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    and subjects springing out of it . Our correspondent asks us several questions , to which we have before stated our opinion that the Socinians ought to reply . Carlile , a mere blasphemer , rpingled himself with them , and claimed , no doubt , the protection of the ^ -Act made hi their behal f . But

    then our correspondent forgets to mention , that the Chief-Justice declared again and again the utter inapplicability of the Act to a man in Carlile ' s situation . This defendant , therefore , might , we presume , ( if the Judge is to be considered as the

    authoritative interpreter of the eggggtajiig laws , ) as well have urged tiie ^ Kiot Act , or the Statute of Frauds , in his defence . Carlile * s merely urging the Act is no proof that the Act could , by a sane understanding , be

    considered as sheltering him . But if Carlile slandered the law , may he not also be considered as slandering those ip whose favour it was really pass € g | jj |§ tfhen he said , that a Socinian * wa £ ; a / Deist in a cloak / 7 or

    something to that effect ? It is obvious at first sight , that an Act may be so framed as to allow of the reasonings of sincere men on the interpretation of the admitted truth of Scripture , which would not tolerate the horrid blasphemies of Paine and Carlile .

    Mn * hA $ pland s Two Letters . TVtfre Editor of the Times . Letter I . Sir ,

    As you declare in your paper of this day , that the Unitarians ought to reply to the questions of your correspondent , " A Clergyman , " I trust you will allow me space for a short answer . Humble as mv name

    is , I shall subscribe it , that you may know who is responsible for the statements which I am about to give . Unitarians , Sir , have been so long

    accustomed to hard language from their theological opponents , that nothing of this kind can surprise them ; otherwise , they might wonder at the readiness of your clerical correspondent to accept Mr . Carlile as an

    authority against them . The object of this gentleman in representingUnitarians as Deists is obvious ; but as the learned Chief-Justice would not admit his doctrine with regard to them to be law , so neither will any one , not

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    blinded by bigotry , allow it to be moral truth . He contended , 1 believe that the denial of the doctrine of the Trinity is Deism , confounding , pro . bably , the original with the actual meaning of the term . According to its etymological sense of a belief in God , or one God , the Unitarians are Deists or Theists , and so are all Christians ; but in its present received sense of a helief in Godf to the exclusion of the Divine mission of Jesus

    Christ , the Unitarians are not Deists , nor has their system any affinity with Deism . The charge of Deism " under a cloak , " is a calumny , which they can answer only by appealing to their lives and characters .

    You are aware , Sir , that Deism and Atheism are terms of reproach , which have , in all ages , been employed to serve unrighteous party purposes . The Pagans accused the primitive Christians of Atheism ; the Roman Catholics represented the first

    Reformers as disguised Deists ; the Reformed charged the admirable Gtfotius with being little better than a Heathen ; and the Jacobites did not hesitate to stigmatise the venerable and pious Archbishop Tillotson { quern honoris causa nomino semperque nominabo ) as an atheistic infidel . In

    such company , the Unitarians of the present day feel little auxiety concerning the- coarse and calumnious epithets that are heaped upon them ; though they may be allowed to

    lament , that at this late period of Christian history the disciples of Christ have learned so imperfectly their great Master ' s divine lesson of charity .

    It will be found upon inquiry , that the Unitarians have taken , at least , their share of labour in the defence of ** the common salvation . " Their ministers have been always accustomed to discuss and enforce zealously , from the pulpit , the evidences of Christianity . The work of Socinus that is

    best known is his Demonstration of the Truth of the Cfiristidh Religion . This book was translated into English in 1731 , by Combe , a dignitary ofthe Church of England , with a recommendatory preface by Bishop Smallbrook , and a dedication to the then Queen , Several volumes of Dr . Priest-* ey \ s works are devoted to the sanje subject ; and I question whether any

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    708 Intelligence . — Correspondencewelating to the Unitarians .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1819, page 708, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1778/page/56/