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    The grand point of agreement between the Jewish and Christian dispensations is , that the existence of a divine moral government is not only taught but exhibited . The grand point of difference is , that the consequences of this fact are , in the one instance , explicitly declared ;—in the other , left to be inferred . Hence it is clear that human reason had made considerable

    progress between the appointment of the two dispensations , and that those who were prepared to receive the latter had ground for rejoicing in the advancement of their race . Under the old system , every principle which was offered was connected with a special application and a distinct declaration of consequences ; human reason being too feeble to direct the one , or infer the other . Under the new system , facts are given from which general principles are to be deduced , the application of which is left to reason , now

    sufficiently strengthened to be equal to the task . —In the common methods of education , it is right that the infant should be controlled by express directions , before he knows any thing of principles ; and after he has arrived at this knowledge , it may still be desirable for the present to guide him in their application . But if that direction be continued when childhood and youth are past , it is clear that either the judgment of the teacher or the reason of the pupil must be deficient . —It is only necessary to examine the Scriptures

    to ascertain whether this analogy holds . Nothing is easier than to extract from the Old Testament , in scripture language , a complete system of doctrines and morals ; and nothing more impossible than to do the same with the New . Instead of doctrines we are presented with facts ; instead of a moral code , with parables , allusions to natural objects , improvements of trivial occurrences , and appeals to affections universally subsisting , and always enduring .

    That no system of Christian morals has been presented in an unchanging form is pretty generally agreed among Christians ; and human reason has been left more free on this all-important subject of inquiry than it could have been if there had been less diversity in the gospel teachings . But with respect to the doctrines of Christianity , the case is different . Innumerable evils have sprung , and still spring from the conception that a system of doctrines is expressly presented in the New Testament . From this erroneous

    conception have arisen preposterous creeds , intolerant councils , persecuting rulers , abject slaves . From this erroneous conception have proceeded cruelty , ignominy , perjury , torture , and murder . The consequences of this conception testily the weakness of its origin ; the difficulties which it generates prove its spuriousness . If a number of doctrines was expressly revealed , why are they not universally acknowledged by the disciples of revelation ? If the parts of a system are clearly presented , where is the difficulty of

    putting them together ? How is it that the divisions which agitate Christendom were never heard of in the Jewish state , where , whatever other dissensions might arise , disputes about religious doctrine were unknown ? Why is the Christian world now split into sects and factions , but because men open their Bibles with false expectations , and look for what they can never find , and are therefore tempted to supply from their own imaginations ? That

    which is commonly called the system of Christian doctrines and essential to the gospel , is not matter of revelation , but of individual opinion . When it is allowed to be so , and not till then , will there be a prospect of such brotherly union among men as becomes the pupils of a common teacher , the subjects of an universal discipline . When men discover ( and the discovery cannot be difficult ) what it is that Christianity requires them to believe , its nature and design will be understood , and its privileges duly appreciated .

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    512 The Education of the < Human Race .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1830, page 512, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2587/page/8/