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
« Unitarianism , Sir , is a cheerful and enlivening doctrine . Its peculiar representations of the character of God , and the ultimate destiny of man , are eminently
fitted to inspire satisfaction and delight . We look around us with complacency ; we look forward with blissful anticipation ; for we trace the operations of that Omnipotent Love from which all things originated , and which will consummate its work by
establishing the universal and eternal reign of virtue and happiness . With you the doctrine of satisfaction is the source of Christian joy . But what pleasure can that notion afford to a benevolent mind ? Will it teach him to rejoice in a God who knows
not how to pardon , and who , but for the interposition of his Son , would have been ever unmoved by the groans of misery , the sighs and prayers of penitence ; in a world under the wrath and curse of God , and whose inhabitants are born under a law
which they cannot fulfil , and to an infinitely wretched destiny which they cannot avoid ; or in a salvation , purchased by innocent blood , designed for only a part , probably a small part , of mankind , and which leaves millions not more sinful than himself in a state of remediless ruin ? If there be those who can derive pleasure
from such considerations , I envy not their selfish and degrading joy . " A Calvinistic , to be happy , must steel his heart against those benevolent and sympathetic feelings which God and nature have implanted in our constitution . He
must rejoice in prospect of a bliss which it is probable many , deservedly dear to him , will never share . To the sacred claims of friendshi p , kindred and domestic love , he must be insensible , or in many cases those valuable connexions will be to him sources
of misery . What a heart must that man possess who can kindle into rapture at the antici pation of a joy , from which his faith-Mfriend , his father , child , or brother , or « je wife of his bosom , may be eternally excluded ! who even hopes to be reconciled to their
perdition , and to rejoice in it , as de monstra ting the glory of h ' is God ! Father of mercies ! if this be thy will , at least hide from our view the page that unfolds s'ich horrors : take back the g 4 ft of rerela-| ° n > and let us again rejoice in the sweet ^ ough delusive hone of nature and of
icii-01 that those over whose ashes we mourn * » l he one day purged from their failings >' a future discipline , and unite with uh J grateful adoration at thy footstool , in ! je regions of eternal peace and bliss !" The title of the last letter , VII ., is Miscellaneous Observations . " These elate to scattered remarks of Dr . j R & uth ^ and would be scarcely intel-We without the Remarks thems elv fcs . One of the " Observations "
Untitled Article
however , must be quoted , as it relates to a passage in our VHIth volume , p . 182 , in which a correspondent expresses a doubt of the propriety of Unitarians , with their notions ,
calling Christ a Saviour . This passage Dr . Smith quotes and animadverts on iu a note to his Sermon , under the head , in capitals , of " Christ denied to be a Saviour . " NTow , doubting is not denying . Besides , the doubts of
an anonymous writer m a publication , open to all parties , are not surely to fix the charge of belief or disbelief upon a denomination . On the same ground that this quotation is brought forward as affecting the Unitarian system , might other quotations be adduced from oar pa , ges to convict Unitarians of all the contrarieties of
religious faith . Mr . Fox ' s " Observations" are as follows : u In another note , ( p . 76 ) you have commented on a very heedless expression in a communication to the Monthly Repository , and candidly suggested what , I imagine , must have been the writers
meaning-. That many of your party will consider this as ' a large extension of candour , ' I have no doubt . You have in&de them ample amends , however , by asserting * of the devotional extracts referred to , that ' the basis of the whole is pure natural-1
ism . ' There is ( you continue ) no recognition of a single doctrine of revelation , except it may be reckoned such to admit that the Jews are kept a distinct people by a particular providence . Every other sentiment and expression is perfectly in the character of a Deist . ' Let the reader
turn to that article—M . R . March ^ 1813 , p . 182 , and he will ask with me , Is it in the character of a Deist to trace a God of love in every dispensation ; to delight in public and in private worship , in religious conversation and instruction ; to recognise
Christ as our teacher divinely inspired ; to anticipate a future state of bliss for the righteous , and corrective punishment for the wicked ; to dwell with rapture on that period when God shall be all , and in all ? Is this deism ? Is this naturalism ? I
should have thought that none would have hesitated to regard such sentiments and feelings as emanations from that sun of rigliteousnjess , before whose rising- thick darkness covered the earth : But in estimating the productions of Unitarians , our Saviours rule is too often reversed . The
fruit is judged l > y the tree , and not the tree by its fruit . Our feelings , motives and actions are condemned , because it is previously assumed that our tenets are radically erroneous . Well is it for us that by a different principle wjll ho . regulated the decisions of the tribunal of heaven / ' Pp . 62 , t $ 3 .
Untitled Article
Review Fox ' s Letters on the Sacrifice of Christ . 519
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1815, page 519, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1763/page/55/
-