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head of that class , calls himself ** one of the old school . " But , Sir , he does not object to unite with new Unitarians , both for " preaching and praying , " and . *• eating and drinking , ' * and on such occasions delights them
in his " eloquence , whether sacred or convivial / ' by a warmth and flow of feeling , which I fear your Correspondent would trace to the German drama , f 1 have , indeed , heard something , and seen something of another description of person stalled Old
Unitarians , who deem an avowal of their opinions unwise because it may expose them to inconvenience , and proselyting sinful because the attempt may excite bad p ^ sssions ; who give liberally at Calvinistic collections , and let their own institutions and
academies languish or perish for want of support ; who cau overlook speculative differences , such as worshipping an additional God or two , &c . and attend the services and even the
sacraments of the church in preference to mixing with trades-people and such folks at a country Unitarian chapel , who object to evening lectures because the smoke of the candles would
soil the ceiling of their chapel , or its floor be dirtied by the vulgar feet of the hearers who might be attracted on such occasions ; who are vexed that Unitarian rsm should be spoilt for
a refined and genteel religion , by its communication to poor and ignoraut people , who had better been left to the Church or the Methodists . > I hope ^ our Correspondent does not belong to this class of Old Unitarians , If he
does , he has no reason , in my opivjyon , to be proud of his associates , though ^ Rey are certainly very respectable , ( using that word in its common acceptation of very ricjijh His Letter is , however , strongly tainted with that fictitious candour for which
these people are so clamorous—a candour more absurd in the view of none than of its objects , and to them ridiculous enough . When they receive guineas , withheld from Unitarian buildings , to raise chapels in whose
pul p its they pronounce the damnation of the donors ; when they insert names , withheld from Unitarian publications , among the subscribers to their books about dying Deities , when they obtain donations , withheld from Unitariatt academies and missionaries , to
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teach Hottentots the Assembly ' s Ca- \ teehism—they must laugh at this \ Satan with an angel ' s vizor among ? the sons of God ; they must think it good to sojourn amongst these Egyptians who so readily despoil their own temples to furnish out the faithful Israelites .
Whether these Old Unitarians agreed with Mr . Belsham in thankfulness for the Trinity Bill , I do not know . I met with no public expressions of their gratitude on that occasion , but with many from the persons whom
they censure . I cannot , however , den } their joining with Mr . B . in that particular ; but I wish they would join with him in some others—in his manly statements of the whole truth of Gt > d ; in his powerful and incessant efforts for the destruction of Anti-.
Christian error ; in his justice and candour to friends as well as adversaries ; and in his liberal support of the Unitarian Fund , the Unitarian Academy , « ' the Societes Arnbulantes of our modern heretics , " and similar institutions .
The most definite characteristic of those whom your Correspondent calls New Unitarians , is his identification of them with the provincial societies for the diffusion of religious
knowledge and virtue : — a circumstance very unfortunate for his first charge against them , of ingratitude for Mr . Smith ' s bill because it took away
their chance of being persecuted , inasmuch as those societies , I believe without an exception , and some at extraordinary meetings called for the purpose , passed resolutions of thanks both to the Mover of the Bill and the
Government- How could such a charge be made in the face of such a fact ? Where are the proofs by which the public and unanimous language of these truly respectable societies is .
convicted of hypocrisy ? Doubtful as it now is , and must be till the next Lancashire assizes , whether that bill affords us any efficient protection , I do not believe there is a New Unitarian
in the kingdom who is not ready , even at the present moment , to do honour to the liberality of the Govern * ment in permitting it to pass without opposition . The men who wish > to be persecuted have escaped my notice 9 . but as your Correspondent knows where to find , them , and acts as At-
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334 Mr . Fox in Reply to An Old Unitarian .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1817, page 334, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2465/page/14/
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