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or to give the member of the Assembly of Divines his pun , mistaken with Socinus ' s tract on the " Authority of Scripture ; " it was translated into English by Combe , in 1732 , with a recommendation by Bp , Smallbrook , and a dedication to Queen Caroline . *
Chap . ii . on «* The growth of So * cinianisme * " is -very short and scanty . ** 111 weeds thrive apace , " says CheyneH * and he instances , " in whole congregations submitting themselves
to the Socinian yoake in Sarmatta " and in there soon being " some hundreds of congregations infected in ' Transylvania j '' for these facts he quotes Calovius , a celebrated Anti-Socinian Writer * From the same Calovius ,
Cheynefll borrows some abuse of I * eiru $ Steinins or Statorhis 9 a popular missionary preacher , by whose unhappy eloquence the sublimest subtilties of Socinus which transcended
vulgar capacities were so explained and smoothed in si popular but plausible way that the most refined notions iqert made familiar to the common peo-, p ? e *^ -This blasphemous wretch did travaile ab extreme Silesia or a in
iriti-9 ham Lithuaniam , tliat he might spread his errors * though he did thereby ofteri endanger his life : he lived a long time , he was » about 66 years of age when he died *" 44 The danger of Socinianisme" is the title of Chap . Ill , Cheynell here says , in a style that has come down
to the present times , that Socinians are not Christians , and that he " cannot but blot out Smalchis his name out of ; the white roll of Christians , i f it ' were but for that one blasphemy , Ghristianiis esse potest qui divinam Christi essentiam negaty i . e . he may be a Christian who denies the divine
nature of Christ . Socinians ate said to " set open a Wide gap to Atheisme , by denying that the soule of man can possibly so Subsist by itselfe after this life as to be
capable of joy or torment , of reward or punishment ; they may , " adds this censor * u when they please * speak plain English and say that there is neither heaven norhelL "
In this and the subsequent chapters fate strictures on Mn C hilling worth ' s
* &t ** *« A PI&l for tJiiit&riaa I ) 5 ssfen ters . ^ By Robert Aspl&ndf fcnd ted . I 2 mo pt fa * Note ft
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books—of these , however , we shall take iio account , as we have hereafter to extract some particulars from an ther pamphlet of CheynelFs , directed entirely against that renowned PTo . testant advocate .
- The dangers of Socinianisme are , to doctrines of the right of private juck ment , the nullity of Fathers or Com * cells * the sufficiency of scripture , the resurrection not the resurrection of the same bod y * the salvableness of heretics a nd all honest virtuous per ^ sons , and the duty of a Catholic , as opposed to a sectarian * spirit .
" Socinians" concludes this Westminster divine ? " are not to be suffered in any state , for they -will not shew any obedience or respect to magistrates ; they say , they have no power
to punish hainous offenders in time of peace , nor have they power to defend themselves or the people by sworch in time ofwarre . But especially , they charge the magistrates to beware how they meddle tvith good honest
hereticks , for all hereticks in the opinion of Arminians and Sociniiins ( who speake favourably in their own cause ) are g'ood pious men . " Cheynell here refers to and misrepresents the opinions of some of the Polish brethren , who h ^ Id , surely in
the spirit of the New Testament , that all war is unlawful and that capital punishments are unwarranted by the laws of God and nature . To his furious spirit these gentle * benevolent sentiments appeared perfectly ridiculous , as they did to the great body oi the divines of that age , who were true members of " the ChurchMilitanthert
below , " which also Cheynell accuses the Socinians of disowning . In fact , the Presbyterian ministers of this time were as much heads of a political as of a religious party ; they preached and prayed politically , and their lives were employed ( until by the Restore tion another set of state divines were placed uttermost ) in promoting the cause of a faction . Modern Dissenters are apt to look back to the West minster divines with awe , as
prodigies of purity and piety ; but in reality no class of ministers were ever deeper involved in worldly schemes and p ^ litical intrigues and struggles for poW " tti They deserve some praise as pa * trfote , though that is diminish **! "tf their inconsistency in tfhrinfcifrg w ®
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l 84 CheynelVs Rise , Growth and Danger 6 / Socinianisme"
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1815, page 164, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1758/page/36/
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