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regret if I have thrown any obstruction in the way of inquirers after truth , and feel from thence an increased obligation to declare unreservedly my renewed devotion to Unitarian principles . Amidst the errors , misconceptions and frailties of our present state ,
it is consolatory to reflect that an infinitely wise and benevolent Being presides over all , who will produce good from evil , and that , however irrational , contradictory and weak our conduct may be , " we can , " eventually , iC do nothing against the truth , but for the truth . "
Coneehinor it to be due to the interests of religious truth , as well as to the vindication of my own character , if my former letter was made public
that it should be counteracted through the same medium , I transmit vou herewith an extract from a letter addressed by me to a Baptist Missionary stationed in this island .
DANIEL HARWOOD . Kandiy 3 Jay 23 , 1821 . I .... wish that I had possessed a . degree of prudence .... which might have preseived me from forming such a precipitate judgment , and prevented the necessity which I have long considered inevitable , of retracing my steps , and again claiming the name of
Antitrinita-. If I have deceived you , it was not until I had first deceived myself . 1 have never attempted to conceal my doubts , and I wish not for a moment to retain the character of orthodox after I cease in
popular eMimation to be entitled to it . 1 have always felt it my duty boldly to avow what appeared to me to be truth . From the same motive f have at different times professed myself an Unitarian and a Calvinist , and from a repaid to truth , and a conviction of dutv , I now again
disclaim being considered as a Trinitarian . I trust that 1 am , as you say , " only a sincere but a humble inquirer after truth . " By a humble inquirer after truth , I conclude you intend one disposed to submit to llie authority of revelation . Unitarians are frequently charged with setting Reason in opposition to
Revelation , and with rejecting . every thing which does not harmonize with their own preconceptions . With the truth or falsehood of this imputation I have nothing to do at present , farther than to disavow any such intention myself . I will rest only upon universally-admitted principles , confine Reason to the province of ascertaining what Revelation teaches , and
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bow implicitly to its dictates . I will reject no doctrine on any other ground than that it is not to be found in the Holy Scriptures , and earnestly desire that every thought may be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ .
The doctrine of the Trinity , as it i , not expressly taught in any part of the sacred volume , so also , it appears to me is not a necessary inference from anr filing that is clearly asserted ; and thai which is neither an explicit statement nor an unavoidable deduction of Revelation , cannot be obligatory on our faith
Upon reviewing what I before wrote I do not find that I have much to retract except on this point . I was chiefl y influenced to assent to the doctrine of a distinction of persons in the Godhead , by applying the t < rm " VVoid" in the introduction of John ' s Gospel , immediately to
the person of Jesus Christ ; whereas ] a in convinced now it is a personification of the wisdom and power of God , by which he created all things , imparted existence and intelligence to man , communicated his will at sundry times and in divers manners , and dwelt with all his fulness bodily in Jesus . All the expressions which are considered as teaching or
implying the deity of Christ , may , I thiuk , be referred to this indwelling Word , without violating the uni-personality of the One God . The title " > Son of God ' is not equivalent to God , but is synooymous to Messiah ; as is that of Hol y Ghost to Divine Spirit , which seems , therefore , to be only an appellation distinctive of the exertion of supernatural influence .
The Trinitarian doctrine does not eren seem to be essential to the Calvinistic scheme . 1 do not see wherein the hypothesis I have just stated derogates from the dignity of the Mediator ; or why the indwelling of the Deity , equally with the union of one person of the Trinity , should not capacitate him for offering an effiracious atonement for sin . I can s * iUf
therefore , maintain the same great ana glorious ends to be answered by the death of Christ as I did before . But I perceive a fallacy in the argument on which I founded the necessity of an atonement , aud of its being offered by a Mediator of infinite dignity . God is infinitely worthy of our love , and if we were capable of giving him all that he h worthy to receive , it would be an infinite fault W
fail in that love ; but bemtr finite creatares , he does not claim to be loved oj us infinitely but supremely y and our fault in withholding from him that love which is his due , though of supreme m agnitude or the highest that our natures are capable of , still falla short of infinitude . AH
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528 Mr , Daniel Harirood ' s Recovery from Calvinism .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1822, page 328, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2513/page/8/
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