On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
But I have added , and this I suspect is the offensive part of the charge , that thev assume the name " perhaps to save the credit of their orthodoxy , by joining occasionally in the popular hue
and cry against those who profess the proper humanity of Jesus Christ . " Nowj sir , though I have qualified the supposition with the limitation * perhaps / ' it is possible that my indefinite expression may be understood in a strictly universal sense , as though I had
intended to impute this motive to all modern Arians without exception . Whereas I have the pleasure to be acquainted with many , the generosity of whose spirit
places them above all suspicion . I must beg leave therefore to correct the text , and to limit my proposition still further , by the insertion of the commodious
monosyllable some ; a word which occurs in some notable instances in your correspondent ' s letter . Let then the future reading be thus , and some perhaps to save iheir credit . &c . This correction
I hope will satisfy the feelings of your correspondent , for 1 am not inclined altogether to retract the charge which was not made upon light grounds . For indeed to deny that persons of suspected
orthodoxy often endeavour to save their credit , by making the most of the little they have , and particularly by loud exclamations , or oblique reflections upon those ivho are a little below them upon the scale , is to arFefct ignorance
of the most palpable facts . This i ^ not Christian charity , but infantile simplicity : in fact , it is like a child shutting his eyes , and crying out , " nobody can av . e me . " But , says your correspondent , is not this accusing these good
Untitled Article
men of malevolence ? I answpr , by no means . They think no ill , and mean no harm to the persons whom they disparage . It is merely an act of self-preservation . They do it only to save their own character ; that they may not be turned out of good ¦ company ,
nor lose their good things . I cannot help suspecting that your correspondent , with all his gravity , means to be a little waggish whe " n he talks of the great degree of courage which it re-° * • • quires to avow Anamsm in present circumstances . " The
Socinians says he " hold them incontempt . ' * What the Socinians may think or say , I know not . But when your correspondent adds that " the orthodox allow them no better
quarter than they do the Socinians , " he is telling a Uxle of other times . 1 well remember when Arians were held by the orthodox in horror and abhorrence . But the
case is altered . We now see them lovingly shaking hands with each other , frequenting the same places of wprship , preaching in the same pulpits , supporting the same academical institutions , and
eating custard together . The alarm of the common enemy beating up their quarters has converted bitter hostility into close alliance . No , no , there is no great danger now in professing Arianism ; no uncommon firm ness of mind , no
extraordinary self-denial is requisite for this purpose . No youth is excluded from our academies , no minister is dismissed from our pulpits , nb-tradesman is injured in his business , because he is an Arian . Arianism , sir , is no
longer a noxious heresy , it is a saving grace , which makes us righteous in the sight of our brethren . A
Untitled Article
23 S Mr . Btls / iam on modern Arians .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1808, page 238, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2392/page/10/
-