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Untitled Article
Another orthodox perversion , of Scripture has supplied a point of attack . The Scriptures speak of the glory of God , * as shown in his works , and capable of being promoted by his creatures ; and when the Scriptures are allowed to explain their own meaning , the glory of God appears to consist in , or even to be identical with , the order , harmony , and happiness of his works . But the Trinitarian interpretation has given occasion for our author to lay this charge against Christianity : —
Religion , at present , encumbers morality , narrows , confines , represses , or misdirects its energies . To diffuse a belief in certain mysterious dogmas , to exalt the glory of a single being , is now enjoined , as the noblest , and the ultimate aim and duty of man , to which all things else are infinitely subordinate . Let us look forward , with fervent hope to the day , when the virtue and happiness of human millions * and not
the glory of one being , however excellent , shall be acknowledged to be the end which it is man ' s highest and most holy duty to promote ; when , instead of indulging visions of future bliss in another world , men will direct their endeavours to realize to the whole species the greatest amount of happiness in this . '—( Pref . p . xii . )
There is a form of Christianity ( and pity it is if the author did not know it ) which makes the virtue and happiness of human millions the criterion of God ' s glory , both in the present world , and still more in the world to come . On the sixty-fifth page of the essay his argument expressly appeals to the absurdity and difficulty of belief involved in the doctrine of Christ ' s deity , and ., as usual , Christianity suffers for its
corruptions . He is endeavouring to account for the characteristics and the effects of Christ ' s preaching , without admitting his divine authority , and ascribes to our Saviour a power of eloquence far beyond what the Gospel records authorize us in supposing , or , at least of a very different character ; and , as if sensible of the inconclusiveness of his argument for the human origin of the Gospel , he pushes the orthodox alternative : —
' Besides , when , in order to account for the diffusion of his faith during his lifetime , and the general belief in his miraculous powers , the alternative lies between the supposition that he was God Almighty , or the Son of God , of course understanding eternal generation and sameness of substance ; or , ( and ) that he was merely one of those
extraordinarily-gifted individuals who , says Southey , ** are ever ready to appear when any great moral revolution is to be accomplished ; " and that , among other high qualities , he possessed the power of commanding eloquence ; is it not more consonant to human experience and reason to have recourse to this latter supposition , which will perfectly account for the moral phenomena we have to explain ?'
Truly does our author aver , in concluding his preface , that if not * in every step , both of premises and conclusions / yet in the most important premises from which he has deduced his conclusions , he has ' been led , as it were , by the hand of grave divines , Or by persons of eminent genius and orthodoxy . ' fiut for ortho *
Untitled Article
770 Orthodoxy and Unbelief .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1832, page 776, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1824/page/56/
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