On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
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
that sooaer or later all opposition must fall before it . " Nothing ' , indeed , is more pleasing
in these Lectures than the unassuming tone of the preacher , and the free and manly spirit which he encourages in his hearers . At the close of the iVth , he thus addresses his juvenile flock :
" The free exercise of the understanding , upon this and every other subject which is at all interesting , must be ever delightful . The observations here offered to your attention , are not urged upon you with a tone of authority , as though commanding your abject and blind
submission . My greatest pleasure is in meeting you from time to time , fully prepared to judge upon all subjects for yourselves . Yet , my young friends , I am so well satisfied myself , of the firnlness of the ground on which I stand , that I have no fear or apprehension , when calling
into free and full exercise the highest and best capacities of your nature : convinced , that if no unhappy bias takes place in your minds , from sin and from the world , religion , whether natural or revealed , the more fully it is inquired into , the more decisive will appear the firm foundations upon which it rests . "—Pp . 66 , 67 .
Mr . Holden is sparing of critical remarks upon sceptical writers ; but he naturally introduces the name of Hume in the Lecture ( the Vlllth ) on the Historic Testimony in favour of Christianity , and smartly confutes the favourite argument of this renowned sceptic by an argumentum ad
homin em " Mr . Hume , who in some of his writings thus attempted to destroy all faith in history , and to pluugc the mind into all the uncertainty and unhappiness of universal scepticism , himself wrote a History of England . But did he expect his
readers to question whether there ever were such kings of England as Alfred , or John , or Henry the Eighth ? Or did he expect that hi remote ages it should be questioned whether such a person or writer as Hume ever existed ?—Pp . 126 , 127 .
The dilemma in which serious and candid Deists are placed , is properly urged by the Lecturer : " Many unbelievers have admitted the excellence and greatly comprehensive pature of the gospel morality ; as also the
Untitled Article
purity and excellence of the character of the Founder of this holy religion . But what can we say of the morality of the gospel , if it was a system of fraud ? Or , what can we say of the purity and excellence of the character of Christ , if he knew that he had no just pretensions to a divine commission ?"—P . 134 .
We are much pleased with a remark or two in the introduction to Lect . XIII . on " the Morality of Revelation "B : " y a system of morals , I do not mean to assert that it presents itself In these writings in the particular form of a
system ; but that they contain it . Much less when I use the term system of morals , is it my intention to exclude the sacred sanction of divine authority ; for they here present themselves also in the
form of laws ; or in all cases connected with and expressive of the will of that all-perfect Being under whose government we live ; and on whose favour and approbation our everlasting happiness will be found to depend . "—Pp . 215 , 216 .
The Lectures almost hear the character of paternal counsels . The benevolent spirit of the gospel pervades them all . And though not aspiring to originality , nor distinguished by ingenuity , and though written without the ordinary anxieties of authors in
regard to style , they insinuate themselves by the good feeling which they express into the affections of the reader , and are in fact better suited than some works of higher pretension to attract , persuade , convince and improve the greater number of youthful inquirers .
Untitled Article
Art . Ill . sfn Inquiry into the Scriptural Authority for Social Worship ; icith Observations on its Reasonableness and Utility ; and an Account of the Manner in which the Religious Services of the Temple at
Jerusalem , and of the Synagogue , were conducted in the Time of Christ . By Thomas Moore . Izrao . pp . 156 . Hunter and Eaton . 1821 . SOME late attempts to disparage the authority of social worship led the author of this tract ( see his **
Advertisement" ) to preach several Sermons in defence of the practice , which , by the advice of some friends , he Has given to the B ^ Wic in the prQs ^ nt
Untitled Article
Review . r—Mwe on Social Worship . i&tit 9
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1822, page 559, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2516/page/39/
-