On this page
-
Text (1)
-
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
man , what a comparison I Oh , but IMr . Urvvfck imagines this person to resort to misinterpretation to justify his sins . Stratige expedient ! rather to imagine a species 01 insanity which places his argument out of all ordinary contemplation , than yield to the
plain and irrefragable dictates of common sense and conscience which award to sincerity and to good faith ( albeit not the right faith ) the favour and acceptance of Him who knoweth whereof we are made , and understandeth the thoughts long before , and preserveth all them that are true of
heart * No , Sir I this air of demonstration can impose upon no one—who thinks : we know of none but the Carpocratians of old times , the Inquisitor of modern times , and the bigot of all
times , who could distil such impoisoned sustenance from the gospel , and palm their impurity and their hate upon him who knew no sin , and who died that he might bring us , in the bands of brotherhood and love , to the
mansions of our Common Father I The truth is , Sir , much as it pains one to think unkindly of a brother , it would appear that this thing of straw , this imagined perversion of Scripture to the purposes of depravity , this fatuous notion that unholiness could be sanctioned by a law which is holiness itself , and that till
we are satisfied through what means and mysteries it may be the will of " the Ruler of immensity' * to pardon our sins , we may , in the mean time , " act contrary to his directions , "
fly in the face of his palpable commands ; this thing of straw , I say , would seem to be set up as a target for his theological missiles , in order that the hated heresy which he has
tied to it , ( and which , far from reserving to be decided by God , Mr . Urvvick and his party so unhesitatingly define and denounce , ) may come in for a wound in the operation I It ia obvi
ous that the conclusion at which Mr . Urvvick has arrived , has been taught to abundance before his time ; ty those , more particularly , who sought , whether in or out of Rome , ^ frighten mankind from the
tementy ot differin g in opinion from the majority of their fellow-beings in any particular country : " Ut quo quisque
Untitled Article
modo volet , colat Deum , est dogma mere diubplicum , " says the Reformer Beza ; God has always hated this sort of heresy , and it is really magnanimous in Mr . Urwick to treat with so
much philosophical forbearance in this world that which is furnishing so rich a repast for Satan in the next . " Laissez les faire : " what could be more liberal ? The spirit of our commercial reforms has infected our
religious speculations , and Mr . Huskisson is not more resolute ia his system than is Mr . Urwick in combating the prohibitory policy which is still so strongly recoramended to all who are disposed stare super antiquas vias , and to feel , in this respect , as they are assured that God himself must
feel . In the theory of Mr , Urwick we must , however , concede that there is much of originality ; his reasons , I believe , are novel : his beautiful parallel about free-will , wound up as it is by so happy a conclusion as to the character of God , had never before ,
perhaps , distinctly presented itself to the human mind : what a pity it should not succeed ! Alas , Sir , all such devices are destined , I fear , to succeed only to the tomb of their predecessors ! It was , indeed , a desperate plunge to get out of a difficulty from which there was no other
escape ; but truth is not so easily foil-l ed , and I have that dependence upon ! the providence of a good God , that l \ am assured he will never permit thd deliberate and improving- sense ofl mankind to be deluded into a belied that a Bougia and a Lardneh , aj Chartres and a Price , a Colonel
Kirke and a Thomas Firmin , will be weighed in the same balance by thd hands of the Almighty ! Never will that God abuse us by requiring us tea admit an absurdity into our minds , ; and I intreat of Mr . Urwick to point !
out to the world a greater absurdity ^ than that God should punish us fon an impossibility , that is to say , fon not being convinced against conviction ; for I desire Mr . Urwick to sayy > whether we are bound by the laws oil God and nature to believe according
to our persuasion , or against our per 4 suasion ? If the former , and that saJ just man ( not being infallible ) mayd embrace error , then he is punishabM for that which he is morally ^ rid ra-il
Untitled Article
Bible Controversy in Ireland . 577
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1826, page 577, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2553/page/5/
-