On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
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
superficial' scholar , that in this passage there is no mention of he who at all ; for , though the article frequently expresses this pronoun , it is here simpi / aia article ; and , in order to use it as a pronoun , thje translators are obliged to disjoin it from the noun to which it is prefixed , and to snpply the verb *> , in order to complete the sense . The translation would run literally thus : — * ' Till the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ , which , in his own times , the BLESSED AND ONLY POTENTATE WILL
shew ; the King of kings and Lord of lords , alone having immortality , dwelling in Jight unapproachable ; whom none of men hath beheld , nor is able to behold ; to whom be honour and power everlasting .
* ' What , Sir , are we to think of all this ? And with what grave modesty or consistency do you and your party stand forward to accuse us of setting Scripture on the rack , and forcing it to give a testimony ! What becomes of your boast of pressing us home with Bible-truths , and hooking us on a text ? Remember , Sir , ' it is dreadful when men take the gospel of God into their own hands , and modify and mitigate it according to their fancies . '—British Reviewy p . 209 . " —Pp . 130—133 .
Servetus concludes his letter with the following spirited passage , relating to one of the common-places of orthodox invective : " I reserve for the last what you appear to think the grand demonstration
of our being a false church : namely , the alleged frigidity of our spirit of proselytism , and the confined scale of our missionary operations . And here again you forget our dwindled and dwindling numbers , and our utter insignificance and
obscurity as a religious society . But , Sir , may 1 be allowed to question the purity of that disinterested zeal for the souls of men , which you blazon in miraculous pulpit-narratives and Bible-society orations ; and , * creeping into houses , make
captive easy women / whom you flatter by comparing with the Marys and the Magdalenes that followed the steps of Jesus ? You act , Sir , upon Heathens , upon gross and half-intellectual savages , who embrace your faith , and who accept , as the bread from heaven , the Calvinistic gospel . But your brethren have , properly , an instinctive horror both of a Jew
and a Mahometan , It is only equalled by their ^ fcorror of a Unitarian . The very mention of the latter , in connexion wjth a Mahometan , is thought o £ sufficient point to save a page of reasoning ;
Untitled Article
and this with your party is , at leaaf , something . You seem equally i gnorant with the lowest of the vulgar , that the imposture of the Koran is ingrafted on the Mosaic and Christian Scriptures . The Hindoo , who worships a shapeless stone as his household deity , is the constant object of your almost weeping
concern . The dupe of the false prophet , wTio notwithstanding , abhors an idol , and who maintains * there is no other god but God , ' is shunned as if he were a wild beast , rather than one of those whom the common Father of all has made of one blood to dwell on the face of the whole earth / Though at one time you
reproach us with our apathy in the work of proselytism , at another you make merry with our zeal . The fact is , we do not please you hi selecting our subjects . The desire to convert the Mahometans , which our people have sometimes manifested , is called * having a warm side towards them . ' The insinuation
will serve just as well for the Trinitarian promoters of missions to the triad-worshiping Hindoos . The same indifference appears in your treatment of moral Atheists and philosophical Deists . Here , again , you seem to shrink back with a ' conscious hollowness' of cause , and appear not at all solicitous to * snatch them as
brands from the burning / Your motive for this coldness is , in part , your aversion for whatever presumes or enforces the reasonableness of Christianity . You are sensible that the intelligent sceptic will not yield up his reason to that which contradicts reason . Believing that the contradiction to human reason is the
great evidence of supernatural truth , you make no attempt to produce conviction by reasoning ; but , when pressed by infidel arguments , reply by uttering the damnatory clauses of your creed , and c thanking God that you are not as other men are . ' The hardness of your creed , aud the terrific medium through which you
contemplate God , ha-ve their uatural effect in familiarizing to your imagination a cool , and perhaps self-complacent , estimate of the numbers sealed to perdition . 4 * But , Sir , if we cannot boast so much of our missionary miracles abroad , we have not * buried our single talent' at home . 'We may at least say , though
without the boasting of the godly , that , in this our native land , we have sown the seeds of that righteousness which alone exalteth a nation . * Many of our countrymen , through our preaching -Oi the gospel in its * simplicity , ' have beeu brought to the knowledge of a * G ° who is « . love , ' and to the practical obedience of the gospel which he gaw
Untitled Article
110 , Review . A — Plea for th * Nazareries *
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1822, page 110, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2509/page/46/
-