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REVIEW.
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Art . I . — 'The J&ton . Lecturer Reproved ; being a Reply to the calumnious Charges of the Rev . C A . Moysey 9 D . J ) . etc > > in his late Hampton Lectures against tiie Unitarians * and especially the Editors of the Improved Version ; in Letters to a
Friend . To' wJiick is annexed , A Letter 9 in Reply to the Charges of the Very Reverend Dean Magee , in Volume II . Parish of his Dissertations on Atonement and Sacrifice . By Thomas Belsham , Minister of Essex Street Chapel . 8 vo . pp . 108 . Hunter and Eaton . 1819 *
CONTROVERSIAL work A which is not answered is usually represented by party zeal as unanswerable j we are pleased * therefore , that Mr . Belsham has condescended to take up his pen against the present assailant of the Unitarians , who is no
otherwise considerable than as he has connected himself , in the quality of Bampton Lecturer , with the great theological question of our trtnes . Trinitarian writers are fond of depreciating both the numbers and the
talents of the Unitarians ; hut their own practice shews that they do not consider these opponents as few or weak . Not a sermon is preached upon any public occasion , not a charge is delivered , as Mr . Belsham says , p . 118 , but a thrust is made at the
Unitarians . From the highest dignitary to the lowest aspirant , all are loud in their invectives against the Unitarians . Mr . Belsham adds , u 1 ms even been said that attempts have Veft made to poison the car , and to excite Uje prejudices of the august representative qf royalty , who cannot indeed be expected
to enter deeply into theological speculation , and who will probably be content to Relieve as the church believes ; but wUo , $ trust , will never depart from those principles of toleration which have hitherto distinguished his illustrious House , which « o fondly endeared the Hanover Family *» d the Hanover Succession to the op *
pressed nonconformists of a former age ; and the reverse of which first devoted to public execration , and afterwards banished from the throne , tfye detested , family of Stuart As to the reported conduct of tire
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most reverend assailant upon tlie occasion to which I allude , if the rumour is correct , to say the least , it was not very manly to attack where a defence was impossible . " —Pp . 118 , 119 . These incessant attacks upon the Unitarians may be owing , in many cases , to the sincere horror which the
reputed orthodox feel in contemplating a system of faith which they apprehend endangers men ' s salvation , and in some instances they may have been provoked by the supposed aggression of Unitarian sermons or publications ; bat they cannot be wholly jaccounted for , except on the admission of a certain unsoundness of which the Trinitarians are conscious in their own arguments , and of gl consequent growing defection from their own
communion . The danger from Ubitarianism is not at any rate magnified in the eye of the thorough believer , by any affectation of mystery in the proceedings of the Unitarians themselves . Mr . Belsham says , witH a * much truth as good-humour ,
" -All that Unitarians do to promote their cause is done openly , without any reserve or affectation of concealment . Their books are published , their lectures are advertised ; the proceeding's of their societies ate made known ; hardly half a dozen can meet together for friendly
conversation , but the secretary sends up the account , signed with his initials , for the next Repository ; and hardly any pious and charitable female is . gathered t 6 her fathers , hut her works and virtues are immediately chronicled for the benefit of posterity . Our adversaries may smile , at the
consequence we assume ; hut at any rate , a community , which affects so much publicity , can never be suspected of treasonable designs ; and whatever passes among ourselves , nothing hostile or unfriendly to our fellow-Christians , however different in opinion , ever escapes upon such . occasions . "— Pp . 119 , 120 .
Far be it from us , however , to repine at the frequency or vehemence of the contests to which Unitarians are challenged . Experience has proved that controversy , even when carried on most unpleasantly by their opponents * i § favourable t < g > their cause .
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" Still pleaaed to praise , yet not afraid to hlamt . " — Popb *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1819, page 495, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1775/page/35/
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