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    a Christian is one who , by the doo trine of Christ , is led to excel in moderation , justice , temperance , fortitude and piety towards the only true God . He says nothing of regeneration . He plainly asserts , that the only advantage of the knowledge of Christ is to make men excel in virtue . He

    says nothing of remission of sins , or righteousness imputed by faith in Christ , which is the very essence of a Christian . " On this strange and violent passage Lardner remarks , " Poor , ignorant , primitive Christians , I wonder how they could find the

    way to heaven ! They highly valued and diligently read the holy Scriptures , and some wrote commentaries upon , them : but yet it seems , they knew little or nothing of their religion , though they embraced and pro fessed it with the manifest hazard of all earthly good things ^ and many of them laid down their lives rather than

    renounce it . " 1 have now , I think , proved , from the testimony of orthodox writers , that even those early Christians , who were not in their own times charged with heresy , fell "very far short of the modern standard

    of orthodoxy , and that the earlier ones especially , differed very little , if at all , from Unitarians . 1 have purposely omitted saying much about those who , in their own times , were considered as heretics , as Trinitarians

    might think , that to allow that these were Unitarians , would be no proof in favour of Unitarianism , though manv of these early heretics were fully equal to their opponents , in piety , virtue , learning , knowledge of the Scriptures , and reverence for them . T . C . H .

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    The Nonconformist-No . X . On High-Church Infidels . FTPIHE opponents of religious Non-JL conformity may be divided into two classes : —the first consisting of those who ate sincerely persuaded of

    the truth of the religion of the state , or disposed to yield a blind obedience to the assumptions of ecclesiastical authority ; and the second , of those who themselves despise the established faith and the claims of the priesthood

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    but support both as the means of governing the mass of mankind . Of unbelievers also there are twd kinds , differing as much in character . First , those who , regarding fhe evidences of religion ;» s insufficient or fallacious , and its doctrines erroneous ,

    avow this conviction with openness and sincerity , and perhaps think it a duty as lovers of truth publicly to discountenance a system which they consider to be fabulous ; or if deterred by deference to those about them , or a disposition habitually sceptical ,

    desire to maintain a guarded silence upon the subject : —aud , secondly , those who equally reject , and often , perhaps , on slighter grounds , the authority of all revealed if not of natural religion ,

    but still eagerly endeavour to support that form of religion which is established by the state , as a convenient political engine , —often surpassing all others in hostility to such as publicly dissent from it .

    To the latter kind , both of unbelievers and of the enemies of Nonconformity , as above described , belongs the class of men who may , perhaps , be designated by the appellation of Tory Sceptics , or High-i hurch Infidels , This may seem to be a strange and incongruous compound , but most of

    us , probably , have met with persons to whom it may be appropriately and justly applied , —whose chief aim is to assist in imposing on others what they dq not themselves believe , or , at least , who with proud presumption consider that system of belief which they themselves despise as ^ ood enough for the generalitv of mankind .

    History would doubtless furnish us with numerous instances in former ages , and in Heathen as well as Christian countries . To this class belonged many of the priests and philosophers of old with their exoteric and esoteric doctrines . It will be

    recollected that Cicero the augur says these holy persons could not look each other in the face without a smile . Druids and Bramins might swell the list , as well as cardinals and popes .

    " See what a profitable concern this story about Jesus Christ is ! " said Leo X ., as he counted over some of the gains derived from the votaries of a religion which he contemned . Nor has England been without her priests

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    308 The Nonconformist . No . X »

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1819, page 308, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1772/page/28/