On this page

• Text (1)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• 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

    theological discussions has had on the progress of religious knowledge . We find that where this subject has occupied die minds , as well as affected the hearts , of laymen , their studies have commonly resulted in their embracing liberal sentiments . I might here refer , if it were necessary , to the immortal toames of Newton , Milton , and Locke , who are known to have given the whole force of their prodigious powers to the investigation of religions < truth ,

    and to have rested at last to the adoption of liberal principles . I might also « ay the same < rf some of the most distinguished statesmen , and jurists , and general scholars of our own country , living a « d dead . Nor is it difficult to account for the fact that She religious inquiries of laymen should more . fre < - tjuently terminate m the adoption of liberal iriews , than those of the clergy ; as laymen must be supposed to be more freedom sectarian biasses , and to have fewer personal interests to warp the judgment , perhaps unconsciously ; and besides , the layman derives an advantage from an intimate acquaintance with the world 3 nd human nature , which the divine , with his reserved and

    recluse habits , can hardly hope to acquire . As , therefore , there fis no p lacg in the world where the opinions of laymen have had ^ so much influence in deciding the public mind on the subject of religion , as in New England , we cannot wonder at the prevalence it has given to liberal Christianity . I may also be permitted to add , that as the testimony of laymen for the truth of Christianity in general , other things being equal , is admitted by all to be of more weight than the testimony of the clergy * inasmuch as the former cannot be suspected of professional leanings ; so likewise their testimony for « ny particular form of Christianity is deserving of the more regard for the

    same reason . The truth is , that the change which has taken place m religious opinions in this quarter is owing much more to what the people # iave done , than to what the clergy have done . The clergy , asa body , setter yet led the way in improvement , aad never will . Here , as elsewhere , the people were before them , and are before them , and probably always wiH be before them . It is much the fashion with some men , not unfriendly on the whole to liberal

    Christianity , to speak , however , of the change it has introduced as a great and hazardous experiment . But who are referred to as trying this experiment ?—The clergy ? If so , it is contradicted by what we have just said . Besides , it is in no proper sense an experiment that any body is trying . It is no more an experiment , than the revival of letters was an experiment . It is no more an experiment , than the Reformation under Luther was an experiment . It is no more an experiment , than the American Revolution

    was an experiment . It is the natural , and , I may add , tfee necessary consequence of an advanced state of society in every other kind of knowledge , enabling and requiring it to make a corresponding advancement in religious knowledge . It is not the work of passion or caprice , nor the influence of a few powerful individuals , nor any preconcerted plan of a refined policy ; but the natural and necessary result of the progress of the human mind . It is the progress of mind ; and this again has been carried on by the combined action of a million of causes operating together as certainly and irresistibly as the laws of nature .

    Untitled Article

    306 Prbgrewof Liberal Christianity in New England .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1828, page 306, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2560/page/18/