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it in that room flowed , lie believed , from a real but mistaken tenderness for others ; but he was always sorry to hear such statements , because they gave countenance to those who cover a disingenuous fear of man under the guise of charity . He loved not the charity of the man who was tender to his own ease
and popularity , and careless of the interests of the human mind ; he loved not the affected zeal for practical morality , that would perpetuate by silence demoralizing systems of error ; he could not admire that earnestness for the devotional characteristics of Christianity , which could suffer the shades of misconception to deepen around the character of God , and hide his most attractive attributes . Men little knew the
injury they did either in checkiug controversy or changing its natural course . Free discussion and free inquiry were kindred rights ; their promise was written on the same page in the charter of human freedom ; and the hand that would tear away the one would inevitably cancel the other . Who would have
the heart to maintain a solitary search after truth in the closet , if he might not pour out his discovered treasures on the world ? Here and there , perhaps , a philosopher might be carried forwards by the self-feeding energies of a speculative intellect ; but the great mass of useful labourers in the field of
knowledge act under the stimulus of a social nature , and would abandon research as selfish , if compelled to wrap themselves up in the lonely enjoyment of their own convictions . He thought it a contradiction to talk of defending our own sentiments without alluding to those of others . Let any one try to adduce the evidence for the personal Unity of God ,
or the Scripture doctrine of reconciliation , without meddling with the doctrines of the Trinity or Vicarious Sacrifice . What line of argument could he follow ? At every step the opinions which he rejected would rise up and contradict him , and explain away his explanations . And even if he could establish his point , what had he effected ? In what state would be the mind of his
convert ? A mere storehouse of contradictions , where truth and error looked each other in the face , and neither could raise an arm to dislodge the other . The fact was , that in the process of inquiry , the detection of error was antecedent to the development of truth ; and in the progress of discussion , it must be the name , fJnitarianism in particular was
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driven into this course ; for it contemplated Christianity as having been lost amid corruptions which had gathered round it : its office was to restore old truth by removing its incumbrances , not to strike out into some new track . The
fabric of gospel truth , like the buried temples of Egypt , had been lost under the accumulated dust of ages ; and the incumbent mass must be removed , ere the inimitable structure stand forth to the view in its grandeur of proportion , or its secret recesses be accessible to the
worshiper . But why , it might be asked , connect with the formation of a Unitarian Society an express recognition of the principles of free inquiry , which are uot Unitarian , but Protestant ? Had Unitariauism auy right to set itself np as their privileged advocate ? He thought it had It did not send men out on the wide
field of investigation , point out to their free choice its thousand diverging roads , and then compel them , under peril of damnation , to meet at one only goal of orthodoxy . It was idle in any church to talk of inquiry being free within its pale , while it suspended the worst of evils over
all possible issues of inquiry but one . And were this the system of the Scriptures , he would pronounce them the foes to thought , close a volume which so cruelly invited a destructive curiosity , and hide himself from forbidden light bentath the broad shadow of infallible
authority . A faith , then , which acknowledged the innocence of involuntary error was the the only faith that admitted of full freedom of inquiry ; and this was a peculiar characteristic of Unitarianistn . Never let Unitarians either abandon or abuse the liberty which they thus enjoyed . Let them remember that God made truth what it is , and will take care
of its consequences , and let them limit the law of Christian sincerity by no calculations of temporal expediency . Let them , indeed , strip controversy of its more revolting and earthly features . Discarding the bitter sarcasm , the sneer of scorn , the boast of victory , and all such vulgar weapons from the armoury of truth , let them be content with the
proposal of evidence in the spirit of that •' charity' * which 4 < rejoiceth in the truth . " Let the inquirer and teacher keep their eye steadily fixed upon the Scriptures , make it their single object to learn and to communicate what they contain -y let them utterly forget that there are any inspectors of their conduct , any judges of their words , except God
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IninWirencr . — Irish Unit arum Christian Society . 353
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vol . iv . - 2 c
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1830, page 353, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2584/page/65/
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