On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    merit was kept alive , and the Dissenting clergy were thus involved in disputes with those of the Establishment , * at the moment when other discussions arose , ( to its peculiarly interesting , ) which led to the erection of our primitive Unitarian church .

    As Mr . Peirce was the prominent actor in the events about to be recorded , the " source of all the evil , " the arch-heretic of his day in the west , ( an honourable title which , indeed , his unwearied pen preserved for him to the end , ) it may not be amiss to detail the progress of his religious

    opinions . He tells us that he was bred up in a scheme which lie could call only Sabellianism ; but admitting the Scriptures as the only rule of faith , he was soon led to observe , in the course of his

    studies , that the Ante-Nicene writers never tame up to his standard of orthodoxy , and that the fathers , since the fourth century , ( and especially Basil , ) seemed to teach the doctrine of a common nature , which he thought no less than Tritheism . These

    reflections both perplexed and alarmed him , so that he determined to banish the subject from his thoughts and his conversation ; but when his friend and correspondent Mr . Whiston was accused of heretical propensities , Mr . P .

    wrote to him , advocating the common opinion . In reply , he was referred to Mr . W . ' s Works in the press , the M . SS . of which he was requested to examine ; and at the same time was recommended to studv Novatian de

    Trinitate , which , in consequence , he again went through , but it served only to increase his perplexity and doubt . With the auxiliary , however , of Dr . Clarke ' s " Scripture Doctrine , ' ( published ataboutthis period ) Mr . Whiston ' s Works completed the overthrow

    * It is worthy of note in elucidation of the temper of the times , that the individuals who most distinguished themselves in this controversy , ( Mr . Withers , the able advocate of nan-conformity , Mr . Peirce , the shrewd historian of dissent , and Mr . Ilallett , ) were the very men who soon became

    the victims of the persecuting- intolerance of Dissenting Synods . One might have hoped these exertions in favour of our common liberty , would have obtained for their conduct and their creed a generous construction , and have softened the asperity of anathematizing n < m ~ conformuts .

    Untitled Article

    of the orthodox scheme in Mr , P / s mind , after severe struggles and fervent prayers for the light of truth and the guidance of heaven . In 1713 he was chosen unanimousl y to be one of the ministers of the united congregations of Protestant Dissenters in Exeter . *

    It was about 1716 when Mr . Hubert Stogtlon ( who had been a warm advocate of Trinitarianism ) , saw reason to change his opinions ; and his conversation being- one day overheard , and communicated to Mr . JLavington , + the latter chose to make it th £

    subject of public crimination , and the ferment was increased to a storm in the following year , when Mr . Henry Atkins , in a most furious sermon , accused the heretical Dissenters of Exeter , with "denying the Lord that bought them . " Impatient to be acquitted of so dread

    ful an accusation , and availing themselves of the reports which pointed at Mr . Peirce as one of the guilty , several of his congregation requested him to satisfy the world and them of his orthodoxy , and , in compliance with their wishes , he preached a sermon on the propitiation of Christ . Tn this

    ( though he defends the common opinion to a considerable extent ) , he objects to all the conclusions which suppose sin to be an infinite evil , deserving infinite punishment , because committed against an Infinite Being , ( a form of words , by the way , whose antithesis is more convincing than its argument ) .

    When the spirit of inquiry is generally diffused , its progress is ^ iot only triumphant but irresistible ; and it was soon most obvious , that a great # An accusation often brought against him was , that he had been the first to introduce the u new notions" into that city , hut he declares that it had always been one of his maxims to avoid controversial

    preaching-, and besides , that before his arrival , Arianism had made considerable p rogress there . •\ - This gentleman seems to have been particularly active wherever mischief was to be done . The youngest of the four Presbyterian ministers at Exeter , the least

    informed and the " most assured , * ' he was the individual who led on the array of bigotry and inquisitorial bitterness against his co-pastors and fellow-citizens . There was nothing like charity to temper his zeal—nothing like candour to soften h *» anathemas .

    Untitled Article

    524 " Trinitarian Controversy at Exeter

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1817, page 524, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2468/page/12/