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Untitled Article
have sway upon earth , and be the fountain of all happiness / And then he explains that by * what is called revealed religion' he means orthodoxy . We would wish every such unbeliever as this writer , who derived his first principles of belief and practice from Christian friends , and retains a sincere love of virtue , to ask
himself whether his moral feelings are * altogether independent' of revealed religion as their original foundation . Many a one , who speculatively rejects Christianity , because Christians have encumbered it with absurd and impious doctrines , still retains his love of Christian morals , and , in his pious regard to the religion of nature , thinks he has learnt from thence more than nature ever
taught , except to Christianized minds . We rejoice that it is so . We claim every such unbeliever as a practical illustration of the excellence of Christian morals- We are only jealous for Jesus , that his Gospel should receive the honour due . We would see it glorified by the intellect and the profession of those whose hearts it does guide . Its being so depends , humanly speaking , on the zeal and manliness of Unitarians in the profession and diffusion
of their views of Christianity . Seriously and solemnly do we feel , that a great responsibility rests upon the professors of Unitarian Christianity in an age of restless intellectual activity , to rescue the religion of Jesus from the difficulties and perplexities heaped upon it by its professors on the one hand , and on the other to defend it from the attacks to which it is thereby exposed from its enemies . What other class of Christians can effectually rebut the reasoning
of unbelievers ? Who else can heartily promote the spread of intelligence and reflection in every department of knowledge , and not tremble for the effect of their own doings on the reception of what they deem Christian truth ? Who else can fearlessly say , Religion courts investigation at the hands of the philosopher ; its evidences invite amplest discussion ; its doctrines and its precepts challenge the admiration of the learned , the reasoning , and the good ?
Others represent the Gospel as demanding implicit assent to things incredible . They would exempt religion alone from that scrutiny of active intelligence , which is applied to every other subject with the best effect , and which , when applied to the principles of religion now generally received among Christians of all denominations except one ( and that not a large one ) , must inevitably lead to the
increasing rejection of revealed religion , unless those who believe the Gospel to be a reasonable faith , will , not only by the open avowal of their opinions , but with earnest zeal for their advocacy and general diffusion , promptly and effectually interpose between the sceptic and the sceptic-maker * Edward Higginson . Hull .
Untitled Article
840 Orthodoxy and Zfnbeliefl
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1832, page 840, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1826/page/48/
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