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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.
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Untitled Article
is at once clear and decisive : ' * Whenever an Article /* he observes , 4 f is
expressed in such general terms as will fairly contain several particular opinions , there , certainly , it is sufficient for him who subscribes to be
convinced that some one of these opinions is true . " In another page he remarks , 4 f And therefore when an Article has been understood by good and learned interpreters in a sense neither the most obvious nor the most
usual , he who assents to it is at liberty to follow their guidance , or to join himself to the multitude . " This able writer then goes on to shew that * ' not only the propositions to which we assent , but the assent itself , may be differently understood /* Towards
the conclusion of the Discours C ( U e , he makes this observation : pon the whole it appears , that in the approbation we give of the established doctrines , there is much reasonable liberty ; that we may understand them in any of those senses which the
general words comprehend , or to which the received interpretation of these doctrines , or the judgment of able interpreters , have extended them ; that we are not confined strictly even to this compass , but may allow ourselves , if it seems necessary , to differ as much from former interpreters as
they have done from each other - > and , lastly , that there is room for various degrees of assent , according to the various ages and abilities of the subscribers . " To the objection that such a degree of liberty must be liable to abuse , Dr . Powell justly replies , ' ? And so are many moral rules , which are nevertheless both reasonable and
useful : so are all the rules of civil liberty , which are yet of the greatest importance to the happiness of mankind . " I must not omit to notice that this Discourse was delivered before the
whole University , on the most public occasion in the academical year , when it not unfrequently happens that men high in office , and even cabinet ministers , form part of the learned audience .
I might likewise adduce , were it necessary , the authority of . Dr- Hey , the late Norrisian professor at Cambridge , who is a decided advocate for considerable latitude in the ^ assent which is required to our Articles . But even among those who contend
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for the literal interpretation of them , we must not forget that opposite parities have strenuously maintained that their own explanation is the only one entitled to this character . If it should be alleged that the heads of tlie Church are alone
competent to determine any diversity ot sentiment on this point , I should reply in the forcible language of Dr . * Paley , with whom I fully concur , that '' the bishop who receives the subscription is not the imposer , any more
than the crier of a court , who administers the oath to the jury and witnesses , is the person who imposes it ; nor , consequently , is the private opinion or interpretation of the bishop of any signification to the subscriber , one way or other . *'
The consequence is , that on numerous theological questions — such as the nature of inspiration , original sin , the fall of man , and the atonement , to say nothing of the Trinitarian doctrine—there is almost as great a variety of opinion among members of the
Church as among those who dissent from its communion , unaccompanied , however , by the evils which unavoidably arise from a multitude of independent and discordant sects . In charging * the Unitarians , therefore , 1
with holdingthe opinions which are advocated by the preachers of their deliberate choice , and by their principal writers , we are only pursuing the same conduct which is sanctioned
by the Dissenters themselves in their own practice respecting the Church ; If numerous individuals among the former differ from their ministers and the ablest vindicators of their cause , the same may be said of the adherents to our ecclesiastical Establishment ,
who , in cases of this nature , do nothing more than exercise the liberty to which they are unquestionably entitled in the interpretation of their Articles of Religion—a liberty which
was probably in the contemplation of the original framers of these Articles , and which was , at all events , requisite for the progressive improvement of succeeding ages .
I cannot conclude these remarks without again expressing a wish that those among the Unitarians who profess their belief in the simple humanity of Christ , would adopt some more specific appellation , which , while it
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24 Propriety of Unitarians adopting some more distinctive Appellation .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1825, page 24, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2532/page/24/
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