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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.
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this frndi several things 4 vraeh ^ have been doDsider ^ as tiiat , &et && * aaid that « j # actually agree with rtoafty Dissenters in till the fundamentals &f natural and revealed religion + and
differ in scarce any thing which the human mind can comprehend , except what belongs to the essence of God > or what is to be dene on the part of GodJ *—Id . B . ir . Art . i . Sect . xv
Vol . II . pp . 258 , 269 . " We and the Socinians are said to differ , but about what ? Not about morality or natural religion , or the divine authority of the Christian religion . We differ only about what we do not understand , and about what is to be done on the part of God : and if we allowed one another to use
expressions at will ( and what great matter could that be in what might almost be called unmeaning expressions ?) we need never be on our guard against each other . A Heathen Socrates , I think , would be surprised at those who agreed in so many things requiring declarations and subscriptions in order to exclude one another : he
would judge that we might worship together , and even have the same body of doctrine , each party thinking freely in private and using discreet expressions in public *"—Id . B . iii . Art . v . Sect . iii . Vol . II . p . 41 .
That the use of " unmeaning expressions" is not intended to be attributed by the author exclusively to Dissenters , sufficiently appears throughout his Lectures , particularly in hie Ch . x . of Bo ^ k iii . p . 92 , entitled " Of Assent to Propositions which are Unintelligible , '' and
designed to justify or excuse any church in which they are introduced : and that his remarks on such expressions have especial reference to the main doctrine in dispute between his church and those styled " Socinians , " is distinctly ascertained from the following
passages . After an attempt to explain in some degree this confessedly inexplicable doctrine , he says , " But does not this confound all our conceptions and make ns use vlords without meaning ? I think it does ; I prdfess and proclaim iny confusion in the most unequivocal manner ; I make it an essential part
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i $ j ^ 2 ) d&c § a £€ &iffli **! & ^ lfk Bi i m . Art * fc $ tie * i < fKiftD ] . I £ . ipi 25 fcu > - /•< - ,,, * ABtT&gain , 'lit / might tend topgromote moderation , and in the end agcee aifiut if we were industriously < m && o ^ ea * sions to fep # ese » t our m % n doctrine as wholly immte&ighhleS *~~ hi 4 Sect xii . Vol . IL p . 253 ,
' * Even if no other sense could be annexed to the word * Trinity / but our Orthodox one , the most that couiti be said would be , that we wish Dtis * abaters not . to reject a word which ia unmeaning , and which expresses brief , ly a doctrine that we think it our duty to record and proclaim , though we do not comprehend it "—Id . B . iv « Art . i . Sect . xv . VoU II . p . 260 .
It may not be improper ( if not encroaching too far on your columns ) to subjoin the following observations . ( 1 . ) If it were not certain that contradictions which on other subjects would not be endured for a moment , may , and continually do , pass in
Theology without shocking the belief of numbers in the positions which occasion them , and without bringing in the minds of the generality any imputation on the understanding of the person advancing them , it might hare been feared that such sentences as the
last would be fatal to all respect for the writer quoted . That he should allude to the supposition of some " other sense" of a word which he expressly declares " has , or should always be represented as having , no sense , " " wholly unintelligible , " which representation he at the same
time terms " the Orthodox sensed that a word which is " unmeamDg , " can express any " doctrine" or any thing ; that it can be of use , much more that it should be " a duty" to
" proclaim" or record a "doctrine * which can only he so expressed , that is , which cannot be expressed at all —are inconsistencies which in auy other department than divinity must expose the argument and the arguer to more than simple rejection . But
we are well assured they will have no such effect with regard to either , among the great mass of adherents to the doctrines ; and as to persons of a different description , the enligl ^ ned will
readers of your pages , they juliy account for such reasonings witnoui the least disparagement to the nicnta vigour of which the work in its general tenor affords very satisfactory evidence .
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712 Ift&fifty Nftt $ he ^ lm&i $ mj ^ c ^ # f & > tifr&iam ±
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terms and sentences confessedly not tc totiden * rerbis" in Scripture , and involving notions to which the other cannot assent .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1826, page 712, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2555/page/12/
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