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thank him for any thing we receive . Every act of prayer and praise is to be addressed to the Father only , otherwise we cease to be Unitarians . You have also been told that Jesus Christ was a mere human being , the
son of human parents , distinguished from other men only as he is the greatest of the prophets , and was raised ' from the dead : but nothing can be more erroneous than this doctrine . Jesus Christ was a man only in appearance : he was , in truth , the
divine Logos , the Son of God , the Maker of heaven and earth , and of all tkeir inhabitants , who vouchsafed to make a temporary residence in a human body , during which period his attributes were quiescent , and he submitted to all the innocent infirmities
of human nature . Nor was he born in a natural way like other men , but was ; conceived by the-Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary . And though God is infinitely merciful , yet his wisdom and recforal justice would riot suffer him to forgive sin without
manifesting his displeasure against hy and for that reason he required and accepted the death of his only begotten son , as an expiatory sacrifice upon the cross . Moreover , there is a third glorious person , the Holy Spirit , the Lord and giver of life , the inspirer of prophets , the performer of miracles and the sanctifier of the heart . There is
also an Evil Spirit , possessed of very great sagacity and power , who ranges the world at pleasure , for the express purpose of doing mischief to the bodies and souls of men . This new doctrine would , I fear ,
go a great way towards unsettling the faith of the new converts , and might lead them to conclude that there is nothing certain in the Christian religion . And surely the same Society ought not to send forth missionaries of such opposite complexions . The same fountain cannot send forth sweet
water and bitter . I do not mention this , Mr . Editor , as an actual statement of the conduct of the Unitarian Fund Society , but as a case not unlikely to happen , where
persons whose views are so widely dissonant , associate together under the same name , for the sake of propagating Christian truth . Arid in my estimation , it would be more expedient for them to separate , and each
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to defend , with zeal , tempered with charity , the system which is believed to be true . It may perhaps be alleged that the points of difference between the Arian and what I call the proper Unitarian of littl
system are e moment But can this be true ? Is it a matter of no consequence that the Maker and Governor of the world resi gned his charge , shrouded his attribute , became an infant in the womb , exposed himself to all the frailties and
infirmities of humanity , expired uoon the cross as an expiation for human guilt , descended into the grave , rose again from the dead and returned to heaven in a human form ? May all
this be true , and plainly revealed by God to man , and may it nevertheless be of no consequence whether we believe it or not ? Impossible ! A nanism is a doctrine of unspeakable importance to be believed and taught , or Arianism cannot be true . There is
no medium . Arianism and Unitarianism can no more unite than fire and water , than light and darkness , than Christ and Belial . I am , &c . T . BELSHAM .
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4 lg The Bible * without Note or Comment *
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Islington , June 12 , 1815 . Sir , rSF Mr . Aspland ' s Plea for Unitarian Dissenters he remarks that" a
few , though I believe only a few , Lnitarians have been kept out of the Bible Society by observing that its ' proceedings' did not agree with its principle , that of circulating the
scriptures ; the whole scriptures and nothing but the scriptures . ' He then adds by way of illustration— " The Society professes to circulate the Bible < without note or comment ,
whereas the authorized version , vrhi& only they use ( I speak of course of England ) has a perpetual commentary in the form of Tables of Contents at the head of each chapter . T hese notes are it is fcared mistaken by the
common reader for a part of the scripture itself , and . though not often directly systematic are yet sufficiently so to give a bias to the minds of sucft readers as are not guarded by P vious knowledge . " Now , Sir , d ' •' a curious fact that the orthodox ® well as the heterodox ( I use tlies terms in the popular sense ) l > £ Jj the force of-this objection . *? pious and celebrated Puritan V ^ xu J
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1815, page 418, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1762/page/18/
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