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blishment . Where those peculiarities have been plainly , zealousl y * and judiciously exhibited , a very different result has been produced . In proportion as Unitarian preachers have been preachers of Unitarianism , they have seldom been without reason , even amid all the obloquy and Opposition which they had to encounter , for rejoicing in the fruit of their labours . Had
Mr * Belsham been in this respect like unto some very excellent but very mistaking men among his contemporaries , the Chapel in Essex Street would have been like unto their chapels also ; his voice would soon have become * ' the voice of one crying in the wilderness ; " and at his death the doors might have been closed , or have only opened to receive some fanatic reviler of his doctrines and his memory . He chose a more excellent way ; and the path of duly proved also that of success .
Let sects enforce uniformity , and chain the mouths and the minds of their members—it is for Unitarians to cherish independence of thought by the free expression of individual opinionSi The spirit of Unitarian Christianity is * so far , mistaken by those of us to whom the publication of individual peculiarities of opinion is a theme of complaint or of regret . The worth of Truth , if not altogether dependent upon , is yet materially enhanced by , its being a personal acquisition . Religionists have fallen , at least practically ,
into the gross absurdity of making Thought a social act . They adopt and reject opinions en masse . The creed of the party is every thing ; the opinions of the individual nothing . They do not exercise their minds by themselves and for themselves . Take twenty members of a Calvinistic Church and ask each of them twenty questions out of the Assembly ' s Catechism ,
and you will get the same answers . This could not happen if they came by their notions fairly . It is as unnatural as if all the features of all their faces were indistinguishable and identical . Did every mind , as it ought , abstract itself from social influences in its religious contemplations , we should see as much diversity of mental as of corporeal feature . The one class of differences would no more excite contention and recrimination than the other .
Through them all , the identity of our spiritual nature , like the identity of our physical nature , would assert its rights , and maintain its influence , and ensure as much Uniformity as is needful or useful . Individual mind would then obtain its freest and fullest development , and Christianity become to each a personal religion and not a party profession . In this freedom the
first Christians flourished ; and only in its restoration can the gospel be glorified by the full display of its ennobling influence on human mind and character . To possess so much of it as we have , and to exercise it so much as we do , is the honourable distinction of the Unitarian body . Ill should vte be repaid for its loss by arty closeness of union , increase of strength , or concentration of effort , as a party , which we might thereby attain .
As with reference to Mr . BelshanTs services as a preacher and lecturer , rather than as an author , we shall presently have to advert to some of his occasional publications , and to his two volumes of Sermons , we close here our notice of him in the latter capacity . The list of his publications is , in itself , no mean eulogy . It shews the variety of subjects to which his attention was directed , but all of which he contemplated and treated in their
connexion with Unitarian Christianity . It shews his unfailing promptness whenever a favourable opportunity was afforded for exposing error or advancing truth . It shevrs trie courage which shunned no encounter , whatever vantage ground of adventitious circumstances the adversary might possess It shews the unabated perseverance with which , through the nearly forty years from his conversion to his death , he fought the good fight until he
Untitled Article
166 On the Chai % acler 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 166, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2582/page/22/
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