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of asperity toward them , s 6 ds to fretidef it plain that marks of benevolence are withheld merely on the ground of the differences which subsist between us , we discover that there is lurking in our hearts a feeling which is not of Christian growth—a feeling which , so far from sustaining , will serve only to cast suspicion on any professions of zeal that we may make for our own articles of faith
and mode of worship . We may arraign the Roman Church * ob errores exitiales * superstitionem anilem , idololatriani detestandam , ob sublatam libertatem conscientiae , et intolerandam tyrannidem Romanorum pontificum , ' * we may explain in how many ways that church has corrupted the pure faith of the gospel , and shew the grounds of separation between us and members of that
communion ; but though our opposition ought , on these points , to be expressed in firm , intelligible language , yet ought italso to be expressed in a candid , liberal spirit , and in strict accordance with those canons of religious controversy , which have re * ceived the sanction of an enlightened age . Above all , in censuring the Romanists for error in doctrine , expediency itself , not less than the sacred office with which we are iuvested , requires that we
should abstain from introducing matters of a political concernment only , and which have nothing to do with points of faith ; as , how far it may be prudent to concede , or continue the denial of , civil privileges to our Catholic brethren ? At any rate , it should demand consideration , whether by the attempt to rivet faster their chains , a minister may not be loosening the stability of that cause of which he exhibits himself so iudiscreet
an advocate ?" If the clergy would adopt these excellent rules for the discharge of their own duties , and the treatment of those who conscientiously differ from them , instead of appearing as enemies to improvement * jealous of freedom of thought , and
interested advocates of a political monopoly , every good man of every denomination would rejoice to acknowledge them as coadjutors in the noblest of human labours , and cordially bid them God speed , however he might differ from them hi points of discipline or doctrine .
— ¦'' - - »¦ i ¦ .. « ... •» - *»¦ ¦ .. * " J . Jacobi Zimmermanni Opuscula ;—Qratio dtj imagine thertlogi pacU fici . Vol . IV . p . 1243 . "
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444 Vrtticai Notkffr .
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and superficial writers on religious subjects . ' Whatever theoretical speculations tend not to moral amelioration , may unhesitatingly be regarded as of minor importance . These criteria every judicious commentator will keep steadily in view ; the moment he loses sight of them he will mislead himself , and those who confide in him . And it is the
having a constant regard to these criteria , which stamps such excellence upon the Scholia published by the Rosenmullers ; as a whole I have seen nothing in the shape of a commentary which deserves to be put in competition with them . At the head of those who have laboured , and I think successfully , to establish the accordance between reason and
revelation , I would place Morus . Let any candid reader , Mr Rose himself , peruse his * Epitome / and then say whether it be a principle with the German school to reject every thing which reason cannot comprehend . Almost every page of that admirable little book refutes sflch a charge . I am not undertaking to deny that some of the modern German divines ,
and De Wette more particularly , have carried their system of interpretation to a dangerous extreme : still I augur that their extravagances will gain few converts , and that rational theology is destined , in the long run , to acquire even from their labours credit and stability . I would , therefore , recommend the young student not to give up , though proscribed ,
or censured by Mr . Rose , Bishop Blomfield , or any other authority , his Sehleusuer , his Rosenmuller , his Kuinoel , or other works of high philological character , which have been produced by the learned of a country which Mr . Rose himself hesitates not to place in the first rank , if not the first in that rank , of European nations . "—Pp . 20 , 21 .
The sentiments expressed respecting Dissenters and Roman . Catholics also deserve to be extracted : " We may express ourselves warmly upon the apostolical institutions of our Church—upon its tolerating characterwe may shew , as it is our duty oti proper occasions to shew , how little of weight there actually is in the arguments usually adduced to justify separation ; still if we plead its cause in intemperate language —if , in our intercourse with our Disjsenting brethren , we betray sentiments \ - 1 | . ¦ i . j n , ¦ I L . . . . - p t .
* "Rose , p . 181 .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1827, page 444, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1797/page/52/
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