Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Simplicity in the Christian Faith Alike Scriptural and Powerful: A Sermon, Delivered on the Morning of Lord's Day, July 1, 1827, at the Second Independent Church in Charleston, S. C
But from the distorted second-hand representations which he had received of the testimony of the early Fa thers, he still felt confident that Ecclesiastical History was in favour of the doctrine. How much was he sur prised to find, on looking a little nearer, that their tes timony obviated the greatest difficulty in the Unitarian system, by authorizing us to refer the Trinitarian doc trine of the Logos, to the Platonic and Gnostic philo sophy, which was so much in vogue with most of the first learned converts to Christianity. The unlearned, we have reason to believe, continued Unitarian, until the Church gradually submitted to the authority of these speculative philosophers. The writer thus found, that he was compelled, with Augustine, to acknowledge his obligation to Plato for his belief in the Trinity. The result has been, that he felt called upon by con science to leave the Episcopal Ministry. Still be per ceived the propriety of proceeding with great hesitation in so serious a change; and he thinks that he must now be acquitted of precipitation, when, after devoting nine months to reflection, inquiry and prayer, he has complied with requests to preach to a society formedon the scriptural principle that, whosoever believeth Jesus to be the Messiah, is born of God.' Had other motive beside the dictate of conscience been wanting to induce him to continue in that men tion to which Providence had called him, it might be found in his excusable desire not to lead an idle life. From other occupations he was precluded by incompe tence, and the apprehensions of those with whom a Unitarian is confessedly a proscribed man 'habet foenum in cornu; longe fuge.' About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
