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Untitled Article
had a simpl y human origin . His explanation is , we hope to show , as futile , as the assumption with which he commences , of the identity of orthodox and Christian doctrines , is gratuitous and unfortunate . But there is a candour and calmness about the entire performance , which claims for it a calm and candid examination . Its tone of sober seriousness convinces us that the
author is satisfied of the truth of his own reasonings and the adequacy of his own hypothesis , to account for the phenomena of the Christian religion ; otherwise we might have doubted whether they could have appeared conclusive to a mind of such reasoning and discernment as he plainl y evinces ; but the history which he gives of the progress of his own inquiries sufficiently explains how the theory he has adopted acquired strength from the
medium through which he viewed it , and how his arguments have weighed for more than they are worth , to a mind biassed in their favour . His objections against orthodox doctrines supplied the weight which his arguments against the historic evidences of Christianity wanted . He assumes that the notion of eternal torments is r the grand doctrine which Christianity holds out to bind the conduct of man' ( Pref . p . xiii ) . He argues as a
philosopher , and a believer in a just , and good ^ and wise God , against this doctrine ; and , so far , argues well and powerfully . 7 /^ this doctrine be really essential to the Gospel , every argument he has adduced against it is a presumption against Christianity . He has taken it as an essential doctrine , and his just objections against it , have weighed with him against the Gospel .
Orthodoxy has countenanced him in this error , and let orthodoxy share the responsibility for the natural consequences . It prevented the direct evidences of Christianity from exercising their legitimate force on his mind . It authorized him to . demand stronger proofs than he would have required to convince him of the truth of Unitarianism as a revelation . It induced him , if it
did not warrant him , to doubt the cogency of historic proofs , which he would have allowed to be valid for the support of any doctrine not monstrous in itself or derogatory to God . Let him give the history of his own mind on the subject . * This doctrine ( of eternal torments ) infuses no principle that can exalt , expand , and purify the mind . It addresses only the baser parts of our nature , serving * rather to hold men back from crime by brute
terror , than to render them freely , nobly virtuous . I feel assured that thousands reject Christianity without further examination , from abhorrence of the doctrine of eternal perdition ulone . It was this feeling * which first determined me to examine closely the grounds of that authority , —to wit , the New Testament , on which the assent of all men to such a doctrine is demanded . It » inhumanity shocked , before observation had convinced me that , as a sanction to deter from crime , it was powerless . ' ( Pref , p . xiii . ) He then briefly reviews the arguments by which divines have
Untitled Article
Orthodoxy and Unbelief . f 79
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1832, page 773, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1824/page/53/
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