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charity , by his marked reprehension of a contrary conduct in the third chapter of his work , " on the Errors and Faults , with respect to the present Controversy , which are especially chargeable on the Orthodox , but in
part also on their Opponents . " " The want of just respect to the persons of opponents / ' is there specified as a fault f € deserving no leniency of treatment ; and in whomsoever it is found , to be held in severe abhorrence . " In
the sixth chapter Mr . Belsham is thus introduced : " The author of the Calm Inquiry is respectable for his age , his knowledge , and his talents , for the amenity of his
manners in social life , and for the variety , the copiousness and the agreeableness of his conversation . What he is as a professed disciple and minister of him * who came into the world to save sinners / is
a question too awful for human decision : it will be determined in its own time by the righteous Judge , from whom ' the Lord grant that he may find mercy in that day ! ' But we all participate the public right to judge of his merits as a divine , provided that we form our judgment with candour and integrity , and express it with decorum and respect . "
Passing over the Sixth Chapter , I shall confine my remarks to a part of the Seventh , and to one of its supplementary Notes . Indeed , it is to this note , which contains the most offensive fassa ges in the whole work , and which , am happy to say , is only Dr . Smith ' s by adoption , I purpose in my present communication to direct the attention
of your readers almost exclusively ; it is a note which appears to me not only a moral blemish , but a foul blot , a sort of moral impassable gulph , which must be filled up before any amicable intercourse can exist between Dr . Smith and Mr . Belsham . Mr .
Belsham must have imbibed no small portion of his Master ' s spirit if he can hold out the hand of fellowship , or deign to reply to his opponent , till this uncharitable , and , as it seems to
me , wholly unwarrantable and unrighteous auxiliary be disavowed . I shall abstain from the use of other epithets * n the designation of this note , which I cannot but hope Dr . Smith ' s fond attach ment to the writer and entire
co nfidence in him , has unhappily led him to sanction and commend without ™ e examination and reflection . Should ^ - Smith notice these strictures , I
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shall think my time has been well employe ^ and no smal l object gained , if , on the one hand , he is induced to withdraw his imprimatur from his friend ' s production , or , on the other , I should be convinced of the error in judgment and feeling into which I
have fallen , and be relieved from the painful sense of criminal injustice having been done to Mr . Belsham . I shall now proceed to quote a paragraph from the Seventh Chapter of the first Book of the Scripture Testimony , the title of which is , " Observations on the Introduction to the
Calm Inquiry , " and some extracts from the appended Note farther illustrating that paragraph : ic In a still more painful style of misrepresentation this author takes upon
himself to stigmatize our doctrine , a ® if it taught ' the incarceration of the Creator of the world in the body of a helpless , puling infant : ' a notion about which it would be absurd to talk of f evidence
direct , presumptive or circumstantial , * for it is a palpable and self-evident impossibility . But our Unitarian Commodus secures his victory at a cheap rate , when he makes his admirers believe that his opponents are plumbean enough to maintain such doctrines as thisIt would
. . « r «> WAA « - * «*»^«** * - » V <^ W « t * A ««?» M » m-W »^ VJ * . ***^* M . 90 TV X ^ *•»» - « however , be no disparagement to him to meditate on the maxim of Scripture , often verified by unhappy experience ; ' a scorner seeketh wisdom , and / indeth it not' "—I . 129 .
" In the same periodical journal , 1 . e . the Eclectic Review , " says Dr . Smith in the supplementary note to Chapter 7 , < c appeared a critique on the Calm Inquiry , from which I am happy to select some passages , both for their intrinsic worth , and on account of their being
among the last earthly labours of a very superior mind . That article was credibly imputed to Dr . Edward Williams , who died March 9 , 1813 ; and whose memory , as a divine , a tutor , a friend and a Christian , will never perish from the gratitude and veneration of those who had
the happiness of witnessing the uncommon powers of his intellect , and the peculiar fervour and simplicity of his piety . " The Reviewer having observed , that human language could not be found adequate to express the modal distinction in the Deity by which the human nature of Christ was assumed , observes ,
" Of this inadequacy of language to denue , or even to describe supernatural realities , many of the Antitrinitarians ,
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in his €€ Scripture Testimony . " 639
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1821, page 639, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2506/page/7/
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