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J . Biddle , in that which is commonly called the Socinian , way ; and that their peculiar regard to us came from an implicit vindication of one of their principlesi [ the one above-mentioned ] for which we came tinder the
scandal and odium of Socinians : pulpits rang how the Quakers had unmasked themselves on that occasion ; and their warm disputes , in our defence , did not a . Jittle strengthen the common reports that went of us , and me in particular .
When my book , intituled the Sandy Foundation Shaken , came out , it being a farther detection of what we [ the Quakers ] call errors , and it happening that Socinians did the same as if I was a rank Socinian , ( who had never read anv one Socinian book in
all my life , if looked into one at that time ) so , these men , " &c . as given by your Correspondent . Hence it is plain , that near five years after the termination of Penn ' s imprisonment in the Tower of London for publishing this work , he openly avowed , on behalf of the Quakers , the doctrines it
maintains , and a rejection of those it holds up as erroneous , although he was conscious of the odium , himself and his friends thereby incurred , as it happened " that Socinians did the same . ' * Nor did he then or afterwards so far as I know , ever admit that the Apology for that work was in any degree
a •* Retraction . " I am aware he professed his belief in " the Divinity and even in the Deity of Christ , * ' both before and after its publication , but it seems to me always in such a sense , as appeared to him perfectly consistent with the tenour of the Sandy Foundation Shaken .
And I will venture to say , that whatever real or apparent inconsistency can be pointed out between this work aud its Apology , or between the for * mer and any other part of his writings , I ana fully persuaded a similar , and as great a degree of real or apparent inconsistency , naay be discovered
between different parts of his works intituled , < c Tbe Guide Mistaken or Temporizing Rebuked , " which was certainly published , and he says ** reacT by his friend Thomas Firtnin " before the Sandy Foundation was thought of . " Aud what is in my mind of much more importance as to a successful vindication of William Peon ' s sincerity ,, in professing through life to en-
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tertain such apparently opposite opinions , he published the former work at a time when he had just made almost as great sacrifices to religious principle , as any in an , not called upon to become a martyr at a stake , ever evinced .
From this work the 10 th extract " from Friends Writings" is made . It refers to twelve queries , the last of which is , ' Whether it were not more suitable to truth and Scripture record , to avoid all dark conceits , schoolmen ' s quiddities and vain j anglings , and to
believe « That God was , and is in Christ ( who is in us except we be reprobates ) reconciling the world , or men unto himself' " The eleven others are equally distant from any leaning towards reputed orthodoxy , it can therefore have been only upon the Sabellian hypothesis , or the in-dwelling scheme
as it is sometimes called , that William Penn used such language concerning Jesus Christ , as he has subjoined to these queries . Nor can any other construction be , I . think , justly affixed to the 1 lth extract from his Tract , intituled ' * Iunocency with her Open Face , " which was written while he
was a close prisoner under an arbitrary warrant from a Secretary of State . He complains , it is true , in the paragraph which follows the 12 th extract , that his ** Christian reputation hath been unworthily . traduced , by several persons , posting out their books against him , whilst a close prisoner . " But these authors were , he tells
us , * beating the air and fighting with their own shadows , in supposing what he never thought ; much less writ of , to be the intention of bis book / 1 He adds , * ' As for my being a Socinian , I must confess I have read of one
Socinus , of a noble family in Italy , who , about the year 1574 , being a young man , did voluntarily abandon the glories , pleasures and honours of the great Duke of Tuscany ' s Court at Florence—and became a perpetual exile for his conscience , whose parts , wisdom , gravity and just behaviour made him the most famous with the
Polonian andTransylvanian churches ; but I was never baptized into his 'Mime , and therefore cteny that reproachful epithet ; and if in any tiring I acknowledge the verity of hin doctrine , it is far tfte truth * * sake , of * # hich , in mttny things , he had a clearer pfesrpect than
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480 Marly Quakers UnitoHans .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1817, page 480, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2467/page/32/
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