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with whom I am acquainted , who , to to any extent , have attempted the same thing , are Clarke and JPriestley , men whose minds were of the very first order . Though Clarke ' s hypothesis appears to me altogether untenable , yet I cannot but admire his
clear and forcible and discriminating reasonings respecting the proper unity of the Supreme Being , and wish that men of similar abilities bad pursued the path of which he had fairly taken possession . Priestley , with powers which have seldom been equalled ,
wanted the coolness and the patience of Clarke ; and the nature of his controversy with Horsley , as well as numberless other pursuits , precluded him from doing what he otherwise would Jiavedone , upon the primary question .
Had I not imagined it possible to push the inquiry still further than they have done , and to give a broader basis to the grand conclusion , that it is im 7 possible that there can be any thing but one God in one person , I woul < J not have entered the field on which
the power of their sagacious and argumentative understandings was so conspicuously displayed . From this , you . are , by no means to suppose that I » eglect , or even treat lightly , the arguments which both par-ties draw from Scr ipture in support of their respective doctrines . I have considered every text that deserves notice , and if I do
not deceive myself , I have brought forward something new upon most if not upon all . I cannot but add , that I have juat now finished a section upon Eternal Generation , some part of which I once thought of sending to you with this , in which I have come to a conclusion , which you may think
perhaps a paradox , if not a contradiction , that though God must of necessity have possessed the power of acting from eternity f yet still it is absolutely impossible , that any act or ewertion of that power , whether necessary or contingent , can be eternal—a conclusion which is i > ot only contrary to what all the Orthodox must admit , but to what
jnany of their opponents positively assert . Price , whom on account of liis amiable disposition and superior abilities , notwithstanding his opinions are different from mine ^ I can admire and love , says ijgi one of his sermons , ' It ia self-evident , that th $ Almighty Befog , who existed fro , fcn eternity ,
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might hape exerted his power frrnn eternity" Now , though . this is the decision of no mean , mind , yet 1 think that I could legitimately prove , that it Is absolutely impossible that any of
the Almighty ' acts or exertions can be eternal in the proper sense of . that ternu In short , upon Price ' s principle , I de no $ see how it would be possible to disprove the . eternal generation of the Son . But enough pf Metaphysics .
I received yoiir kind present , witli pleasure , and return you my sincere thanks . The extracts from Dr . [ Southwoofl ] $ inith werp not new to me , as I am in possession o £ his easterly performance . , The pamphlet of your friend is excellent ;* and I ana sorry that such
a person , should leave the . country , as he must . have done much good had he remained among- you . The argipment which he chiefly employs , and which he presses home upon old orthodoar * with equal force ^ ml skill ,, has not often been alluded to . Indeed , that
Christianity should be so much corrrupted ,. as the Scriptures affirm it would be , in the dark ages , is a fact altogether unaccountable , upon the supposition of the truth of the common doctrines . Upon that supposition tbe corruption . would be really
nothing ; for the Bopish doctrines of Original Sin , the Trinity , the Atonement— . all the pr imary doctrines , in short , are the same as those : of the Protestant ; and hence the primary doctrines of Christianity woidd have
remained free from corruption , and all that ignorance and superstition would hav § done , would be only that of adding a few > senseless articles to them , without blending them - The corruption of which the apostles speak was not of this kind— -it was to enter
into the very vitals of every article which Christ taught .. Upon the receipt of your letter , I sent to Edinburgh for your Sermon , -fv which I perused with great pleasure ; and must ? The Layman ' s Letter to the Protestant , ( see Mon ! Jtepbs . XIV . 441 , ) the author of Which sodn afterwards removed
to Gibraltar . < t The Father of Jesus , the CHristf air ' s God , or the Doctrine of Scripture concerning the Object of Religious Worship contrasted with prevalent Forms of Prayer .
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74 Letters from the late Rev . James Nicol to the Rev . B * Mardon *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1823, page 74, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1781/page/10/
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