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Untitled Article
years , been solicitous to avoid in their public discourses every thing as to doctrine and motive which , upon any system , could be called purely Christian ? Why have their favourite subjects been industry , friendship ,
pleasure , the care of one ' s health , the panegyric of their country , homage to the laws , and other topics furnished rather by Seneca , Rochefoucault , and Montesquieu , than by the prophets and apostles of inspiration ? Why is it their habit to cover their faith or
want of faitli under general terms , designedly capable of a variety of interpretations ? Why do they use language calculated to mislead and deceive : as when M . C . says , " Each one of the Pastors confessed that
Jesus was a Divine Being" ? ( P . 5 . ) They know well that , had they the integrity and the honour to speak out , one would say , " I am an Armn of the old school ; " another , " I incline most to the sentiments of the Polish
Socinians ; " another , * I rather attach myself to those of the modern English Unitarians 3 " a fourth , " I adopt the system of the German Antisupernaturalists ; " and , last of alL not a few would have to confess ,
* ' I have never taken the pains to make up my mind upon any religious doctrines or opinions whatsoever . " II . I solicit the particular notice of yourself , Sir , and all your readers to the domineering' and intolerant spirit of M . C . and those who think and act with him .
When subscription to all human confessions , articles , and tests , was abolished in the Church of Geneva , it was with the intention that the most free exercise of mind should take place on all religious subjects , that the interpretation of scripture might be
altogether unshackled , and that the clergy might be under no manner of impediment in promulgating , or the people in receiving , whatever each one among them might conceive to be true . And were not these good effects produced ? Was not such a
state of things the most favourable for " proving all things , and holding fast that which is good" ? If , from such a cause , the interests of Calvinism went rapidly to ruin , and the adoption of latitudiairrian system ^ became all but universal ; is it riot a strong . presuuintion that the scheme
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of doctrine called -orthodox * - evangelical , Caivinistic , Moravian , Methodistic , Mdmier , ( or however designated for honour or reproach , ) is false , that
it cannot stand its ground against free inquiry , and that , therefore , the opposite classes of religious opinion must be true , or , at least , approximations to the truth ?
To these just questions I will return what appears to me to be the answer of right reason and sober truth . 1 . No outward circumstances 3 nor combination of outward circumstances
can extinguish the liableness to err - > or can guarantee to any individual , still less to a multitude of persons , the certainty of discovering truth . Were this the case , the discovery of truth , instead of being- a moral and
intellectual operation , would be a merely mechanical process . 2 . However favourable in appearance this state of things was to the advancement of sound knowledge and scriptural faith ; yet , if it were combined with a growing spirit of levity and irreligion , the absence of fervent
prayer , the neglect of the devotional and practical study of the Bible , the employment of no zealous and judicious means for multiplying and diffusing the Scriptures among all ranks of the community , its good tendency would be paralyzed , and it would only nourish a feeling , first of indifference , and then of scepticism .
3 . The immediate effect of this state of outward circumstances is properly this , and no more than this ; to withdraw one cause of bias for or against any religious system : but it leaves all other causes in possession of their power of influence . 4- There are such other causes
numerous and powerful . I need only mention , among the external ones , the sway of fashion and the solicitations of interest ; and of those which are internal , that strong and subtle prejudice against truth and holiness which ( as I must profess my
conviction that the word of God most plainly and fully teaches ) is deeply seated in the heart of every human being , till he is brought under the governing influence of genuine piety , or right affections towards the holy and blessed God . 5 . Besides these general causes , the present case obliges us to refer to
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322 Dr . •/ . Pye Smith in Reply to Professor Cheneviere ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1824, page 322, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2525/page/2/
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