[87] "I think Priestley must be considered the author of modern Unitarianism. I owe, under God, my return to the faith, to my having gone much farther than the Unitarians, and so having come round to the other side. I can truly say, I never falsified the scriptures. I always told them that their interpretations of scripture were intolerable, on any principles of sound criticism; and that, if they were to offer to construe the will of their neighbour, as they did that of their Maker, they would be scouted out of society. I said, plainly and openly, that it was clear enough, John and Paul were not Unitarians.
I make the greatest difference between 'ans' and 'isms.' I should deal insincerely, if I said, that I thought Unitarianism was Christianity. No, as I believe, and have faith in the doctrine, it is not the truth in Jesus Christ. By-the-by, what do you (Unitarians) mean, by exclusively assuming the title of Unitarians? As if Trio-Unitarians were not necessarily Unitarians, as much (pardon, the illustration) as an apple-pie, must of course be a pie! The schoolmen would perhaps have called you Unicists, but your proper name is Psilanthropists, believers in the mere human nature of Christ…. Unitarianism, is in effect, the worst of one kind of Atheism, joined to one of the worst kinds of Calvinism. It has no covenant with God, and it looks upon prayer as a sort of self-magnetizing;—a getting of the body and temper into a certain status, desirable, per se, but having no covenanted reference to the Being to whom the prayer is addressed.
The pet texts of Socinians are quite enough for their confutation with acute thinkers. If Christ had been a mere man, it would have been ridiculous in him to call himself the 'Son of Man;' but being God and man, it then became, in his own assumption, a peculiar and mysterious title. So, if Christ had been a mere man, his saying, 'My father is greater than I,' (John xv. 28.) would have been as unmeaning. It would be laughable, for example, to hear me say, my 'Remorse' succeeded indeed, but Shakspeare is a greater dramatist than I,' But how immeasurably more foolish, more monstrous, would it not be for a man, however honest, good, or wise, to say 'But Jehovah is greater than I.'
"Either we have an immortal soul, or we have not. If we have not, we are beasts; the first and wisest of beasts it may be, but still true beasts. We shall only differ in degree, and not in kind; just as the elephant differs from the slug. But by the concession of all the materialists, of all the schools, or almost all, we are not of the same kind as beasts; and this also we say, from our own consciousness. Therefore, methinks, it must be the possession of a soul within us, that makes the difference.
"Read the first chapter of the Book of Genesis without prejudice, and you will be convinced at once. After the narrative of the creation of the earth and brute animals, Moses seems to pause, and says, 'And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.' And in the next chapter, he repeats the narrative.—'And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;' and then he adds these words, 'and man became a living soul.' Materialism will never explain these last words."
[88] The following notice of Mr. C.'s opium habits, with the reasons for disclosing them, were prefixed to the "Early Recollections," ten years ago, but the arguments are equally applicable at this time, 1847.
[89] A Dissenting minister of Bristol.
[90] It is apprehended that this must be a mistake. I sent Mr. Coleridge five guineas for my Shakespeare ticket, and entertain no doubt but that some others did the same. But his remark may refer to some succeeding lecture, of which I have no instinct recollection.
[91] A request of permission from Mr. Coleridge, to call on a few of his known friends, to see if we could not raise an annuity for him of one hundred a year, that he might pursue his literary objects without pecuniary distractions.
[92] A worthy medical Friend of Bristol, who first in that city, interested himself in the establishment of infant schools.