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Untitled Article
bitn a private letter ^ ofF tti ^ i&ry a # d ? emonstranee , to which Mr . V . returned »© answer . For this silence , Mr . 17 . Assigns twxj reasons , first , the number 6 f fetters which he- received on the
subject arid the impossibility of anstvering them all , and second , his fc&tural tove of peace and his wish to ivaid all controversy with his former connections wtiorn he highly respected . Two years after the letter was written it appeared in the Evangelical
Magazine , with a postscript stating that it had never been answered . Here , by accjdtfot , Mr . Vidler saw it , and he opefied his new periodical work with & reply to it , which extended to two numbers . Mr . Fuller ' s rejoinder was inserted in the third volume , and the
controversy was continued through that and two volumes following . The letters on each side were collected and published in pamphlets in the years 1802 and 1803 . Previous to the
appearance of Mr . Vidler ' s Letters , ^ clergyman ( Mr . Jerra m ) , subscribing himself Scrutator published " Letters to an Uni versa list ; containing a Review of the Controversy between Mr . Vtdler and Mr . Fuller , on the
Doc-&ine of Universal Salvation . " Of the riaerits of this controversy it is not diffieult to judge . Scrutator displays not tire coolness of a reviewer , but the 4 STy * ca . l of a partizan . Mr . Fuller entered into the dispute , uninformed m ihe Universal doctrine , and was
hence betrayed into blunders , which lie was compelled to acknowledge : it nuist be admitted , however , that he lias , advanced some strong Scriptural ejections to the hypothesis of his opponent , and that where he has the
advantage he improves it with the dexterity of a practised polemic . In porotof temper , Mr . Vidler was unatoestionably superior to him ; Mr . fuller clearly shews that he could not think well of the heart of an erring brother . The letters of Mr . VidJer
evince likewise a more intimate ac-4 | oaintance with the scope and ^ dtom of" Scripture , and , as appears to the *< jr * iter , a greater satisfaction in his own faith than those af his antagonist .
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tTfie ? c < £ rtt&i 4 ^ r % la llsts Arete pe rhaps equal in understanding and general knowledge . Mr . Vidler encumbered his defence with some interpretations o € Scripture , common to him and most of the preceding writers * 6 n restoration , which it is well known that
he gave up before he ^ died ; and both combatants entangled themselves ^ ii Hebrew and Greek criticisms , in which their education had given them little skill , and neither of them , as Mr . Fuller intimates , was at hotng .
In one respect Mr . V idler ' s candour is exemplary : he nut only inserted entire the letters of his opponent in a work under his own care , but he cornplied with the request that his answers should not be published in the same number * as the letters to which they referred . It may be presumed that Mr . Fuller would not have exercised
the same liberality j for he communicated a private letter to a Magazine without apprizing the person to whom the letter really belonged of what be had done , and knowing that it was
the rale of that Magazine to hear only one side of a question . A letter of Mr . Vidier ' s to the Kvangelical Magazine in reply to Mr . Fuller ' s was < 5 f course rejected . It was Mr . Vizier ' s wish , and he made it known to Mr . Fuller , to be informed when the
controversy was closed , as he intended to publish together all the letters m a separate work : whilst , however , he was awaiting Mr . Fuller ' s determination , that gentleman ' s letters , which were strictly speaking the property of the editor of the Universahst ' s Magazine , were given to the public ii > a pamphlet , unaccompanied by &fer . Vidler ' s . ' ,
£ Il was the design of the writer to conclude the Memoir in this Njltrrber , but he has found it impossible t <* do so , without injustice to / the sitft ^ eet . Another paper will include at ! that
remains to be said in * triis compressed Biography . It will take up the tfirrd period of Mr . Vidler ' s religious history ; from about the time of hifr tie * coming an Unitarian to bis death-J . .
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136 Memoir of the late Rev . TV , VidXer .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1817, page 136, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2462/page/8/
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