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Untitled Article
though the Doctor has not chosen to speak explicitly concerning the specific nature of the rationality which we modestly ar- * rogate to ourselves , yet I cannot divest myself of all suspicion . of there being some lurking insinuation under his ambiguous expression .
. Dr . Magee , Sir ^ might have given some information concerning the assumption of this appellation by the Unitarians . He might have just said , that these men think that their form and modes of worship , and the articles of their creed , are more conformable to the dictates of reason than those of
other Christians ; and likewise that they are great advocates for the use of reason in matters of religion , while their opponents openly derogate from its pretensions . If he had said this , he had been honest , and had spoken the truth without doing injury to his own cause- But I shall appeal from Dr . M . ' s ununcharitable opinions and unfair statement , evidently dictated
by the characteristic prejudice and rancour of the generality of his order— -jlagrat vitio gentisque suoque—to the good sense of those who halve not too much modesty to use their reason ; and I shall convince them , I hope , l > y a comparison of our religious devotions , and our opinions concerning the use of reason , with those of other Christians , that our claim to the distinction
ok rational is not wholly a modest insinuation , but a very wellgrounded pretension-All the different denominations of Christians , from the lofty hierarchy to the most insignificant sect , are distinguished by something or other which sufficiently marks their contempt of fedtson ^ or that faculty by which alone we judge concerning -truth and error in opinion , and right and wrong in conduct :
against whom the liberal dissenters , especially the Unitarians , have , much to their credit , frequently protested . Most denominations , if not all , believe in some awful mysteries ^ which baffle the most vigorous efforts of reason . To believe what they dp not understand , is a hi g hly meritorious act of faith . Many of them pretend to hold immediate supernatural communications with the Deity , which are peculiar to the system of grace , and confined to the elect : not * are the same favoured race
unsusceptible of suggestions of a different tendency , and from a very different quarter . The great mass of all these incoherent sects of believers , who yet deem themselves infallible , believe that moral qualities are , by some enigmatical masterpiece of divine policy , transferable from one person to another ; but with this distinction , a person is necessarily wicked by another ' s vice , and he way become good by another ' s y irtue . Some of
Untitled Article
Remarks on the Apellation of < ^ Rational Dissenters / ' 571
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1807, page 571, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2386/page/7/
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