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arid the impression which this language is calculated to convey , is , that they are indifferent to the interests and progress of truth . The fact , however is , that they have a creed ; that the doctrines of this creed are universally acknowledged to be free from censure on the ground of ' * looseness ; " that to this creed they demand a distinct and formal adhesion as the condition of ministerial communion ; and that the rejection of this creed would occasion all the other members to cease from associating in church judicatories with those who should be guilty of such a dereliction . It \ & quite true , that their creed is not that of the Wesminster Divines , or the Synod of Dort . It is simply the book of the Scriptures . To this they have subscribed ; to this they require subscription : and surely no Protestant will affirm that such subscription is nugatory , or that the doctrines thus subscribed are improperly ** loose . * ' With regard to the degree of latitude to be allowed in a hook used as a confession of
faith , it is surely safe to follow the guidance of the evangelists and apostles ; at least as safe as that of any modern framers of articles and canous . But perhaps the writer in the Congregational will say , that the creed ( the Bible ) is not itself loose in doctrine , but is made so by the improper manner iu -which it is used . Perhaps he will say that it is loose , only inasmuch as it is simply subscribed , in testimony of assent , without inquiry being made as to the sense in which the subscriber uuderstands some passages to which different persons have been found to annex
different interpretations . To this it might be sufficient to reply , that the same objection might be urged against any other creed which might be substituted in place of the Scriptuies . It has more than once been my lot to hear genuine Calvinists express different opinions on the doctrines inculcated iu some pans of the Westminster Confession . It is notorious
that the clergy of the Church of England , though all subscribing a collection of human articles of faith , —a litany and liturgy of human composition , and two volumes of homilies also the productions of men , —are yet far from an agreement in opinion ; and the same diversity will be found in every church in which a recognized creed U enforced as a standard of orthodoxy . If , therefore , the Scriptures can be called " loose , " the same term may be applied to every other test of orthodoxy . Subscription to any number of articles , as well a » subscription to the Bible , only declares the subscriber a
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assent to the doctrines contained , according to his own judgment , in the work so subscribed ; and it is notorious that the very same articles may be , and are every day , subscribed by men equally honest , but whose views , on mauy points specified in the creed , are far from
harmonizing . Seeing , therefore , that all creeds leave and must leave this latitude , it is wise to define no farther than scripture has denned : it is prudent to hartrecourse at once to the fountain head ; the source from which all human creeds
are supposed to fl «» w : and where the stream is most pure and salubrious . This i . s what the Remonstrants and their brethren have done . They have adopted scripture for their only recognized creed , and sole bond of union . Let those who call it " loose , " consider whether they are not casting a severe , unmerited aud unwarrantable imputation on the divine
records . Let those who prefer a human composition to scripture as a test of orthodoxy , reflect whether it is becoming to give a preference to the writings of Calvin , Luther , or Zwingle , over those of the evangelists and disciples . —If any human formula be proposed for subscription to one who duly reverences the Sacred Volume , and is suitably impressed with the importance of its contents , he will immediately exclaim , " Jesus 1 know , and Paul I know ; but who are yt ?" The writer proceeds to state that the Remonstrants and their brethren ' * loudly boast of their Christian freedom , and their abundant liberality . " That they glory in the liberty wherewith they have
been made free , is , \ hope and trtT 3 t , only the truth : that they loudly proclaim their sense of this freedom , is what I can readily conceive ; seeing that they form the only portion of the people of the land in which they dwell , who have thrown off the yoke of human bondage ; and uaay well be excused for inviting others to taste the sweets of liberty ; but that " they loudly boast of their
abundant liberality , " is a fact , which ; to be believed , requires better proof than the assertion of a vague and declamatory writer . It is so contrary to the known character and habits of the men ; so totally unsupported by any thing in the shape of fact that has ever reached my ear , that 1 must hesitate to give it credence , aud entreat your readers to wait for farther evidence . And if an
individual , in the ardour of debate perhaps , has been induced to make some declaration that may be tortured into a sense arguing such a want of modesty as is implied in boasting of abundant libera-
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Mhcellaneout Correspondence . IBS
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1831, page 135, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2594/page/63/
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