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the guilt of sin ; I will therefore keep for my own use and benefit , what I hold to Ihe prejudice of my neighbour . " We know what Christians in otir age and country ha ^ . e named themselves , exclusively , Evangelical- On
that subject I will quote the third Consideration entire , as a valuable acknowledgment , from a well-informed adversary , that those Christians have always proved themselves the most zealous and consistent Scripturists , on ¦ whom Papists and Protestants have agreed to affix the frightful brand of heresy .
" I am as much at a loss to know upon what principle the Lutherans and Calvinists exclude the Avians and
Anabaptists out of their Evangelical Communion . For these pretend an equal right to the name , and that their doctrine is agreeable to the truth of the gospel , nay , that they are more properly Evangelical than the J ^ u-
therans or Calvinists are , we dont read , say the Anabaptists , in any part of the gospel that infants ought to be baptized . Jesus Christ himself says in St . Mark , lie that believes and is baptized , shall be saved , ( Mark xvi . 16 . ) Therefore faith must go before baptism .
Now faith is only to be found in the adult , therefore no one till then ought to be baptized . Consequently our doctrine is more agreeable to the gospel than that of the Lutherans or Calvinists , who admit the baptism of infants . And thus plead the Arians ,
our Saviour says expressly in St . John ' s gospel , my Father is greater than I . ( John xiv . 28 . ) We follow then the gospel when we teach that , as to the divine nature , the Son is not equal to but inferior to his Father . We admit , not upon this text , the interpretation of the fathers , who
will have it , that the Son is less than his Father , according to his human nature , but equal to him according to his divinity - > for we think the Lutherans and Calvinists have no right to force upon us any such interpretation , since they reject the authority of fathers in the controversies that are
on foot between them' and Catholics . For we see no reason why their authority should be allowed in this point and not in others . " But if the Lutherans and Calvinists insist upon their own authority or the interpretation of their private
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spirit , the Ariaiis and Anabaptists tttf require them to point out in express terms this their interpretation in the Scripture ^ because 'tis a princi ple with all of them , that nothing is to be believed as an article offaith but what
the Scripture teaches in express , inteU ligible and clear terms . " Pp . 5 , 6 . In a review of his reasons at tfie conclusion of his wdirlc , the author thus agairf refers to the same subject ie I have never been able to learn upon
what account the Lutherans alone call themselves Evangelical , or why the Calvinists style themselves the reformed religion . Nor can it enter into my head why the Anabaptists , the new Ariansy and the Unitarians may not with as good a grace assume
to themselves the same appellation . " P . 72-The following story forming the thirty-first Consideration ^ will be peculiarly interesting to an English Reader .
* ' I remember that being once present in my youth at a dispute of school divinity which was held among the Calvinists 3 one of the audience more knowing than the rest , proposed before all the company , in the person of
a Catholic , an argument which so gravelled the professor , that it quite silenced him for a time . Then to get clear of it as well as he could , he told us that being formerly in England he had proposed the same difficulty to one of their doctors , who had no other
answer to give him , than that no pertinent resolution could be made to the argument , and by consequence , that in this point no direct answer was to be given to Catholics , but the only way was to avoid the force ana ami of it by some logical evasion . —So that I judged the Sectaries took not much to heart the truth of matters
concerning articles of faith . " 1 27 « It cannot be read without regret , that this learned and pious pnnce unable to adjust the rival claims ot " the Lutheran , the Calvinist , the Arian or the Anabaptist , " could not at the age of seventy-five become an EcUctic , or rather return to the . New Testament
the judge that ends the strife Where wit and reason fail . On the contrary , he determines " return to the pale of the Roman i _ a * tholio church" — among for ty-mn
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150 Book-Worm . No XIX .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1815, page 150, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1758/page/22/
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