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more firmly than he believed , and taught others to believe , in that promised resurrection , it is difficult to see why the notion should have been so obnoxious . He regarded the Lord ' s day as a Christian festival , and not as a Jewish Sabbath ; and in this he followed Calvin himself . Indeed , the common assumption of a divine transfer of the obligations of the fourth commandment from the last day of the week to the first , would be astonishing ,
could astonishment be excited by any theological assumption whatever . He agreed with Paley in distinguishing between the reasonings and the conclusions of the apostles , and regarding the former as subject to our judgment , the latter as entitled to our reception . He interpreted the first chapter of Genesis , so as to shew its theology true , but its philosophy incorrect . With a confusion very uncommon to him , he identified love to Christ with iis effects , and maintained that it consisted in obedience to his commands . And
he denied the locality of Heaven , considering it as a state , and not a place . Perhaps a few more offensivenesses might be gleaned from his writings ; but these are the principal . Now the question is , whether Mr . Belsham failed in his duty to the Unitarian cause , and inflicted an injury upon it , by the free publication of his opinions on these topics . We answer decidedly in the negative ; and that on various grounds . He never professed to speak the opinions of his brethren on these matters ; nor concealed the fact that , on some of them , a large majority differed from him . There could be no
identification in the case but what was wilful . That might be ; but who can prevent deliberate misrepresentation ? People might be found , no doubt , fragrant in the odour of sanctity , who would as readily falsify his living writings as his dying words . It were rather a vain hope by any caution to disarm such minds , by any forbearance to placate them . " They say—what say tbey ?—let them say— " as the Aberdeen Almanac has it . Moreover , in the case of a man against whom there is occasion for an outcry , it may be as easily raised about an unexpressed opinion as a published
one ; nay , an opinion may be imputed for the purpose . A tolerably numerous chorus once chanted the dishonesty of concealment in a Unitarian minister for keeping back the doctrine of necessity in a public statement of Unitarian Christianity ; the said minister being a devout believer in
philosophical liberty . When once a man has slipped his neck out of the orthodox yoke , he is considered a runaway slave , and it is lawful for any one to have a shot at him . We speak of the common tactics of the party ; it would be sad if there were not very many men amongst them of minds too pure and elevated for such practices ; and it is sad that such men seldom escape unscathed themselves . " From honourable men of the world we should have
"received better treatment , " said one of them , when to the very quick he was u wounded in the house of his friends . ' * What then have we of the damnable heresy" to expect at their hands ? Just what we get , and which is not to be averted by any tenderness towards prejudices in matters of minor importance . The disposition is the same towards all who depart from the peculiar principles of their dogmatic system ; and that disposition will be
sure to find itself a vent . The Arian with his doctrines of pre-existence and atonement fares just the same as the Humanitarian ; and the materialism or immateriality which the latter holds with , may make a difference as to the particular missile thrown at him , but none as to the probability of his being vigorously pelted . Conciliation by silence upon obnoxious opinions is one of the weakest of weak dreams , a vanity of vanities . Its usual effect has been to add to the emotions excited by bolder heretics , that of contempt for timidity , or the suspicion of insincerity .
Untitled Article
164 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), March 2, 1830, page 164, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2582/page/20/
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