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jectcd altogether ; and if we once begin to fancy that we can improve on the Bible and umend the Christianity of the New Testament , if we are for
being-more rational and enlightened Christians than Christ himself and his apostles were , it is surely easy to « ee that the authority of Scripture goes for very little with us : we give ourselves credit for a wisdom of our own which we follow as a sure guide . I must own that the consistent Deist
appears to me in a more respectable light than the professed Christian who picks holes in the Scriptures , and is for ever finding matter of doubt and exception in a record to which he allows the authority of God .
I had written the foregoing remarks before I saw the several communications which have appeared in answer to that of Mr . Jones , and I must now add , that in more than one of these papers there appears to me something very uncourteous and unchristian-like in the manner in which that gentleman is treated . It may be allowed that it is going too far to wish to exclude Unbelievers from Unitarian worship , inasmuch , as
we may reasonably hope that they attend from laudable motives and may be likely to receive spiritual benefits . But for them to be associated with Christian societies in the management of their concerns , to have conceded to them the Unitarian name , and especially to be permitted to take any part in the offices of religious instruction , I hold to be in the highest degree inconsistent , and of very mischievous consequence . We should wonder that any professed Christians should be found advocating an opposite opinion , but there is something in these papers which throws light on this matter . There has been invented
a new phrase , by the magic influence of which , as some of your correspondents seem to think , the distinction of believer and unbeliever is merged and vanidhes away . The word which is tlie matter of this great discovery , ( for there is nothing discovered but a word , ) and a great word it is , is Anti-supernaturalisin . Tiiis new name for Deism certainly appears to cany a , powerful charm in it , for under its influence our old enemy is so metamorphosed that he is welcomed as a very good
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friend . But , Sir , in my own humble opinion , all this is sad and pitiful trifling with a most solemn subject . Mr . T . C . Holland refers us with evident satisfaction to the idea of Antisupernaturalisra given by your
American correspondent at p . 7 ^ . Let the reader turn to that place , and attend to the sketch of the pseudocHristian there drawn . Such a one , believing that God ' s providence orders
all things , admits that in the course of that providence Jesus , by the excellence of his moral instructions , became a great blessing to the world , greater probably than any other teacher that has arisen of the same kind .
He was sent from God only in the same sense that Socrates was sent , and his resurrection is only an idle story of a ghost . That , Christian reader , is the amount of the Christian faith of the Anti-supernaturalist : he disbelieves the whole of that loner
tissue of miraculous events which forms the burden of the sacred narrative from beginning to end : he disbelieves in that resurrection of Christ , our Master , which is the only rationd evidence of a future life . Yet of such
a one Mr . Holland says , that to " such a person I should he very unwilling to refuse the name of Christian , and I should always he glad to join with him as a fellow-worshiper . " Truly , Sir , I know not what one claim such a man has to the name of
Christian , unless that name is to be extended to Hume and Voltaire and all their company : for they ail pretty well allow that Jesus was an excellent and useful instructor in morals . Most truly may we apply to this case the words Vera rcrum nomina ' ami '
simus . I trust there are many Unitarians who regard this matter with very different feelings . If there is any truth in the gospel , the true Christian is justified by his faith , * and tiiis , " says the Apostle , " is the word of faith which we preach , that if thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus , and believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead , thou shalt be aaved . " Again , " He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved , and he that he-Heveth not shall be condemned . " But it were endless to adduce the declarations of Scripture on this subject : it is evident that if the compel be true ,
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346 On Unbelievers joining- Unitarian Congregations .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1826, page 346, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2549/page/30/
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