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Unitarian Christianity , and regret that oar limits will not allow us to aualyze or extract more largely from the first of the pamphlets before us . " Sir , December 7 , 1827 . 'I accept , as a particular compliment , your transmission of your Pamphlet in answer to Dr . Drainmond . I have read
it through with attention , and do not hesitate to pronounce it aa highly creditable both to your head and to your heart . " Such manly and able exposures of that feeble and conceited heresy , wonld soon accomplish its extinction . My
absence from town ( which delayed my perusal of the tract ) has been the occasion of my having now to acknowledge the receipt of it , which I beg leave to do with many thanks . " I have the honour to be , Sir , s ( Your obliged Servant , "W . Dublin " - — P . 3 .
" The same sentence which compliments your friend vilifies Unitarianism , by calling it a * feeble and conceited heresy . ' Had your Lordship received the gift of the Holy Ghost , and could you also impart it , as on certain occasions which you know , it is said to be given and received , I should bow with due humility to your Lordship ' s decision . But here again , I must dissent and take the negative of your Lordship ' s proposition . Unitarianism is not feeble and
conceited ; neither is it a heresy , unless the Apostle Paul were justly charged with such an error , when he said , ' After the way which they call heresy , so worship I the * God of my fathers . ' " What idea does your Grace attach to the epithet ' feeble , ' as applied to Unitarianism ? If you mean to affirm that she wants the insigpia of worldly power , that her kingdom is not of this world ,
that she wields not the truncheon , the sword , nor the mace , that she has no places of emolument or power to bestow on her votaries , nor any thing which your Lordship can ' properly call a church , ' though she has some congregations of faithful men , then do I accord with your Grace . In this sense Unitarianism is feeble ; in this sense she desires not to be . strong .
"If you mean to affirm that she is ' feeble , ' because she has no power to decree rites and ceremonies , nor to sentence to everlasting perdition all who do not embrace her creeds ; she acknowledges that in this sense she is feeble , and in this sense has no wish to be strong .
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" If yon mean that in controversy sfre cannot and dares not use those weapons of polemic warfare which your Lordship wields with such matchless skill , and of which a long catalogue may be collected from your Grace ' s work on the Atone , ment , weapons never found in the hands of the honest champion of truth , but in those of the gladiator who combats for victory and spoil , then does she agree with your Lordship that she is feeble , and in this sense has no ambition to be
strong . " But if you mean that she is feeble in support of the truth as revealed in the oracles of inspiration , then must she dissent from your Lordship . She takes her stand on the solid foundation of Scripture , and asks not the aid of Tradition , © f General Councils , of the writings of the Fathers , or of Acts of Parliament to
hold her up . Supported as she is by Moses and the Prophets , by Christ and his Apostles , she is conscious of a strength never to be exhausted or undermined . In this sense she is too strong for your Lordship , and defies all those arts of controversy in which you are aa adept to eufeeble or put her down .
" If you affirm that her reasoning powers are feeble , Dr . Carpenter ' s answer to your book on the Atonement demonstrates the contrary . She is strong in the truth—and truth is stronger than all things , and finally must prevail . Her
disciples have written as ably in defence of revealed religion , as the most orthodox writers : they have combated as valiantly against the ranks of infidelity , and they have shewn as much strength of principle in resisting temptations to desert their cause . In the use of all the
legitimate arms of controversy she has proved herself powerful , and evinced a magnanimity totally unknown to every disciple of your Lordship ' s school . She dares to be just to her adversaries . € f Your Lordship ' s next position is , that Unitarianism is conceited . Would
that your Grace had specified in what respect you deem this epithet applicable , that we might more clearly ascertain the correctness of your decision , I * it because Unitarians have the audacity to dissent from your Grace , and think that error may perch upon a mitre ? Or ,
because she ventures to lift up her ' still small voice * against the demoniac yells of bigotry and superstition , raised to prevent her from being heard ? Or dares , in the midst of a corrupt generation , to rekindle the torch of truth , and invoke men to turn from darkness
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&T 4 Critical Notices .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1829, page 574, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2575/page/54/
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