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Untitled Article
then * to point out one whose character should give more weight to his con ^ version . The mode in which the investigation was conducted corresponded with the nature and importance of the subject . He first collected the whole of the evidence from the New Testament . This operation was , in itself , favourable to a right conclusion . In thus going over the New Testament , an
unbiassed mind would not only possess itself of the separate passages supposed to bear upon the argument , but would receive that impression which the general aspect of the sacred volume is calculated to produce . It would thus be prepared to judge better of the letter of particular texts by the spirit of the whole . It is probable that , though he might not himself perceive it , Mr . Belsham ' s former opinions received a considerable shock from this first
operation . His next step was to arrange that evidence , thus collected , under distinct heads ; a process rendered necessary b y the nature of the subject , and which he accomplished in a manner eminently impartial and lucid . The question of the supreme deity of Christ was , by this means , disentangled from that of his pre-existence ; and each scheme of pre-existence was also presented in connexion with the real or apparent amount of scriptural evidence in its behalf . It might seem that it only remained now to draw the conclusive inference from the whole , in reliance on the Divine
blessing for its correctness . But that blessing is best sought in the use of all the aid which Providence puts within our reach ; and it was well to complete what had been done by allowing a hearing to the different systems in the persons of their most esteemed commentators , whose explanations are therefore appended , in juxta-position with each other , and with the text which they so differently expound . The whole was then subjected to repeated consideration and revision . What more could the disciple do to ascertain his Master ' s doctrine ? Who has ever better prepared himself to offer the prayer of faith ,
' Be gracious , heaven for now laborious man Hath doue his part" ? And is it not more in the spirit of the gospel to believe that heaven was gracious , than to imagine that all this honest toil ended in being abandoned to " strong delusion that he might believe a lie" to his soul's destruction ? The effect upon Mr . Belsham's situation and prospects was certainly not such as could give him any bias towards the conclusions at which he finally
arrived . A man may be in a situation much less comfortable and honourable than that which Mr . Belsham occupied at Daventry , and yet feel it a very severe sacrifice to relinquish it , at the age of forty , and begin life afresh , with perhaps new occupations to engage in , new friends to seek , and new connexions to form . Nor is this the strongest form of the temptation to equivocate with his own mind and conscience . It is a fearful thing to meet the altered countenances of religious associates , persons loved and respected ,
and whose love and respect had been mutual . The moral principle itself will often seem to plead against its own dictates , and hold out the prospect of continued and extensive usefulness as a bribe for a silent compromise with error . A time , too , is required for opinions to work themselves into feelings ; for the newly embraced doctrines to generate their own devotional and practical atmosphere . The heart will linger in its accustomed haunts , amid its long-cherished associations , long after the voice of the judgment has commanded to ** arise and go hence , " Not lightly does the writer express his
Untitled Article
78 On the Character and Writings of the Rev , T . Belsham .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1830, page 78, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2581/page/6/
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