On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
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
scripture ; not only for the purpose of providing a symbol , test , or creed , ( such as our Thirty-nine Articles , ) in order to ascertain a sufficient agreement in members of the same religious community , but also for the purposes of public worship and catechetical instruction ? How does it follow from the fact that the sacred writers left no forms , that they committed ' to the church the office of systematically teaching , and to the scriptures that of proving the Christian doctrines ?* We should rather infer from the facts , that there is no ' necessity for forming any creed , or it would have been done for those who were much more in danger ( from their ancient prejudices ) of mixing error with truth than ourselves . We should infer , that no systematic teaching by any separate body of
rnen was contemplated in relation to future times . The early Christians were compelled to form a community , surrounded as they were on all sides by enemies . Teaching , whether systematic or not , was necessary for every convert , as conversion was the act of giving up one religion for another of an opposite character . The case is widely different with us . We are not a small and despised body , hedged in by Paganism and Judaism , and at war with all the prejudices of all the world . Christianity is absolutely free , in our land , from all external opposition ; and its disciples begin their
Christian course from a different starting point , —from a state of pure ignorance , instead of confirmed prejudice . They must be taught ; but the teaching is not , as formerly , the explanation of the points wherein this new faith differs from all ancient ones , but an instilling of principles which are only opposed by the dispositions of the individual and the passing circumstances of the time . The teaching of the present day should , therefore , be adapted to the wants of the individual , and therefore systematic
only in relation to himself . That which is made systematic in the abstract will assuredly fail of its purpose , and will prove an imposition , and not an explanation , of doctrine . What suits one age is unfit for another . What suits one individual is unfit for another . Let defences then be withdrawn where there is no opposition . Let impositions be relinquished , which are confessedly unauthorized . Let creeds and tests be abolished , since it is clear
that they cannot secure uniformity of opinion , and since we have abundant evidence that such uniformity is not decreed by God , and makes no part of the religion of Christ . And if it be true that there is a proneness in human nature to sleep over its best interests , and to confide to fallible teachers concerns which have been committed to no guardianship but its own , away with all institutions which , besides failing of their objects , encourage this proneness . If the evils of spiritual assumption on the one hand , and indolence on the other , are inseparable from the influence of an establish men t , ( as experience has ever proved , ) this alone is reason enough why such institutions should be given up ; especially - * yhen no authority— -not even that of analogy—can be adduced jn their support .
Untitled Article
38 # Romanism and Episcopacy *
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1832, page 388, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1814/page/28/
-