On this page
-
Text (3)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
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
There is a set of associations , partly pleasurable , partly painful , which never fails of being revived in our minds by every new theological publication of the conscientious Calvinists of the present day . Of the anathemas of the spiritually-proud , of the assumptions of the self-righteous , we do not speak . Their writings can suggest nothing pleasurable ; and the pain which they occasion is of no tender and lasting kind . We speak of the re *
suits of honest reflection , delivered with ingenuousness , and relied upon with sincerity . Where such are placed before us , we mark with satisfaction indications of free and vigorous thought , occasional glimpses of exhilarating truths , and here and there , a repose on some sure ground of peace and hope . But there is so perpetual an alternation of much evil with all this good , so much restraint on the natural exercise of the understanding , so many obstacles to the near approach to truth , so many and such dark
overshadowings of the gleamy sunshine , that if we escape the gloom which darkens the souls of some writers , we can sympathize readily enough with the melancholy which pervades the thoughts of others . So deep is this sympathy , that it sometimes leads us too far ; it leads us to rejoice when we find others rejoicing , even when we are convinced that their hopes are founded on fallacy ; that the ground on which they repose will slip from
beneath their feet . It is a relief to see the disciples of a mysterious and gloomy religion cheered by light and warmth , even though the light be but a distorted refraction , and the warmth that of an earthly element instead of a celestial fire . When we can indulge a more rational pleasure , when the sympathy proceeds from a correspondence of thought and feeling , the satisfaction is pure ; but , alas ! it is very rare .
We trust there is no bigotry in this method of regarding what we conceive to be the errors of our Calvinistic brethren ; nothing contemptuous in our compassion ; nothing arrogant in our appreciation of the law ojf liberty ; nothing selfish in out interpretation of that law . We esteem those among them the most who treat us in like manner ; who lament what they believe
to be our errors , and sigh in contemplating our peril . A reciprocation of compassion , if established among the jarring parties of the Christian world , would be a reciprocation of benefits . Love would follow as a natural consequence ; and error , by being regarded as a misfortune , would cease to originate the hateful feelings which are now vented upon it because it is confounded with guilt .
The time is past when error and guilt can be so confounded with impunity ; though not , we fear , for the exercise of the unchristian feelings which arise from such confusion . What can the most intolerant professors of the most intolerant creed ( that of genuine Calvinism ) say for themselves and their brethren when they mark the various forms and degrees in which error
prevails among them , if they regard it as sinful and fatal ? What will they say of the book before us , and of its authoT ? Is it Calvinism , and is he a Calvinist ? If theological error is guilt , where does the guilt in this instance lie ? With Mr . Hull , who holds mental error to be innocent , avows the doctrine of Predestination to be incompatible with the moral requisitions of the gospel , and disowns the doctrines of Election and Reprobation , — or
* Discourses 011 some important Theological Subject * , Doctrinal and Practical . By the Rev . William Hull . Pp . 231 . Hatchard and Son . 1830 .
Untitled Article
( 590 )
Untitled Article
IIULl / S DISCOURSES . *
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1830, page 590, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2588/page/6/
-