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to Ugh * ? If this is to be conceited , then does she glory in having done aught to merit the appellation . But in the just sense of the term , Unitarianism is not conceited . Conceit , ray Lord , is the infirmity of little minds , proceeding from an abuse of what Phrenologists term the organ of self-esteem . It attaches itself to men of a subordinate class of
understanding , who having been raised to unmerited elevation , have also been flattered into the belief that they should rank with the first—to men of showy , superficial attainments , who can make a dexterous use of their * index learning ;* to flippant-tongued disputers , and * loquacious sciolists . ' It jumps and flutters in verbose declamation , and coruscates in firebrand antithesis .
" Perhaps your Lordship thinks Unitarians conceited of their learning . Were it so , they would have as much reason as most of their neighbours . But your Grace accuses them of want of learning . Will you admit that they are possessed of any virtue whatever , either intellectual or moral ? Were they less learned than others , it would be more their
misfortune than their fault ; for the lives of raauy of them have been spent in retiremeat and study , not in the purlieus of courts and castles , nor in obtruding iuto the presence of Majesty , with the wicked ' cmceit / that they could thwart the counsels of wisdom , or cause the hand which was raised to rend asunder the fetters
of their country , to rivet them more fast . They have been excluded by a narrowminded policy from the great literary corporations of England and Ireland . But let them not complain : they have , in consequence , been more free from systems of scholastic divinity , and the noxious influence of soul - enslaving creeds . They have dared to think for themselves as instructed by the Word of
God , and directed by their own enlightened reason . Nor are they so destitute of learning as your Grace would lead your readers to suppose . They can boast of giants in erudition , beside whom your Lordship would appear as one of that * small infantry warred on by cranes / beside Hercules or Samson . "Pp . 5-7 .
The subject of the Sermon delivered at the Anniversary of the Unitarian Association is a very appropriate one ; and it is discussed with great ability , caution , and earnestness . The province of reason in matters of religion is a topic not devoid of difficulty in itself , and on which we can scarcely avoid misrepresentation from those who are ever on
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the watch for oar halting . There is , however , nothing in this discourse which can be at all construed to compromise the right of private judgment on the one hand , or detract from the authority of revelation en the other . Both are upheld ; and it is ably shewn how harmoniously they unite , and how well they support each other , Scripture sanctioning and demanding the exercise of Reason ,
and Reason illustrating the perfection of Scripture by its right interpretation * Among many excellences , we may particularly remark the felicity with which the preacher has exposed tho manifold absurdities , both theoretical and practical , in which the enemies of the use of Reason cannot avoid entangling themselves . How true is the following de * scription , and what a " pity ' tis , 'tis true" !
" Were it on a subject less serious than religion , it would afford no small entertainment to see the efforts of theologians and polemics to write or to speak down reason ; straggling , as it would often seem , against the innate convictions of their own minds ; viciously arguing against the use of argument , and labouring to support by clamour and .
dogmatism a mass of doctrinal corruptions which totters uuder its own weight . It would be amusing to witness their subterfuges to escape from the shafts of common sense , and the horns of their own dilemmas ; their noise and their smoke ; their enigmas and their sophistry ; their clouds of words and rotatory evolutions , continually spinning round
the same circle , and never advancing a step nearer to the proof . In other subjects , if a man utters contradictions , combats the evidence of the senses , or the axioms of science , he exposes him * self to ridicule and loses all the respect which might have been paid to his opinions . But such vagaries excite no kind of surprise in theology . This is a fields
in which no one can betray too adventurous a spirit of knight-errantry . Not only are the grossest inconsistencies attempted to be reconciled , but whole volumes are written , with such ingenuity that we cannot help lamentriig that their authors were not more usefully employed , to overthrow some of the plainest truths of Scripture , or to establish the ; most bare-faced contradictions ; for
instance , that there ih no merit or virtue in good works , though they are so frequently enjoined by Christ and his apostles ; that there is nothing damnatory in creeds which affirm as plainly as language can speak that there is no salva »
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Critkat Notices . 575
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1829, page 575, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2575/page/55/
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