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    gregation of Unitarian Christians to prevent their being joined by any other persons who may desire to be numbered amongst them . If congregations of Unitarian Christians were voluntary associations of persons deliberately making profession of certain common principles , and

    therefore , of course , excluding those who think differently , we know not that any one could question their right thus to constitute themselves , or , so long as there is no desire to inflict any injury on others thinking differently , could have any reasonable cause for complaint . In that case , though any one might come as a hearer , none could be a member of the society who could not make a solemn declaration of belief in the same sentiments . But what ,

    let us now ask , should we gain as to the usefulness of our services by such a measure ? We should discourage the conscientious Deist , or the yet hesitating Sceptic , from attending the only public services in which they can join with advantage , and which , we trust , have a tendency to correct what we regard as their very serious errors , as well as to encourage their juster sentiments and excite their better feelings ; and we should do this from the selfish hope of standing some trifle higher in the estimation of those who , in the face of . our most solemn declarations of our belief in the divine

    authority of our Saviour , and in the inestimable benefit of his mission , can still accuse us of congeniality of sentiment respecting the character and claims of the gospel with sceptics and infidels . Are we , then , ashamed because even those who cannot bring themselves to admit the revelation to which we gratefully ascribe all our light and all our hopes , yet acknowledge that our doctrines appear to them to be those of true and practical religion , and that they themselves are happier and better for listening to them ? Are

    we grieved because almost they are persuaded to be Christians—because they allow the truth and goodness of our instructions , and the force of the additional arguments by which we recommend them , even whilst they call in question their having been communicated by divine authority ? We must , indeed , think that those who reject Christianity , even if they make the most of Natural Reli g ion , and much more than we can believe would ever have been made of it without the indirect aid of Revelation , are yet in an

    error , seriously pernicious to themselves , and fraught with dangerous consequences to others ; and if , in consequence of the knowledge that some such persons came amongst us , we suppressed the expression of our own convictions , dwelling less earnestly on the claims of our Lord to our love and obedience , or on the blessed hopes which we found on his promises and resurrection , we might then justly be condemned ; but so long as we are only rendered more anxious to establish the authority of our revered Master ,

    more abundant in our labours to cause his name to be honoured , his commands respected , and his promises cherished , it would be difficult to say how our faith should be implicated in the homage which is paid to the purity and excellence of the system we teach , even by those who professedly do not join with us in attributing to it a divine original . It will be recollected that to such persons we make no concessions : we advance not one

    step to meet them . We rejoice that the Christianity which we derive from the Scriptures is not repulsive to the natural reason of man , in an a ^ e of accumulated knowledge and high intellectual culture ; but we alter nor one jot or one tittle of what we find in the Scriptures to satisfy either our own reason or that of others , because divine instruction is intended to supply the deficiencies of reason , and , if received at all , must be received as authoritative . We rejoice that any , who agree with us in any great principle , will come and worship along with us ; and God forbid that we should

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    12 Dr . J . P . Smith's Scripture Testimony to the Messiah .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1831, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2593/page/12/