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Untitled Article
meat of others , . He always called for proof . He had no notion of taking up his sentiments from human authority . Nothing would move hut reason and argument . "
In the 23 d year of his age , he entered upon the ministry ; and was for a shoVt time , chaplain to Sir John Davy , Bart , at Credy , near Crediton . He then returned
to Lixeter and resided two years in that city ; preaching in the former part of that time occasionally , and in the latter part of it at Thorverton .
In this early stage of his public character , he not only held the received sentiments concerning the doctrine of the Trinity , as they \ vere stated by the assembly of divines at Westminster , but affixed to the profession of them the greatest importance , and regardeda deviation from them , as
extremely dangerous . He declared himself to his friends and hearers , with freedom and warmth , against the opinions of Mr . Whiston and Dr . Clarke . But his zeal appeared to be the expression of fervent love , and was softened by
compassion for those , whom he supposed to be out of the way . He never despised or hated those who wore in . his opinion , erroneous , —would use no methods , inconsistent with integrity , to reclaim them , — nor ever betrayed the innocent freedoms of conversation .
He afterwards , by a long and deliberate reading , a diligent and candid examination of both sides of the question , with many prayers and tears , with much" feax . and trembling , settled into a persuasioa and a view of the subject
• p ^ irce ' s Weaterh Inquisition , p . 13 , 4 % ,
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contrary to that in which he hail been educated . He left behind him a full and judicious account of the progress of his enquiries
and of the grounds of his change of sentiments , in a narrative addressed to Dr . Watts : a copy of this manuscript was put into thg hands of the writer of this , some
years since , and was unfortunately lost t > y a friend to whose inspection it was submitted * A conversation into which Mr . Stogdon fell with a lay gentleman .
who had been looking into the Trinitarian controversy , agitated at that time , first suggested difficulties , which puzzled him , and determined him to study the point and to read Dr . Clarke and those
who had written against him . He endeavoured at first , to concea l from the public the change of opinion , which this course of study produced ; but a private conversation with an intimate friend , in
his own study , having been overheard , was reported and spread through the city . On this ground a clamour was raised against him ; and , iu the spirit and language
of the day , he was stigmatized as an Arian , Deist and Atheist . As to himself , he gloried and rejoiced in the change of his opini ., ons , and declared , that he could afterwards read his bible with
more rational satisfaction and understanding than he could before * . The power of judging concern * ing the qualifications of candi ~ dates for the Christian ministry
was then assumed by the assejmbly of the united ministers of Devon and Cornwall . It originated with the Presbyterian Hierarchy , that had been . established in this king-
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58 Memoir of Che Rev * Hubert Stogdon .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1809, page 58, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1733/page/2/
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