On this page

• Text (1)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• 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

    unsuspecting and confiding credulity of his children to impress them with an implicit belief in any set of abstruse doctrines , and intolerance of all other opinions , the truth or reasonableness of which they are incapable of estimating . Still less would he urge by threats the

    dauger of present and eternal punishment for withholding a blind assent to opinions they are unable to comprehend . Parents arc bouud by every moral tie to give their children such an education as may be sufficient to render them capable of exercising their reason as rational and social beings , and of forming their opinion on religious points without ill-will

    towards others , from a thorough investigation of the Scriptures , and of the evidence and arguments adduced by teachers of different persuasions . Judgments thus formed have a real claim to respect from those who have not the means of judging for themselves . But of what consequence is it , in a question of truth or error , to know how the matter at issue has been

    considered , even for a hundred generations ., by those who have blindly adopted the creed of their fathers ? Surely , the unbiassed judgment of a person who has proceeded to the study of the Sacred Scriptures with an anxious desire to discover the truth they contain , even if his researches were to be continued but for

    a single twelvemonth , ought , as far as authority goes in such matters , to outweigh the opiuions of any number who have either not thought at all for themselves , or have studied after prejudice had laid hold of their minds . What fair inquiry respecting the doctrine of the Trinity can be expected from one who has been on the bosom of his mother

    constantly taught to ask the blessing of God ihe Father , God the Son , and God the Holy Ghost , and to hear the very name of Unitarian with horror ? Have the doctrines of the Vedant ever succeeded in suppressing Polytheism amongst the generality of Hindoos brought up with the notion of the godhead of the sun , of fire and of water , and of the separate and

    independent existence of the allegorical representations of the attributes of God ? Were the sublime works written by the learned among the Greeks ever able to shake the early acquired superstitious notions and polytheistical faith of the generality of their countrymen ? Nay , oven when Christian converts became

    numerous , did not those who were brought up in the ancient superstition intrqduce some vestiges of their idolatry into their new persuasion ? In fact , nothing can more surely impede the progress of truth than prejudice instilled into minds blauk to receive impressioits ;

    Untitled Article

    and the more unreasonable are ! the doc * trines of a religion , the greater pains are taken by the supporters of them to plant them in the readily susceptible minds of youth . " The Editor has filled a complete page in proving that , besides early

    impressed prejudices , there are also other causes of error in judgment—an attempt which might have been dispensed with : for I never limited the Sources of mistake in examining religious matters to early impression alone . I attributed only the prevailing errors in Christianity to traditional instructions inculcated in

    childhood , as the language of my Second Appeal will shew : * Having derived my own opinions on this subject entirely from the Scriptures themselves , I may , perhaps , be excused for the confidence with which I maintain them against those of so great a majority , who appeal t © the same authority for . theirs ; inasmuch as

    I attribute their different views , not to any inferiority of judgment , compared with my own limited ability , but to the powerful "" effects of early religious impressions ; for when these are deep , reason is seldom allowed its natural scope in examining them to the bottom . ' ( P .

    160 . ) If the Editor doubt the accuracy of this remark , he might soon satisfy himself of its justice , were he tct listen to the suggestion offered in , the preceding paragraph , with a view to ascertain whether the doctrine of the Trinity rests for its belief on scriptural authorities , or on early religious impressions .

    " The Editor mentions , ironically , ( in p . 3 , ) that my success in scriptural studies was such ' as to prove that the most learned and pious in every age of the church have been so completely mistaken as to transform the pure religion of Jesus into the most horrible idolatry / In

    answer to this , I only beg to ask the Kev . Editor to let me know first , what a Protestant , in the fifteenth century , could have answered , if he had been thus questioned by a Roman Catholic : * Is your success , in examining the truths of

    Scripture , such as to prove that the most learned and pious in every age of the church have been so completely mistaken , as to transform the pure religion of Jesus into the most horrible idolatry , by introducing the worship of Mary , the mother of God , and instituting images in churches ,

    as well as by acknowledging the Pope , as the head of the church , vested with the power of forgiving sins ? ' Would not his answer be this , ' My success is , indeed , so as to prove these , doctrines to be un-Hcriptucak As to . your inferences they are no more divine than mine , and though I do not doubt the piety and learning ot

    Untitled Article

    478 Review . ** - * Unitarian Controversy dt Calcutta .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1823, page 478, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1787/page/46/