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reading , I for one shall be content , upon his authority , to believe that the word God is not to be found in-this text , in the Vatican manuscript . Had the word been there , it is hardly possible , that the Professor should have overlooked it , or neglected to have noted so important a variation .
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those of his opponents , is , on this account , frequently marked by a tone of arrogance and superciliousness , which but ill accords with the mild ] candid and forbearing temper of the genuine Christian .
These defects might , however , be attributed , in a great measure , to the fervour of his zeal , to the natural warmth and vivacity of his feelings , and to the spirit of the age . Had , therefore , nothing more appeared to detract from his high merits , and to cast a shade over the lustre of his
virtues , than the maintenance of an opinion scarcely to be reconciled with the other parts of his religious creed , and the ebullitions of anger and contempt which are occasionally observed in Ins controversial writings , his character might , perhaps , be safely left to the impartial judgment of posterity .
But the reputation of Socinus has come down to the present times , stained by an imputation of a deeper dye , which his warmest admirers and his ablest advocates have not been able wholly to efface . It has been charged against him , that he acted the part of
a persecutor ; and while himself spurning human authority in the formation , and in the avowal and promulgation of his religious opinions , appealed , with gross inconsistency , to the civil magistrate , to restrain by the iron arm
of power , from using the same freedom , and standing on the same natural right , a man not less distinguished than himself by his talents and integrity , who happened to disagree with him on one solitary point of theological speculation . The immediate
purpose of the present essay is to investigate the grounds of this heavy accusation , by instituting an inquiry into the circumstances of the persecution of Francis David , in Transylvania , upon which it wholly rests .
It must be premised that this inquiry is attended with many difficulties , which may prevent the formation of a strictly correct judgment on the nature of the transaction , and on the conduct of the parties whose charaoters are implicated in it . Very few of the writings , wherein the
circumstances were professedly derailed , arc now accessible , at lea / rt in this country : and those that may be consulted , whether composed by friends or cue-
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Faustus Socinus and Francis David .
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The Nonconformist . No . V . Faustus Socinus ^ and Francis David . THE deliberations of this society , so far as they have been directed to the elucidation of the history and to the development of the principles and character of sects and individuals
that , since the aera of the Reformation , have stood forward as the advocates of free inquiry and liberty of conscience , in respect to religious faith and worship , have hitherto been
restricted to this country . It is now intended to travel into other climes , and to select for the subject of the present essay , FaustusSocinits—a man , whose sacrifices to the dictates of his
conscience , whose splendid talents , and whose numerous and valuable writings on theological topics , give him a just claim to respecful consideration . In his views of Christian doctrine , Socinus departed far more widely from the assumed orthodox standard of the Church of Rome , than most of
the anti-trinitarian Reformers of his time . But he was not able to divest himself altogether of the influence of a system which had , through so many centuries , been strengthening its hold on the . associations and feelings of mankind . Of this we have a decisive
proof in his sentiments concerning the high authority of Christ in his mediatorial kingdom , and the lawfulness and propriety , if not thfe indispensable obligation , thence arising , for invoking him in pra \ er . In other respects also he appears to "have been tainted by the spirit of the church from which
he had separated . He was too little disposed to allow for the peculiar impressions , or for the ignorance and mistakes of those pen » ou& who failed to see ihings in the same light as himself , and to admit , in ever y particular , the correctness and truth of his opinions . His language , both in stating his own sentiment * , and in combating
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1818, page 382, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2477/page/38/
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