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reason for his conversion to it , that the doctrine of the Trinity could never have originated in the human mind ; that its utter extravagance , in the eye of that reason which has been conceded to mortals , was an intrinsic demonstration of its divine origin ; and that , as all endeavours to reconcile it to the
common sense and ordinary perceptions of mankind must necessarily fail , the palpable absurdity upon its surface induced his ascription of it to an higher , even to the highest , source ; whence he
very logically and devoutly settled in the climax of all conclusions , " Credo quia impossibile "!—quoting , if 1 mistake not , an early Christian father , whom the Editor would oblige me by citing in the margin . *
All at once , it may be , the human mind was naturally incompetent to the generation of sq wild a fancy ; but how much Jenyns underrated its inventive faculty is clear from ecclesiastical history , which exhibits the growth and gradual developement of this mystery to its final organization in the shape ,
< c If shape it may be called , which shape hath none Distinguishable , " wherewith it glares upon us—we must not say " by confusion of substance " —in the national Liturgy . He was well entitled to the praise of candour for such an avowal of the
mental process which led to his ultimate conviction ; but I , a plain mortal , am simple enough to disbelieve on the very ground of hi 3 belief , and to feel a moral conviction that the faith required in the gospel is not in a physical impossibility .
God deals not with his rational and accountable creatures in such a fashion . What he wills them to receive implicitly and conform to , he takes especial care that they shall comprehend . What can be more intelligible than his distinct enunciations to the Jews of his
absolute unity and sole and never-ending supremacy , which stream through the Old Testament , affording them no shadow of an excuse for departing from their duty in the article of religious worship ? And can it be reasonably imagined , if any novel doctrine or economy , in respect of the Divinity , * Tertullian .
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was to be proposed under the new covenant that he would have been less graciously explicit , and not have bound the reception of it upon Christians by propounding it , as heretofore in terms
unsusceptible of two interpretations ? I have elsewhere suggested this , but it is so apposite to my present purpose , that I hope for your indulgence in its repetition . BREVIS .
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220 Notes on the Metnoirs of Mr . J . Food .
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Sir , April 1 , 1821 . f B ^ HE following remarks , which have _ JL occurred to me on reading the Memoirs , ( pp . 129—135 , ) are at your
z P . 130 , col . 1 . " Mr . Bedford , " probably the person whose anticipations of events from the language of prophecy are quoted in your Xllth Vol . p . 587 . P . 131 , col . 1 . Mr . Hallett ' s f
secret correspondence with Mr . Whiston . " In 1709 , while Professor at Cambridge , Whiston published " Sermons and Essays . ' * Among these , the 10 th Essay ( pp . 235—326 ) is entitled €€ Advice for the Study of Divinity , with Directions for the Choice of a
small Theological Library . " On this fVhiston observes in his Memoirs ( ed . 2 , p . 127 ) , " When the 10 th discourse , or Directions for the Study of Divinity , came to be perused by Mr . Hallett , a
Dissenter , who kept an academy at Exeter , he was prodigiously pleased with them , and , with the highest compliments , desired some farther directions in that matter ; but he withal cautioned me not to direct my answer to himself : for , as he intimated to me ,
* if it were known that he kept correspondence with me , he should be ruined / Such , it seerps , was the zeal of our Dissenting brethren at that time at Exeter , of which my old friend Mr . Peirce partook plentifully afterwards . " Whiston annexes ( Mem . pp . 128—130 ) his letter to Mr . Hallett , dated
Camb ., May 1 , 1710 , in which he says , €€ My account of the primitive faith will , I hope , come to a public examination before it is printed . " This was , no doubt , the primitive Christianity mentioned by Mb * Fox . Mr . Hallett was , I suppose , assistant to his father in the conduct of thej ^ cademy , from the manner in whicld Whiston describes him .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1821, page 220, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2499/page/28/
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