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innocence , and all future restraint becomes enfeebled or destroyed . These circumstances dwell painfully on my mind . I feel loth to give up all confidence in my fellow-men , and cannot easily bring myself to believe ,
that honour , , integrity and religion are erapty sounds , or mere cobwebs to ensnare the weak into the toils of the artful and unprincipled designer , A few consequent reflections have
intruded themselves on my attention , and I crave your permission to present them to the public through the medium of your Miscellany , the willing and anxious vehicle ( I believe ) of moral and religious truth .
I have brought the two subjects in contact , that I may not be accused or suspected of partiality with respect to the influence their religious opinions might be supposed to have had On their conduct . The partizans of eitber of their creeds can hardly fail to attribute their inconsistency to some fatal errors in their articles of belief .
In the one ease ( it may be said ) the system bordering so closely uporl Deism as to leave the rewards and punishments of a future state somewhat more than doubtful , must have had a tendency to reconcile the
fluctuating heart to the rejection of the admonitions of conscience ; and in the other case , the doctrine of imputed righteousness and the facility and efficaciousness of a death-bed
repentance cannot fail to a certain degree to lessen the abhorrence of vice , and make virtue more a matter or convenience than of necessity . May it not he reasonably concluded , that if their religious opinions possessed any weight in the scale of their
actions they produced more harm than good ?— inasmuch as by giving- an undue importance to creeds and
doctrines in the same proportion would they feel the moral obligations to be less imperative and binding . And so it 13 perhaps as a necessary result of human imperfections . It is no new
reproach that «« mankind have a general disposition to lengthen their creeds and shorten their commandmema , " and while the vast majority ot the world are sensitively keen to ^ e ui f , nite variety in shades of opin * oto > the solid and inestimable virtues "v which society should be held to-LVlhGV m peace aiKJ < rOOCJw 5 l | are
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overlooked or considered as of secondary importance . The dispute lately started in the Repository by Mr- Noah Jones , ( pp . 72 , 73 , ) furnishes a case in point . He seems to think that to . bind mankind together in social harmony it is necessary they should agree to some universal creed . So has said every enthusiast or fanatic since Christianity was first established ; they only differ in the bigoted or liberal application of the principle , and if their shackles are not equally galling the best of them are but specious bonds on human liberty . Good Heavens ! when will this fatal delusion cease ;? Or is the vvoful experience of everjr historic page still to remain a dead letter and entirelv nugatory ? Who
can possess the right to interrogate me as to my creed before I may he allowed to enter a place of worship consecrated to the adoration and praise of the universal Creator ? I ask no questions . I am content to appear in public as an inquirer after truth and as a humble candidate for divine favour . I do not expect that every word I hear from the preacher shall find a corresponding chord in my opiuion or affections , but I revere the institution and waiving all minor considerations it is the wish of my heart to occupy and to leave the
place absorbed by every reeling or gratitude and benevolence . Why then must I be pestered with human and fallible inquisitors ? And if such can produce no authority for their interference against my being once admitted , how shall it extend to twenty times—to a hundred—or to my becoming a regular subscriber to the place ? Who told these self-appointed scrutineers that I am no Christian ; or will they condescend to define what the character is ? In my humble estimation , every good man living is
one , and 1 appeal to the testimony of Christ himself , " Not he that crieth Lord , Lord ! but he that doeth the will of my Father / ' &c . If 1 thus admit into the pule of Christianity a disciple of Confucius , of Bramali , of Mahomet , a Persian fire-worshipfcT , or a sincere and virtuous Deist , 1 am doing no more violence to the feelings of a high Calvinj&t or a believer in the infallibility of the RonYish Church , than I am by insisting that
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On the Moral Principle . 385
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1826, page 385, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2550/page/5/
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