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Untitled Article
ciple is ndt a whit more reasonable in the one ease than in the other : it is at variance with the decisions of sound philosophy , and with the merciful spirit of Christianity . And Unitarianism , in the views which it takes of the Divine character , of man as a moral being , and of earth as a prepwifl 5 ioiriforfieaven , secures ~~ 1 lTe advancement of a more humane and .
remedial system towards the wretched victims of guilt . The greatest happiness of the greatest number is our object . While the inhabitants of these islands are crying out against a monopoly of trade and a monopoly of power , how strange is it that the monopoly of heaven should be regarded as a bright and saving article of faith
—a monopoly which shrouds the earth in gloom , and makes heaven a conventicle !—how opposed is it to that religion , which flings wide open the everlasting doors , and inscribes on the portals , that ' * God is no respecter of persons ; but , in every nation , he that fearetk God and worketh
righteousness shall be accepted of him . " It is because I perceive the sympathy between existing systems of faith , and existing practices of injustice , that I believe those systems to be not only erroneous and unscriptural , but alien to the spirit of humanity , and hostile to the prevalence of genuine liberty . Glad am I to know , that numbers who
entertain the common theology , feel and act inconsistently with their faith ; that the human heart gains a victory over the creeds that are interwoven with the memory , and receive the assent of the judgment . Would we bring glory to God and blessings to our fellow-men ? It must be by the open profession of those principles which we believe to begospel truths , that we can hope to accomplish these dearest objects of our hearts . God has declared that he will have all men
to be saved , and the Saviour has assured us that the truth shall make his disciples free , —free from sin , prejudice and imperfection . The triumph of truth ami juetioe , then , is
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secure . Let us only do our parts , and then leave the issue in the hands of Omnipotent Love . To stimulate you to this duty is the object of the Society which calls us together .- — May its accomplishment form the happiness of your lives , and through eternal ages prove the glory , the honour
of your immortality V ~~~~ "" Mr . William Porter seconded the resolution : he said , * It cannot be denied that the Remonstrants have done much in behalf of the sacred cause which we are met to forward . They have subjected themselves to many inconveniences rather than surrender
one jot or one tittle of that liberty wherewith Christ hath made his people free . But perhaps we have accustomed ourselves to speak of them and of their services in a strain of
eulogy in some degree exaggerated . Comparing ourselves by ourselves , they certainly tower above the common class of Unitarians of the present day . But we have had men whose sacrifices for the sake of truth
were infinitely greater ; men who , against principalities and powers , against penal statutes and public odium , against arbitrary judges and subservient juries , against fine and imprisonment , maintained alike the right
of private judgment and the opinions to which its exercise had led them , and who flung property to the winds , and snapped asunder every cord that tied them to the earth , and who would not have accounted their lives clear
unto them in comparison with the manly and fearless assertion of what they in their consciences believed to be the truth once delivered to the saints . I allude to the persecuted Emlyn , whose memory was this
morning honoured by our -reverend guest , and others of his sterling stamp , the goodly fellowship of our confessors : the noble army of our martyrs . We must not , Sir , congratulate the Remonstrants of the north as if their warfare was accomplished . We must not hail those who buckle on their armour as those who put it off . They
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7 d UNITARIAN CEtR 6 NICIlE .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 1, 1832, page 70, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1813/page/6/
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