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    my own principles , I can give credit to a Calvinist or to a Socinian ., for the utmost freedom as well as honesty in his inquiries . Of the nature of Socinian can

    dour , your own publication will furnish some striking specimens . One of your correspondents , who signs C . C . ( IV . 670 ) speaking of the Socinian Academy at York , of which the late Mr . Wood was

    principal tutor , mentions it as " the only one , now in this kingdom , in which a succession of valuable young men can be educated to the gospel ministry , oh the scriptural principles of

    candid examination and free inquiry /' This is in perfect unison with the compliment paid , in a former number of the u Repository , " to Mr . Evans ' s seminary , at

    Islington . But the flattery is too gross , and the assertion , in both instances , too'devoid of iruth to impose upon any one who is not absorbed in bigotry . Was I to make the same assertions with

    respect to the academies at Hoxton , at Homertan , or at Wymondl y ^ what would be thought of my candour ? Yet , I am not aware that the tutors in either of those seminaries lay any embargo upon u candid examination and free inquiry . " , If it should be said that their lectures have a

    tendency to predispose the minds of their pupils in favour of Cal - vinism ; I would ask , of what nature are the lectures given at York , and at Islington ? Have they not a Socinian complexion ? And do not their tutors instruct

    their pupils to hate Calvinism ? How then are they better than others ? Another instance of Socinian candour shall be taken from your Review ( pp . 684 and 690 ) , where you allow yourself

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    in the same fault which you condemn in others . The Barrister * * u Hints' * must not be called pro . fane , nor the * "Edinburgh- Review / ' atheistical ^ because those words are to be found in the

    vocabulary of persecution . Yet , you can resort , upon occasion , to the same vocabulary , and dignify Calvin as " the murderer of Servetus . " This is not the dialect :

    of candour . To associate the iU lustrums reformer with assassins is a shock to the understanding ; in such company I am persuaded he will not be found another day . Whatever hand Calvin had in

    that unhappy affair , you know very well that his conduct is not justified by modern Calvinists , who aije as inimical to persecution as Socinians may be . With equal propriety might I term the founder of yonr sect * a murderer f for it is well known that

    the conduct of Socinus and Blandrata tqwards Francis David was not a whit better than that of Calvin . The apology , if it may be so called , must in both cases be the same . The rights of conscience were not at that time

    properly understood ; and the reformers , by setting up their own opinions as the standard of divine truth , had assumed that claim to infallibility which they so justly condemned in the Church of Rome . The exam .

    pies here adduced , afford a fair specimen of the nature of Socinian liberality , and lead to the unavoidable conclusion that it is circumscribed within the limits

    of a party . The general strain adopted by Socinian writers fully proves that their modesty * stands allied to their liberality . Of ihi ? we have a remarkable instance in thefCQinplacency with which they

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    On the Decline of Presbyterian Congregations . 83

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1810, page 63, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2401/page/15/