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of that illustrious and lamented statesman , Mr . Canning , to a series of questions forced upon the attention of the House of Commons , by Sir Thomas Lethbridge , during the last session : < Vo . The exposition which R . A . JV 1 . has given in each of the three instances adduced is most assuredly a gross exaggeration . Neither Sherlock , nor Bull ,
nor Waterland , nor Horsley , nor any other polemic of the high school of orthodoxy , professed to believe any thing of the kind ; nor did they admit that the supplication in the Litany which he appears to think decisive , is to be understood as implying more than the passion of the Son of God in his human nature . Neither is the interpretation which H .
A . M . has given of some of the expressions in our second Article , that which is received by the majority of our best divines . Like Dr . Chanuing ' s * terrific description of the Atonement , ( which he most unfairly represents as applicable to all Trinitarians , ) it may possibly be adopted by some , but it is utterly rejected by others . Let the former answer for themselves .
Does your correspondent really mean to affirm that because many of the clergy do not subscribe the articles in the sense which in his conception is the most obvious , they must therefore disbelieve them ? Then most unquestionably * Dr . Channing ' s Discourse on the Beneficial Tendency of Unitarianism is well entitled to the praise of eloquence , but I have seldom seen less substance
comprised in the same bulk . Besides the misrepresentation of which I have complained , many of his observations are , to say the least , vague and unsatisfactory . Thus , " Nature , " he informs us , " is no Trinitarian . It gives not a hint , not a glimpse , of a tri-persoual author . " I will merely ask , Has nature given any hint of a resurrection of the
body , or of a general judgment hereafter ? Does it say any thing of sanctifying a Sabbath for the Jews so sacred that every violation of it was punished with certain death ? Does nature give any glimpse of Christian Baptism and the Lord ' s Supper ? Or , what is still more important , does it suggest the
necessity of limiting the light of the gospel to a . small portion only of the human race , and of extending the sentence of future condemnation to the great majority ? But though " neither nature nor the soul bears one trace" of these truths , are they on that account thought to be the less worthy of reception ?
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we have a right to conclude that those Unitarians who affix to the words of John vi . 62 , of Coloss . ii . 9 , and of numerous other texts , a meaning totally different from their usual acceptation , and from what the construction naturally suggests , do in fact , as far as those passages are concerned , refuse to believe the declarations of the sacred writers .
Your coi respondent pointedly inquires , what I imagine the great mass of professed Christians do in truth believe . The reply is obvious . As the great mass of the population in every country of Christendom is necessarily composed of the unlearned , they naturally rely upon the authority of the public teachers of the denomination to which they belong
for the explication of the doctrines revealed in Scripture , and of the formularies ( if any ) of their respective churches . But , after all , the private opinion of uneducated persons can be no criterion in judging of the truth of the one , or of the correctness of the other . Nothing , however , can be more unreasonable than the expectations of our opponents , and
we might almost suppose that they required in human compositions a degree of perfection not to be found even in the pages of inspiration . We should entertain but a mean opinion of that man ' s understanding who , because he had met with considerable difficulty in
the interpretation of the English laws , as well as some obscurity and error in the language in which they are recited , should immediately relinquish the benefits of our unrivalled constitution , and repair to some other country in quest of Utopian excellence . Little less irrational are those who insinuate that
because some doctrinal errors may in their apprehension be discovered in the National Church , and some expressions are retained in its ritual which it might be better either to amend or expunge , its communion ought to be quitted without hesitation , and its tenets and form of worship for ever renounced .
Speaking of ouj ecclesiastical constitution , your correspondent observes that " every departure from an absolute unity of opinion is a Haw in the operation of the system . " Beyond all question such was not the opinion of the temperate Reformers who compiled our Articles .
" It is usually of more importance , " says Dr . Powell , * ' to the peace and happiness of a community , that its members should speak , than think , alike . " Xftat man , indeed , must be nearly infatuated who can imagine that abtolute uniformity of sentiment can ever be attained od sub-
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Occasional Correspondence . 129
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1828, page 129, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2557/page/57/
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