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    sciences , which , far from being the enemy of faith * makes the wisest men the most religious . If the topics of our preaching are moral ? yet we insist equally on points of doctrine \ they are urged from our pulpits in every

    public service , aod we have even two exercises every week , exclusively appropriated to the explanation of the catechism . Besides , our morality is the morality of the gospel ? always

    coonected with its doctrines , and deriving thence its strongest sanctions , especially from the promises of eternal life and felicity which it makes to those who reform their conduct ^ and the threat of eternal condemnation which

    it denounces against the impious and impenitent . In this respect , as in every other , we think it our duty to keep close to the language of Scripture , which speaks not of purgatory , but of heaven and hell , where every

    one shall receive according to the deeds done in this life It is by preaching energetically these great trutlis , that we endeavour to bring men to holiness . When we are praised for a spirit of tolerance and moderation , let not this be confounded with laxity and indifference . We are thankful

    that it arises from a very different source ; it is an evangelical tolerance which harmonizes perfectly with zeal . On the one hand Christian charity I * eeps us at the widest possible distance from persecution , and enables us to bear without uneasiness some

    diversity of opinion on points which are not essential , such as has always existed even in the purest churches , on the other ? we neglect no care , no method of persuasion , in order to establish , to inculcate and to defend the fundamental doctrines of Christianity .

    4 i When we have occasion to recur to the principles of natural religion , we do it as it is done by the sacred authors themselves , and without any approximation to Deism . While we give to natural theology a more solid basis and greater extent than is usual

    with them , we always connect revelation with it , as a gift of heaven very mecessary for our aid , and without which mankind could never have emerged from the state of blindness and corruption into which they had sunk . u it be one of our principles to

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    propose nothing for belief which fe contradictory to reason , this is . not as the author suppos < esg one of the characteristics of Socinianism . The principle is common to all Protestants ^ , and they employ it to reject absurd doctrines , such , indeed * , as are not to

    be found in the Holy Scriptures when rightly understood . But we do not carry this principle so far as to reject every thing which is called a mystery 3 since we give this name to truths of

    a supernatural kind , which human reason is incapable of discovering , or which it cannot perfectly comprehend ^ but which have nothing in them impossible , and which God has revealed to us . Nothing more is necessary to engage us to receive these doctrines ^ than they be clearly taught in revelation , and that the authority of revelation itself be indisputable , and we adopt them the more readily , because they harmonize so well with natural religion , and form with it " that admirable and perfect system which the gospel exhibits .

    " Though the worship of one God is the main doctrine of our religion * , this does not justify the assertion that it is reduced to this single point , among all but the vulgar . The best informed persons are those also who are most strongly convinced of the

    value of the covenant of grace , and that eternal life consists in knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent , his Son in whom all the fulness of the Godhead bodily dwelt , and whom he has given to us

    as a Saviour , a Mediator and a Judge , that all men may honour the Son even as they honour the Father . The term of respect for Jesus Christ , therefore , appears to us by far too feeble or too equivocal to express the nature and the extent of our sentiments to ^

    wards him , and we say that we are bound to listen to this Divine Teacher and to the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scriptures , with faith , with profound veneration and a complete submission of mind and heart . Instead

    therefore , of resting upon human reason , so limited and weak , we build upon the word of God , which is . alone able to make us wise unto salvation * by faith in Jesus Christ . This gives to our religion a purer and nobler principle , a wider compass and more effectual power ^ and invests it witfe

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    26 ¦ . Wnitarianum at Gemev&o

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1818, page 26, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2472/page/26/