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sermon ; he lays before us " a plain , a fair and candid answer to each of these three questions : What is a Deist ? What is a Christian ? What is a Unitarian V—and shews ¦ " the absurdity of affecting to confound
Unitarianism with Deism , or of affecting to deny that a Unitarian is a Christian . " " This , division of his subject , this statement of his purpose , illustrates the title of the discourse ; a title which
is calculated , indeed , to arrest the notice of the public ,, but which possibly might lead some persons to imagine that the preacher discriminates between Christianity , on the one side , and Unitarianism as well as Deism , on the
other . " The word Deist , in its first acceptation , denotes a believer in God . " However , the definition of it , as ( modified by time ) it is now used , " is a man who acknowledges a God , but denies revelation . " Our author draws
a faithful picture of the character of the Deist , in its favourable and its unfavourable aspect . With the same impartiality he makes an estimate of the probable effect of Deistical sentiments on the virtue and happiness of the man who embraces them , and then observes , ,
" The name of Deist , which was once one which the Christian migh ^ be proud to bear , is now a name from which he instinctively shrinks , which , indeed , it * is impossible he should bear ; which , united
with his name-of Christian , would t > e like speaking 6 f white blackness , of powerless strength , of circumscribed infinity ; or conjoining any other ideas that were incongruous , and absolutely refused to unite . It is of the essence of modern
Deism to deny Revelation . It is of the essence of Christianity to believe that a Divine Revelation was made by Jesus Christ . *—P . 14 . On the revival , in modern times , of the word Deist , Mr . H . offers this remark :
So little attention has been paid to the philology of our language , or to philology in general , that we should probably look in vain , through the range of English literature , for the history of this word Deism ; and . the date and origin of that tralatitious sense of it which , has taken place of its original and etymological sense . But it may be submitted , as a conjecture , that when Christianity became prevalent through the Western world , and Mahometanism through the
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Eastern , and men came in general to receive the great truths of a £ > ivine Creator and his providence , and thus became universally of the sect of the Deists , that persons who were led to reject all revelation , and pretences to revelation , . an *
proprmted to themselves this old and unclaimed term of Deist , as some defence against unchristian bigotry , which doubtless then , as now , was ready to confound the men who acknowledged a God but denied revelation with those unhappy persons who with revelation renounced also a God . "—P . 14 .
To the question , What is a Christian ? the preacher gives " a short and read y answer : a believer in the divine mission of Jesus Christ . " Like the term Mahometan , it is ** a generic term , admitting of specific differences : —consistency , as well as modesty , requires that we acknowledge as Christians all who receive the doctrine of
Christ as divine taiith . ** There is , indeed , another and a most beautiful sense in which the term Christian is used . He who , to the belief in the divine mission ; of Christ ., joins : the practice of those duties which it was one
great object of our Lord's life to inculcate ; one , who is like his Lord and Master in piety , humility * temperance , patience and charity ; who walks on earth as he walked ; this man is a Christian indeed , in the highest and best sense of the word . "—P . 18 .
We must refer to the discourse itaelf those who are desirous of seeing Mr . H- * s admirable representation of " the difficulties to which men may be reduced , when they attempt to set up
one of the forms in which Christianity is specifically professed , in the ^ place of that general system in which all forms are included , and which is briefly expressed by the phrase , believing m the divine mission of Christ . " It is
time' that we accompany him . in his answers to the questions , " Wnat is a Unitarian ? And how far can he shew that he is worthy to bear the honoured name of Christian ? " ¦ ¦ . . i H The whole abstract idea repr ^ cMed by the word Trinitarian i 3 a man , w ^ #
receives the doctrine of Qwf ^ r ^ -. h ^ g persuaded that it includes the j np ^ on of a Trinity in Unity ; and thfe proper defi 7 jiition of a Unitarian is corr ^ &id&rit to this , —a man who receives the doritrine of Christ , being persuaded that it does not include the notion of Trinity in Unity . *« This was the origin of the terju ,, and
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Retiiew ~ The Deist , the Christian , the Unitarian ^ 107
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1820, page 107, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2485/page/43/
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