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Untitled Article
impossible ever to be assured that the sum of corrections is complete ; and there will be , throughout , the want of a guiding star by which to shape the course of inquiry , and indicate its natural and satisfactory termination . Unitarian Christianity is not , what it has been so often called , a negative system . It is not a corrected and amended edition of Calvinism . It is a different view of the
divine plan . True it is , that general principles must be arrived at by an extensive induction ; but then how much of the facility and certainty of the generalization depends upon the selection of the particular cases . To start with a multifarious system , —Calvinism , for instance —and set about the correction of its mistakes , real or supposed , great or small , is the labour of a life , which may end before the corrected particulars can be formed into a correct whole . Let scripture furnish the materials ; make the induction of particulars there ; thence ascend to general principles ; and then , from those principles , descend upon the details of controversy ; and not onJy is the task simplified and shortened , but results are gained which , by a different process , will probably never be realized , and the soul find a peace and rest which are unknown
to those who are ever learning and never arrive at a knowledge of the truth . The demolition and reconstruction of a theological system cannot well be accomplished by piecemeal . The new building will not arise , in its due proportions , out of the ruins of the old , without an architectural plan . Hence converts , especially those who become so late in life , and who continue to teach through
the process of their own conversion , often understand much better the falsehood of the errors they renounce , than the spirit of the truths which they embrace . The tendency of their circumstances is to make them powerful for attack , less skilful in defence , and yet less fitted for that positive instruction which is much better than either attack or defence . There have been many profound
critics and acute controversialists who could never have produced such clear , harmonious , and powerful delineations of genuine Christianity , as Miss Martineau . v She treats of it not polemically but demonstratively ; not analytically but synthetically . Her general notion of God ' s plan for the spiritual education of mankind , is never lost sight of in dealing with particulars . Its identity and completeness are always preserved . It is * one entire and perfect chrysolite / She has extracted the spirit of the written word , and enshrined it in her own intellect . Hence her own words
are imbued with spirit and life . There is never any inconsistency in her positions , / She does not , like so many controversialists , repel one objection on one principle , and another objection on a different principle . By her distinct perception of what is , she always readily exposes what is not . The best defence against the multifariousness of error is the unity of truth . Another source of pervading excellence in these Essays is the skill with which the author has thrown herself into the minds of
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Miss Martineat / s Prize Essays . ¦ 477
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1832, page 477, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1816/page/45/
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