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instead of Unittirian , upon which the author of the Plea observes , as follows : " Your use of the term * Socinian , ' with your explanation of your meaning , * indicates , I fear , that your design towards us is less to instruct and convince , than to reproach and irritate .
* 6 Unitarian is , as you observe , our c Favourite designation ; ' and we approve the name , because it is purely arid justly descriptive of our faith . Your objection to it betrays your unacquaintedness with its history and its import . u Unitarian is not opposed to Tritheist ol Polytheist j it does not denote a believer
in One God as contra-distinguished from a believer in Three Gods , or more Gods than one : it is opposed to Trinitarian— -Triuni-tarian—only , and signifies a believer in , and a worshiper of , One God in One Person , as contra-distinguished from a believer in , and a worshiper of , One God in Three Persons .
•* A lexicographer is the proper authority on this subject . Take , then , the following definitions from Bailees English Dictionary , f who , you will perceive , has no theological bias , in our direction : — "' Unitarian [ of Unitas , L . ] an Heretic , who denies the union of the Godhead in Three Persons i * a SocinianS
< Trinitarians , —those Christians who strenuously contend fora Trinity of Persons in the Godhead . * " This author needed not to have made the definition of Unitarian negative . We deny , it is true , hut we deny by affirming 5 we affirm that the One God is one Person *
You assert , you ' contend , you ' strenuously contend , ' that there are three Persons in the One God ; you are therefore rightly denominated Trinitarians : we , who assert , and , in apostolic phrase , ^; * earnestly contend , ' for the onenes 9 of the Divine Person , which we take to be ¦ * the faith which was once delivered to the saints , ' are truly and properly named Unitarians .
" The sense here given to the term is allowed by one of our opponents , not blameable for an excess of candour , Dr . Berriman . * Butsuch , ' hesays , || had been the arts of Socinus to engage and persuade ,
such his command of temper and appearance of modesty , and such withal his studious application to polish more and more the scheme he had advanced , and to oppose the several sorts of errors that appeared against it , that in the end the various sects of Anti-trinitarians had combined in one ,
* P . 204 . Note -f 1 quote the 11 th ed . 8 vo . 1745 . J Jude , v . 3 . || Historical Account of Controversy on the Trinity , in Eight Sermons , at Lady Moyer ' s Lecture < 8 vo . 1725 . p _ 410 .
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which from him have been usually d € n minated the Socinians ^ thougo their < vj * writers chose rather to distinguish" th en * selves by the niune of Unitarians , to im port their assertion of the numerical unit in such a sense , as excludes all phralit of Person * in the Godhead as tcell as es senees '?
" There may have been a misapprehen . sion of the meaning * of the term Unitarian occasioned or countenanced by such writers as yourself , amongst Unitarians as well as others 5 but the misapprehension has never been general . No intelligent member ot
our denomination thinks to distinguish himself from potytheists or idolaters bv calling- hittaself an Unitarian . If anyone amongst us have used the term invidiously and reproaehfully , we claim the right of disowning his sense of the word .
" But v eyen if any of us had fallen into your error of considering-, the terms Unita . rian and Tritheist , as fairly and directly opposed to each other , we might reasonably have been forgiven , on the
consideration , that some Trinitarians have been Tritheists . You are well acquainted , Sir , with the controversy between Sherlock and South , two of your greatest Divines , on the subject of the Trinity , in the year 1698 j the farmer maintaining the existence of three
eternal minds , — -the latter contending for three personal subsistences , modes , respects , relations , or somewhats , in the divine essence . Sherlock was censured for Tritheism , South for Sabellianism . ^ The University of Oxford declared for South , and against Sherlock ;
§ < The great increase and boldness of this heresy ' , ( Socinianism , ' ) gave occasion to a celebrated divine of our church , write his Vindication of the Doctrine of the holy and ever-blessed Trinity : who , by some terms he made use of in the explication of that great mystery , gave but too plausible a colour , ( in the judgment of sonte person **) for the charge of Tritheism ;
which became the foundation of a most unhappy controversy , and provoked another great divine of our church to enter the lists with him , and propose a different scheme , which , however it made use ot the Catholic expressions , was nevertheless chlrg-ed with Sabellianism . Great was the advantage which our Socinian ad versaria made by this contention . ' -Berriman , Hist .
Ac . p 426 , 427 . 'He , ' Dr . Sherlock , « thought there were three eternal minds ; two oi these issuing : from the Father , but that tlte . se were one , by reason of a mutual consciousness * in the three to every of their thoug hts , this was looked on as plain tritketsrnc lle" ( Dr . South ) < explained the l rinitj in the common met / wdy that the l > € ity one essence in three subsistences : ^ el " lock replied , and charged this us Sa
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ASO Mr * Aspland , in Replu to Pastor v on the Term Unitarian
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1815, page 480, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1763/page/16/
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