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The time for web writers , us for instance , Wakefield and Evanson , —writers too . who , we ought to remember , were themselves more powerfully refuted by their Unitarian brethren than from any other quarter , —has now gone by , and more wary habits of reasoning prevail . " But suppose the diversity of opinions between us and others on incidental and subordinate points to be as great as apprehended ; shall it be
permitted to estrange us , as long as we agree in relation to that great essential point , the unity of God ? Differences of opinion cannot but exist wheie there is freedom of opinion . Men's powers of vision are never perfectly alike except in total darkness . There are not a few
points of religious opinion , and points , to my view , important , respecting which lam so unhappy as not to agree with one or another of my friends whom I see around me . But this cannot prevent me from connecting myself wHh them in this Association , for labours which we unite in thinking to be due to the glory of God , the cause of the Redeemer , and lite good of mankind . No , Sir ; if
before we can sympathize and co-operate in relation to any subject , we will wait for similarity of sentiment in all who may connect themselves with it , men who prize their freedom of thought can never feel and act together- As far as there is agreement , let there be cordial fellow-feeling and joint action . As far as there is honest disagreement , let there be mutual forbearance and respect . Let us take a lesson of those who unite
m opposing the great doctrine which we maintain , while they dissent from one another respecting almost all things else . Are the questions at issue between Baptists , Episcopalians , Presbyterians , Methodists , and Friends ; nay , are the differences of opinion on the single point of the Trinity , among its advocates , less important than those which have been allowed to divide Unitarians from one another ? Let us take
a lesson of prudence from the success of such dissentients in acting strenuously together . As to the scruples which are felt on this subject , it does seem to me , that our sensibility of conscience should take another character . I greatly fear that it is not because our ; consciences
are too : scrupulous , but because they need awakening that we hesitate about uniting otur hearts and voices with all who are read y to bear witness with us to the cardinal truth of religion . " Again , Sir , there has prevailed extensively among us an idea that the Ei >~
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gUsh Unitarians are to be regarded in the Hght , chiefly , of i * political party . I will not disguise my full conviction that this opinion has been taken up on a very partial view of the subject . ' The fact isy that there are found among them members of both ways of thinking on those great political questions which divide the civilized world , and no inconsiderable number of leading persons among them , look with an Englishman ' s fondness on the existing state of things . But , if the case were very different from what it is , I am at a loss to imagine why this should alienate our good-will from them . I should not think that thiswas the place where it would be brought
against them that they were too much attached to civil liberty . To citizens of a free community like this , I should suppose that there was in such names aa those of Price and Priestley , something conciliating , rather than unfavourable , to the religious denomination to which they belong . We might at least , it seems to me . see reason to excuse the
English Unitarians , if not to sympathize with them , if we should find them taking a side in politics * It is very well for us , Sit , who have never felt the hard gripe of church and state when they join hand in hand , to think unkindly of those who wince under it . If our experience were different , our feelings might be *
come . so too . The heavy tax which , after doing his part towards the support of his own religious teacher , the English Unitarian must pay to some ecclesiastic whom he honestly believes to be maintained for the teaching of false doctrine , is the smallest and most tolerable part of the burden he must bear . He sees
himself shut out , by provisions of law * from the paths the most inviting to a generous ambition . The prizes which his country offers to merit are great ; but the highest are not for him . There are responsible stations in which , from a patriotic impulse , he would serve his country ; but he must buy the privilege of doing it by the prostitution of his . conscience . He has to see the
associates of his youth , distinguished from him by uo advantage except that of the prescribed religious profession , placing many ranks iu society between himself and them , by the end of their career . If there is any situation iu life more likely than ail others to be coveted by a young person of reflection and sentiment , it is a residence at one of the English Universities ; those splendid palaces of learning , whose least attrac-r tton to ouch » mind Is the circumstance
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190 Oiticvi Notices
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1828, page 190, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2558/page/46/
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