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not moved forward with the general mass . They have stood in the old paths . Their preaching , their spirit , and their plans , in consequence , wear the form of fifty years since . In some instances , we do not deny , they have kept pace with the spirit of the age , but not as a body . A natural consequence of their having an antique appearance has been , that they have been devoid of attractions for the religionists of the day , and have therefore
remained , to so great an extent , stationary , while other professors have increased in proportion to the increase of the population . A chief cause of this stand-still , on the part of the Unitarian body , is , we apprehend , to be found in the extravagances which have unhappily attended the religious exertions of the last few years . The false doctrine that eternal woe assuredly awaited all those who were not converted to God , and the shocking tenet that assurance , even in the dying hour , was a certain proof of being in
a state of salvation , however abandoned might have been the previous tenor of the life , contributed mainly both to kindle the enthusiasm which prevailed with preachers , the readiness of the people to yield their hearts captive to its sway , and to alienate and keep aloof the better-informed Unitarian Christian . TSov are we without fear that diversities of doctrine , in other points , may have prevented Unitarians from sympathizing with the zeal of their fellowdisciples . Because they differed from us in belief , and were therefore , as
we thought , wrong in that particular , they have been regarded , perhaps , too often as wrong all over . Instead of a spirit of assimilation , there has been in consequence a spirit of repulsion between us and them . Nor has this spirit been diminished by the shameful way in which they have misrepresented our tenets and our characters , and kept apart from us as from men infected with a contagious and fatal disease . But more than all these things , the extravagance of which , in their popular exertions , the orthodox have
been guilty , have prevented Unitarians from feeling in unison with them , and acting , if not in their society , yet in their spirit . With all their laudable qualities , they have gone into grievous extremes . There has been too much over-doing amongst them . The language of devotion has been abused , the language of Scripture sadly perverted ; and both , it would appear , have been lightly used , became hackneyed , and , in some instances , conjoined with cant . Some of the most beautiful and heart-stirring passages of the New
Testament have been made the watch-words of a party , and appropriated from the generality in which the writers left them , to stand as the representatives of the absurd articles of human creeds . Unitarians have , therefore , felt themselves constrained , in order that they might not utter a false sound , to deny themselves , in many instances , the use of scriptural language ; and , to prevent unpleasant and unfavourable associations , to avoid other phrases which , however appropriate in themselves , had been misused and perverted . Their style of preaching and writing in consequence suffered a material loss .
There was a want of unction in it—a want of the energy and glow of the scriptural phraseology . And soon the cause that was served by language so perverted and disagreeable , came of itself to be unacceptable and unpopular with us . Whenever Unitarians thought of missionary efforts , immediately there entered the mind the idea of Scripture abused , of coarseness and peculiarity of manner , of mental weakness , of ungoverned zeal , of excess , and of extravagance . This feeling still prevails amongst us , and the first duty we have to perform is to labour for its removal . Let us then consider whether we have made a due allowance for the circumstances in which our orthodox brethren were placed . Their plans must be judged of in reference to the object proposed . The object proposed was not to nourish the flame of
Untitled Article
Causes of Unitarian Disgust , —Orthodox Extravagance . 847
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1829, page 847, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2579/page/31/
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