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one , unquestioned , true meaning should be obvious to the comprehension of all ? To this I answer ^ that the essentials of the Christian revelation are obvious to all—understood and acknowledged by all . ' NoWj to our simple comprehension , this is a state of imaginary unanimity ; for , in fact , it is essential , first , to settle what are essentials ! Of conduct , we should say , by the tenor
and gist of the language of Scripture , the essentials are—• Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy strength , and thy neighbour as thyself ; ' or again , * Do justly , love mercy 3 and walk humbly with thy God . ' Of motives to this course of action , to assist the weakness of human nature , we lay hold
on the assurance , that a steady perseverance in well-doing will entitle the humble aspirant after the divine favour to a happy immortality , as revealed , or amply ascertained , by the mission of that prophet ,, to whom was given ' the spirit without measure , ' f mediator between God and man , the man Christ Jesus , ' who himself rose from the dead , as the pledge and example of our resurrection .
c Nonsense ! ' exclaims the orthodox believer—churchman , quaker , or otherwise . * Justice and mercy are filthy rags ! and the man Christ Jesus will not do for us , however it might suit the apostolic age . ' * Pish ! ' says Rowland Hill , as quoted in the work before us * ; ' your sermons have not a word of the Gospel in them ; all your time is taken up with the duty of forf iving our enemies ! ' * Hear me !* says the ' man of the Common * rayerBook ; the taught of three creeds : Whosoever will be saved , must worship one God in trinity , and trinity in unity ; must believe that our Lord Jesus Christ , the Son of God , is God and man—perfect God and perfect man—yet not two , but one Christ ; ' and these things ., and very many more , unless he believes , * without doubt he shall perish everlastingly !'
Thus , then , there has accumulated a pretty considerable list of articles of faith , and of deep mysteries , which the good believer must not expect to comprehend , but must be content humbly to receive ; and which , unless he does receive , his justice and his mercy , his benevolence , and his sedulous and humble attendance on the teachings of the man Christ Jesus , whatever the Scriptures may say , will avail him but little , — -are not , in fact , saving essentials .
Upon this hint , then ,, speaks our * Investigator . ' He has read bis Bible attentively , and declares positively that he finds no mysteries in it at all , whose reception is made obligatory on Christians , but that , among the heathens , on the contrary , there was a plentiful supply of mysteries , i . e ., of sublimated doctrines ajid recondite meanings , carefully hidden from the profane ^ the pimple and unlearned , the poor and the babes , and revealed only to a few who were called the initiated ; and that , in fact , those
" Village Dialogues , voL ii * p . 190 *
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T 82 The Trinitarian Investigator .
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1832, page 182, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1808/page/38/
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