when he says they did; David in the Psalm is a sick man, speaking only of himself, but when Simon Peter quotes that Psalm, the inspired king is predicting Jesus of Nazareth![1] These things are notorious facts. If the Athanasian Creed, the thirty-nine articles of the English church, and the Pope's bull “Unigenitus,” could be found in a Greek manuscript, and proved the work of an “inspired” apostle, no doubt Unitarianism would in good faith explain all three, and deny they taught the doctrine of the Trinity or the fall of man. The Unitarian doctrine of inspiration—can any one tell what it is?
But let the sect be weighed in an even balance, its theological defects be set off against the vast service it has done, and is still doing for morals and religion. But this is not the place for its praise. Of the “new school” of Unitarians, if such it may be called, embracing as it does men of the greatest possible diversity of religious sentiment and opinion—it is not decorous to speak here.
Now Unitarianism must do one of two things, affirm the
great doctrines of Absolute Religion—teaching that man
is greater than the Bible, ministry, or church, that God is
still immanent in mankind, that man saves himself by his
own and not another's character, that a perfect manly life
is the true service, and the only service God requires, the
only source of well-being now or ever—it must do this, or
cease to represent the progress of man in theology, and
then some other will take its office; stand God-parent to
the fair child it has brought into the world, but dares not
own.[2]
To sum up what has been said:—we see that the Catholic
and the Protestant party both start with a false assumption,
the Divinity of the Churches, or that of the Bible;
both claim mastery over the Soul; but both fail to give or
allow the Absolute Religion. Both set bounds to Man,
- ↑ Dr Palfrey's work on the Old Testament by one of its most distinguished scholars, finds small favour with this party, though, excepting the valuable works of Dr Geddes above referred to, it is the only attempt ever made in the English tongue to look the facts of the Old Testament manfully in the face!
- ↑ The above was written in 1841, since then the American Unitarians, as a Body, have retreated still further back, siding with Medieval Theology and American Slavery.
