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
gling with their fainting * conviction , and what they cannot make up in judgment , they desire to supply by humility and hope , endeavouring thus " to fear God and keep his commandments , " as being * the duty of man .
For the remaining * portions of the evil I would not willingly obtrude on your valuable columns , having already referred , as a better answer than any in my power to give , to Mr . Belsham ' s publication . But I may be permitted to add a few general remarks . The evil , if such it is , or being such , if it
really exists / I submit , Sir , raises a doubt whether it ought to be remedied . It belongs to the common prudence of congregations to invest their secular matters with long-tried servants to our holy faith . Suspicion ought not to attach to a whole body of Christians for exhibiting the ' * unity
of the spirit in the bond of peace , " in their hour of devotion ; whereby those c < ¦ who came to scoff , remain to pray . " The complaint we can only make ,
as it appears to me , is the same in our own case , even as believers , that if sufficiently disposed , we are never sufficiently successful in supplicating the love and practice of truth and virtue from that throne of grace whence alone it is to be derived . While it can
be no reproach to us if we " prefer one another c jn honour , " nor can injury arise to the Unitarian tenets from the association of Dissenters ( i . e .
Unbelievers ) in our public worship , if our church happens to be their selection . Such unbelief might be reasonably considered ( if the term can be applied ) of a very mild description , or it could have no attachment to our
service . We may be satisfied that Infidelity , whatever its grade , will not receive encouragement either from our doctrines or our pastors . Such opposites cannot be united , though ,
like the rich and poor , they may meet together . Come , then , I should repeat to such as are heavy laden , ( and the philosophy of unbelief is a load , a heavy load , ) come ye to Jesus . X .
Untitled Article
N a letter inserted in the last num-Iber of the Repository ( p . 72 ) on the impropriety of the admission of
Untitled Article
Deists to join in our religious services by the Rev . Noah Jones , there is a spirit of religious intolerance and prejudice of which the writer cannot
surely be aware . The tendency of it is dangerous . It has hitherto been one great and important advantage of Unitarian Christianity , that it has been free from creeds of human
invention , and from tests , those most bigoted of all ingenious devices for the ensnaring- of consciences , which result from the well-intentioned but narrovyminded zeal of sectarian Christians . Mr . Jones would have every person who joined our societies ( i examined whether he is a Christian . " Now .
who is to decide as to what is meant by the word Christian in this instance ? Would Mr . Jones set up his own individual opinions as the standard , or
the opinions of his religious society ? The great privileges of these religious societies are , that they allow every one to form their own private and unbiassed opinions , that they assume dominion over no one ' s faith or
conscience , that they recognize the right of free inquiry and of individual decision on all the great questions ^ of eternal interest which subsist between a human being and his Creator . Is this privilege to be lightly or incautiously
infringed ? Are we , who boast to stand in the glorious liberty with which Christ has made us free , to come forwards presumptuously to decide on the degree of belief in our fellow ^ creatures which shall entitle
them to the name of Christian ? Do we not know that amongst ourselves , amongst our firmest believers , amongst any existing church , there never will be found uniformity on these subjects ; that in any number there will be some who believe more , and some who believe less , some who are satisfied on
greater , and some on smaller evidence , according to their capacities , their educations , their characters and circumstances 5 and are we to sit in judgment on them for this ? It would , indeed , be an arrogant assumption of
undelegated spiritual authority - , it would be the first step towards the destruction of those noble principles of toleration and justice which have hitherto distinguished us as Christian Reformers , and which are the great security of our religious liberties * But Mr . Jones will say it is not with the
Untitled Article
158 ^ Unbelievers in Unitarian Churches .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1826, page 158, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2546/page/30/
-