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The opinions of Chillingworth , as far as they were decided , may be gathered from the preceding memoir . After his early doubts had been settled he was a firm and
zealous Protestant . On the points of theology in controversy between Calvinists and Arminians , he was of the school of Laud , and maintained general redemption and the efficacy of good works . Clarendon unconsciously pays him a high
compliment in saying , that * ' by degrees he grew confident of nothing . ; " though the noble historian probably went beyond his authorities in adding that he was " a sceptick at least in the greatest mysteries of faith . " * There is no evidence of his having been a Socroian : he was probably an Arian . f
* Clarendon ' s Life , I . 55 . -f We of course have no wish to disprove the charge , further than to vindicate Chill ing worth ' s veracity . Lloyd says ( Mem . p . 63 . c . ]) that "it must not be concealed , that on his return from the Romish religion , he had a
tincture of Socimamsrn , But this tinctureqfSociniamsm is very ambiguousj it might consist only in a disposition to enquire and understand previous to faith and profession .- —In the Sidney papers there is a letter which imports that Mr , Cbillingworth defended So ~ cinianism , and was therein utterly and
immediately confuted by Lord Falkland . [ Memorials , &c of the Sidney Family . V . II p . 669 , and Kippis's Biog . Brit IVU 517 . ] Thucispute between the two friends might be nothing more than otic of those trials of skill to which they vrere so frequently accustomed : or , if it were serious , the probability is , as Dr . Kippis conjectures , thajt the Letter-writer confounds Socinianism with Arianism . Admitting Aubrey ' s report of Lord Falkland's being a
SomT m '
ciman ( see our No . for January , p . 4 ) , it is very credible that he might defeat Chillingworth standing on the Arian ground . —Every author is ei : titled to explain his own sentiments , and Chillingworth has , though cautiously and
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T hese t w o sch ernes Ii 3 , ve beejv eorju monly confounded by . tl * e mana * gers of religious controversy . The Roman Catholics charged hi m * with Socinianisn ^ out of
resentment , that being an pbaoxiou ^ hypothesis ; such fanatics a&Cheynell took up the repjoach ^ in their anger at his holding the necessity of reason in religion , though Rich ?* ard Baxter declared his
approbation of this principle ; J and from the reiteration of the chargey im- * partial men who were not very inquisitive took it for granted , $ pd it has been generally admitted to the no small scandal of Protesr
tantisrn and the honour of what is now falsely called Socinianisrn - On minor subjects , Chilling * worth , like every scholar who thinks freely , had some peculiar opinions . He held all war to be
unlawful , [ J and on this principle * it is probable , founded bis notioj ) of the sin of resisting a prince , however tyrannical , which decided him for the king , whom he ctiuld not have wholly justified , against
' * i J temperately , disavowed Socinianisrn in the Preface to Religion of Protestants i $$ 16 , 17 , IB ,. 28 , 29 % and railed against it as fiercely as any son of any church could wish in his fifth sermon
^ Sermons , pp . 58 , 59 ) , calling it a i € blasphemous heresy , worthily condemned and detested ;* ' though , perhaps * his seroons , considering the manner , in which they were published , ought not to be adduced as evidence of hi 9 faith .
—Upon the whole , we should choose to say that Chillingworth was tied to no system j he was an inquirer , not ashamed to take up and lay down principles , according to the evidence brought
forward by constant investigation - r his wag not Trinitananisni , not Socioianijwn , but a sort of eclectic faitH , . c . 6 , Ui ^ j ( , J i : cim all systems , in proportion a £ l ^ e /<> un 4 any of them agreeing witr ; the Bip ) c . X Dca Maizeaux . Marg . note , p , S 57 ^ II Clar « ndon ' s Life , I , 59 *
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21 * Brief Memoir of Mr . ChiUirrgmrth *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1814, page 214, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2439/page/14/
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