The Religious Life of LondonRitchie, J. Ewing (James Ewing)
Religion
The Religious Life of London
Ritchie, J. Ewing (James Ewing)
London (England) -- Religion; Religious thought -- England -- London
Let us attempt to describe Unitarianism negatively. In one of his
eloquent sermons in its defence, the late W. J. Fox said, “The humanity
of Christ is not essential to Unitarianism; Dr. Price was a Unitarian as
well as Dr. Priestley, so is every worshipper of the Father only, whether
he believes that Christ was created before all worlds, or first existed
when born of Mary. Philosophical necessity is no part of Unitarianism.
Materialism is no part of Unitarianism. The denial of angels or devils
is no part of Unitarianism.” Unitarianism has no creed, yet briefly it
may be taken to be the denial of a Trinity of persons in the Godhead, or
of the natural depravity of man, or that sin is the work of the devil, or
that the Bible is a book every word of which was dictated by God, or that
Christ is God united to a human nature, or that atonement is
reconciliation of God to man. Furthermore, the Unitarians deny that
regeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit, or that salvation is
deliverance from the punishment of sin, or that heaven is a state of
condition without change, or that the torments of hell are everlasting.
It may be that the Broad Churchman entertains very much the same
opinions, but then the Unitarian minister has this advantage over the
Church clergyman, that he is free. He has not signed articles of belief
of a contrary character. He has not to waste his time and energy in
sophistications which can deceive no one, still less to preach that
doctrine so perilous to the soul, and destructive of true spiritual
growth, and demoralizing to the nation, that a religious, conscientious
man may sign articles that can have but one sense and put upon them quite
another. Surely one of the most sickening characteristics of the age is
that divorce between the written and the living faith, which, assuming to
be progress, is in reality cowardice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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