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MISCELLANEOUS COMMUl^DATiaNS.
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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.
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To the Editor of the Monthly Repository .
sin , Lopdon , May 4 , 18 OS . The objections of the sceptic to die authority and excellency of the Christian religion , have been often represented , and in many
instances , no doubt , justly , as the effect of prejudice . But are there not prejudices in favour of Christianity , or lather against , the religion of nature * equally groundless and unreasonable ? And do
we not sometimes find men -of no small note , labouring to defend the cause of supernatural revelation , with arguments as weak and contemptible as any that have ever been advanced against it bv the unbeliever ?
I am led to this reflection by a very carious passage in the Lectures on . the gospel of St . Matthew , by Dr . Porteus , the present bisliop of London ; in which he hesitates not to assert roundly , that natural reason or philosophy
can never keep men Jtonctt , when they have any temptation to the contrary ; or in other words , that there can be no virtue at all , except among Christians ! After describing the atrocious conduct of Pilate , in the condemnation of Je < -
sus , vol . 2- p . 281—2 , he adds" Could any thing like this have happened in this country ? We all know , that it is impossible . We all know , that no dangers , no threats , no fears , either of <~ # sar , or of the people , cotfld ever indu 6 c a British judge , to condemn to death , a man whom he ,. in his conscience , believed to be innocent . And
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what is it that produces this difference between a homan and a British judge ? It is this : that the former had no other principle to govern his conduct but natural reason , or what would now be called philosophy ; which , though it
would sometimes point out to him { he path of duty , vet could never inspire him with fortitude enough to persevere in it in critical and dangerous circumstances ; in opposition to the . frowns of a tyrant , or the clamours of a multitude . Whereas the" British judge , in addition
to his natural sentiments of right * a . iid wrong , and the' dictates of the moral sense , has the principle of religion * also to influence his heart ; he has the unerring and inflexible rules of evangelical rectitude to guide him ; he has that
which will vanquish every other fear the fear of God , before his fyes . He knows that he himself must one day stand before the judge of all ; and that consideration keeps him Jirm to bis duty , be the dangers that surround him ever so formidable und tremendpus . "
Is the good bibhop then prepared to maintain that the heathens had no religion—ihat though tlxey had some ideas of right and wroijg in theory , yet they paid no re * card to them in oractice . —that the
Greeks and Romans , when they devised the legal forms of civi ( i and criminal process , had not tht ? public safety in . view * or if they had , that this princip le , was . iusiiilicient to teach them that an
innocent man ought not to be qanged ? He knows that they had solemn judicial proceedings , judges , advocatrs , pleadings , and appeals heaven by oath ; vvijl he theg fa } ll us what the $ e . tbin ^ gieanr ^ \ £ they wvre not ihtendecl to protect
Miscellaneous Commul^Datians.
MISCELLANEOUS COMMUl ^ DATiaNS .
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( 465 )
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VOL . III . $ Q
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Mil . STURCq , OX A PASSAGE IN THE BISHOP OJ * IONDOK ' s SE 1 U MONS , AGAINST NATUftAL REASON .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1808, page 465, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2396/page/9/
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