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whether it is desirable that Christians of this description should be distinguished from the rest of their Unitarian brethren by any name at all . I imagined that a term , opposing them to the believers in our Saviour ' s preexistence , might tend to divide into two sects those , who worship the same God , the benevolent and
merciful Father of mankind ; who avow the same principles respecting the use of the understanding in the inrestigation of sacred truth ; who entertain similar views concerning the duties and prospects of the followers of Jesus ; and who ought to be for ever united in cordial endeavours to
provoke one another to love and to good works . In the second place , 1 intended to say , that if any distinct appellation were requisite , the common and well-known term Socinian did not appear to me so objectionable as it has been sometimes represented ; and I knew of no other word in the
English language , which would be generally understood , and which therefore I could have substituted in its place . But as the body of Christians in question evidently disapprove of being ca \} ed Socinians , and as some of them have proposed to call themselves Humanitarians , I would decide at once in favour of the latter choice .
It Is true that persons prone to cavil may object to this appellation as they have objected to the generic name , Unitarian . They may charge us anew with folly , injustice , and presumption in appropriating to ourselves a designation , which belongs to us no more than to them , as if forsooth we
were the only men in the world who believe in the humanity of Christ . We know , however , that they , who would urge this objection , might object to any name whatsoever , and that the meaning of words does not depend so much upon their etymology
as upon the established practice of those who employ them . After considering therefore the candid and judicious observations of your respected correspondents , I beg leave to retract
my recommendation of the term Socinian , and to state that , although I had rather perhaps avoid the use of any term subordinate to Unitarian , yet I have no objection to adopt the name Humanitarian , not as the desigiration of a separate sect opposed to the Arians , but as a brief and con-
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710 Pastor in Reply to Mr . Aspland , on the Term Unitarian .
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venient method of denoting the sentiments of those Christians , who maintain that our Saviour was a human being in his original nature . Hoping that the ample discussion of this important subject in your Repository may prevent any further dispute upon the title of all believers in the supremacy of the Father to be called Unitarians , until the name
Unitarian itself shall be lost and absorbed in that of Christian , I remain , Sir , Yours respectfully , JAMES YATES .
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Sir , ME . ASPLAND maybe assured , 1 have no feeling towards him but that of respect ; and as to his reflections against me , I pass them with
a smile of forgiveness . Perhaps he may one day find that I have no reluctance to affix my name to the sentiments I have recently written for your Repository .
I have been unfortunate in my expressions , or Mr . A . has been unfortunate in his apprehension of their meaning . I should have been chargeable with making a " strange
complaint" indeed , if I had complained of the term Unitarian being used at all , by him or any other persons to whom it belongs . On the contrary , I have not written a word tending to put the term iC under proscription . " It is a very proper term , if used in a proper manner ; and so is the word Trinitarian . But neither of them , in my opinion , ought to be selected as the distinguishing appellation of any particular class of Unitarians or
Trinitarian s « This opinion I shall endeavour to establish . Mr . Aspland says of the term under consideration , " I use it as I do the terms Christian and Protestant , and am the better pleased with it , because like those terms it expresses a
principle on which I am in a state of agreement with a respectable portion of my fellow-creatures . " Very well . Here we exactly coincide , although Mr . A . most unaccountably says this " displeases" me . I am perfectly
pleased with this representation , and it is precisely in this way that I would use the term myself , as expressing a principle on which several classes of Christians are agreed . But is it not a curious way of describing any par-
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1815, page 710, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1766/page/46/
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