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towards one another . The latter will irigage us to mentain the glories , and peace o our Church , and Nation , and to preserve the best of Kings , and the happiest of Governm - Let us all with one heart and mind bless God for these mercys ; and say , God save King James the Second , These prsent To the Rev * Mr Sam . Ogden at his house in Wirks worth .
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Sir , Edinburgh . IT is very desirable that the characters of the dead , as well as of the living , should be cleared from every reproach which has been unjustly
thrown upon them . It is still more desirable that good books should be freed from every opprobrious name which has improperly been fixed on them , as such names very much prevent their usefulness . With this view
I send you the following remarks on two authors , who have generally , but I think unjustly , been considered as unbelievers in Christianity . I lately read the first volume of tracts by Thomas Chubb . It consists of a number of excellent and scriptural essays on the Unity and Supremacy of God the Father , on Sin , Justification ,
Faith , and on Free Inquiry . The first is entitled , ft The Supremacy of the Father asserted , or Eight Arguments from Scripture to prove that the Son is a Being inferior and subordinate to the Father , and that the Father alone
is the Supreme God . " In this he says , " This controversy may be reduced to the answering directly yes or no to this plain question : Is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ really and truly the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ ? Here , if the answer be in the negative , then the express testimony or Christ and his apostles is denied $ if in the affirmative , then the supremacy of the Father is yielded up , " At the time of writing this tract , in 1715 , he was an Arian , though he appears to have entertained considerable doubt whether the creation of all
things by Jesus refers to th ^ material creation , or to # ie moral creation produced by Christianity . The whole of the tracts contained in this volume display a close acquaintance with , md a deep reverence for , the Scrip-
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tures . I have been told that the other volumes of his tracts / which I have no opportunity of seeing ^ are more inclined to Infidelity ; biit , knowing how often Unitarians in tjie present . day are charged with not believing in Christ I
must doubt the correctness of reckoning Chubb as a Deist till I see stronger evidence of his unbelief .: If any of your Correspondents who have the means of reading the other volumes of his tracts , will favour me with an
account of them , through the medium of your valuable Repository , I shall feel much obliged to them . If Chiibb were afterwards a Deist , he is the only in . stance , that I know of ,, of a man having become such froni real , careful
diligent , and impartial examination of the Scriptures . But till I see much stronger evidence of his unbelief than I have yet done , I must regard his being called a Deist as an unjust stigma upon his qharacter , and rank him as a well-informed Arian .
Leland , in his account of Deistical Writers , allows * that . Chubb is not properly a Deist , that he acknowledges Christ ' s mission , and reduces the
gospel to these three principles : That nothing but a conformity of mind and life to the eternal rule or ri g hteousness will render men acceptable to God ; that , when men have deviated from
that rule , nothing but thorough repentance and reformation will render them the proper objects of God ' s mercy ; and that God will judge the world in righteousness , and render to every man according as his works shall be . "
Another person generally , but very unjustly , called a Deist , whom'I wish to bring before the notice of your readers , is Toland . His best work , entitled Christianity not Mysterious , was written in 1696 . In this the
writer undertakes to prove , " that there is nothing in the gospel contrary to reason , and that no Christian doctrine can properly be called a mystery , in the modem sense of tfre word . Gpd reveals many things in Scripture which we could not otherwises have Known , but nothing which qontradicts what we do know . By > Christianity was intended a rational and intelligible religion , because Christ and his ¦» P 08 ™* appeal , to reason in support : of what they taught , and their miracles were proofs of their divine mission addressea
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166 Chubby Toland and Shaftesbury ChrUikm * .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1820, page 156, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2486/page/28/
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