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    remarked , Mr . Orton speaks like &man who has | uoai © y Ji § His pocket " His sentences were generally shdrt : he carefully

    avoided uncommon words . Having once preached conceming the primitive Christians , some poor people meeting his maidr sejvant the next day , asked her ? <* Who thosje Christians we ^ of whom her master spoke so much in his sermon ? Being unable to inform them , when she came home she aspect hina Ithe question . He told her , they were the first Christians ^ # hi | from that time resolved to use the latter term instead of the for *

    nier , and adopted this as a stated niaxim , * ' never to use a har 4 word in a sermon , when an easy one can he found which # § ^ v ^ U e xpre s ses the meaning . " His chief study was practical divinity . He greatly admired the writings of hath Philip andj Matthew Henry , as appears from his address to their jfescejBL . dants , prefixed to his edition of P . Henry ' s life ; and he caijght so much of their manner , that when he preached at Broad ~ OaJe $ where the latter had been minister , the people called hin $ 0

    « Henry the Third . cc In point of doctrinal sentiment / 1 says the biography € e Mr , Orton , who had studied theological controversy witl

    jgreat care and impartiality , was somewhat remote from higr $ Calvinism ? By this loose expression , we apprehend Mr . Pal * mer does not mean to insinuate , that Mr- Orton approachei } in his belief towards hicrh Calvinism , or even that Ji ^ was $ Gah r inist . He might disclaim the appellation ^ tut he was yi rr

    tually , and without any view to praise or blame , we dp not hesitate to pronounce him , an Arminian . As to the doctrine cif tthe Trinity , he seems not to have made up , or rather to hay ^ disclosed / his mind . Mr . P . calls him " a Scripturist ,... $ s in speaking of the Father , Son and Spirit , be was for keeping clovse to the language of holy writ ( as he does in all his writ-i ings ) , and used no doxologies but such as the apostles usjecl . ?

    have been , perhaps without knowing it , a high Arian . No foo d can resnlt from disguising his sentiments , now that he is eyond the reach alike of panegyric and censure ; and however mysterious the divine nature may be in itself , the different schemes concerning it are surely intelligible enough , let w % think as weinay of their reasonableness . ** The words which the Holy Ghost teacheth are much preferable , " it is granted , to . words of human invention , but preferable only becauae th £ y have a fetter meaning . If they have no meaning , they are

    Was he not—does not every judicious Christian esteem himself—a scripturist , on every article of belief I Or , is it on tl ^ e doctrine of the Trinity only that it is necessary to * + keep closp to the language of scripture ? " In fact , Mr . Orton appears ta

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    ^ 260 Ortonv-s Letter *

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1806, page 260, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1724/page/36/