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    an error in Mr . Frend ' s reply . I by no means intend to insinuate that I was embarrassed to understand my own meaning , but that I was at a loss

    to find out his . And as his present letter is to me still more incomprehensible than his former , that circumstance alone would be a sufficient inducement for declining to answer it , had I been otherwise inclined to do

    so . The word Unitarian , whatever be its etymology , is used by good writers in very different senses . Dr . Lardner uses it in one sense , Dr .

    Price in another , Socinus in a third , and the Bishop of St . David ' s , who contends that the Church of England is Unitarian , in a fourth . I adopt Dr . Lardner ' s definition , because I

    think it best answers the end of language , which is to convey clear and distinct ideas . I could wish that others were of the same mind , and would use the word in the same ^ defi - nite and restricted sense , which I think would greatly contribute to diminish useless logomachy . But if others think fit to use the word in a

    more extensive sense , 1 pretend to no authority to require them to use the word in the same sense that I do . Far from it . In the name of common sense let us each define our terms and

    use our liberty . I may , perhaps , after all , be left in a snug and " inconsiderable minority , " but deny me not the right of private judgment , and 1 am content .

    At the same time I cannot help thinking that some inconvenience may arise from using the word Unitarian in what appears to me to be too lax and extensive a sense . I presume , for example , that the / Unitarian Fund

    Society is composed of Arians and of belie vers in the proper humanity of Jesus Christ . This Society is formed for the express purpose of sending ° ut missionaries and popular preaches to propagate the Unitarian docfrine . 1 will suppose that the Society

    may have commissioned some of its lightened and eloquent members , wch , for instance , as mv worthy nemls , Mr . Vidler or Mn Wright , t 0 break up the fallow ground , and to ^ v the seeds of truth and uncoru pted Christianity , where thev were * ot known before . And I will furto ? PP ° that these able and unvaried labourers have , by their

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    judicious exertions , succeeded in collecting- a church consisting of members whom they have instructed in the important doctrine of the unity and unrivalled supremacy of God : that the Divine Being exists in one person only , that he is absolute in all

    his perfections , that he will not divide his honours either with a supposed created or uncreated logos , or with a holy or an evil spirit : that he is infinite in goodness , and extends his free unpurchased forgiveness to penitent offenders , not from a reference to any foreign consideration whatever , but for his own sake , and because he

    de-Jighteth in mercy . Also , that Jesus Christ is a human being , the son of human parents , in all respects like unto his brethren , and distinguished from them in no other way than as being the greatest of all the prophets of God , the revealer of life and

    immortality , the first begotten from the dead . After this new society has been thus ably taught and disciplined in Christian truth , their judicious instructors may possibly be sent to labour in another part of the vineyard ,

    and other missionaries may be dispatched by the Society to build up the newly-established church . These may perhaps be Arians . They come to their destination , and they find the lately-gathered flock bewildered in what must necessarily appear to them

    to be gross if not dangerous errors . Our predecessors , they will say , were very good , zealous , well-meaning men , but they have sadly misled you from the truth of the gospel . God the

    Father is , indeed , one person only , and alone possessed of all possible perfections y but he has made or generated a son , to whom he has delegated power and authority to form , support and govern the whole created

    universe , or at least that system of which we are a part . But though this great Being is the Lord , our Maker , we are upon no account to worship and bow down before him , though he is our preserver and benefactor , though he is always present with us and doing us good , though he knows all we say and all we think , all we do and

    all we want , and is able to do more for us than we can ask or think ; yet we are never to speak to him as we should do to an earthly friend , we are never to ask any thing of him , nor to

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    Mr . Behham , on the Term < Unitarian * ' 417

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• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1815, page 417, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1762/page/17/