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sumption against the truth of a religion which failed , under any great variety of circumstances , of ensuring the morality of its professors . Some modification of this sort might hare rendered the excellent Sermon before us less liable to cavil . Mr . B . then remarks , more particularly , of zeal , meaning the < c excitement and
fervency of spirit" commonly so called , that " it is certainly no evideuce either of real Christian attainment-, or of the truth , or of the value , of religious opinions . " After illustratiug , severally , these positions , and contrasting such zeal with that which the New Testament
enjoins and exemplifies , he proceeds to trace the circumstances which have given some colour to the representations of Unitariauism as " speculative , cold , and inoperative on the affections . " The first is " the mauuer in which they have sometimes been inculcated . "
cc views , then , of Christianity , it is apprehended , have been but too often presented in a manuer cold , formal , and didactic ; as if they were mere truths in moral philosophy ; as if it were enough , to make men Christians , to convince ; them that it is wise and expedient to become Christians ; as if the reasoning
head were alone to be consulted , and not the believing heart ; as if the affections were not necessary to impart life and vigour to our convictions . In those topics appropriate to the pulpit , and they are far the most important , and of the most frequent occurrence , by which the will is to be influenced as well as the
uriud instructed ; where information is not so necessary as persuasion ; where impression is more important than conviction ; where the infinite fallacies of self-deceit are to be detected ; the moral infirmities of men probed ; a stubborn yvo rid lines 3 to be broken ; the iron chains of habit to be rent asunder ; the palsied conscience to be quickened ; where , in a
word , light is to be thrown in upon the dark concealments of self-love , and the heart is to be touched and the deeper feelings interested , —mere abstract speculations , however elegant , refined , or just , are frigid , ill-adapted , and unaffecting . We want something which bears more the stamp of reality ; something
which is less staid and official ; something , too , more distinct , more direct , close and plain-spoken ; something to assure us that we are the persons addressed , we the persons interested ; something to convince us ( hat we are not listening to a discourse on abstract questions in morals , but to the gospel of Jesus Christ ; a gospel enforced by all that a rational
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being can hope or fear ; a gospel addressed to us individually , and which we are to receive or reject at our own personal peril . ' * There is a manner of writing , too , which is , in itself , unexceptionable , and yet utterly bad as a means of persuasion . A composition may be faultless , saving only that it is without force . It is possible to fill up the time with a sermon which shall have * proper words in proper places , * which shall exhibit , throughout , a high literary finish , and be illustrated , moreover , with fine and tasteful imagery ; but which , after all , will be , so far as respects the legitimate objects
of preaching , less affecting than the wild strains of fanaticism , as powerless as the prattle of a child . Great results are sacrificed in a studied attention to details ; powerful impression , in a pursuit of the minor graces of diction ; the benefit of the many , in an excessive deference to
the refined tastes of a few . Any thing almost that has pith and point is better than this sentence-making , this tame and lifeless rhetoric . The great , the noble , the commanding aim of the speaker , should ever l > e kept in view ; and this is not the amusement , not the gratification of his hearers ; still less their admiration of himself ; but their conviction , their persuasion ; it is to stamp deeply and
irresistibly on their minds the impress of his own . ' I would rather , * says St . Paul , * speak five words with nay understanding , that by my voice I might teach others also , than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue . ' And how much better , in point of effect , are those words which only play over the surface of the mind , than those in an unknowu tongue I " Pp . 11—13 .
As was but just , Mr . B , does not quit this part of his subject without shewing that for the adoption of the manner which he so deservedly censures there have been ( we earnestly hope there will be no longer , either in England or America ) obvious causes which " leave untouched
the entire seriousness and engagedness of its advocates . " Resuming his maiu argument , he further accounts for the seeming plausibility of the objection against which it is levelled by the aversion of its professors for parade , show , and ostentation ; their not favouring sudden and extravagant emotions of any sort ; their estimate of the results of true religion ; and their views of the nature of man and the terms of salvation . He concludes by adverting to those peculiarities in our views which are eminently adapted to excite and move the heart ,
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568 Critical Notices .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1829, page 568, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2575/page/48/
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