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Untitled Article
ther approve of any measure which is goctd , nor oppose an }' that is bad , than from the slightest evidence possessed by you , of the bearing of their sentiments in this particular case .
From the personal knowledge I have of Mr * Carey sen . who is at the head of the mission , and the opinion I have been led to entertain of him from the account of others , I feel little hesitation in saying , that he will be taught by the circumstances which have
arisen , or may arise in his singular sphere of action , to appreciate rhe value of Christianity , as a general system of divine truth ; and to lay . less stress than is commonly done on those minutiae , relating to which , its sincercst
advocates have seen cause to support different conclusions . An Jiast Indian mission , is an * excellent school for teaching a wise agd good man , whilst he retains his orthodoxy , to enlarge his charity , to be chiefly concerned to promote those , essential truths , which found their , claim to that
rank , by having been believed b y all professing Christians , in all times , and in all places , — -to perceive , consequently , that the'differences between Calvinists and
Arminians , Roman Catholics and Protestants , Trinitarians and Unitarians , are very light and insignificant , when balanced against the doting reveries and pernicious dogmas of Mahometans and
JJindoos . I flatter myself , that J \ lr . Carey and his brethren , having Lad the truly Catholic spirit , from the circumstances in ivinch they arc placed ,, generated "in themselves , will be the happy instruments of transfusingacross the ocean the same spirit into
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the breasts of their British bro thren , and that you , sir , will come in for a share of the beni gn afflatus .
As this is not meant to be strictly a private letter , I sLall make use of it to bring forward a remark on a coadjutor of yours , par no bile fratruin , the Rev . J . P .
Smithin his controversy with Mr . BcTsham , he asserts , as you have done , that the Unitarians are deficient in missionary zeal . As a proof , he refers to the conduct of the Polish Unitarians , who , though they resided in the vici - nity of the Turkish dominions , never employed any means to convert the Mahometans . If this
be a fact , it is probable there were imperious circumstances , better known to themselves than to iis , which would have rendered fruitless all their exertions . Nor were they at any rate more deficient in zeal as propagandists , than the Lutherans and
Calvihists , who lived in the same era in Poland , whose number was larger , and their opulence and
power more extensive . But the representation is far from being unliinitedly true . There is evidence in the history of the Polish Unitarians of individuals of their
body labouring in Mahometan territories , for the conversion of the inhabitants . Sandius , in his BiblrothecaAnti-Trinitariorum , mentions , in the sketches of their lives , prefixed to the lists of their works , Several , who , driven by persecution into
countries under the Turkish govcrnrnent r publicly exercised , dcfended and propagated His religion * for the Istke of \ phom they had become exiles .
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264 Mr * Severn to Mr . A . Fuller-f on Missions .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1808, page 264, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2392/page/36/
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