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    Untitled Article

    i iVom which Papists and Protestants , Calvinists and Arminians , Trinitarians and Unitarians , are at liberty $ c to select what they deepi most edifying to themselves / ' But my friend cannot seriously mean to maintain so great an absurdity ; though it is i * lay judgment the only principle upon which he can justify the

    indifference which he professes to making proselytes to what he calls his < own system * This language may be very proper , if all varieties of system are contained in the Scriptures , and if every one is at liberty to select those principles which he deems most edifying ; but it is such as my friend would never seriously attempt to justify , if his own system is that , which after mature inquiry , he seriously believes to be the-true and only doctrine of the Christian revelation , and ( wEich is the necessary consequence ) that nil other systems are fabulous and false .

    * Candour surely does not consist in believing all systems tc $ be equally true ^ or equally false , or equally uncertain , or equally important , or equally indifferent ; nor is it bigotry to endeavour by all . fair and honourable means , to propagate the doctrine , which after due examination is judged to be true and important , even though it may occasionally disturb the

    slumbers of those who from ignorance , or indolence , or self Interest , may be desirous that mankind should always remaim in error . If tliis be candour , Christ and his apostles were the most uncandid of all men : and the gteat ^ reformers , to whose vigorous efforts the present generation is indebted for its civil and religious liberties , and for its mental and moral

    improvements , were unchristian bigots , for they wore the great disturbers of the peace of mankind , and by their zeal for truth and their bold and determined opposition to established error ^ they incurred the charge of turning the world upside down , V In my estimation , that man is truly candid with respect to

    his own opinions , who avows his principles fairly and without any disguise or mental reservatioh ; and he is candid with respect to others-, who readily concedes to them in practice , as well as in words , the same right of private judgment which he claims for himself ; who makes every reasonable allowance for the effect of early prepossessions , and other circumstances which tend imperceptibly to bias the judgment ; who does not hastily impute to his opponent improper motives , who is willing patiently to listen to arguments , and to consider objections ; and who 3 oes not charge his antagonist personall y with consequences which he disavows , however clearly they may appear to himself to follow from his principles , and however necessary he may feel it to be to state snch consequences ,

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    ! Mr * Bmskam ^ Strictures on Ca rpenter ' s Lectures . i 3 S

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1807, page 135, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2378/page/23/