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Untitled Article
often accompanied by a bad life . In both cases , we know that no one wofild condemn it more unhesitatingly than Mr . T&yler , and doubtless , if the thought had occurred to him in the composition of his lecture , we should not have been compelled to make the suggestions in which , for the sake of truth , we have now indulged .
Nothing of this kind , however , can justify the abuse and licentiousness of the Reviewer ; the gravamen of his charge against us is thus stated in his own words : " This is in short the huclteus of Unitarianism disburdened of its shell , and it amounts to this , that outward conduct is the only thing of which professed Christians have a right to take cognizance among each other . " We thank the Reviewer for having condescended thus to fairly represent us . So rare an instance of justice merits a special notice . And if this be the nucleus of the matter , pray what must become of the flourish , the parade of
figure , of infefrnal machinery , the grotesque assemblages and flimsy nonsense with which he introduces this most wicked of all sentiments ? The premises warranted a more pregnant instance of diabolical turpitude ; and the judicious reader will infer , from the want of correspondence between them , that the writer had more words than ideas , and more wrath than discretion . Sober argument would , we doubt not , avail little with a man of such a disposition as the Reviewer betrays ; we shall therefore reserve reasoning for an occasion when
there is some hope of its turning to a profit . But before we leave this calumniator , we would request him carefully to read over , once a week for the next twelvemonth , the 14 th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans , and then he may know and feel somewhat more of the genuine spirit of the gospel touching diversities of faith , tn the mean time , not all the professions he can make , not all the rhetoric he may command , will exonerate him from the
charge of being a persecutor . Men ' s characters are their dearest possessions , and he who attempts to asperse them as the Reviewer has shamefully done , is actuated by a persecuting spirit , and brings forth the fruits of persecution . Of such characters Burns , in a communion which is a twin-brother to that to which the Reviewer belongs , had ample experience , and has thus borne testimony to their spirit :
But gin the Lord's ain focks gat leave , A toom tar-barrel An twa red peats wad send relief An' end the quarrel . In condemnation of all who breathe this spirit we use the words of Jeremy Taylor , in that most admirable work " The Liberty of Prophesying : ' " But
then , if the result be , that men must be permitted in their opinions , and that Christians must not persecute Christians , I have also as much reason to reprove all those oblique arts which are not direct persecutions of men ' s persons , but they are indirect proceedings , ungentle and unchristian , servants of faction and interest , provocations to zeal and animosities , and destructive of learning and ingenuity . "
Loquitur the British Critic : " We have been led to the more particular notice of this valuable recommendation by the recollection of a circumstance which we once heard related , and which powerfully sets forth the usefulness of sitting down to the perusal of Scripture with a view to the elucidation of some one point . A believer in the doctrine of the Trinity happened to be attended in his last illness by a Socinian physician , and frequent discussions arose between them respecting the office and person of the Saviour . As the end of the Christian ( notice how beirig a Christian is identified with believing in the Trinity , and is put in contradistinction to being a Socinian ) was ap-
Untitled Article
The Watchrbart . 5 ? 1
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1829, page 271, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2571/page/47/
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