On this page

• Text (2)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

• 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

    of faitbv regulate his faith by it , and consequently believe aright , without much regarding what other men either will do , or have done f It is true , indeed , there is a necessity , that if God will have his word believed , he by his Providence must take order , that

    either by succession of men ^ or by some other means , natural or supernatural , it be preserved and delivered , and sufficiently notified

    to be his word ; but that this should be done by a succession of men that hold no error against it , certainly there is no more necessity , than that it should be done by a succession of men that

    commit no sin against it . For if men may preserve the records of a law , and yet transgress it , cer , tainly they may also preserve directions for their faitb , and yet not follow them . I doubt not but

    lawyers at the bar'do find by frequent experience , that many men preserve and produce evidences , which being examined , oft-times make against themselves . This they do ignorantly , it being in

    their power to suppress , or perhaps to alter them . And why then should any man conceive it strange , that am erroneous and corrupted church should preserve and deliver the scriptures

    uncornipted , when indeed , for many reasons which 1 have formerly alleged , it was impossible for them to corrupt them ? Seeing therefore this is all the necessity that ls pretended of a perpetual succession of men orthodox in all

    points , certainly there is no necessity at all of any such , neither ^ n the want of it prove any man or church heretical .

    Untitled Article

    Chillingworth . 749

    Untitled Article

    No . XXXIV , Analogy between Justice and Charity . Now , besides moral prudence * nay , before the moralist can make any use thereof , or exerci ^ it in the work of any virtue , there is required another grneial virtue , which t&e philosopher calls universal justice , which is nothing else but a sobriety and temper in the affections , whereby they are subdued and captived unto

    wellinformed reason : so that what , soever it commands to be done , there is no rebellion ^ no unwillingness in the passions , but they proceed readily to execution , though it be never so distasteful to sense . Now , how well does

    this express the nature of charity ? For , what else is love , but a sweet breathing of the Holy Spirit upon our passions , whereby the Holy Ghost does , as it did in the beginning of Genesis , incubare aquis ,

    move by a cherishing , quieting virtue , upon the sea of our passions ? Did not the same spirit come to Elijah in a soft whisper ? He walks not , in turbine ^ in a strong wind , to raise a tempest in our affections . Now . when

    we have received this ipsissimam Dei particularity ( as Plato said of the soul ) this shred or portion of the Holy Spirit , which is charity , how evenly and temperately do we behave ourselves to God , and all the world besides ? How

    willingly and obediently do we submit ourselves to the performance of whatsoever faith , out of God ' s word , doth injoin us ? But yet the analogy and proportion be ~ tween these two is more evident and observable : That universal justice is no particular singular

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1814, page 749, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2447/page/21/