On this page

• Text (2)

  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

  • 

    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

    by complying with what the author considers an idolatrous ceremony . Although it may cotitaiu some eccentric passages , and occasionally an untenable proposition , yet what consistent Unitarian can gainsay the remarks on protesting , ( a custom far better neglected than observed , ) or reply to the following extract from the preface ? " It is a fact that Unitarians condemn the marriage

    service as being ' repsffnaiit to their religious principles . ' It is equally true that with such an impression of its character they conform to it ; and , moreover , think themselves justifiable in so doing . They maintain , then , by their couduct this proposition—that it is right to do that which they believe at the same time to be opposed to their consciences . They maintain ? or endeavour to maintain , it by their words whenever they can be induced to enter into discussion on the

    subject . But this is very rarely the case ; for though the friends of inquiry on every other topic , yet on this , inquiry , generally speaking , is their aversion ; and their only solicitude seems to be to seek their justification in silence . Well if they can find it there ; or , in its absence , that lowly spirit of penitence which best becomes the erriug children of God . " Should it be maintained that the

    greater part of Unitarians do not violate their consciences by complying with the marriage ceremouy , the writer justly argues that no such view cau be taken of the subject , if we are to judge by their petitions and their complaints in the public newspapers and magazines ; and that consequently it becomes them to reflect whether they will any longer obey man rather than God . " There is also

    another strong confirmation of what has been advanced , ( says this persevering and consistent advocate of the truth , ) in the fact , that others who are not Unitarians have admitted the reasonableness of their objections , and the justice of their prayer . The Edinburgh Reriew for March 1821 , says , that * the establishment compels a Unitarian to abjure his faith before it will allow him to

    marry . ' * Unitarians are required at present , ' affirmed the Bishop of Worcester , * to join iu a service that implies a confession of faith repugnant to their conscientious feelings and opinions / * Really this is a most cruel requisition , * observed Lord Holland : * the Unitarian

    i « to be required to repeat words to which it is avowed the priest annexes one meaning and he another . It is quite clear that such matters must be paiuful

    Untitled Article

    and revolting . * * A Unitarian is obliged , ' said Dt * . Lushington , * to utter with his mouth at the altar ( hat which he abhors in his heart' Such are the testimonies of persons standing high in character and station , and disinterested in the question . They ought to carry weight with them , and I think they must to every Unitarian that will reflect . " I hope that some of your readers will more fully notice this work , as discussion must be of service to the cause of truth and holiness . L . G .

    Untitled Article

    Sir Walter ScotVs Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft . To the Editor , Sir , In reading the Letters of Sir Walter Scott , on Demonoiogy and Witchcraft , while I have been delighted with the abundance of interesting matter which

    he has brought together , and generally edified by the reasonable notions of religion which that author seems to entertain , I have been much surprised at the misapplication made of one passage of Scripture , common , indeed , in the mouths of the reputedly orthodox , and which furnishes convincing evidence of the occasional unfaithfulness of our

    common version . Ihis passage is Jer . xvii . 9 , and the manner in which it is introduced by our author is this : " The melancholy truth ' that the human heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked , ' is by nothing proved so strongly as by the imperfect sense displayed by childreu of the sanctity of moral truth /* I cannot but regret that our author should have had the authority of the version read in all the churches in

    favour of so unworthy and unchristian a sentiment . It is scarcely to be supposed that he can be acquainted with the admission of the Lexicographer Parkhurst , the bias of whose creed was in the opposite direction . *• The English translation desperately wicked \ seems very improper . I do not find that the word ever deuotes wickedness at all . " The

    rendering of Dr . Blayney is , " The heart is wily above all things ; it is eveu pant hope . " I doubt , however , whether he has correctly represented the meaning of the sacred writer , and am disposed to follow a manuscript numbered 173 , by Kennicott , corroborated by the ancient Syriac Version , in omitting the conjunction and in the passage , so that the translation may be . " Man himself is

    Untitled Article

    64 Miscellaneous Correspondence .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1831, page 64, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2593/page/64/