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passage just quoted , which it is only justice to extract : * As some persons have misunderstood the statement relating to Unitarians in page 27 , the author wishes it to be
restricted to those who originally assumed and exclusively appropriated to themselves this appellation ; which in later times has been more liberally extended . The fact , however , which he has asserted , has not been disputed . It is to be regretted , that since the more extensive use of the appellation of Unitarians , it
has been applied to those who hold a variety of opinions , that have no kind of connexion with UnitarianiHin . Hence , in the estimation of some persons , it has become an objectionable denomination ; and they have been afraid of assuming
it , lest they should be considered as adopting sentiments , which , in their judgment , are erroneous . By others they are regarded as much less important than the unity of the object of worship . "—P . 43 .
The Sermon is from Matt . xxiv . 46 , On habitual Preparation for Death . This appropriate subject is judiciously treated and with a truly Christian spirit . The following observations are of great importance :
" Some persons have erroneously apprehended , —and the error has been of very pernicious consequence , —that preparation for death is a work that may be performed in the very moment of alarm and danger ; and that it consists in an instantaneous change , produced either by
the irresistible power of God or the mechanical operation of the passions ; or , in some single exercise of penitence , piety or charity . Whether this delusion dictated the prayer against sudden death , which occurs in the Litany of our Established Church , I will not presume to determine , although , considering the
religious sentiments of its compilers , it does not seem improbable . In evury view of it , it has always appeared to me very improper ; nor could I ever cordially join in it . To pious and good men , who have duly employed their faculties and improved their time through life , a
sudden death , so far from being an evil to be deprecated , is a desirable event ; and in all the circumstances attending our esteemed friend ' s removal , an event truly enviable ; and amply justifying the appropriation of the text to his case . "—Pp . 5 , 6 . To this passage the preacher subjoins an explanatory note :
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" The petition for deliverauce from sudden death in the mass-book of the Catholics , from which a great part of tbe Litany was taken , seems to be less exceptionable , as it is more guardedly expressed . The terms are * $ subitd et
improvisd morte * i . e * from death sudden and unprovided for ;—the latter epithet qualifying , and in some degree explaining the former . The compilers , whilst they rejected the Popish dogma of extreme
unction , seem to have adopted the notion of instantaneous conversion , or change of character and state ; which notion appears to be countenanced by the administration of the sacrament , &c , in cases of sudden death . We leave the reader
to form his judgment on the possible pernicious effect which the continuance of this practice may occasion . "—P . 43 , Mr . Barrett ' s Address at the Interment is pertinent to the occasion , serious and impressive . There is remarkable propriety in the phrase " straight-forward manly integrity , " as applied to the character of Dr . Lindsay .
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Art . III . —An Examination , fyc . ( Continued from p . 173 . ) BISHOP MAGEE might have been expected to take up so popular a reproach against Unitarians as
disrespect towards the Scriptures . He is a master in the use of polemical weapons , and he brandishes this topic most fiercely . He knew that his opponents professed attachment to the Bible , but as they dare to interpret it in a different sense from that of the
Thirty-nine Articles , he treats that profession " as a convenient mask or an insulting sneer . " Why does the Bishop not receive the books called Apocryphal ? It cannot be merely that he is directed to renounce them bv the canons of his
church . But if he think , as no doubt he does , that there is sufficient weight of evidence against the authenticity of those hooks , why may he not allow that if the Unitarian , following some of the most distinguished members of his own church , reject the Three Witnesses text , I John v . 7 , 8 , it is because he is conscientiously satisfied
that the evidence of its genuineness is defective ? No one now vilifies Luther for his unseemly language with respect to the Epistle of James , nor Calvin for his free remark on the interp reters ot
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238 Review—Dr . Carpenters Examination of Bishop Magee .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1821, page 238, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2499/page/46/
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