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ago , he expressed with much feeling the high satisfaction he had derived from witnessing the adaptedness of Unitarian Christianity to the capacities aud wants of the poor , and especially in the evidence he had had in the course of his
lahours , how in valuable aud sovereig-ti a power it possessed to give consolation , peace , and support , in the mortal hour . Truly * the common people hear him gladJy . * After such a successful experiment , tried in the midst of us , will any one have the boldness to say that Unitarianism is not a religion for the poor ? ' *
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Art . II . — Reasons for the Unitarian Belief plainly stated in Nine Lectures , By Luther Hamilton . Boston . The writer does not explore the heights a » d depths of the sea of controversy , but glides easily over its surface . He has produced a plain book for plain people . In so doing he might have avoided some negligences of style into which he has fallen . Nor would his
" Reasons" have been less acceptable in our opinion had he blended with them somewhat more of moral and devotional feeling than we find in his lectures . In this country , at least , the day of the drybone controversy is , we trust , passed . Henceforward the heart and soul will be appealed to as well as the intellect . If man , man who consists not of one , but all of these , —if man , and not a part of man , is to be swayed , the reasons for the Unitarian belief must be directed to his moral , his spiritual , as well as to his intellectual faculties . Mr . Hamilton ' s little book contains few things tliat would , if extracted , be new to our readers . Nor is the old rendered striking
by felicity of expression . Every thing is in agreement with the title , plain ; plain , that is , easy to be understood ; plain , that is , unadorned ; plain , that is , equable and devoid of saliency . Such a mode of writing was , we doubt not , well chosen in reference to the author's congregation , but would find little acceptance before even our humbler congregations .
In reference to " the Holy Ghost , " the author says , " the phrase is never used as the name of a person . " It is used to denote simply divine inspiration or influence in some of its manifestations of miraculous knowledge or power . In this sense the phrase " holy spirit" occurs in eighty-eight passages , and in the same sense ''the spirit" is used in forty-six . There are nine in which " spirit of
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God" is also used for divine inspiration , with its attendant gifts ; hi three " spirit of the Lord" is so used ; " spirit of Christ" occurs in this sense once , and < c . spirit of truth" three times ; the phrase " my spirit" denotes the same thiug in three instances , and the same is
signified by " his spirit" once ; and there are seven passages in which persons are said to be ' in the spirit , " when acting or speaking from inspiration . There are then one hundred and sixty passages in which either the phrase " holy spirit , " or an equivalent word or phrase , denotes divine and miraculous inspiration or influence in some of its manifestations . There
are , I believe , but hfty-oue passages in which these phrases have a different meauing , viz . three hi which " holy spirit" means ; in reference to human affections , " a pure or holy mind ; " five in which " spirit of God" means a spirit or disposition that is godlike , or one which God approves ; in four places " spirit of Christ , "" or a phrase
equivalent to it , is used with a similar meaning ; " the spirit" is used for the Christian temper ten times , and in twentyfour passages it denotes the gospel dispensation ; in three places the . " spirit of God" means , not a person separate from the Father , but God himself , and the phrase " spirit of the Lord" is thus
used twice . The writer ' s mode of proceeding in the investigation is the only proper one . cc I have examined all these phrases separately , and in all the passages in which any of them occur in the Christian Scriptures . I believe that the generally acknowledged rules of interpretation give to these phrases the
meaning which I hare ascribed to them . Moreover , Trinitarian commentators themselves allow the same meaning to much the greater namber of the passages to which I have referred . They think , indeed , that some of them teach the distinct personality and supreme divinity of the holy spirit . But I do not , on the most deliberate and careful
examination of every passage , find reason to believe that the phrase ' holy spirit ' or ' ghost * occurs in a single instance in the New Testament , as the name of an intelligent agent , distinct from the Father , or as a real and proper person . " And there are " many passages in which
the phrase cannot denote a person . " It is among the signs of the decline of Trinitarianism that the Holy Ghost is so little noticed . Little is said for him in the way of defence , * little about him in the popular pulpits , aud little to him from the lips of worshipers . Occaston-
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Cntical Notices . — Theological . 701
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1830, page 701, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2589/page/45/
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