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    Untitled Article

    Dr . Nzc . Gibbon ' s " Socinian Popery S * Sir , For two centuries after the

    Reformation in England , the charge of Popery was bandied from one to another , amongst our sects . The puritans accused the highchurch party of it , and they retorted it : it was a watch-word

    with the Nonconformists in the civil wars , and Dr . South wittily * , but somewhat malignantly , represents them in alliance with Papists against the monarchy and church of England * .

    * South pursues this subject in the 1 st sermon of his 6 th vol . on The fatal Influence of Words and Names falsely applied . In a short passage , which it may be worth while to quote , he represents the Popish and Protestant Dissenters of the 17 th century , more sociable

    than history , I fear , will warrant :- — " If these-two parties are so extremely contrary , as they pretend to be , what is the cause now-a-days that none associate , accompany and visit one another 'with that peculiar Jrendliness , intimacy and familiarity zvith which the Romanists visit the

    Nonconformistsy and the Nonconformists them f So that it is generally observed in the country , that none are so gracious and so sweet upon one another as the rankest Papists and the most noted fanaticsS * ~~ - Sermons vi . qq . It appears from Baxter , that South himself narrowly escaped being puritanitied . This curious circumstance is

    recorded in connection with another not less curious , which the historian of himself has an evident pleasure in relating . < c About that time , Bishop Morley having preferred a young man , named Mr . S ~ ( orator of the University of Oxford > a fluent , witty satyrist r and one that was sometime moticrnedlo me to be my

    curate at Kidderminster . /) this man being household chaplain to the Lord Chancellory was * appointed io preach before the king ; where the crowd , had high expectations of some vehement satyr : but when he had preached a quarter of an hour , he was utterly at a loss , and so wnablc to recollect himself , that he could

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    But the most curious application of the Popery-charge is to be found in Richard Baxter ' s Life of himself , who represents himself as discovering that strange compound , ( Ivsvs t / icologic ? , ) a SociniaruPapist : I extract his words as

    follows : — c < While I lodged at the Lord BroghilPs , a certain person was importunate to speak with me , Dr . Nic . Gibbon ; who shutting the doors on us that there might

    be no witnesses , drew forth a scheme of theology , and told me how long a journey he had once taken towards mo , and engaged me to hear him patiently open to me his scheme , which he said was the very thing that I had

    been long groping after ; and contained the only terms and method to resolve all doubts , whatever in divinity , and unite all Chris . tians through the world : and there

    was none of them printed but what he kept himself ^ and he communicated them only to such as were prepared , which he thought I was , because I was 1 . Searching , 2 . Impartial ^ , and 3 . A Jover of method . I thankt him and heard him

    above an hour in silence , and after two or three days talk with go no further , but cried , The Lord be merciful to our infirmities ^ and so came down . But about a month after , they were resolved yet , that Mr . S . should preach the same sermon before the kin ?

    and not lose his expected applause : and preach it he did , little more than half an hour , With no admiration at all of the hearers : and for his encouragement thfc sermon "was printed . And when it was printed , many desired , to see what words

    they were that he was stopped at the first time : and they found in the printed copy all that he had said first , and one of the next passages which he was to have delivered , was against me for my Holy Commonwealths ' ' —Baxter ' s Life , B . I , pt , a . § 267 .

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    Dr . Nic . Gibbon ' s u Socinian PoperyS > 91

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1812, page 91, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1745/page/27/