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stroy him . Being led to the . stake , . and the devouring flames kindling around him , he stretched forth , his right hand , and held it in the flames till it was consumed , repeatedly calling out , in the midst of his sufferings , " O that unworthy hand ! " Who theu shall boast of ^ the firmness of ordinary men , when he who was bold enough to rebuke the Eighth Henry , yielded for a season to his fears ?
There will , I admit , be a few honest men whom you may have the comfort and glory of exposing to inconvenience or injury . But your triumph will be very limited ; for if you pass your test , I calculate that many will very soon perceive their errors , Araougst the first to rush forward to sign it , I suspect , will be a man who told me if worldly
interest and popular applause ran as high in favour of New-Light , as of Old-Light doctrines , he did not believe there would be above half-a-dozen Orthodox ministers in the Synod . This may b ^ an erroneous estimate , but he is proud of being a particularly accurate man in-his calculations . Next to him , in the race , will come , I should suppose , another eminent divine , who yesterday accused a
better man than himself of blasphemy , but who has , nevertheless , a very comfortable idea of the compressible nature of a ministerial conscience , as I have heard him declare , " that he only required to know a minister ' s congregation , in order to tell his creed . " Oh , what a pure body the Synod of Ulster will soon be , aud how much of one mind , if you but give them a good confession !
But 1 have been told , that all this is proposed in pure kindness , in order to bring back the stray sheep into the true fold . This , I am bound to believe , is all true , as the principal promoters of the plau are , no doubt , superior to ordinary Christians . But whilst the motive may be approved , 1 must say the means seem but ill adapted to the end . There
is a kind of resistance in human nature to the exercise of authority where no title to exercise it appears . There are some minds not very accessible to the logic of majorities , and which cannot comprehend the meaning of a threat from their equals . I tell you plainly and sincerely , if you think us in enorf you must take other means to convert us . Uncharitable denunciations and
unwarranted attempts to coerce our consciences , will rather wed us to our opinions . I sJhall venture $ o tejl you a fable in proof of this position . In ancient
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times , as the mn and the wind were chatting together , they beheld a traveller passing over a plain with a cloak over his shoulders . Just for a frolic , they laid a wager as to which ot them could soonest deprive him of his cloak . The Wind was to have the lead : and , mustering all his strength , he blew East and West , North and South , in the most
violent and ingenious manner . But although the poor traveller was nearly blown down , he would not part with his cloak : the stronger the blast , he just wrapped it the more closely about him , and held it with the more determined grasp . At length , the Wind exhausted himself with puffing , and gave up the task ; when the Sun , who had
retired behind a cloud , gently aud gradually looked past the skirt of it upon the traveller , who held his cloak tightly for a while , remembering the rough usage he had experienced . But as the storm was past , and as the day became genial , he gradually relaxed his hold ; the Sun put forth stronger beams ; the cloak was thrown open ; the traveller
paused ; the Sun poured forth the full tide of his splendour and his heat ; the cloak gradually descended from the shoulders of the traveller , and he stood , subdued and melted , in the glorious presence of the God of Day ! The Wind is the fury of persecution : the Sun is the genial influence of Christian love .
The cloak of error , if such there be , will only be held more ; tenaciously in the hurricane ; but in the gentle calm of kindness , in the hour of friendly intercourse , it maybe laid aside for ever . There is a pride in the human heart which resists compulsion , though it will readily yield to love .
I see , on the other side of the house , a gentleman who has long been a leading member of this body , and who has lately distinguished himself both from the pulpit and the press . I refer to my friend Mr . Stewart , whose sermon in defence of Orthodoxy 1 hold in my hand .
In the preface to this discourse , he tells the world , what 1 knew long ago , that he was first a Calvinist in his boyhood , that he was afterwards very . sceptical on the doctrine of the Trinity , ancj ^ hiit it was only in the year 1825 , he turned his attention to the Bible to . see if it , contained what he now . calls the
fundamental doctrine of the Scriptures , which , unless a man believe , he is on the very verge of Atheism . Now , had the pro * posed declaration been brought forward in 1824 , Mr . Stewart , an an honest man , could not have signed it . He might then
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7 78 Intelligence . S —ynod of Ufeter .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1827, page 778, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1801/page/66/
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