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
for themselves df the propriety or absurdity and inconsistency of a practice : which is j so , general , and in which perhaps they have been , accustomed to join , more from habit , or from conformity to
the exrample ^ of others , than from any conviction of their own minds * To you , my young friends , I would particularly address the words of the Apostle : c ' Beware
lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit , after the tradition of men , after the rudiments of the world , and not after CErist . " ( Coloss , ii . 80 In you , I * am persuaded . I shall meet
with minds free from prejudice and bias , and that you will readily admit the weight and importance of arguments which are wellfounded and conclusive . - From all I assure myself of a pktient and candid attention , and m that
indulgence and support ^ which we mutually owe to one another in the profession of those principles which we conceive to be important , and to be connected with the diffusion
and practice of that pure and undefiled religion of which we boast . There was nothing to which the gospel of Christ was more opposite , nor any thing which it more directly denounced , than the vain
philosophy" and superstitious practices of the heathen world ; and if it appear to you , that the custom , to the origin of which I shall now direct your attention , have any affinity to these , 1 am persuaded that you will consider
it a » your duty * f to stand fast in the liberty with which Christ hath made yuii fwe " to reject Wthe tradition of men ^ the rudiments of the world /? fcndevery thing , which is inconsistent \ yith * the simplicity th ^ t u in Cbrust . ' * /
That we may enter fully and candidly into the subject ^ 1 shalf , in the first place 5 consider th « ground ^ upon which I conceive the , most weighty and conclusive arguments may be founded , against
the established practice of observing this day as the anniversary of the Saviour ' s birth ; in the second place , I shall examine the several opinions of those , who contend
for the observancex > f the day up , on some principle but distantly connected with the originakdesign , or perhaps altogether foreign to it ; and thirdly ^ 1 shall endeavour to state , what ought-to be the conduct
of those , who dissent from the majority of their fellow ^ christians in their views upon this subject . I . In the first place / I am to state the objections which may be strongly urged against the observance of the day a& the anniversary
of the Saviour ' s birth . 1 . It is of no little moment .
that the < observance of such a day was not enjoined by Christ himself . In no part of the gospels do we
meet wuth any allusion to such an institution or practice . If it had been proper or necessary , or if it had not a tendency opposite to the design of Christianity , it is
not easy to conceive-any . reason why Jesus should have neglected to enjoin such ran observance , especially when we recollect , that there i& an ordinance of a -similar ndtU-re , which our master himsctf instituted . u The same night-in which he was bettayed he took bread f and *^ when hb > had given thanks he brake it and said : c take , eat ^ this is my badyj which is bi ^ oken for ^ you , this » do in ruraerabrance of me ;! rafter the same manner •> also he j took the cup , saying ^ this cupis tbe new cov »
Untitled Article
536 Objections tfgakiH the Gbstrvdnce of Christmas Day *
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1810, page 536, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2410/page/12/
-