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Untitled Article
ed tavehtiori of Papacy itself , though adapted to a very different class of ftlirids . " Such an outrage on all decency not even those of our readers who know how inveterate is the hatred which the Congregational bears to Unitafiahism , were , we are assured , prepared to expect . We have sornretimes wondered at the figure these calumniators would bear if they were confronted with the victims of their unchaxitablenef& . How easy the conviction of the
falsifier ! how overwhelming the confusion of the reviler ! Alas ! that such as this indecent tirade should be the food with which self-called Evangelicals pander too often to the bad passions of Then ! Exposed they shall be ; we wish we could expose them in their own quarters . But to them all access is barred . Could we Face the enemy on his own ground , and expose his tricks to the eyes of his deluded followers , one vigorous ^ effort might keep in a load of calumny , and a little perseverance utterly destroy these poisoned arrows
of controversy . But excesses of this sort come of the practice of anonymous reviewing . Many a falsehood would never have seen the light , had the nahie of the author beeii required to accompany it . The dignified we of Reviewers is often prostituted to most unworthy purposes . Reader , if you are ignorant of the cause of all this unholy zeal in the Congregational , you may be told tha * t Mr . Tayler was led to preach in the course of his ministry a discourse Oh Communion ( that is , intercourse ) with Unbelievers . The following week
there appeared in a Manchester paper a garbled account of this discourse , intended to represent Mr . Tayler as the apologist of unbelief , written by a pragmatical lawyer of Manchester , who may perhaps know something of the penning of this truculent article in the Magazine ( which is the organ of the sect to which the lawyer belongs ) . To prevent the misconceptions to which the unfair and mutilated statements of this article might give rise , Mr .
Tayler thought proper to publish the discourse as it had been delivered . The discourse simply maintains that the only universal criteria of character are sincerity and moral rectitude : that where these are found , we need not trouble ourselves about the speculative tenets of their possessor : if the fruit is good , the tree cannot be corrupt . With virtuous unbelievers , therefore , it is lawful to have intercourse as circurhstances may direct and warrant ; and
certainly , though they ought to take no share in the management of the concerns of a Christian congregation , they are hot io be excluded from the services of the house of prayer , becatfsd for such conduct there is no warrant in Scripture , liberty of conscience declares agairist it , &nd no less the moral befaefit of unbelievers . Let them come- ^ -Chrifct did hot reject the inquirer : let them cohVe— -we have no authority over the rcind of man : let them come —their difficulties may be removed : at all events , it is hardly possible that they should receive no good from the'devout services of the house of prayer . Thefce things it is which have concentrated all the puny anger of the Reviewer ; Alas ! hdw little do such men krr 6 w of the real spirit of Christianity ! Well would it be for the interests of true religion if these words of the illustrious Bacon were graven 6 ri their hearts—* ' Men ' s rhinds should move in Charity , rest in Providence , arid turn upon ( he poles of Truth . " The general sbirit of the discourse is truly admirable . It is refreshing to turn to the
pure atmosphere of minds like those who , with Mr . Tayler , have left the sympathies of the world to imbibe the spirit of the gospel . We are free , however , to confess , that in reading the discourse we sometimes felt the want of that discrimination which separates unbelievers iiito two classes , fche' vicious and the good . We do not say that it is entirely absent , but it 'does not appear to possess a due degree of prominence . Unbelief , we doubt not , ofteri arises from dorrupt affections ; and unbelief , we know , is
Untitled Article
2 ?{) The fFatchmato .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1829, page 270, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2571/page/46/
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