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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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Untitled Article
opinions that the sinner , whose evil habits are strong , can be touched or reclaimed ; if opinion at all has any power of reaching such a mind , it must be by instilling the simple principles of the jurisdiction and authority of his Maker , his constant inspection and presence , and such truths as are calculated to make a deep and immediate impression . But is not some preparation necessary to bring the obdurate offender under the influence of benign him in
and salutary impressions ? Could we not facilitate this by placing circumstances favourable to virtue , to order , and to comfort ? Mrs . Fry , in this respect , has shewn her knowledge of the human heart in her attempts at Newgate , and what an Unitarian Christian would have been led to by his religious views , her own good sense dictated to her ; it is by the practice , in however small a degree , of kindness and goodness , in witnessing virtuous examples around them , that an idea can be conveyed to the mind of a guilty
character of the wisdom and benevolence of the Deity . Their ideas of his attributes are dark and weak , and whatever is remote or theoretical is too refined to influence them . But when they come into immediate contact with a portion of their fellow-creatures whose minds and motives , though greatly superior to their own , they are in some degree capable of understanding , they have a moral standard before them by which to judge of themselves ; and if by those persons they are uniformly treated with justice and kindness , they are also to be improved by their grateful feelings ; for how few are so hardened as to be totally insensible to benefits humanely
conferred ! Now , in this practical and most important change in the habits and feelings of sinners , Unitarianism is an unerring guide ; because an Unitarian feels convinced that the great object of the gift of life is virtuous exertion , and the formation of a pure and correct character ; for in his view religion is not the understanding of abstruse or confused dogmas , of differing and
sometimes contradictory theories , but the perfection of his moral being , the regeneration of his soul , the conflict with sense and temptation , the mastery of his passions , the general improvement , refinement , and sanctification , of his whole character . He knows that the way-faring man , though a fool , cannot err therein ; that in making the malicious kind , the cruel tender , the abandoned orderly , he is spreading , in the manner most acceptable to his Lord , the interests of true Christianity ; that he is preparing the soil for higher and
holier knowledge , and gradually inducing a taste for order and virtue which must precede any capability of true devotional feeling . An Unitarian believes that wherever Christian motives exist and produce Christian virtues , the person who possesses them is a Christian , though he may be mistaken in his speculative belief on many difficult and comparatively unimportant points—points which he considers it of trivial consequence whether they are ever presented to the consideration of any but philosophical or highly cultivated minds .
Now , the Orthodox and Calvinistic creeds are precisely of this abstruse and difficult kind ; fitted only to confuse even intelligent and reasoning minds , and often leading them out of their depth into those questions which it has pleased a wise Providence to leave in darkness , and to cover with an impenetrable veil from human curiosity . God has , indeed , revealed himself fully to us in the character of our heavenly Father , in his glorious moral
attributes , in the perfection of purity , wisdom , and goodness ; these he has mercifully unfolded to the contemplation of the lowest of his rational creatures , but bis nature , the mode of his existence , his plans , the wonders of the unseen world , tl ^ e origin of evil , and many other points , are not revealed truths , nor can any effort of mortal intellect ever attain to them . Supposing for a mo-
Untitled Article
18 Application of Unitarian P r inciples to the Reformation of Crimina ls *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1829, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2568/page/18/
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