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in our own age and country , however I may have been cheered and consoled by reflecting on the many important and highly beneficial institutions recently established and daily increasing among us , and in which all sects and parties seem to hare cordially united , I have at the same time been struck
and astonished at the progress also made in what is erroneously called evangelical religion ; a system , to my apprehension , wholly inconsistent with the great truth of the unity and
incommunicable perfections of the great God and Father of all ; so invariably , devoutly and sublimely taught by our divine Master , and of whom he speaks to his disciples , even after his resurrection from the dead , as his
Father and their Father , his God and theirs . May hot the following reflections lead to some solution of this intricate problem ? In our present imperfect state of knowledge , it is not easy to form an influential , much less an adequate idea
of a Being , eternal , omnipresent , omniscient and invisible ; and hence the extreme proneuess to idolatry at all times and in all places . Even the psalmist and sotne of the ancient prophets have aided the imperfect conceptions of their hearers , in respect to
the Almighty , by describing him as seated on a throne , and dwelling in heaven as a local habitation ; a representation , however , in which there was nothing that could divide or mislead the affections respecting the one sole object of supreme adoration .
Under the Christian dispensation the device of a trinity in unity , does not in like manner steer quite clear of this imputation , notwithstanding the ingenuity with which the Athanasian hypothesis labours to confound the understanding . But although it still retains its station in articles and
creeds , yet so many ate the absurdities and contradictions with which it abounds , that it is not , I think , in general so prominently brought forward as in times less enlighteued . If , however , it is gradually lowering its
high pretensions , it still lends its powerful aid , though it * & way less ostensible , to the popular doctrine of the proper deity of Chriat ; arid * by a process truly curious , Scapes the charge ot idolatry , by representing the great Creator of ml ttimgs under
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the idea of having become , or appeared upon earth as a man , ( for it is not easy to use correct language where the ideas are so contradictory , ) who suffered death upon the cross , and thus made atonement ( to himself as it
must be if the doctrine of the unity is maintained ) , for the sin of our first parents . On a theme like this it is easy to declaim if not to reason , and easier still perhaps to anathematize all who differ from themselves in the
interpretation of highly metaphorical scripture language . By this means too the unreflecting crowd are supplied with an object of worship in the representation of a man like themselves being also God , more commensurate to their imperfect conceptions :
their passions are excited by the eloquence of the preacher , and that selfcomplacence so natural to the heart of man , not a little flattered by high and inflated ideas of the great superiority and transcendent excellence of their own particular creed over that
of all Others . It is but candid , however , to acknowledge that the great and rapid success which this style of preaching has lately met with , is likewise materially indebted to the exemplary conduct of many of its teachers :
to their devotedness to their ministry , their zeal and their piety j to their keeping themselves aloof from the frivolous pursuits and never-ending round of dissipations of the thoughtless multitude , where all sober
reflection , all usefulness of character , are too often frittered away , if not wholly destroyed . I * would also add , that their daily practice of reading the jBible , however erroneous the interpretation on some doctrinal points ,
cannot fail of sobering the mind , and of powerfully withdrawing the affections from " things seen and temporal , " to those that are ** unseen and eternal . " In these last particulars , Sir , may all Unitarians sedulously imitate their example . CATHARINE CAPPE .
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114 On the Opinions of the Puritans respecting Citiil and Religious Liberty
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The Nonconformist . No . II . On the Opinions of the Pwitans respecting Civil and Religious Liberty * SCARCELY had the ReforoiatiOfl broken this chains of £ apal authority , £ re the ddy of political and religious freedom began to « fat * n .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1818, page 114, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2473/page/34/
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