On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
a mitigation of punishment . 4 . The reformers stood upon very delicate ground—every heresy was laid to their charge with a view to their prejudice , and Servetus being a Socinian it was compulsory in them to give their verdict against him . 5 . To th e
persecuting spirit of the times the greatest blame is attributable : and the mode of his death—it was the error and infection of those days , when the nature and foundation of religious liberty was not understood . Lastly , several eminent divines approved of the action after it was done , viz . Bucer ,
CEco-Jampadius , Farel , Beza , and the humane Melancthon himself , in a letter addressed by him to Calvin on the subject . Vide Sennebier ' s account of Calvin ' s treatment of Servetus , in Dr . Erskine ' s Sketches and Flints of Church History , vol . ii . 9 , 77 , and Bayle ' s Dictionary , art . Calvin ,
I think the above will suffice to ^'<^ r off a little obloquy which the T * ts always used ag-ainst the Reformers - { in which they have been too hastily followed by others ) , and shew that the disgrace of burning Servetus ( an act which makes us shudder in these
enlightened times ) was at least not peculiar to Calvin , 1 am , Sir , yours very truly , SlAug . 1815 . W . H . N .
Untitled Article
Bereus , in Reply to V . P . and Mr . E . Taylor ; on Enfield s Sermons . 56 $
Untitled Article
Sir , . Sept . S , 1815 . ON opening your last number , I perceive that I must not yet repose like " him that putteth off the harness . " Three more antagonists appear , and others may be advancing . I shall not regret their number , even though they " contend earnestly , " while " the weapons of our warfare are not carnal . "
V . F ., who has often communicated valuable information to your pages , first claims my attention . That signature , originally adopted , if I guess a-Ji ght , as a grateful record of filial affection , is now honourably employed to
vindicate the memory of a friend , ^ justly , as I think , supposed to have been misrepresented by me . I respect toe motives of V . F . too much not to avoid scrupulously any expression w hich might hurt his feelings , though *** has borne rather hard upon me . W ere he a Dictator , I fear he would too readil y degrade me from the only ¦ abilit y of which I believe either of 18 tenacious , the rank of noble
Untitled Article
Bereans , because , though I inquired whether the things were so , the inquiry was not conducted according to his judgment . Yet V . F . will allow it to have produced the best possible
result , in a public refutation of a public censure ; a result which I am glad to have occasioned , for I never had th © slightest ill-will to the memory of Dr . Enfield , who was indeed a stranger to me , bat to whose various writings I have been indebted for much valuable
knowledge , familiarized by the ease and perspicuity of his style . To his posthumous Sermons I had no immediate access , nor any distinct recollection of their subjects ; when , looking for another article in Mr , Chalmers ' * Biography , I accidentally fell upon hi *
censure of their tendency . That censure I should have known to be unjust , had i then possessed the information which I thank Vindex for affording me j though recollecting only the Sermons published in 1769 , I confess that I feared such a censure might have been too justly incurred .
As to the point for which alone I first mentioned that publication , I am quite satisfied with V . F- ' s estimate of his friend ' s " juvenile compositions /* I have often read and admired them as " beautiful essays , " though I would rather have found in " Sermons for the 11
Use of Familiesa developement of Christian doctrines , accompanied , as such should always be , with a moral application . V . F . must allow me to say that , as often happens among rival forensic advocates , he has proved for me mv case- Scrutator described a
number of aged Unitarian ministers who had spent their youth , according to his representation , in opposing popular errors , like our missionaries * not merely negatively , but by contending , through evil report and good report , for wh at we esteem the truth as it is in
Jesus . I demurred to this statement , and instanced the Sermons of Preachers among' those called Rational Christians , especially the small volume by Dr . Enfield in 1769 . That volumeV . F . is constrained to admit to be a proof in point , for he finds himself obliged to pass from " the juvenile compositions" to the "later discourses" of hi »
friend , before he finds any which he can satisfactorily advise me ** to read and study ' that I may become " a more enlightened Unitarian , * though 1 am conscious that any of the Discourse )* of
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1815, page 563, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1764/page/31/
-