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by those who know him ; and surprising in a day , when the principles of religious liberty are so justly appreciated , widely disseminated , and avowed from the episcopal bench . His lordship is , however , a dissenter
from his brethren , and laments the measure which they supported and advocated- This he has done in " A Br ief Memorial on the Repeal of the 9 th and IOth William HI . &c , " and m " A Charge to his Clergy , " to which the title of the above tract
refers . His lordship ' s " Memorial " has received aN most ample and able review from the pen of Mr . Belsham . The Lay ^ eceder , who , we understand has separated from the
Establishment on Unitarian principles , and has gained deserved praise as a biographical writer , here animadverts with candour on the " Charge to the Clergy , ' iu which Dr . Burgess laments the repeal of those penal
statutes as " the loss of guards intended for the protection of our common Christianity . " " The repeal of such laws , enacted to stop the progress of free inquiry , and to silence those enlightened
advocates for the sole deity and supremacy of Jehovah , whose arguments it was not otherwise found easy to refute , if not called for by any recent instances of persecution , was surely , " says our author , " no less demanded by the improving spirit of the age . It was
time , that , in pursuing the path of free inquiry into the language and meaning of scripture , our countrymen should be released , not only from the actual dread of persecution , but even from the stigma which such statutes were intended to affix /*
On these principles the piece before us is a candid , respectful and forcible remonstrance with the Bishop of St . Davids , on the strong , not to say illiberal disapprobation with which he expresses himself ; and on the fears and alarm which he testifies on the repeal of those statutes .
Admitting 1 , " says the author , lc that the truth of Christianity consists in ita esteatial doctrines ; and the belief of it in tit © admission of all that are founded on the authority of scripture , let us consider what may be fairly deemed essential
docbrines ^ and what proof you have adduced in their support . * The existence and divinity ot three persons in one GodJ which yon contend for being * no where explicitly E % v 6 &led , I suspect can only be supported in opposition to th « clear and decisiy « tea *
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hmony of scripture , by the forced !« # * pretation of a few passages , wrested fro * their context , or by others whose autho rity is liable to dispute . It is in vain ra » lord , that you decry the authority of ' reJ son in these matters ; the fact is no less clearly against you : in the same scrip , tures , which teach us there is only one God the sole creator and ruler of the universe no distinct traces of your three omni present persons can be found .
In a subsequent paragraph , the author appeals to the bishop on the nature of tenets maintained hy those against whom the severe penalties of those statutes have been hitherto 4 t
in force . Let us consider , my lord , what are the opinions which , under the name of blasphemy , you arraign so vehemently 3 and who are the supposed enthusiasts and levellers , so long amenable to the penal law . The existence of one God , by whom all things were created ; the divine
mission , death , and resurrection of Christ ; the divine authority of his precepts , revealed in the gospel ; and the hope of immortality in the resurrection of the dead , are the leading tenets maintained by Unitarians ; the essential doctrines which they deduce from
scripture , as clearly and explicitly revealed . Such was the avowed faith of Lardner , the more than suspected creed of Newton and Locke ; such were the strictly-scriptural conclusions for which Lindsey , Jebb and Disney resigned their preferment in the
Church of England ; and which were embraced among Dissenters , by Simpson , by Priestley , and by Cappe . And such , my lord , if any additional authorities should still be wanting , were the doctrines openly espoused by the late Duke of Grafton , Sir
George Saville , and Attorney-General Lee . In these opinions where does your lordship find any appearance of blasphemy ; among such men where would you have selected a proper subject for the penal law ? Away , then , with all idle lamentation about
the repeal of statutes , so totally inapplicable and absurd ; which , althoug h at times , they might give sanction to an unjust , illiberal stigma , affordirtg * no proof of the tolerant spirit / could
have conferred neither credit nor security on the Established Church . Your lordship may declaim against what you deem ' the insidious arts or Socinian and Infidel innovation ; *>«
the progress of free inquiry can » o longer be impeded in thi * country ,
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374 Review . —A Lay Seceder ' s Letter to the Bishop of St . Davifa .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1815, page 374, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1761/page/46/
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