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    poisoned- speeches are attributed to us which we never made , or , consistently with our habits and opinions , could possibly make ; and in not a few cases the pious fraud is resorted to , of inventing tales of divine and miraculous judgments upon us , in order to delude the credulous and awe the simple . The combined result of all this machinery of artifice and falsehood is , that many

    persons are utterly surprised when upon examination they find , or by accident learn , that we are not scoffers and blasphemers , that we pray to Almighty God , that we receive the Holy Scriptures with reverence and study

    them as a Christian duty , and that we believe in the Lard Jesus Christ , as a divinely-commissioned Teacher and an all-sufficient Saviour . " Being' defamed we intreat . We make no apology , iudeed , for our faith ; we owe none to man . We have derived it from the word of God , and we are not ashamed of it , nor can we honestly hide it or dress it out in any disguise . Much as the statement may surpr ise many that do not scruple to declare themselves our enemies , we trust that we have the mind of Christ . We know that we have searched diligently and sometimes painfully for it , and our belief

    has at least these two marks of truth , 1 st , that we can express it in the very words of our Lord and his apostles , and , 2 ndly , that it produces in us , as we hope , ( and we always pray that it may produce in us more completely and effectually , ) the moral spirit of the holy and merciful Jesus , —a spirit that leads us neither to value ourselves nor to decry others , on account of mere opinions , that teaches us to exalt above all creeds the higher matters of justice , mercy , and the fear of God , and that disposes us to make allowance for human infirmity , to confess our own fallibility , to acknowledge the real vir-,

    tues of our fellow-christians of whatever persuasion , to instruct in meekness them that oppose us , and to forgive them that revile and spitefully use us . Being defamed , we thus , like the apostle , intreat . We say to our accusers , * Listen to us and judge of our doctrine by the Holy Scriptures to which we all appeal . Estimate our faith , not by public report , which is often erroneous and sometimes malicious , but by our arguments . Take not your opinion of us from our adversaries who caricature us , instead of drawing- our true likeness . Understand before you condemn ; hear before you strike . We intreat

    you not to wrong your own souls by prejudice ; for all prejudice is hurtful , and no man can injure another by a precipitate judgment , without doing at least equal harm to his own mind and temper and character . If we be in error , it is by cool and patient investigation alone that you can discover the error , and separate it from any truth with which it may be mixed up : —if we hold the truth , —and in the presence of Almighty God , and on the faith of

    the Bible , and as we value our own souls , we here publicly and solemnly declare that we believe we do hold the truth , —your passionate hostility will prevent you from perceiving and acknowledging it , and will bind you down in captivity to another gospel , which yet is not the gospel . For the sake of Christianity , for the sake of humanity , for your own sake as well as ours , we intreat you to lay aside prejudice and enmity , and to hearken to our statements with a candid ear , and to weigh them in the balances of the sanctuary . "'

    —Pp . 8 ^ -10 . *• While we complain of the accusations brought against Unitarians , it would be unreasonable not to allow that some of them are harmless by being inconsistent . At one moment they are likened to the Pharisees , at another to the Sadducees , who were a perfect contrast ; sometimes they are described as of lax morality , at others their good works are admitted in order to introduce the charge of their relying upon them for salvation ; now , they are exclaimed against for making God all mercy , and presently they are pitiedpitied , not without scorn and condemnation—for having no hope ot mercy hereafter .

    •* In respect of moral character , let me say that unworthy individuals there are in all communions , and ours cannot be expected to be alone free from this reproach . Of immorality as a sect , no one , I apprehend , would be bold enough to accuse us , although it is said by some of the more precise profes-

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    22 Aspland's Sermon .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1831, page 22, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2593/page/22/