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fess- Jty belte ^ k * the s inc erity of Jesus an 4 bis apostles , and the general truth of the gospel history , but would reduce all that seems to us supernatural to Jewish modes of speech , exaggerating habits of thought , &e ., which prevailed in the time of our Saviour . This then is a third resort
for tkk Anti-Superna . turalist . D 08 & not the Christian , who believes in a particular Providence , approach very nearly to the ground of the Anti-Supernaturalist I They both place the miracles of the gospel on the same level with the ordinary
operations of nature , the only difference between them being , that the former considers every event that ever happened , whether in Christianity or common life , as miraculous ,, while the latter denies that character to every event .
Once more * In what light ought we Christians to regard that Anti-Supernattiralist , who , possessing the deepest reverence for the character of God , and having examined every system of religion and morals that ever prevailed on earth , is led at last to embrace the code of moral and
religious doctrine delivered by Christ , as calculated to promote , iu the greatest degree , the happiness of man and the glory of his Creator ? He further believes , we will suppose , that Christianity held a prominent place in the Divine counsels and foreknowledge as
a scheme to bless and improve the human family , and even to prepare them for a future state of felicity . Being grateful for a thousand other things , he may be pre-eminently
grateful for this . He may regard it as the most unspeakably precious among the gifts of God . He may look upon it as of equal and indeed superior authority to his own reason and conscience * after he has discovered that
its precepts , doctrines and legitimate influence ^ have stoo d the test of age s , and have been found , on the whole , to contribute most surely to human happiness and perfection * Considering the destiny to which Jesus was
originally designed , as the founder of such a religion , he ^ night believe him to be the Son , the Messiah * of God . He maybe penetrated with the deepest reverence and admiration for the character of Christ , and join with sincere cmotiou iu an act commemora-
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tive of him . put he w $ mmMto&m to thfc merely miraculous features of the gospel-history , and believes t ^ at Providence might have allowed its favourite system of truth ami righteousness to have been surrounded
for centuries with traditions of super * natural accompaniments , in the same manner as it has permitted nearly the whole of Christendom to believe in the Trinity by means of interpolated passages of Scripture , Platonic admixtures and oriental figures of speech . Let us suppose that s-uch a man were to come forward and claim
of the present age the distinctive name of JJhristian , on account of the foregoing positive , and not unimpor- * tant or improbable grounds , and especially , on account of his love and preference of the Christian system
^ "k ? a *•• *¦» I I *•* . W" ¦ - * ^ x mm * - * 1 vw 4 > U m *¦* A * , ^ -w ** . Im r * ** . - — _ . — . over all others . Let Bishop Ma # ee , Mr . Belsham , and Rammohua Roy be the committee on claims to decide this question . What would the judgment be ?
Instead of the question whether the ^ Jew Testament is or is not the revealed will of God / ' may we , with the permission of this writer , read , " whether the New Testament
contains , or contains not , " &c . Allowing , with Porteus , that God has authorized no one human being * to add to or diminish from the doctrines of Christ , yet , has he not authorized us to explain them as rationally and satisfactorily as tve can ?
Propriety of a more distinctive Ap ~ pellation for Unitarians . Since , with the undiscriminating" multitude , the odium is general and equal on all who depart from pure Trinitariansm , — since there are certainly some great valuable principles of belief ettid of interpretation which are common to Anti-trinitarians , — since the word *
Unitarian is , at once , both etymologically and correlatively , expressive of the leading doctrine of those who are not Trinitarians , —and since one
general term is as much needed to einbrace all those who reject the Trinity , as several terms are needed to distinguish their several divisions , —I hope the name of Unitarian will never lose that broad and comprehensive
acceptation which includes the highest Arian along with the simple Humanitarian . At the same tinje , I * agree with this writer , that it is very con *
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Critical Synopsis of the Monthly Repository for Jammrjf , 1 B 25 . $ 9
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1826, page 79, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2545/page/15/
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