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his friends were loaded with the oppfobrioas names of Heretics , Armiiiians , Socinians , &c . How far Wetstein did really go in his religious creed , it is difficult to say . He certainly , through all the controversy , denied the full extent of the charges brought against him on that head ,
but at the same time he does not conceal his difference in opinion as to the interpretation of many important passages from the Calvinistic divines , and avows strongly his disapprobation of the language used , particularly on the subject of the Trinity , by the zfealous brethren who shewed
themselves ready to go all lengths , and cry out in the words of Tertullian , * " non pudet quia pudendum est , prorsum credibile est , quia ineptum est , eertum est quia impossible est . f
" The matter , " says he , " was carried to such a pitch by the zeal of Frey , that the expressions Trinity is Unity , one is three , and three are one , however false and absurd in
arithmetic and grammar , came to be considered in theology as true , pious and orthodox . ' f ** By this sort of language , " he
observes in another place , " it appeared to me that both common sense and true scriptural doctrine would be overwhelmed , the natural and instinctive notions of all civilized nations
concerning the Supreriie Being , destroyed , and a senseless form of words substituted in their place , so as to sap the foundations of both natural religion , and the revelation which is , as it were , a superstructure to it . This I thought it my duty to oppose
* In lib . de Carne Christi . f A hymn in which the orthodox of that day delighted , describing- the very hands -which created the world as nailed to the cros ^ hj would not disgrace some modern collections : O Jesu Christe , Gottes sohn , Du scho |» fer aller Dinge , Walir ist es , dn lias aelber mich Mit denier hand bereitet .
* # Ach ! scltaue deine lmude an Durch Welch icli bin formieret ; Die sind die Vdnde , die fur mich Mit nsiglen haben lasuen sich A us holtz des creiitzes sclilagen , Darinncii sfteht mit deinein blut Meiu name aiigesdhreibcu .. t Proiogom . 206 .
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with all my power and the opportunities which my situation furnished me , and zealously inculcated the distinction between the divine persons . " * The failure of Wetsteitfs enemies had not discouraged them ; on the
contrary , the boldness with which he openly inveighed against the absurdity and mischievous tendency of the doctrines which they inculcated , stimulated them to further exertions to cut
off the offending member : and at length their perseverance was crowned by a triumph , if , as he observes , " bella ejusmodi theologica triumphos liabere possunt . " A long list of charges were preferred by his active opponent Frey , in an ecclesiastical
convention of the ministers of Basle , in which violent and arbitrary measures were adopted in order to constitute a court inclined to go all lengths with the prosecutors . The charges were then supported by garbled
passages from the loose notes taken by his pupils of his lectures ; every scrap of paper that could be seized upon was ransacked ; every expression which indicated an approach to a liberal spirit of theological inquiry or biblical criticism , was tortured into
proof of the nonconformity of his views to the standard of the old reformers , and of the heterodoxy of his creed . Some of his pupils were also produced in evidence against him , and induced to depose to insulated expressions and opinions , which they were
made to recollect hearing fall from their master ; and this mockery of justice ended in what might be expected from a court composed of his determined enemies , a sentence of suspension , and at last of deposition and degradation from his ministerial functions .
It should , however , be observed , that all this did not pass without strong reprobation from * the Council of Basle , and from several of the Swiss Churches . The Convocation published a laboured defence , in which it had recourse to falsehood and prevarication of the lowest . description ; while Wetstein had the satisfaction
of receiving from several of the Swiss Churches , written disavowals ( in opposition to the assertion of the * Prole gom . 204 .
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$ 32 The Nonconformist * No . IX .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1819, page 252, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1771/page/40/
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