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Untitled Article
revelation , " and " whose inquiries into revelation have not terminated in satisfactory belief ; " and I have so uniformly guarded my language as to shew that my sole reference was to those , and to those alone , who gave evidence by their conduct of being serious and in earnest ; whose unbelief , if I may so express myself , was the unbelief of the intellect , and not of the heart . Such men , I again do not scruple to say , I am glad to see in the bosom of a
Christian community , distinguished by no outward badge , separated by no test of inward opinions from the confirmed and unhesitating believer , exposed to Christian influences , listening to Christian exhortations , recognizing Christian professors with the kindly feelings of fellow-creatures and fellow-rnen , and thus taught , in defiance of secret doubts , to think complacently of that religion which breathes peace on earth and good-will towards men . If , by such influences , the character be only cast into more of a Christian mould , one important end is gained and preparation
made—perhaps the only preparation that can be made—for the removal of whatever difficulties may yet remain to bewilder and becloud the understanding . Should it be thought that such men would more consistently worship apart , and form a communion of their own , let it be recollected that they are an insulated and solitary few , whose best feelings and habits have been formed tinder the influence of Christian institutions , who find no pleasure and no sympathy in the society of the scoffer and the profane , and who , if shut out from the communion in which they have been brought up , must be
compelled to forfeit the advantages of public worship , and perform their devotions alone . That you will , after all , regard my sentiments towards this class of persons with strong disapprobation , I am , Sir , but too well aware ; indeed , my own belief of what Christianity is , and what it requires , sincere as I feel it to be , will scarcely meet with a more favourable construction than the unbelief about which all this discussion has arisen . I unfeignedly regret this ; because I do not pretend to be insensible to the friendly regards of good men in any denomination of Christians . But still , thinking as I do ,
I should feel I was acting an unworthy part if I allowed considerations of this kind to induce me to retract or qualify opinions which , however obnoxious they may appear to some minds , I am myself convinced are founded in truth and justice , and consonant with the genuine spirit of Christianity . I have felt pain , I acknowledge , in the apprehension that persons , ignorant of my character and mistaking my real sentiments , should suppose me indifferent to the progress of what I deem pure Christianity . Such persons I can only request to give my discourse a candid perusal , and I think they will be
undeceived . Under this impression , it was with no small pleasure that I fell in accidentally the other day with some observations entirely according with my own feelings and convictions on this subject , in the writings of an excellent and pious author , the late Dr . Price , whose creed , though it does not reach the standard of orthodoxy , is yet sufficiently remote from my own , to give his opinion the weight of an independent testimony . At the close of
his Dissertation on the Nature of Historical Evidence and Miracles , speaking of the threatenings denounced in the Scriptures against unbelief , he says , " These threatenings certainly should not be applied , nor were they ever intended to be applied , to any honest inquirers , be their doubts what they will . Nothing \ % fundamental besides a sincere desire to know and practise truth and right , or an honest and good heart . Speculative errors can be no further criminal than they proceed from criminal dispositions , and are made sanctuaries for vice . The unbelief condemned in the New Testament
Untitled Article
300 Letter from the Bev . J . J . Tayler to the Rev . Dr . JVardlaw ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1829, page 300, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2572/page/4/
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