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
A Rational Christian ' s Anstocr to the Ch ' urchman . 411
Untitled Article
In fact , Unitarians and even necessarians , like the Israelites of old , ascribe every thing to God . Since then they worship the greatest , wisest and best of beings , the God and Father of J-e ^ us Christ , by whom mercy was preached to the penitent , and life and . immortality brought to light , what would yeur correspondent the Churchman have more ? Is not the same God adored , and in terms to which none can object but those who admit not divine revelation ?
Phraseology declarative of any particular denomination may not be adopted ; but if what is general and comprehensive be used , it may suit most cases , and may therefore fn fact be deemed truly catholic , as old as the gospel or the law , and most agreeable to the faith originally given to the saints . There may be omissions
of what Trinitarians may deem desirable , if ziot essential ; yet evei \ they might in their own minds bettor suppl y what was required by their sentiments , than any Unitarians can . honestly or conscientiously conform to their modes or expressions . If God supreme in power , wisdom and goodness , the father of Jesus Christ , whose religion is fitted to make mankind good and happy for ever , be worshipped , what can there
be wanting to make men zealous , benevolent , virtuous , and hoi }? Must there always be something mysterious , i nconiprehensible , doubtful , superstitious , if not unscriptural and anti-scriptural , r <> make men liriirty in so •¦ good a cause as the salvation oi souls ? Surel y they may be sufficiently humbled in a sense of their inipeiv factions and liableness lo ers with-
Untitled Article
out-supposing that all their nature is sin , and that man is half brute / half fi' ^ nd . Is hot such lung . iu ^>« a libel upon nature and Providence , and do not they who irevile nature , in fact revile ting Author of nature ? These are '
ideas alike inculcated in Hume ' s posthumous Dialogues , and in Weslej ' V compilation on the subject of original sin . May not then the Divine Being permit the delusive mode , in which many enthusiasts have been converted , by way of-saving them * from atheism , and despair ? . '
If the articles of the church of-England be ( jalvrnistic , the followers of Whitfiuld are some of its best members- ; - but if they be Arminian , the disciples of Wesley may divide the honour . If they be only articles of peace , intended according to Pa ley , merely to exclude Papists and Baptists , the future Stottos in Trinity college , Cambridge , may think , that they may conscientiously si c ; n thein . - .,.
The Unitarians call ttck ?' &n& master upon earrli . The Bifelx * ' , and the Bible alone is their 10 T 1-gion . Whether they interpret : it rightly is the sole question i-n dispute , and not wlvothor they have a fair title to the name of llati * -: onal or Unirariftn . When however th'eir adversa- > rics reproach them with -being ' Socinians , and- thus class them with one , who contended lor
some kind of worship to Jesus Christ , and who was not without ' the intolerance of his age , they deem themselves iiuthoiizofcU to assume . a denomination which sufficiently designates them find distinguishes them not only from all Trinitarians * but from those .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1808, page 411, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2395/page/11/
-