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rior to the prejudices accompanying it , that when advised by a lady in whose house he was giving lessons in music , to investigate the foundation of his faith , he complied with little or no hesitation , and scrupled not to peruse with care and attention the books and tracts she lent him .
-Disinelined—to— take _ any- step ^ -pre ^ cipitately , he cautiously weighed the arguments opposed to what he before held : he gradually discovered that there was much reason—too much ,
indeed , for his peace— -to doubt the validity of the sentiments he had early imbibed , and a desire to emancipate himself from the fetters of error gained possession more and more of his mind . Far was he from
being unaware what risk he incurred by openly avowing an alteration , of his religious sentiments—how probable it was that he would lose the esteem and respect of his relatives and friends , and forfeit the favour of those by whom he was professionally employed . Postponing his worldly
prospects to . the dictates of his conscience , he was determined , in disregard of all consequences , to espouse what he was persuaded bore the fairest impress of truth , and fearless stem the torrent of the age / Accordingly , he forsook the national
resorts of worship , and joined a small body , that professed to pay divine honour to that great Being only , whom he now believed to be both essentially and personally One , esteeming it his duty to address him in the character of a Father of u >
trinsic and unpurchased mercy , the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and of all mankind . He renounced all ideas of anger , jealousy , resentment , revenge , and repentance residing in the divine mind , and was
convinced , that the attributing such passions and feelings to the Creator , was done in pure accommodation to the" low and feeble conceptions of men , as was the representation of him with the members and senses of the human body . The doctrine of
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the Trinity he viewed in the light , as a celebrated modern writer styles it , of the sublime of absurdity- —that of the two natures in the one person of Jesus Christ as full as bad—and the doctrine of atonement , as generally maintained , not preferable to
the others . Satanical influence , ori--g inaLcLQrrjLtpiio , n _ inability of men to work out their own salvation , future remediless and unceasing punishment , the fall of the rebel angels from the realms of bliss , and the destruction of the earth by fire literally understood , together with the supposed
efficacy of water-baptism , supernatural regeneration , sudden conversion , and involuntary transforming and renewing grace—all these , upon the most deliberate consideration , he discarded . Faith in one eternal , all-perfect Grod—in the divine mission of Jesus of Nazareth ^ -
m the indisj ) ensable obligation of a life conformed to the moral laws of the divine government—in human - responsibility ^ in future retribution —and in a provision hereafter to be made for improving those who go out of this world in an unfit state , and enabling them to make advances in goodness , and at length to become
qualified for the fruition of celestial felicity — these formed the grand articles of his creed , from which , when he had once embraced them , he never betrayed the slightest pro ^ pensity to depart , > 5 ome there are who appear to deserve the title of Unitarian , or what would be a more proper term , Unitarian Christians , merely as they are Anti-Trinitarians . Their faith
assumes more of a negative than a positive complexion—they contem * plate , the Creator , ratker & $ npLhemg what he is generally supposed to be , than what there is the best reason to believe he really i «; hence their belief has little more hold of or
influence over their minds than what is the product of the simple absence of error . They are but partially alive to the exalted and peculiar
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. 194 UNITARIAN CHRONICLE .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 1, 1832, page 194, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1821/page/18/
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