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prove y * . y * . Diocesses of y * prUmti ve Bishops vver ^ iiot in Apostolical times , & v but in few places long after , nor ought they to be now any greater than y * y people might have recourse to their Bishops and these to their people . I have asked some of about 60
yeares of age , & they haye confessed that they never saw a Bishop in their lives , and yet I live not above haJfe y length of y * diocesse fro" Peter ^ bo ' roy . I denie not Arcfr-B ** . , & primates as magistrates or y King ' s visitours , needing no other ordination
than his majesties commission , nor president B \ by consent of y churches , for order's sake as there may be occasion : so likewise upon those words , Die ecclesi € & 9 i &c , 1 prove y * a Catholique governing Church is a Popish chimsera , impossible & contradictious , nor is there any such thing
as national governing church , & to say , y * people may not ' worship God , till whole nations are agreed in uniformity of 4 octrine , discipline , fQrmes and rites , or no otherwise , is one of y most injurious & factious principles in y world . It hath been y * sacrilegious practice of men to usurpe , y * word ^ j Bishop 8 p Church , & then to load their adversaries with these
great names . But to come to the errand of this paper , I see y * both you & Dr . Still : * make no scruple to reckon Socinians ( as they are commonly called , who owne not Socinus for a master , but a fellow-servant , ) with Turks ,
Atheists & Papists . You should doe well to consider of this point a little better than I doubt you have , before you censure so much : upon impartial search you may find them to be ( as I believe they are ) y best sort of Xtians
& y best reformed , although "Socinus had his elrouYs , especially about God ' s prescience of future Contingents - , & did not Luther erre fouly in the point of Copsubstantiation ? By such worda you make people afraid
to search into . the truth , & bring y professours of it under persecution ; & you two are the more juiexcusahle , because y * in one of y * oheife points which have given offence , you both differ very little from twin . 1 am very well assured , y " the $ r waitings * StitUng / leet .
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\ y&e naainly intended against Anfcnor inian imputation or satisfaction , & little gainst such as eyther of you mantaiue . I well remember y * in some of . your bookes you sayy * many men are Antinomians , who would little be thought so . D . StilHugf : in « i booke of tlTe suffprin ^ s of X xnaketh a great bluster agaiqst thetn ,, after
hunjsel £$ , h 34 yielded up y * maine fort contended for , himself denieing as to a rigorous legal satisfaction , both y idem and fitntundem . But S , , you may remember what a hideous name an Arminian w ^ s lately , & now they are y * prime sonnes of y Church ^
England , & very few are now offencfed for difference in those opinions : w ^ might not a little more time , bring y * Socinians ( who beleive in Godb through X as offering a sacrifice ^ T suflfermg obedience for y sinnes of y * world & a ^ an exalted baviour , ) into some tolerable favour , if such as you
did not so stigmatize y Some are so uncharitable or so ignorant as to say y Socinians are scarce Xtians , although they beleive Jesus to be y Christ , ^ nd therefore in St . Joh n ' s judgement are borne of God : they place y divinity of X in his unction , not niucb . opj > oseing humane additions but as tUey obscure thi « or seeine to
be inconsistent with it , and therefore in Justin Martyr ' s opinion may be reckoned amongst orthodox Christians . , I ha , ve gone under y * i ^ ame I confesse , but upon fuller acquaintance , I have not found much dislike from
y better sort , nor would any of our ministers scruple to gett me to ; preacli for y , & therefore sure had somewhat a better opinion of me than a JMahumetan or an Atheist . As for their opinion about y . Trinity , w ch hath given y most offence , as I remember
our selle in your former answer to { > . Still : dotii dislike y damnatory part of y Creed of Athauasias , jso , doth Mr . A ^ op in hi& anawer * so doth , D . Taylour in his l 4 ibertie . af * Proph ; . And some divines of ye Church , of
England doe refuse tareadeit ^ Caa any tluug be more certaine and evident than this , v ; iz ^ y y Fifather is bejtor ^ y Sonne , and y Sonue befbre jjr * Holy Spir it , who speaketh npt «> £ himselfe but , what he heareth ? Wliat ^
eve ^ ^ quir }^ , or scholastick ^ ice % s may be invented , such , vvas y op » n | oii of y AnUents > as a inau ao well versed
Untitled Article
Treatment of the Vntinfrians : with some Account ofGiibtri Clei * he . 67
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1823, page 67, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1781/page/3/
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