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Untitled Article
Unitarians the appellation Christian , on grounds which cannot be impeached without impeaching the claim of the several other sects of which the Christian world consists . If , Sir , any one in the height of self-estimation should undertake to declare that you and yours are not Christians , you would perhaps think it a sufficient answer to declare in turn that you
were as well as the assailant . Should he press you with the objection that you did not interpret Christianity as he did ,, and therefore were not a Christian , you might retort that by a parity of reason he himself was an unbeliever , since he differed from you as much as you differed from him . He might , indeed , urge that you denied the essential doctrines of Christ—such as
transubstantiation , extreme unction , and purgatory , and could not therefore be a Christian . What could you reply , but that these , which appeared to him the essentials of the gospel , appeared to you the traditions of men , and that if he unchristianized you on the ground of difference of opinion / he did by that very act , except he was really infallible , strike from under him the ground oh which his own right to the name was built ?
I cannot see , I confess , how the change of the names Catholic and Protestant into Trinitarian and Unitarian could in anywise affect the argument The Unitarian ^ as such , believes that he is a Christian as strongly as can the Trinitarian , and , but for the repetition of the charge , would feel as surprised that any one should presume to know in such a point better than himself , as could the Trinitarian if denied the Christian name . And then if
essential doctrines are the criterion , as many votes at least could be numbered against the Protestant as against the Unitarian ; for to say nothing of the relative bulk 6 T 4 he Catholic and Protestant bodies , where you will find ten agreed on the doctrine of the Trinity , you will find tens of thousands agreed on that of transubstantiation ; so that the condemners of Unitarians , if required to agree not in word but idea , would , be a small minority in comparison of the thorough and unhesitating condemnation of the whole catholic world . But till I am better informed , I shall
continue to think that a man's own declaration is a sufficient evidence of the nature of his sentiments . What other evidence have we or do we seek in the ordinary intercourse of life ? How curious would it sound for a man who declares himself a Quaker , to be told that he is an Episcopalian , or for him who professes himself a friend of the present government to have the name of Tory
fastened on him . And is the declaration which actions give to go for nothing ? Do you hesitate to call them Mohamedans who habitually worship in a Mosque ? Do you withhold from the Brahmin the title he assumes to himself , because he has ceased to think that the burning of widows is essential to the true worship of God , while at the same time he conforms to the ordinary rites
Untitled Article
100 THE TRUTH TELLER .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 1, 1833, page 100, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2611/page/4/
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