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Essex Street , Sept . 6 , 1 SK 5 . Sir , REQUEST that , it may be un-I derstood that I have no controversy at issue with any of your
respectable correspondents concerning the meaning of the term Unitarian . Out of the various significations which it is known to bear , I have selected that which appears to me to be the most appropriate . I have defined my term : to shew that I have not
arbitrarily annexed a new signification to the word , I have appealed to grave authorities : I have pointed out what appear to me to be the inconveniences of using the word in a more extended sense : and finally , I trust that I have correctly adhered to the definition
with which I set out , so that no person who reads the book can mistake the meaning of the author . To all this I presume that as a writer intending to be understood I had an indefeasible claim . I never pretended that my definition was the only one which had ever been given of the
word Unitarian . I never authoritatively imposed it upon others . I never was angry with anyone for using the word in a different sense . And though after all that has been said , I still remain decidedly of opinion that if truth and distinctness of ideas be the object in view the more restricted definition
is the most convenient , yet if others think differently they are at fu j ] liberty to act according to their judgment , only adhering strictly to the definition with which they set out in order to avoid quibbling and verbal controversy . Upon this subject , Sir , I shall trouble Vou no further .
With Arianism I make no compromise any more than with Trinitarianism : from which , in its highest state as held by Dr . Clarke , 1 think with the Bishop of St . David ' s , its practical difference is very trifling . Nor indeed is the difference verv
considerable as it was held by Dr . Price and those who are called lower Arians : only that they contend for what appears to me to be a great inconsistency , namely , tint the Son is not to be worshiped , though lie is the Uord our Maker , Preserver , Governor and Judgr . l $ ut though 1 shall ever protest in the strongest terms against this eiiormous corruption of the Christian doctrine , 1 should be sorry to be suspected of entertaining * the slightest
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Mr . Belsham on the Term Unitarian . 555
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up . But while their mental obliquity is g great that they pretend to see no difference between him who believes
God to he one person and him who believes him to be three persons , or in other words , that believers and disbelievers in the Trinity are equally Unitarians , we can scarcely expect them to be so rational , as the above
hint requires . I very much deprecate the idea of the Unitarians forming themselves into different parties . They are too much like a rope of sand already ; every thing of difference
should be as much as possible avoided . It will be quite time enough for them to split upon the question whether Jesus was simply a human being , or the logos , or something else , when they have by union cleared the world of the Trinitarian doctrine . For which
reason I much admire the broad base upon which most of our Unitarian Societies stand ; and I greatly approve and have extensively circulated a decisive Unitarian sermon from the pen of Mr . Hughes , published by the Southern Society , * but which has
been condemned by some persons , though I am happy to say these persons are comparatively few , because the author avows in it , his attachment to the opinion that Jesus preexisted . But whether-he did or did
not , it has nothing to do , in my estimation at least , with Unitarianism ; and I sincerely hope , that by the formation of local societies for popular preaching , or by some other means , which , now the attention of Unitarians appears to he turned to the subject , may be adopted , those who cannot receive the doctrine of the
Trinity will become a more compact , united , and energetic body , maintaining their H £ ht , and their exclusive right to the honourable name of Unitarian , charitabl y waving- the discussion oi those points which axe not
immediatel y involved in the designation and which can only serve to give pleasure * triump h to their adversaries . 1 remain , Sir , Yours r es j ) e ct f u 11 v , JOHN FULLAGAR .
t The iitleof this Discourse is , " Tin : lj « es and Attributes of "God , no proof oi " JDiviuitv to whom they are ascribed . ' " Eaton . *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1815, page 555, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1764/page/23/
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