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Sect "— that my opinions were too exclusive and narrow , and less candid and charitable in judging of others than they should be . " If so , Dr . Kennedy has met with retribution , ' not ( God forbid ) at the hands of Unitarians ,
but of orthodoxy higher and purer than his , the Monthly Review for August having declared that he had " no religion ; " and why ? because , as far as appears from his book , he did not belong to any of the prevailing sects . After having , on another occasion , indulged in a bitter invective against ** Arians , Socinians , Swedenborgians , and fanatics of all descriptions , " he is thus taken up by Lord Byron :
' * You seem to hate the Socinians . Is this charitable ? Why would you exclude a sincere Socinian from the hope of salvation ? They draw their doctrine from the Bible . Their religion , " said his Lordship , ** seems to be spreading * very much . Lady B . is a great one among them , and much looked up to . She and I used to have a great many discussions on religion , and some differences arose from this point , * but on comparing all the points together , I found that her religion was very similar to mine /'
Among the works which Dr . Kennedy supplied Lord Byron with , in order to convert him , were Boston ' s Fourfold State , and Jones on the Trinity . Of the former his Lordship has expressed his opinion : «« I am afraid it is too deep for me . " The latter may be characterized as making by its " clear display , " " darkness visible . " During the several conversations in which Dr . K . engaged with Byron , his Lordship always shewed a disposition to hear what could be stated , and to read , as he had time , what was supplied to him in
defence of the Christianity of his sincere , well-intentioned , but mistaken instructor . " There was nothing , ' * says Dr . K ., " in his manner which approached to levity , or any thing which indicated a wish to mock at religion . " In quitting Cephalonia for Greece his Lordship took with him the religious books with which Dr . K . was able to furnish him , intimating , as indeed he had done throughout his intercourse with Dr . K ., his purpose to study the subject of religion with attention . His mournful story is well known .
Whilst doing something to redeem his faults , and promising much more , he met with a premature death in a land which he wished to liberate and enlighten . Dr . Kennedy does not supply us with any very important information respecting his religious feelings in his dying hour . He was always a believer in Predestination , and was influenced by it to the last . ** Dr . Bruno wished to bleed him . ' No / said he , * if my hour is come , I shall
die whether I lose my blood or keep it . '" Afterward his servant having said , " the Lord ' s will be done , " his Lordship added , " Yes , not mine . " The following trait of domestic affection we cannot withhold . " He then tried to utter a few words , of which none were intelligible , except " My sister , my child . " Among Dr . Kennedy ' s concluding remarks are the following :
" There are circumstances which induce me to believe that Lord Byron never doubted the divine authenticity of the Scriptures , arising- probably from the influence of earl y education , if no higher principle was in operation , and that those hints of infidelity were thrown out by way of desperate or contemptuous bravado . " — " He felt and acknowledged that he was not happy in his unsettled notions of religion . He vaguely hoped that if the Scriptures were true , he should ascertain the truth of them some time or other . "— " His
patience in listening to me , his candour in never putting captious objections , his acknowledgment of his own sinfulness , gave hope that the blessing of religious truth might be opened to his understanding , and though these vrcrc
Untitled Article
612 Lord Byron ' s Theology .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1830, page 612, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2588/page/28/
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