On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    agree with one another , and differ from the rest ? This has been the way in which all religious sects , as far as I know , have chosen to distinguish themselves . It is that which best accords

    with the importance which men in general attach to their own opinions , and the confidence with which they believe them . This same way of proceeding has also filled the Church of Christ

    with schism and hatred and wordy war , in every age : at many times with fire and blood : it has caused religion , even the gospel , to appear the most absurd of all vain sophistries , and has for ever turned the attention of

    Christians from the duties of living well , to the idle vanity of adjusting with exactness their articles of faith . All parties have thought it needful to have a creed , that is , some human interpretation o ( the gospel , as the badge of their

    religious profession . Now , I believe there remains a more excellent way : a way of peace , holiness and infallible truth . This way is simply this ; to make the gospel itself our creed , and our only creed : whatever our sentiments be , to

    be content with scriptural language to express them ; and though we may and must interpret Scripture , each

    man , according to his own judgment , yet not to attribute such undue importance to these private interpretations , as to make them a ground of separate worship , or of a party name , or the main object of our religious zeal . Is it not strange , that amongst the numberless sects into which the Christian

    Church has been split , there has not been one found , in eighteen hundred years , magnanimous enough to be content with the gospel alone , as the expression of its faith ? Perhaps it will be said , that this would not have

    distinguished such a religious party from any other . But this is not true . I may boldly say , that such a principle would distinguish its cspousers from every Christian sect that ever was , or now is . Modern Unitarians fall far

    short of adopting this principle ; for if they go no farther than to use such an expression as that of * ' simple humanity , " they as decidedly indulge in the spirit of creed-making , as the Pseudo-Athanasius . But here an

    objection will be made . It may be said , ought we not to contend for that Which we believe to be truth , and to this end

    Untitled Article

    is it not necessary to adopt some haman interpretation of Scripture to distinguish our sentiments ? It is answered , that very little of this can be necessary , and certainly no such interpretation need be made the basis of

    religious profession . This I prove as follows . That which we believe to be important religious truth , we must , as Christians , believe to be also the clear and obvious doctrine of the gospel ; that which the language of the gospel will naturally convey , to a man of

    common sense and unprejudiced mind . And for the truth of the gospel to be generally perceived , it will only be necessary that the counteraetiojn of human interpretations should be removed , with the aid of any suitable

    information which criticism or history may supply . I see not how any sincere Christian can reasonably wish to give his opinions any greater advantage than this : an advantage which will exactly correspond with their real truth . He will thus take the most effectual means

    to propagate his own opinions if they are true , while he will , at the same time , render them harmless and inactive if they are false . Having thus unfolded this idea , which , though nothing new , is certainly but little regarded , I venture to solicit a particular attention to it , especialty from societies which have not yet fully settled their

    principles ; it is recommended to them as the most effectual way of combating those false doctrines which they wish to oppose , and propagating those which they believe to be true ; while its open fairness and simplicity tend to secure a good conscience toward God , and to constrain the approbation of men .

    EUELPIS . P . S . To judge of the efficacy of the plan above recommended , we may consider "what would become of the doctrine of the Trinity , among a people who should confine themselves to such language and forms of worship

    as can be warranted by plain , direct and unquestionable authority from Scripture . Prayer or praise to the Holy Spirit there is evidently none ; nor " is anv netition offered to the Lora \ S 3

    11 V 1 JU ? U 11 V LTVvl /^ t&VlA * . M *^ . W » ~~ # . Jesus , except in direct connexion witn some miraculous revelation of his person , white the whole weight both 01 precept and example directs prayer to

    Untitled Article

    282 Plat-form of a Christian Chutch .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1820, page 282, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2488/page/26/