On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
" If inseparably connected with unvarying forms , " I replied , " religion roust indeed degenerate ; witness the absurdities which would ensue if the whole Christian world were to become followers of Ann Lee , and dance because David danced before the ark . But religion would not only
degenerate but expire , if deprived of expression /' " You surely dishonour religion in saying so . " < c By no means . The best honour is paid to religion by shewing that it is adapted to our nature . Our nature is not wholly spiritual , and we cannot
therefore entertain a continual regard to objects which are never presented in a sensible form . While we are composed of body and spirit , the spirit of truth will be apt to escape us unless it be occasionally embodied . It follows , that while our attention is incessantly attracted to sensible objects , the
best mode of keeping religion awake in the soul , is to associate it as extensively as possible with these objects . The common error , and that of which you complain , is , that religion is thus associated with a limited range of objects ; connected , by an arbitrary human will , with particular times , words ,
and actions , and disconnected with all others . " " It is of such a peculiar connexion that I complain : but surely , by extending the connexion , you still further degrade religion . " " Let us rather say that sensible objects are thus spiritualized . Destined as they are to decay , a species of immortality is conferred on them by making them the elements of a spiritual life ; and that this is the process ordained , and which cannot be safely interfered with , our whole experience teaches . '
L seemed inclined to question this assertion . *• Instead of appealing to your own experience or mine , " I continued , " let us go back at once to the most eminent instance of spirituality on record . You will not question that the intellectual nature of Christ was formed and perfected through the instrumentality of sense . "
" Certainly . " " Nor is there more room to doubt that his spiritual nature was developed by the same means . Extraordinary as was his illumination , immeasurable as was the depth of inspiration imparted , we have no ground for supposing
that the influences of sensible objects were , even in his case , dispensed with . Bodily as well as mental suffering conduced to his perfection . Human affections , doubtless originating in the usual ministrations of a mother ' s love and a father ' s watchfulness , trained his mind to a higher species of filial duty ; and as he taught , so he must previously have learned , lessons of divine wisdom from the flowers of the earth and the storms of the sky . Above all , we know that prayer , private and social prayer , audible and secret , prayer at the grave of a friend , blessing at the breaking of bread , were his accustomed methods of nourishing devotion in himself , as well as exciting it
in others . " " But do you not suppose that all this was in condescension to the weakness of others ? ' * " Hy no means . How should we thus account for the hours spent in private devotion , and for the absence of all intimation that religion may subsist without aliment , which in a gospel intended to serve a more enlightened age , would not have been omitted ?" ' * And yet how abundant were his reproofs of formality in religion The ablutions of the Pharisees , the sanctimonious observances of . the Sabbath , the rivalsliip of Jerusalem and Geri / Jm , and a hundred other superstitious , were most perseveringly exposed and condemned by him . " .
Untitled Article
310 True Worshipers .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1830, page 310, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2584/page/22/
-