On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
JBibte a dingle text Jbajt favours intolerance , or authorizes our supporting religion by legal disabiiities . ^—Pp . 3—6 . ~ e ' This introduction is fair and manly : the writer supports it by valid reasoning : . cc All believers ia the providence and moral attributes of the Deity , must acknowledge that his will , whenever it can be ascertained , ought to
determine our conduct ; and I as a Christian agree with you , that we ought to take the Bible for 6 ur guide , and to look to that for instruction ia public as Well as in private affairs '; but with this reservation , that it is not the letter Vnl the spirit of the inspired volume that is to guide us . The spirit of the llible cannot mislead lis , but it is possible to mistake that spirit , if we do not
consider tire circumstances Tinder which , the several books that compose it were written , and the purposes they were designed to answer ; for * thougii its moral precepts are ' worthy of all acceptation , " it contains other instructions fit to be communicated at the time , but which it was not intended that Christians should follow . "—P . 6 .
The correspondent of the " Country Clergyman , ' * properly instances in thfc Mosaic ritual and civil administration , and thus pursues his argument ; " — the notion long prevailed , that setting aside such laws as were obviously obsolete , the c 6 de of the Israelites was to be the political guide of "Christians j and there is scarcely a book of Statutes in modern Europe which Will not afford ample evidence of the accuracy of this assertion-. Our own usury law is a striking example . The taking of interest is now universally allowed to nave been forbidden by Moses on political grounds , and the mro ^ t
• scrupulous Christian of our days has bo doubt of the innocence of * he practice ; yet the canon law condemns it as a sin , and even liberal casuists of a former age regard it as of a questionable character . It is also from the Old Tdsiatftfent milftnderstood that those who maintain it to be the duty bf the State to pufcish heresy derive taeiT arguments and their eSfeurfrple . They ftrflfue , that as the law of Mdses cottdettins idolaters to death , tbre Christian ought not to be more indulgent td the infidel and the blasphemer . We all tow allow th # t there is here a misconception in not perceiving the different
nature of modern goVef nmfcnts ami the Jewish constitution , MiMi was a theocracy , $ hat is , a st&te in which the Deity was the King , aM in wliich consequently the worshiped pf other gods \ vas guilty of high treason , and amenable to punishment in tbis world , as well as the next . To all of us this is plain , yet wise and good men of Foriher ages 1 Mtha £ pity did not make this discovery ; and the reasonings of many about this vety Rotnan Catholic tmestion how ^ prove that they hav e hot followed out this truth into all its leHttttfate consequences . * My kingdom , ' said ottt blessed Lord to Pilate , ' ' is not of this world ; ' ' and he himself imnrediatelv driaws the itnftottant ccmis not of this world ; and he himself immediately draws the ith ^ ortant
ccmdusion , that if it were , his servants would fight fti its defence . The kingdom of Christ , to be extended to all mankind , was not like to the kingdom *> f Gody which was limited to the natural descendants of Abrahain . The religion of the Jews was incorporated Xyith the State , and thferefote was of this worM as well in the extetelse ^ it as in the fewards afrid puiiishmerits whereby it was admiiiistered ; "but the Very reastfn which ntade it proper that it should be united by divine appointtn ^ efnt to the St&te , iifeAt it flt that Christianity snduld be l £ ft free aim independent . ^ Pp . 7 , 8 .
These fcre admirable settfeitaenta , prdceed from whom they may i but we especially welcoYne them froiln ' * a Resident Member of the University" oi Oxford $ and if , perchance , he is one of its Professors and Heads of Houses we shall yet more tejafee that the influence of station is accompanied by so much soberness of mind and serious good sense , and by sucn exemp lary
Untitled Article
466 Churcii-qf-England Men und C < ttMlic Claims .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1829, page 466, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2574/page/18/
-