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ther by uneasiness of conscience , at having broken trie Jewish sabbath ; and a dream or two conducted him into the bosom of the British missionary society . It is somewhat curious , that throughout his Narrative , Mr . Frey does not once advert to the doctrine of the Trinity , ft& a . n obstacle to his conversion , nor give
any intimation of the reasons -which pre * vailed on him to embrace a tenet , which has been always hitherto accounted a ttumbling-block in the road from Judaism to Christianity . We do not think it impossible for a conscientious and well-informed Jew to become a Trinitarian Christian ; but we do regard it as highly improbable , that such an one
should think so . lightly , of the difference between the Jews and nominal Christians on this point , as to esteem it unnecessary to mention the subject in a professed account of his conversion . One half of the volume is tafcsn up with a detail of the author ' s quarrel with the directors of the missionary society ; of ¦ which v we shall make no other use than
to refer it to the author of " The Calvinistic and Socinian Systems compared , as to their Moral Tendency , ' ' to be introduced , if he think fit , as an illustration of the principle of the work , in the next edition ; Mr . Frey , as will presently be seep , has as orthodox an antipathy to JSocinians as the missionary society , or Mr . Andrew Fuller himself .
To the institution of a society for converting the Jews , there can be no objection ; nay , we can applaud the benevolent intention and zeal of attempting to bring over the worshippers of One God to the unscriptural and absurd worship of a Triune Godhead , involving in it a crucified man . Though we
rni ^ ht ^ perhaps . thinkthatthe descendants of Abraham would not come much nearer the truth , by embracing Mr-Frey ' s system of Christianity , we cannot feel much concern on the subject , because we frmly believe , that no
preaching on the part of Christians will change their mind and temper , which sets the New Testament in opposition to the Old , and represents Christ as teaching a different God from that of Moses /
But , we confess , we frit a little surprise , on reading in one of the public prints [ M . Chron . of Jan . 20 . ] that the directors of the society had recently made application to the Archbishop
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of Canterbury for the PATRONAGE OF THE ESTABLISHMENT to their proceedings ! This , we have no doubt , was a paid paragraph , designed to feel the pulse of the public . Patronage ! Patronage of supposed truth ! Is argument , then , found insufficient ? Patronage of the Establishment f TJie directors an 4 subscribers
are , it would appear , good churchmen . We had the curiosity to look over the names of the supporters of the society » and we found amongst the most prominent some well-known . Dissenters * What , then , can be the meaning of the aforesaid , advertised application ? We cannot conjecture , except it be for , some such compulsory power , as has , in past
times , converted a nation in a day ! Yet we rejoice that these zealous Dissenters are mistaken as to the influence of the archbishop , the empire of the church , and the temper of die times , if they calculate upon , the accession of strength to their body , from the rescripts of spiritual lords , or the decrees of spiritual courts !
We may be thought by some readers to overrate the importance of a newspaper paragraph ; but how came the paragraph to be published ? Every one aj | auainted with the London daily jfress , khowathe difficulty of obtaining an introduction for a single sentence in the principal papers , on any subject ,
however important , without a fee ; and who would fee the newspapers for making known the proceedings of the London society for converting the Tews , but the society itself ? And a mere application to the archbishop for his subscription as an individual cannot be intended : the words
convey an idea of much more . Nor are there any unappropriated funds in the establishment from which it was meant tp request pecuniary aid ; the children ' s meat is not , in the Church of England , given to dogs * The application , if real , could not have intended more or less t { ian that the spiritual fozver of tUcchurdi should be enlisted on the side of the
directors , to conipel Jew s , and perhajtf heretics , to come into the Calvinisfcic fold . The interpretation put on the newspaper paragraph , is borne out by the language of the society in their " FiVst Rcpoit , " to which our attention ha * been called by several cprrcapondci ; t ^
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156 Intelligence . —London Society for Converting the Jew
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1810, page 156, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2402/page/52/
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