On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
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
tions have been so mingled with the simplicity of revelation as to darken its truth , weaken its efficacy and obstruct its progress ? In such a state of things , is it not tbe-duty of the Christian
minister to shew that they ^ rc false and dangerous ? Or will it be pretended that these speculative points are unaccompanied by practical evils ? After all , to discern what Christian truth really is , does not involve such inquiries and
speculations as are here called nice and curious .
Mr . Wood however , cc knew that his stated hearers were for the most part attached to the simple doctrine of Jesus Christ no less firmly than himself / 7 ( p . 170 . ) " His religious principles were well known . ? ' ( p . 1 / 2 . ) ce In
a regular course of private instruction he had placed before his con - gregation all the doctrines of revelation , and shewed them the
principles on which the prevailing errors may be refuted . " ( p . 173 . ) Be it so : this method of instruction , so far as it went , was ere * ditable and judicious . Yet Mr . Wood had , no doubt , occasional as well as * stated hearers ; and it would appear that if prevailing errors are openly and publicly taught , they demand an equally open and public refutation . But Mr . Wood " abstained upon principle from all unprovoked attacks upon established errors and rjceply rooted prejudices , be au $ e ; he was fully persuaded that in the present state of th <» world , it is better to al-1
lure menfrom error , and by a cautious and conciliating temper to soften their aversion to truth , than by Qpen and avowed-hostility to alarm their fears , and to Cull forth an obstinate and deter-
Untitled Article
mined opposition . " The obstina ^ cy of ; their opposftion be to themselvesf Ati open avowal of what we deem to be religious tiutbj acconrt paiiied by a clear statement of evidence in its favour , would seem the most effectual mean of
ultimately producing a general concurrence of sentiment , and of impressing important principles upon the mind ; and it must be made , whether men will hear or whether they will forbear . What
the respectable biographer intends by unprovoked attacks upon established errors , we are at some loss to conjecture . A preacher ' s silence concerning gross and prevailing cnors in the Christian
world , might be perfectly well , we ret a like silence observed by their advocates . They ^ however , and we blame not this part of their conduct , are perpetually insisting upon- their own views of things : they even do more : they describe them as exclusively evan ~
gelical ) and through -ignorance we hope , rather than from design , often misrepresent the creeds and motives of other professors of religion , and hold up both to popular execration . This being the fact , with what' propriety can it ; be said or insinuated that a
religious teacher who l a 3 'S before his audience his objections against the Trinitarian and Calvinistic schemes , makes an unprovoked ' attack upon established errors ? Truth and error are correlatives :
To promote th « former , you must expose the other . What too , if some are alarmed by this attack ? For theological alarmists , as such , we feel no more esteem than for political alarmists .
Controversy , with some temporary inconveniences , ha * been the parent of such substantial aud
Untitled Article
faevitw . —Memoirs of tfie late R&biW . Wood * fei
Untitled Article
VOL . IV , X
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1809, page 161, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1734/page/41/
-