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Untitled Article
brity disgraceful and disastrous to themselves arid their country , as the retailers of blasphemy , and the panegyrists and advocates of vice . We are indeed exposed to dangers , aftd those of no ordinary magnitude . The opposite extremes of defect or excess of religious belief and feeling
prevail among us , in a variety of modifications and degrees , to an alarming extent . The partisans of these several errors , disjoined in all other respects by a discordancy of principle , sentiment and ultimate views , are not the less disposed to unite in offensive alliance against the object of their common aversion , the Established
Church . The spirit of disaffection to religious truth , which may justly exeite apprehension in this country , is not to be confounded with the gross aud
crude irreligion of our continental neighbours . A considerable period elapsed , after the establishment of the Reformation in this island , before the enemies of religion were sufficiently numerous to claim distinction as a
party , or were emboldened by the tolerance of the age to make a public avowal of their sentiments , th this view , the origin of infidelity among us jmy perhaps be referred to . the middle of the seventeenth ' century . Commencing about that period , it
has since , at different times , and on different occasions , appeared under three distinct forms . It first biipst on the astonished world , betraying its native deformity through a , thin veil of metaphysical subtleties , and
directing its open assaults against the fundamental truths of religion , and the sanctions of morality . But this absurd and audacious impiety was found $ 6 revolting to the reaSon and' feeling of mankind- that the unbeliever "
abandoned a position , which was rendered untenable by popular detestation , and took hi * stand on the ground of Deism ., W ^ must not however imagine that attachment io any specific system of doctrine ^ or assent to any positive truth , wait implied in the name of
Deist ; The term was adopted as a conventional symbol of union amongst all who agreed in the single principl e of denying the truth of Revelation , however widely disjoined in belief and bpifuott on the subject of natural religion , tn tfep iiVue ; of th # controv&Mfes "Which followed , the advocate *
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of deistical tenets w $ rp compleW unmasked ; the fallacy of their areii merits , and the pernicious fencfencf of their doctrines , were clearly and irrefragabty demonstrated-, the appd . lation of I / eist became a term ofteproach , and the licentious fireethinker was identified in popular estimation with the professed atheist . The ubioB of unbelievers , as a regular and ostensible party , was dissolved by this dis "
comfiture ; it was inapossible to , act with effect under a character which the reason and piety of the people regarded with contempt and . horrp ^ : and , owing to this- general disposition of the public mind , the direct attacks
on religious and moral truthwere for a long time few and feeble . The faction has . again been embodied in mod . ern , . times , under the less invidious denomination of a Christian sect . As all unbelievers in Revelafion were formerly Deists , a considerable proportion of those who are styled
Unitarians in the present day haye no other title to the nani § , tlian their rejection of the principal doctrines which distinguish the Reyelation of the , gospel from natural religion . ln | this statement it is not my intentian to wound the feelings of the conscientious Unitarian , who , while he rejepts its
peculiar" dogmas , admits the general truth of Christianity . The charge of infidelity indeed attaches , in a certain degree to all who refuse their assent tp any material doctriae deducihle % the established laws or interpretation from , scripture ; afrd , great nuisrt be the force of tftat prejudice ,, whiclicaif
overiooK tne mcopisistencs oi arpiirfrily imposing a meaning unwarranted by t ) he usages of language ,, on , a book to which all paries appear as the standard and rule of faitti Butldo not hesitate to aver my conviction * that the profession ofUnitaifeU r ^ cts afford * a convenientsh ^ ter to W }>
who would he more properly UmW Deists , and who by the b oldness of their interpolations , omissions , aw * perversions , by the indecency ° hT ? f insinuations acain ^ t the veracity rfip
inspired writers , by their faxa ^\ f vity oir ^ the awful mysteriesp f relis ; ion and their di « re 3 pcctfal reflections on the person and action ? of the ^ r J ^ viour > , are distinguished from * Unitarian ^ and betray the tnie . 5 *** of the flimsy disguise whidi « g liav « aeffumed a » a cover froitt
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306 Extracts fmm the Bishop of London s . Charae .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1815, page 306, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1760/page/42/
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