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e ver there is a tear flowing which they can wipe away , or a bosom bleeding which they can bind , or a care which they can render lighter by their support , or a sorrow which they cau alleviate by their sympathy : a religipn which bids its votaries lift a reverend
and grateful eye to the Creator for his ceaseless and unspeakable bounties , and then look down again on the world , and endeavour to deserve them .
To believe with the heart is not to give a cold assent of the head to any truths , but to feel their influence and bow to their authority . Good principles may be received and then
forgotten 5 but he who believes with the heart will not only receive , but retain them , keep them in his heart , and oppose them , whenever there is occasion , to the temptations of the world . Some there are who think it
sufficient that they have turned their attention to religion on certain occasions , and honestly subscribed a form of faith , as far as they comprehended it , once in their lives : farther examination or reflection they conceive to be unnecessary ; thus making way for pernicious principles and low-bred
interests to gam ground until it is too late to correct them . But they who believe with the heart , acquire a habit of recalling at will those principles which they Lave once acknowledged to be true , and of renewing those impressions which they have ever found to be beneficial ; and thus they prevent the admission or continuance of
other principles and opposite impressions . Their faith is always by them . In the world it will defend , comfort , cheer , support—and in heaven it will crown them . " Again , to believe with the heart is to make our opinions invariably respect the good affections of our
nature ^ and to admit no principles which are opposite to them ; not , indeed , to be guided by the heart , but never to offer any violence to its dictates . There is 110 heresy so dangerous as that which rebels against the innocent and regulated feelings of humanity . There is no schism so dreadful as that
which breaks away from the communion and companionship of the heart . There is no belief so widely unchristian and unsound as that which would in the least degree contribute to weak-
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en or to sever the bonds of society and the ties of neighbourhood , friendship and affection . That counsel is of Moloch , and not of God , which
proclaims war against charity and love . Faith is never glad when Feeling weeps : Religion never speaks of duty to a shuddering bosom : and Christianity disclaims the power which Nature would recoil to exercise . ' *
What , then , shall we say of whole societies of Christians who profess to believe that all but themselves will suffer the everlasting wrath of God , in consequence of sin which they could not prevent , and disobedience over which they had no controul ? The
language of the Calvinist creed is this : " We believe that this vice , original sin , is a sin which makes all and every man , not even excepting infants in the womb , liable , in the sight of God , to eternal death" ( Gallic ) : which in other creeds is worded
thus : * ' Liable to the pains of hell for ever . " Such is indeed the tenor of all Calvinistic creeds , which admit of no other relief than this , that some are elected from everlasting , and redeemed by the blood of Christ , and thus made secure of eternal life and
happiness ; but who they are , and how many , no one can tell . Now , can any one with the heart believe so horrid a doctrine ? Can he reconcile it to his feeling's , and call his tender affections to approve of what must be the result of such a system , namely , that by far
the greater part of the human raceand among them he is compelled , perhaps , to number his nearest and dearest friends , the partners of his love ^ with whom his sympathetic affections have ever been in unison—shall go away into everlasting punishment ?
The head of man is often weak ; it is much imposed upon by crafty , designing men , and by men whose heads are as weak as his own ; and with his head he may believe this doctrine , or any other that appertains to a Moloch or a Juggernaut ^ but with his heart he cannot believe it . His heart revolts
against the belief ; and he must effectually close every passage from which the tender affections flow out , before his tongue can dare to confess that such is the serious and approved article of his faith . ** Again , to believe with the heart is to believe ardently , warmly , deeply /*
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70 The " Faith of the Heart . "
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1825, page 70, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2533/page/6/
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