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< iuency , I thmk it neeessaty , in my twn jiivStiricatioi ^ to re prin t the offensive letter or tract , under your cover , that the public may be enabled to decide between us . If to advise my poor neighbours , who have every variety of doctrine preached to them , to stick to their Bibles , to read
them with diligence and attention , and to judge for themselves in the important concern of religion , be to lead them to Deism , then am I culpable ; for this advice have I given them . In doing this , f have been guided by a wish to protect them at the same time from Infidelity
and the fashionable errors In religion . I hope and trust that I am as far removed from the former as you are , or can be ; and had I , with my opinions , and the high value I entertain for the Christian religion , written any thing that had a tendency to impede its progress , it would be to me a cause of the most sincere and
lasting regret ; and I should justly deserve your censure and execration , and that of every good and virtuous man . I assure you I place a high value upon the good opinion of such , though I should be sorry to obtain it by means rendering me , in my own estimation , unworthy of it . " The good character I have
maintained in the world , ( for I will not be guilty of the affectation of professing that C have no such character , ) has , I believe , been awarded me by some , in a great jneasure , in consequence of my regular atteudance ujxm the ordinances of the Established Church . The small still voice of conscience has at all times whispered
to mo , that , instead or deserving the praise of others for this , I have merited their censure . Could they have read my heart , they would have discovered that , instead of discharging my duty with Christian candour and sincerity , 1 was ( in part at least ) acting with disiugetmousiu'ss , not to say duplicity and deceit ; and this
not only towards man , but towards God ; instead of serving him in spirit and in truth—instead of endeavouring , by honesty and plain dealing , to obtain his favour , my conscience has told me that , by attcuding a worship of which 1 disapproved , under the plausible excuse of
setting a good example , and keeping up a decent appearance , I was courting the unsatisfying approbation and countenance <>( the world , and rendering myself unworthy of these , which I felt 1 enjoyed , in some measure , in consequence of a false estimation of my character . "—— P p * . 9—11 .
Having treated the . supposition of himself having * taken the advice of the Archdeacon in his theological tlif-
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ficuttiesy aad having come ta < ue coq elusion that no bonnet Christian mi * nister couid have advkfcd religious duplicit y * he p « ts , in % note , the foi .. lowing case : * ' Instead of a layman coming to you as Ordinary , for spiritual advice , suppose a minister under your pastoral care should have applied to you , and stated that , as he could find no such God as God the Holy Ghost mentioned in the Bible he
could not conscientiously continue his ministration in the Church—would you have advised him to consult the Articles the Creeds , or the Homilies , or to stick to the Bible and follow the dictates of his conscience ?
< c This is not altogether an imaginary statement . The Rev . Mr . Baring , a member of one of the most wealthy private families in the kingdom , has lately resigned his living in the Church on this very account . He has made many converts to his opinions , who , except rejecting the divinity and personality of the Holy Ghost , retain , I believe , the other doctrines of the Established Church . The
same spirit of free inquiry may perhaps lead him and others to the conclusion , that God the Father is alone God ; and that the Mediator between God and man cannot in any sense be God himself ; or that the God and Father of Jesus Christ cannot be Jesus Christ himself . If we
are to dispense with the plain rules of grammar , of arithmetic , and of common sense , in explaining the Holy Scriptures , they will become a mere dead letter . "Pp . 15 , 16 . This well-instructed layman agserts the supremacy of the Scriptures . He
says ( p . 69 ) that Jesus Christ is by his doctrine " the same yesterday , today and for ever , " but that " among men , Jesus Christ is continually changing" . " For proof of this , he refers to the Peterborough Questions , which ,
he adds , have been called " cobwebs for catching Calvinists , " but which might , he thinks , be more properly denominated " patent machines for the manufacture o £ hypocrites , by wholesale , upon a new and improved principle . "
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The Appendix contains , besides (' apt . Thrush's Letter before-mentioned , a repr int of the following pamphlet : " Remarks on the AthanaKian Creed ; ott a Sermon p reuchecl at the Parinh Church of Deal , Oct . 15 , 175 t >; and on a Pamphlet , lately published , with the title , * Soiae Short
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966 Revieio .- ^ Cepi * Thrush * Letter to the ^ 4 r 9 h 4 m ^ m ^ f . i ) ifdeland
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1822, page 366, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2513/page/46/
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