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If Candidus knows to what sect I belong , I suspect he knows more than I do myself . I am sorry I cannot return his compliment by acknowledging myself as one of his sect , and that there " isno difference in our religious sentiments . " Deeply impressed with
a sense of the truth and importance of Christianity , and of the danger of rejecting it > I must declare that the religious differences between us , judging from the sentiments in his letters , areas wide as the two poles ; a declaration I can easily make without feeling an iota of personal enmity .
I am repeatedly addressed as an " Unitarian minister , " Now , I confess , that if Unitarianism includes in it the sentiments I have been opposing , I shall be as anxious to abjure the name , as one of your respectable correspondents declares he shall be ,
if that strict sense of it maintained by another respectable correspondent should prove to be correct : but without giving any opinion on the interesting discussion on this subject , now carrying on in your Repository , I proceed to observe , that C andidus
in addressing me as an u Unitarian minister , " has " exalted me above measure . " To prevent therefore any misunderstanding on this point , it is necessary to observe , that I hold no distinction between clergy and laity 5 that I have smiled at the idea of a
man being rendered of a sacred order 9 by any act of others of a sacred order ; or by any of those titles , or . distinctions of dress , —those trifles which I am sorry to observe are in this enlightened age , even by men of sense and piety , deemed necessary to be preserved for the amusement of our
numerous grown babies in the Christian church . As I never was pastor of a church and have no right to the term " minister , " as it is commonly used , so I suspect my right to the term Unitarian will scarcely be allowed , more especially as men of learning have not yet settled what is included in the
term . My occasional services have jt e&n nearly equally divided amongst ^ alvinists , Methodists , Trinitarians a nd Unitarians , my aim is I hope to ? H » ? °° ^ * ° au y denomination of ^ nristians who may require my services . I have no wish to be called y any other names than Chose of Vtristia n and Protestant Dissenter .
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My ambition is , I confess , to deserve , if but even in a far inferior degree , the encomium passed on the renowned Chilling worth . " Upon the whole , " says his biographer , " we should choose to say that Chillingworth was tied to no system : he was an inquirer ,
not ashamed to take up and lay down principles , according to the evidence brought forward by constant investigation : his was not Trinitarianism , not Socinianism , but a sort of eclectic faith , culled from all systems , in
proportion as he found any of them agreeing with the Bible . " * To which may be added another excellent example , the late Mr . Cappe , of whom his venerable and most useful relict has recorded , that he was not fond of
claiming any of the party names by which the Christian world are unhappilv divided . But , I fear , Sir , I have wearied your readers as much as I have myself in this sport of literary duck-hunting ; I may however venture to promise that I shall never intrude on them in
a similar manner . I have already shewn I am by no means anxious for the last word , having left your correspondent Chiron in possession of the field , repeating his redoubtable and modest assertion , that all the
defenders of Christianity in this country aref " cowards and braggadocios . " Should Candidus therefore feel inclined to renew the contest by repeating , for a third time , his refuted charges , or by inventing others of a similar nature , I shall no longer continue a
controversy in which confutation so far from producing conviction , draw * down additional abuse on the confutator . My silence , I am persuaded , will not be misconstrued by your readers . What is of much greater consequence , is the question—Who
has acted , as a Christian , the most consistent part ?—He who lias defended the friends of Christianity and professed his faith in the very language of the sacred writings , or he who lias " inveighed violently ' against him
for so doing . —This important question will be decided by him whom all Christians acknowledge to be their sole Lord and Judge , and whose decision cannot be erroneous . An attention to his decisions , as afready pronounced on some of the great * Monthly Itcpos . Vol . ix . p .. 214 .
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Mr . Flower ' s Defence against the Charges of Candidus . 423
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1815, page 423, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1762/page/23/
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