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peared . The absurd , the contradictory , and the horrifying doctrines of Christians , have been the principal points of attack for those who have thought they were assailing Christianity . The principal points , —though not the only ones , —for many a minor objection gathers weight to the mind that is already biassed , which might otherwise have appeared trivial , —as secondary
arguments find their place when the primary ones have almost wrought conviction . We do not assert , then , that the arguments of writers against revealed religion are all directly levelled at the peculiar doctrines of orthodoxy , but that their main force is employed there ; that thence they have generally found occasion for their most plausible objections and their most caustic sneers . Some have distinctly avowed that the contradiction of the trinity
in unity , the blasphemy of the incarnation , or the libel against God ' s goodness which the doctrine of eternal torments contains , was the cause of their renouncement of revelation . They could not , without disowning the reason God had given them , or degrading the conceptions which Nature disposed them to entertain
respecting God , admit the doctrines propounded to them . Thus far who could blame them ? Those doctrines they regarded as part and parcel of Christianity ; and Christianity they , therefore ^ rejected . And who would not pity the man that never saw Christianity exhibited in a form to be credited or loved , and , therefore , did not believe the doctrine nor love the teacher ?
Many a deistical book is there , which , however formidable its attack may appear to the pious Calvinist or Trinitarian , of whatever grade , affects not one article of the Unitarian ' s faith . And if many of the popular replies to such works are weak in some points , the weakness is observable precisely where the defence of orthodoxy , and not of the mere evidences or unquestionable doctrines of the Gospel , is attempted .
When Lord Herbert of Cherbury insinuates that the Christian religion grants pardon on too easy terms , and derogates from the obligation of virtue , is it not plain that the Calvinistic , but unscriptural doctrine , of the efficacy of faith without works , is the ground of his objection ? If such were the plain doctrine of the Gospel , the objection , would be valid ; let the believer in the doctrine parry the objection as he can . Had none but the Unitarian form of Christianity been professed , the objection could never have , been mooted .
When Charles Blount attacks the doctrine of a mediator , saying that ' if God appointed the mediator , this shows that he was really reconciled to the world before , and consequently there was no need of a mediator / is not the argument built upon the more than questionable views of Christian mediation which orthodoxy , dnd not Scripture , has put forth ? Define mediation to imply the * turning of God ' s wrath to grace , and let those who , thus define it answer Charles Blount s objection as they can .
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Ortho&oxy ' ahd Unbelief . 769
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No . 71 . 3 1
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1832, page 769, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1824/page/49/
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