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this long 56 « ie 3 qf Letters , I should do violence W nay own feelings , if I did not take leave , i ? the most respectful mi | iiner , . those of the religious community to whojn they are particularly addressed . Am on gst them , I received my own first knowledge , and my own earliest
impressions , of religion ; which I shall ever esteem as the greatest blessing of life , second in value . onl y * to life itself . Amongst them , I still number some of niy dearest relatives , and some of my best
friends . Amongst them , I recognize many , within the small circle of my acquaintance , and many more without it , in whom 1 see and I admire all the excellencies which can become and adorn the human and the Christian character . But
these excellencies I must , at the same lime , unhesitatingly ascribe to the influence of the great common principles in which they and we are all agreed , counteracting and overpowering the influence of those principles -which are peculiarly their own ; and which appear , to my
honest conviction , in themselves , alike repugnant to reason and scripture , and , in their tendency , most unfavourable both to real piety and to moral virtue ; That the influence of the former may increase , and the influence of the latter diminish ,
more and more , every day—till that great and important day shall come , when , if not before , the triumph of the one over the other will be , as I doubt not , complete and glorious , is the ardent prayer of
Yours , in the bonds of Christian Charity , An Unitarian Christian . " —P . 132 . An Appendix of considerable size
contains a most useful Biographical notice of Foreign and English Unitarians , with a particular account of those of the latter who have withdrawn from the Establishment , and of those who have confessed themselves within from
a preference of their livings to their consciences . These sketches are drawn with great judgment and conciseness . We have seldom met with so small & volume of so much research and wee of reasoning , and hope that its author will give it a more permanent existence , by expunging its local
character and re-casting it into a general nctence of Unitarianism . At the same toe , it will bear to be amputated of a l « w of those controversial philippics aw liard wards which are inconsistent J ^ th the characteristic tOrte of tb $ si \ a wlxiph we are unwilling UOuU 1 Have even jfc shadow of resem-
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blance tfOithe intolerant and fiery spirit it seeks to extinguish . Conve rts * should be the great end of controversy * and there is nb greater drawback on the success of the means employed than harsh words . Reverting to the first object of " this controversy— -the establishing the claim of Unitarians to the title of Christians ,
we consider the success of our writers in the advancement of the evidences of revelation as their greatest glory . It is only the most wilful calumny which can prefer a charge of infidelity against the names of Locke , Lardner ,
Benson , Sykes , the Taylors , Priestley , and Bishops Watson and Law , These have been the champions in the common cause , and the laborious miners who extracted the ore since smelted down into more current coin by the popular writers of the Church . We wish to
make no invidious comparisons ; but let not these glorious characters be spoiled of their hard-earned honours . Ajad , at the same time , we must not undervalue the importance of purity of doctrine ; for if this be really the age of such growing infidelity aa is reported , ( an alarm by the way ' of very ancient date , ) what can conduce so
much to chfeck the ravages of this moral pestilence , as the removal of that rubbish which has so long buried the primitive faith of Christians , of those " imsteries" which have s * o long concealed the threshold of revelation from the sight of the philosophical unbeliever ? To exhibit revelation as
consistent with natural religion , as enlarging and strengthening our natural sight , not destroying it—is the object of Unitarianism , and the only mode of increasing the number of real believers . Mr . Field is one of the labourers in this sacred cause - > and we do not know any remarks more applicable to the
present times , than the following passage in the Defence of the Letter to Wateriand ( 1731 ) : — "In this age of scepticism , when Christianity is so vigorously attacked , and , as it were ,
closely foesreged , the true way of defending it is , not to enlarge the compass of its fortifications , and make more help necessary to its defence than it can readily furnish - , but , like skilful engineers , to demolish its weak
outworks , that serve only for shelter and , lodgement to the enemy , whence to barter it the more effectually 9 and
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Review , I Q ~ Unitwiam&otqfidels * 0 $
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V ^ . XVI . 4 K
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1821, page 609, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2505/page/41/
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