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JiJltyVi exclaimed against the heretics , as he-called us ; the encroachments we mad e * and the speed of our heresy , especially in and about W- —— ( Wigan ?) He told Mr ; J . that he himself and other three were going to preach at W- ——in rotation , that they would knock Calvinism on the head ,
& . c . & £ * There is vaunting for you . " * ' What -are these iiiicircu incised infi-^ JeU , that they should think to defy the armies of the living God ? Can they , with all the embattled hosts of hell , stop the progress of him who
flies upon the wings of the winds ? Knock Calvinism on the head ! Stop the progress of heresy , as they call the gospel 1 Fine story indeed 1 ' * Let them try whether they can arrest the sun in his course , 'hush the roaring winds * and calm the Paging sea .
" But do you , my friend , pour into the sides of their floating vessel , a whole volley of rediiot forty-pouttdefrs , and blow it into millions of atoms , that they may have the mortification to find their efforts vain , and carry
the' doleful tidings to Dtabolus , their prince , that instead of a triutiiph among ¦ ¦ > - the hosts of darkness , the prince may have reason'to order all the apartments of hell to be hung in mourning for their shameful defeat . "
Th £ precedin g * Sir , are a few of the most striking passages , in a letter addressed , probably , to Mancunicnsis himself , who then , it seems , was a minister of what they called the gospel at W , and who imagines , that in this epistle , and particularly , perhaps , in such extracts , the friends of Dr . S * will recognize " the vigorous conception and the soul of fire , " which characterized the man . But may not other features bo also discerned , if not the antichristian assumption of being always in the right , that of being never in the wrong ? From the nature of the scintillations Loo , or rather volcanic or explosive
imagery , the profane might insinuate or fancy the presumed fire of the soul to have had its origin , not in that gracious light and heat which proceed from the Sun of Righteousness , or from the Father of Mercy , but from the lake which burneth with
brimstone and fire . But ; allowing Dr . S . all the credit of genius and good intention , whether after the lapse < tf more than twerity-
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severi years , it became Mancuniensis to rake up old , uncertain £ tqm « , founded on the credulity and ardour of youth , and perhaps misrepresented by the artful , may be left for him and his friends to determine . Should he
himself have suffered from Unfounded calunlny , scandal and slander , he might be expected to have more sympathy and charity for others . If he be not only a preacher of the gospel , but a professor of theology and an inquirer after sacred truth , it may deserve his diligent consideration , whether the spread of insinuations , to the
disadvantage of any particular sentiments , or for the purpose of depreciating them , by stating the imprudence , it should seem , the guileless , unsuspecting imprudence of their too sanguine advocates , be a fair , candid , righteous or Christian mode of recommending his own cause ; whether Mr . Simpson advised Mr . J ., of N ., to conceal
from Mr . - — - *~ 7 that he was not of the same religious persuasion , with the last ' mentioned person , does not appeal- ; whether Mr . J . be yet living to own , that after permitting the delusion of supposing him not to be a Trinitarian , he boasted of the feat , and gave his own statement of a private ' confidential conversation , seems
equally uncertain . How far , after such conduct , he was entitled to the credit of giving a correct and faithful account of what was entrusted to him from a misconception of his views , which he countenanced , is a question yet to be decided . The friends of the person to whom Mr . J . was sent by Mr . S ., may be best able to bear testimon y , whether it be like him to brand those as heretics , who differ from him in opinion , or whether , with the apostle Paul , ( Acts xxiv . 14 , 1 Cor . xi . 19 , ) he has not always represented heresy , which is the result of inquiry , to be rather creditable than otherwise .
If in an hour of youthful arrog ^ nc ^ he used the elegant phrase of " knocking Calvinism on the head , " ( though it may be questioned , whether it do not rather savour of tale-bearing , dissembled zeal in a disappointed
applicant , ) there may still be fully as much vaunting manifested in affirming , that this Calvinism is the doctrjnp of thp gospel ^ ^ as there is certain | y more I > i ^ gotry in concluding , that tfey who
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532 OnsomePass ! z ^ aI * ette }* 6 fthe 2 ate D ^
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1818, page 552, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2480/page/16/
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