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Untitled Article
4 tiU educing . good , and better Ibeace again , and better stilly in infinite progression , '' so as uhi « - mately to produce universal' and
permanent felicity ! How improving * how consolatory , are these views of the Deity ; calcu * lated to excite the highest rever * ence of bis wisdom , the most cheerful submission to his will , an
implicit miance on his goodness , and to promote that firm and rational piety on which the moral happiness of mankind must necessarily depend . Bat alas ! how
totally does this beautiful scenery disappear from the enraptured aigbt , when we turn the appalled vision towards Orthodox Chris *
tianity 1 There we trace a Being of unrelenting rigour and stern in * flexibility ; threatening finite sins with infinite and eternal Ten * geance , and exacting punishment even from that ; innocent sufferer ,
who was heretofore a Ood ^ coequal and co-eternal with himself ! The thinking mind is in * wived in difficulties , and finds no dew to guide it through the
intricate labyrinth . All inquiry is checked as sacrilegious , the sub * Ject is to he silently acquiesced in as incomprehensible ) and if reason and conscience turn away disgusted from the nauseous and bitter
ingredients of which this heteroge neous mass is composed , it is at length swallowed down , concealed tinder the envelope of a sacred
aaystery ! But a reflecting Chris * tian will not always submit to be fed in the trammels of implicit obedience ; controversies arise ; Kght is elicited from the
investigation ; the mind imbibes conviction ; and exerts that native free-**» 3 th * t inherent duty < rf every
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rational aad accountable agent ; to think and set for itself . Yet alas ! in this dissipated and thoughtless age , how difficult is it to excite reflection , to subdue the prejudices ef custom th £ fear of ridicule , the lovfc of pleasure , aad to follow resolutely , a serious , despised , inconsiderable sect , in
its pursuit after truth ! Such , however , praised be € rod , has happily ; beea my case M hav « traversed the dreary path , a bewildered wanderer : / hare thrown
aside the most galling of all fetters , thosfe which enslave the mind ; and the sweet serenity , the inborn freedom , ifce intense love , the ardent gratitude , the sublime devotion I have experienced since
I became a decided Wnitarian and have attained more enlarged ideas respecting our beneficent Creator , and offered tip to him an undivided heart , in a purer and more enlightened worshi p , no language can adequately describe !
O that the unthinking multitude could be awakened from the lethargic stupor of supine submission , and be induced to react and examine for themselves T They would find that : religion , which is impiously represented' as
abounding with mysteries , and arrogantl y restricted to the exposition of the speculative and orthodox inquirer , easy to be understood , a plain direct patb , u where the wayfaring man need not err , " in any thing essential to his salvation : —
to believe otherwise , is to arraign * the wisdom and goodness of providence . . If you think this letter entitled to a place in your Repository , and 0-n ? of my fellow creatures sbwtftl
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Calvinism and Unttariwtism contrasted . 89
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1811, page 87, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2413/page/23/
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