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an article of faith , " which he calls very properly " their prime position / " The 6 fjL 08 o-iov itself , " he says , " might have been spared , at least out of the
creeds , had not a fraudulent abuse of good words brought matters to that pass , that the Catholic faith was in danger of being * lost , even under Catholic language . " Such is the substance of T . P . ' s
quotation , of which he says , " The point I aim at is this—to refer the reader to the simple view of the full and supreme divinity of the Father , the Son , and the Holy Ghost , ascribed by Dr . Waterland to the apostles and
the primitive Christians ; for precisely the same view is taken of this high doctrine by the Quakers in the present day ; a view , which is greatly confirmed by their almost exclusive use of the Sacred Scriptures as the fountain of their doctrines . " If T . P . has done the Quakers justice , I must say that on this point the Unitarians have irreatlv the advantage
of them , for the Scriptures are not merely " almost , " but the sole fountain of their doctrines . Freely admitting T . P . ' s right to profess his own faith in any words he may choose for himself , or adopt from any writer , ancient or modern , I must demur to his competency to speak in such positive terms of the faith of the Quakers , even " in the present day ; " amongst whom , perhaps , I have had as large an acquaintance as himself , and at least equal , if not better opportunities of knowing their sentiments , and how
very generally the most strict amongst them of every class , even when closely pressed , refuse to admit in any sense whatever , any distinction of persons in the Deity . I have also read many of the writings of their best and most approved authors , none of whom , so
far as J know , ever professed to hold that doctrine . William Penn said , very truly , in his Sandy Foundation Shaken , for writing and publishing which , being" a notable attack on " public opinion , " he was persecuted
by his enemies , but applauded by his friends the Quakers , with remarkable unanimity , that " the Scriptures undeniably prove that onk is (* od , and God only is that only one ; therefore he cannot be divided into or subsist , " says he , " in an holy three ,
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or three distinct and separate holy ones . " In pointing out " the absurdities that unavoidably follow the comparison of—the vulgar doctrine of Satisfaction , being dependent upon the second person of the Trinity , " he even describes " Jesus Christ as a finite and
impotent creature , " without reference to the unscriptural notion of two natures , and his God and Father as " the infinite and omnipotent Creator . " I am aware that some of their approved authors have sometimes used
mystical language on the subject , as nearly approaching the present standard of reputed orthodoxy , as Sabellians have long ago employed , but I know of only one writer amongst them who has gone so far as T . P ., and that is the author , whom I much
esteem , of a work published in 1813 , by Wm . Phillips , London , and entitled " Remarks suggested by the Perusal of a ' Portraiture of Primitive Quakerism , bv William Penn : with a
Modern Sketch of Reputed Orthodoxy / &c , by Thomas Prichard . " The Portraiture is reviewed in your journal for 1812 ( VII . 523 ) . The remarks on it have , I believe , not
come under your notice . I he greater part of the pamphlet consists of a republication of another tract of Perm's , which was more to the Editor ' s taste than the Portraiture , the readers of
which he describes as " introduced to this amiable writer , only through the medium of Unitarian quotation " Whereas , it must be confessed , the other tract is rather strongly tinctured with Sabellianism , but with nothing
like " the common doctrine of the Trinity , " without which he considered the Quakers as consigned " to the invidious condition of the bat in the fable , neither bird nor beast , with all its pernicious consequences . " Vet he tells his readers , that Penn ' s Sandy
Foundation Shaken , or the above Portraiture , tf professes to attack all that is of mere human authority and invention in the tenets that relate to the Trinity , imputed righteousness , and the satisfaction and atonement made by Christ . " The author considered the whole as founded on the sand , and tells us he " endeavoured a tow enervation of those cardinal points , and chief doctrines so firmly believed ,
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160 Letters in the " Christian Observer" on Quakers and Unitarians .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1822, page 150, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2510/page/22/
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