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dictate *; Instead of prescribing , as at present , an extensive coarse of ancient and modern literature , previous to thfcir entering college , and several years' study of philosophy and science , subsequently to their entrance , in order to enlarge their views and increase their capacity for forming accurate judgments , you
should limit their education and cramp their understandings , lest they be led to incur penalties by venturing to think for themselves . And when they enter the theological class , instead of directing their attention to the Bible , as the rule of their faith , and the anchor of their hopes , your professor should advise them to study nothing but "the accredited standards of the orthodox
churches , " by which their competency for teaching is eventually to be deter- ' mined . Besides all this , he ought studiously to conceal from their view the progress of Christianity , and the various sects that have arisen in the church , lest some heresy , such as Arianism , should appear to their minds as rational and as scriptural as Calvinism itself . This would be the honest i * nd manly course to pursue . No false ray of light would shoot across their minds from
too free an inquiry into the meaning of the Scriptures ; they would be taught to build their faith upon the safe foundation of the " Accredited Staudards , * and in all things they would be well prepared for due submission to their spiritual guides . But to enlarge and disenthral their minds , as you do at present , by literature , philosophy , and
science ; to tell them that the Bible , and " the Bible alone is the religion of Protestants , " that they are bound to study it , and have a right to form their own opinions of its doctrines—to do all this , and much more , to produce a manly and independent mode of
thinking , and then to turn round upon them in the end , and to expel them from your church , if all their views do not precisely accord with yours—to act in this manner is surely equally tyrannical and unjust . Their time , their toil , their means of . support , — all are lost ; because you have taught them to think , and they have chanced to think differently from you !
These overtures , however , would not only impose a virtual subscription to human interpretations of Scripture , which may , or may not , be agreeable to the word of God ; but they would impose this submission to man ' s authority , in a form more objectionable than was ever proposed in the darkest
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ages of the church . Were a candidate ' for the ministry obliged to subscribe the Thirty-nine Articles , or The Confession of Faith , he would , at least , be able to make up his mind , and to ascertain the full extent of the sacrifice required of him : but in coming before your projected Committee for license , he would be subjected to au ordeal for which no
human being could make due preparation . He would be exposed to the caprice of a many-headed monster ; having as many opinions as members ; all living in jealousy and collision with each other . No matter into what pliancy he might school his conscience , it
would be almost impossible for him to escape . He might as well sail between Scylla and Charybdis , as hope at once to please Mr . Johnston , the smooth Arminian , and that staunch Calvinist , Dr . Wright . Whilst attempting to gain favour with the one , he would require to cast a side-long glance at the other ; and also to watch the various minor
movements of the extraordinary beings to whose humours his destiny in life must be in a great measure subjected . But , bad as this is , it is not the worst . This strange compound will necessarily change its features every year ; so that at one time the majority of its faces may wear the stern , unbending lineaments of Calvinism , and at another , the softer looks of liberal Arininianism . I
am not much inclined to submit to human authority ; but were 1 compelled to do so , I should much prefer placing myself under the power of the Pope , to coming under the controul of your projected Committee . I might study the character and accommodate myself , in due time , to the caprices of an individual ; but to the ever-rchanging medley of passions , and prejudices , and
opinions , of which your Committee must nscessarily be composed , no man ' could ever be conformed . The only consolation which I enjoy in contemplating this ecclesiastical monster is , that as it is not similar to any thing that ever exi sted in air , or earth , or s # a , i am fully convinced that in its own turbid and jarring elements , it will carry the seeds of its dissolution , and speedily pass away from the world .
One argument much relied irpou by our opponents is , that every society has a right to niftke -lawa for the government of its own members , and for the admission of others tp its privileges . There is some plausibility , but no solidity in this . No society has any right to make a subsequent law j « violation
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646 Intelligence . ~~ 8 pnod of Ulster .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1828, page 646, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2564/page/62/
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