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reproach : nor does this term describe the united fearlessness and candour with which Dr . Priestley and Mr , Lindsey were accustomed to impugn those sentiments that they disapproved . That " the appellation of Unitarians belongs equally to Jews and Mahometans / 1 is substantially , though not verbally , an error of the biographer ,
and has likewise the aspect of a very invidious remark . Can he be ignorant that Unitarians , in its application to the persons concerning whom he writes , is an elliptical expression , and stands for Unitarian Christians ?
And does he really believe thai this is also appropriate " to Jews aud Mahometans ?"
We welcome the opportunity now afforded us of submitting to our read ers a few reflections on the -I aim of those Christians who avow an undisguised nnd unreserved faith in the humanity of Jet-us of Nazareth to be denominated exclusively by the title of Unitarians .
If the usage of a considerable number of years w ** re permitted to avail in such a discussion as the present , the debate would not be protracted . From the time of Dr . Lardner , * with few , and those recent , exceptions , the name in question has been confined
to persons who believe that Christ was strictly and literally of our race . It was previously employed with greater latitude , and comprehended Arians , together with the body of men who are vulgarly but erroneously styled Socinians . Our much-respected correspondent , Mr . James Yates , has established this fact with care and
accuracy : f nor had we failed to perceive , in the works of J ^ mlyn and of some of his contemporaries , abundant proof that the word possessed formerl y a less restricted meaning than what , in our own age , it has ,
m general , been understood to bear . Its etymologyi we must further concede , is opposed to Trinitarian : and perhaps many advantages might result from the practice of regarding as Unitarians , all who acknowledge and
Worshi p «« One God , the Father ;" Without any reference to their views of the rank of Jesus Clirist in the » calc of created beings . Certainly , it i ^ m ^^ ^^ ^^ * Works , vi . 619 , &c . t Mon . IUpo « . Vol . x . 475 , fc « .
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is a pleasing , though a novel , sight to behold this increasing anxiety of men to be ranked among Unitarians : the epithet , we find , has lost much of the odium , not to say contempt ,
once attached to it on the part of those by whom it is now challenged as their right : and he who is known by a name so honourable , will not , we may hope , be a stranger to the principles and conduct which it really implies .
Still , notwithstanding our inclination to use " the appellation of Unitarians" in a generic ^ sen se , there is a single , though weighty , argument , that we cannot resist , for our
considering it as most properly bestowed on the persons who reject the tenet of the pre-existence of Christ , and maintain the huvuanitv—the true and sole humanitv of his nature . The New
Testament affirms thus much : it asserts the intimate connexion subsisting between this doctrine and that of the absolute unity of God . Why else does the apostle declare , 1 Tim . ii . 59 " There is one God and one mediator
between God and men , the man Christ Jesus ? " || To this statement we invite the particular attention of those of our readers who profess Arianism ( or , rather , what passes for Arianism ) , under any modifications .
We return to Mr . Morgan . —Having informed us ( 181 ) that the funeral sermon for Dr . Price was published , at the request of the congregation of the Gravel-Pit Meeting-House , in Hackney , " and possibly read by some of them with the same feelings as [ with
which ] it had been delivered , '' he proceeds : " but since all connexion between them and Dr . Price ' s relatives was necessarily broken off at his decease , and a great part of them have long ago followed him to the grave , I know very little of that body , nor am I aware that any of their
proceedings subsequent to his death have displayed such peculiar regard to his memory as to have the least claim to be recorded in the history of his life . " The public cannot be interested in learning why and how " all connexion between the Gravel-Pit congregation and Dr . Price ' s relatives was necessarily broken off at his decease . **
% Ib . 476 . || Compare also to ^ ethor Acts xviL 24 , 31 .
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Review Morgan ' s Life of Price . 585
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1815, page 585, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1764/page/53/
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