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Untitled Article
" 3 . To extend , by the same means , the influence of the devotional and practical parts of Revelation . " 4 . If at some future time the funds should permit , to employ or aid Missionar ies to recommend those views of Christianity in which all Unitarian Christians agree .
' * The means of accomplishing these objects may be provided by occasional Sermons in their behalf , and by Yearly Subscriptions from Individuals , from Congregations , and from District Committees . It is proposed to fix on Five Shillings per annum , as a minimum for single Subscriptions , and Two Pounds for the Subscription or a Congregation
or District Commit tee ; and in all cases half the amount may be returned in Books and Tracts if required . By these means encouragement may be given to the formation of Congregational Libraries ; and although the influence of these institutions does not directly extend beyond the Socieiies by which they are established , yet , until Unitarian views
are professed with greater firmness and freedom by those who really hold them , they may be better promoted by enlightening and confirming congregations that already partially avow them , than by any attempt to urge them on those by whom they are misconceived and rejected . As there may be many instances in which congregations containing many members
of Unitarian sentiments , may yet be too much divided in opinion to unite collectively with a Unitarian Society , District Committees may be formed , consisting of any number of members , voluntarily combining to . communicate witli the Central Society , and deriving from it
the same advantages , on the payment of the same annual contribution , as a connected Congregation . It is proposed that every Congregation or Committee in counex ' iou with the Society , shall be empowered to send a deputy to its Annual iyit'eLing , to be held in Dublin at a time to be hereafter determined .
* ' It cannot be concealed that a strong repugnance exists among many who hold the strict unity of God to assume the title of Unitarian . 'J he framers of the Society in question adopt it , simply because they can devise uo other which so clearly designates the characteristic tenet of those who maintain that Jesus , the Son of God , is subordinate to the Father . To the terms Arian and Sociniau
they object , because thowc terms would place them in the rankn of human leaders : because they do not correctly de -
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scribe the opinions which they hold ; and because they divide by minor shades of sentiment those who are united by belief in one grand principle . " It is obvious , that the contemplated Society avows no principle which should connect it with any one form of church discipline in preference to another . All
who hold the proper unity of God , and who ascribe any importance to this truth , are invited to join , whether they be attached to the Episcopal , the Presbyterian , or the Independent system . The Society connects itself with no existing sect in this country ; and it excludes none but those who recognize a . creed subversive of the doctrine of the Divine
unity . r lhat its principles accord with the real , though often unconfessed , sentiments of a large body of Christians in this country , is more than probable . Let those sentiments be but firmly and honestly avowed , instead of being disingenuously suppressed through an unchristian fear of man , and the Society may humbly hope for the crowning blessing of that Great Being , whose attributes it seeks to vindicate , and from whose word it derives its strength . **
Rev . Dr . Drummond said , that the day had at length arrived to which his hopes had long been directed , when Unitarianis ni was to be recognized by its own name in the house of its own friends . That a system of doctrines so essential to clear views of religion , and so consonant to the whole tenor of revelation ,
should be withheld from mankind through timidity or indolence , was neither reasonable nor just . The whole course of God ' s miraculous providence was a testimony to the truth and value of the doctrine of the Unity of God . It formed the broad basis of the Jewish revelation , and was urged on the Israelites with emphatic solemnity by tlie Prophet ' s words :
" Hear , O Israel , the Lord thy God is one Lord . " It was recognized and reinforced by Jesus , when he declared , " There is none good save one , that is , God , " and pervaded the whole substance of his teaching . It was reiterated by the Apostle of the Gentiles ; for we have his memorable words , ' * To us there is one God , the Father . " It signified not that this tenet was admitted in words in the
creeds of reputed orthodoxy ; the very language which admitted it cancelled the admission , and linked it with a doctrine with which it cannot co exist—the notion € ) f a Trinity , to the name and conception of which the sacred volume wan alike a stranger , directly tended , however ex-
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348 Intelligence , — Irish Unitarian Christian Society .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1830, page 348, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2584/page/60/
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