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with the nectar of felicity ? When is imagination more glorious thau in remoulding things which are into the lovelier forms which hope and prophecy tell us shall he ; melting the elements with fervent heat , and rolling up the heavens like a scroll , to enchant our gaze with the new heavens and the new earth
wherein dwelleth righteousness ? And when benevolence more godlike , than in rising from the almost merely physical uneasiness of sympathy with visible individual suffering , to the expansive compassion which feels with all that feel ( who is weak anil I am not weak ?)—the
generous indignation which is insulted wherever there is oppression ( who is offended and I burn not ?) —the devotion to a community which involves the sacrifice of self ( 1 could wish that myself were accursed fram Christ for my brethren )—and the identification with others which
says even of the crown of celestial glory to be bestowed by the Lord , at that day , Not to me only ! not to me only , but unto all them also that love his appearing , " This is human nature , as shewn in the Apostle Paul . Do uot these sentiments or principles enter largely into the excellence of the man ? But of this
argument we may say , that a greater than Paul is here . Look at Christ , the son of Mary , the friend of Lazarus , the teacher of John ; the . se were his private relations ; hut would Mary so have gloried in that son , would Lazarus have so confided in that friend , would John have so devotedly loved that roaster , had he not been one who loved and lived for all mankind ; who wept over Jerusalem , and died for the salvation of the world ? It
was in this addition that he became the perfection of humanity . "—Pp . 14—16 . " Christian devotion , even in its most personal and private modification , when it is inost exclusively restricted to communion between man ' s heart and his Maker , assumes the form of a care for others' good , a recognition of their claims to love , forgiveness , active kindness ; and Is a solemn pledge of benevolence , and renunciation of selfishness ,
in the sight of God . What is our Lord ' s direction for individual devotion ? Enter into thy closet ; shut thy door ; pray to thy Father in secret . And how is God invoked in this redoubled and guarded seclusion ? The utterance of the holy name with which the prayer commences identifier Aha worshiper with his brethren of humankind , and in the deepest solitude he atill adores our Father . He prays for his own growth in righteousness , by its inclusion in the progress of
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the divine kingdom of righteousness $ and with the petition for . mercy , is in « dissolubly blended the solemn profession of the exercise of mercy . The man of prayer must then be the man of active benevolence . The throne of grace is insulted by the homage of selfishness , inertness , or indifference . "—P . 22 . ' The progress of Religious Liberty is the advance of a Christian principle .
" The New Testament is no code of mental slavery , no prison of souls , no storehouse of spiritual sceptres and spiritual chains , no patent of lordship for creed-makers * or creed-imposers , but the charter of religious freedom , the guarantee of equal discipleship in which all are brethren , and our one Master , Christ ; and our one Father , God ; wherein apostles disclaim lordship over faith ; and churches combine social
union with individual liberty , letting every one be fully persuaded in his own mind , and act on his persuasion ; and all carnal weapons are abjured and trampled on ; and the Almighty and Impartial God * hath fixed his canon * against persecution in all its degrees , and in all its forms , within the church , and without the church , and to all ages . " Thus , at least , do we read the New Testament : thus do we understand the
very nature of diviue revelation itself , which , consisting of supernatural facts to be reasoned upon , implies the free use of his mental faculties by each individual student of the word , unbiassed by man's fear or favour : thus do we expound the preaching of its missionaries , who rested , not faith on authority , but
facts on testimony , and doctrines on argument , and praised those who searched the Scriptures : thus do we see the beauty of that bond of union which held converts together by the one simple confession that Jesus was the Christ , each building his opinions on that foundation , and therefore all cemented by a love which slaves of system and bauds of bigots , and armies of persecutors , and companies of chartered monopolists , never felt . Thus do we enter into that
plan of doctrinal and preceptive instruction which , appealiug to our common nature , teaches us to do unto others as we would that they should do unto us ; which , appealing to the uuiversal love of God , enjoins on us a like unrestricted future
benevolence ; which , revealing a judgment , commands us not to judge one another ; and which , adverting to the baleful influences of spiritual subjugation , enjoins that we stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us
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572 - Critical Noticed .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1829, page 572, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2575/page/52/
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