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hope of salvation to sill who could not arrive at the same conclusions with themselves as to the prevailing interpretations of Scripture , they bereaved themselves of all power of triumphant repl y * For , if the right of search were to be limited , I do not
say by brute force , but by those reproaches which would stamp a sort of infamy upon certain unfavoured opinions , why take from Rome that rebuking power which they so unhesitatingly transfer to themselves ? Where is the right of Rome to condemn all the world as heretical but
herself ? No where , but in the asserted attribute of infallibility . Is there , then , on earth an authoritative tribunal , or is there not ? If there be , why disturb the possession of the first claimant ? If there
be not , then why , with the ridiculous airs of certainty , call the opinions of others into judgment , and dare to condemn , or affect to pity , as if they were authoritatively qualified to point out , the limits of God ' s forbearance and to propound with more than Papal assurance ( inasmuch as
they pretend to reject the guidance of infallibility ) in matters which affect not the " living soberly , righteously , and godly / ' in obedience to the commands of Christ ; " here is an opinion ( our own ) which conduces to eternal life — there ( the opposite one ) an opinion which leads to everlasting perishing" ?
Sir , I believe , if there be demonstration in the world , I have convicted such persons of a flagrant inconsistency ; and farther , I deliberately believe that , while we would insist on the absolute unity of essential truth , we may smile at the absurdities ,
resile from the contradictions , and disapprove of the enthusiasm , which so often disfigure and impede it , in the comfortable persuasion that no error adopted in sincerity is dangerous ,
so long as it respects the sanctity of the moral code . Upon the tendency to danger in any opinion ( subject to this exemption ) , it belongs not to man to decide , inasmuch as all , opinions extracted from the Bible as
their common and revered source , must be , so far as human beings have the right to decide , co-ordinate in point of authority , and entitled at
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least to all the indulgence ^ tnd courtesy , and calm good-daturefl fejtsofiihjr " of which a Christian controversy might be so easily capable . No mockery , indeed , can be equal to that of proclaiming a code of conditions for the investigation of truth and receding from them the instant that certain notions of truth are contested ; nothing more insulting to common sense than to invite us to
the task of inquiry , by telling us that all are to have a free stage and fair play , and that however we may differ upon €€ some minof points , " ( the fixing of Easter , I suppose , or the cross 4 t
m baptism , ) which are not of such moment as to require the perpetual miracle of an infallible judge of controversies " yet should we therefore
not * ' act as enemies , " but ' * in approximating charity , strive to live up to the precepts of our common Christianity /* and so forth ; and yet , in the very next breath , to undo all these concessions , to forget all these admonitions , to refuse the charity of
respect , and the claim of communion ^ the moment any individual or body advances opinions which , in their CERTAINTY of being ALWAYS IN THE right themselves , they choose to brand with a deviation from their
socalled orthodoxy . Let but a Clarke , or a Whiston , or a Price , lay a finger upon their creed , and then are all the dogs of war let slip , and the gates of mercy closed ! * Sueh , Sir , are the proceedings of those who monopolize the favourite title of orthodox in this country ;
and , indeed , to do them justice , consistently enough with their inconsistencies , the moment that any one proposes to carry their own (
pretended ) principles to their leg itimate consequence , and to point out the errors of their reasoning , they will
not so much as give him an opportunity of speaking , but turn about and tell him that " his sentiments are too latitudinarian in their nature , and too dangerous in their tendency , be admitted into the pages of a miscellany which , by its very title , avows
* The reader is requested to take the trouble of comparing pages 356 and 4 of No . V . of Christian Examiner a »« Church-of-Ireland Magazine .
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574 Bible Controversy in Ireland .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1826, page 574, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2553/page/2/
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