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Untitled Article
that the cursory manner in which the shore topics are * all intror dneed , however corrpctly they m&y state the individual opinions of the compilers , wereTill calculated to excite the deliberate
attention of a large assembly , to the doctrines they appear to in * culcate . And that unless it underwent a close examination , it was probable the far greater part of the meeting which issued it *
might not fully understand the iraport of the passages I have quoted , as unscriptural . These conjectures I am now entitled to consider as supported by direct testimony , until the statement by
Pacificus , ( p . 21 , ) of the manner in which this Epistle was hurried through the Yearly Meeting , is shewn to be erroneous . Breviloquus , continuing his account of what I appear to him to have found in the Epistle , adds , 4 i and has discovered in it a
discrepancy with r the tenets of the people who call themselves Unitarian Christians , which , I apprehend , the Society of Friends will not be "anxious to disavow .
This is to give me credit for a discovery which I had not made . On this occasion , I had not even entered upon a comparison of < c the tenets * ' of Quakers and Unitarians of modern times . The
discrepancy'' I discovered in the Epistle , ( if so quaint an expression must be used ) , was with the only complete and authentic record of pure Christian truth , and not with the tenets of any particular sect- What
Breviloquus means to intimate , when he speaks of those " who call themselves Unitarian Christians , " I know not . I should hope it was flot intended to insinuate that they
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are not entitled to the latter appellative ; and the former is more definite and descriptive of their great distinguish ! eg doctrine , than the term by which the Quakers wish to be known as a family of 44 Friends , '' is , of any tenet ever professed by them as a religious society . The wprds may indeed bear a very different interpretation , viz . that those who call themselves tjriitarians 4 < h&ve no
exclusive right to that appellation / ' If such be the meaning of Breviloquus , I can assure him , that although the zeal of proselytism may he less active amongst
us , than some © ther professing Christians , wp are perfectly disposed tt > recognize as Unitarians , all who reject , with us , the unscriptural doctrine of a distinction of persons in the Deity .
To my second inquiry , whether the sentiments this Epistle contains in the passages I had noticed as objectionable , are those
of the society generally ? Breviloquus replies , " If he will not take the public document of the collected body , to contain the general sense , I am at a loss whither
to refer him for it . ' * Had this Epistle been canvassed sentence by sentence" in the meeting at large , according to former precedent , as described by Mr .
Clarkson m his < Portraiture of Quakerism , " I should have considered it as containing the best evidence the nature of the case would
admit , what was the general sense of the collected body : making a due allowance nevertheless , for the uncertainty which must in that respect ever attend the present mode of deciding all questions that come before their meetings for discipline . And under
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Quakers' Yearly Epistle . 9 S
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1811, page 95, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2413/page/31/
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