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and Plain Argument frotx * Scripture , evidently proving" the Divinity of our Saviour . * In a Letter addressed to the Rev . Mr . Randolph , Rector of Deal . By a Lady /* This female production was occasioned by the
suspension of the Curate of St . George ' s Chapel , Deal , Dr . Nicholas Carter , by his rector , Mr . Randolph , for omitting to read the Athanasian Creed iu his chapeh The Sermon alluded to in the Lady ' s title-page , was published by Dr . Carter , from Matthew
xxiii . 8—10 , Again&t the Athanasian Creed . * Of this conscientious divine , Dr . Herring , the Archbishop of Canterbury , says iu a letter to William Duncombe / Esq ., dated Nov . 5 , 1755 , " Your friend Dr . Carter is grievously te , azed by folks who call
themselves orthodox . I abhor every tendency to the Trinity controversy 3 the m&nuer in which it is always managed is the disgrace and ruin of Christianity . " Dr . Carter ' s name appears very suitably in our list of the Petitioning Clergy , in 1772 . ( Mon . Repos . XVII . 16 , col . 1 . ) He is celebrated in our
biographical histories as the father of the learned Mrs . Elizabeth Carter , and to this lady the Letter here republished has been commonly attri-r Luted . Her biographer and . relation , Mr . Montague Pennington , denies that she was the au . tb . or . but admits thai
he knows aol who was : hi& theologi ^ cal bias may have disinclined him . to give its full weight to the evidence of its having proceeded from her pen . On this disputed point , which some of our correspondents may enable us to clear up Capt . Thrush says ,
w copy front which I reprint this tetter was i » the possession of the late Duke of Grafton at the time of his death , and was marked in ( I believe ) the handwriting of that ooblera&n as the
production ol Mrs . Carter- Her memoir , so far from throwing any ligfet ©» the subject , does not in any way aitoude to tht « letter . Of her ability to write such a letter no ° ne can doubt ; and that . her . religious opinions were not orthodox is to be iufared from her never once , iu her Notes ° a the New Testament , offering the slightest remarks on those texts which & * e generally brought forward as decisive Proofs of the footriae of the Trinity : all
¦ . . ¦— . So entitled in Letsome ' s Preacher ' s Assistant , 8 vo . 1753 . Appendix , p . 2 rt : * .
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these texts are passed over in perfect silence , as much so as if they had do place in the sacred volume . " As the learned historian of Mrs . Carter , who has mentioned many things of trivial moment , has taken no notice of this letter , certainly no
inconsequential one to the subject of the memoir , and merely alluded ta the circumstance of Dr . Carter ' s suspension , it affords some ground to suppose that either Mrs . Carter or her sister , afterwards Mrs , Pennington , the mother of the reverend biographer , had written this letter ; the lady last mentioned , it is to be remarked , had
written on controversial subjects (" see p . 6 of Mrs . Carter ' s Memoir ) . Either of these ladies , no doubt , was qualified to write this letter , which is the case with few women ; and it is very natural to suppose that they would both feel a wish to humble Mr . Randolph , the ungenerous enemy of their beloved father . That the
family regarded Mr . Randolph in that light is evident from Dr . Carter ' s Letter to that gentleman , prefixed to a Serraoa which he preached at St . George ' s Chapel , in Deal , August 9 th , 1752 . The probability that one of these ladies wrote this letter is strengthened by the perusal of Mrs . Carter ' s Memoir , where , among
that lady ' s correspondents and friends at that period , we rind no one mentioned at all likely to write such a letter . As Mrs . Carter ( it is to be presumed ) had left no letters or documents concerning this letter , of so much consequence to her and her family , her silence conveys a suspicion that , if not the writer of it , she was
not Iu ignorance on the subject . This supposition receives strength from the consideration that soon after this period Mrs . Carter was living upon terms of friendship and intimacy with the highest dignitaries of the Church . The air of episcopal palaces has a wonderful effect iu suppressing inquiries after religious
truth . 1 by no means say this to cast $ uy imputation upon Mrs . Carter , \ rhom I consider as a kind of superipr being , w , h ° se character cannot be affected cither by praise or censure from uiy pen . But I think myself justified in making the remark , as it applies to characters in whose society the relations of Mrs . Carter would
uot be sorry to sec her placed . i >*\ Porte , us , afterwards Bishop of London , Dr . Yoirke , afterwards lihiUop of Kly , and Dr . Percy , subsequently ( 1 believe ) elevated to the prelacy , were auaoug the clergy petitioning Parliament for relief in the article of subscription ; but , after breathing thus air of episcopal palaces , they deserted the cause in which they had before embarked . "—Note , pp . 5—7 . Whoever was the author of this
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Review . —Capt ; Thrusts Letter to t / ie Arvhd&tcon of Cleveland . 367
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1822, page 367, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2513/page/47/
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