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Shaken , one of . the most able vindications of genuine Unitarianism which bad ever appeared in the English language . Of its author , the letter you have inserted says , " One characteristic stamps both his life and writings , that of being led and guided by the spirit of Christ . " May I then ask , if this " stamps" all his " writings , " how it happened that he should ever have occasion to give forth " a recantation , "
as this writer imagines he did ? And if so , whether any " subsequent declaration of his principles" could remove " from him every possible imputation of holding Unitarian doctrines" before his supposed
recantation ? The work so written , describes Perm ' s " views and intentions" much too clearly to be readily mistaken by any unprejudiced reader . In short , it asserts that doctrine as plainly as any work that ever was written . It is therefore no wonder that its
attentive perusal , by even a prejudiced reader , should not shake " the foundation of that truth for which William Penn was both an able and a faithful , " but npt an infallible , " advocate . " Reserving any thing more I may have occasion to add in his defence
till a future time , ( should you insert this letter , already too long , ) I am , With best wishes , yours sincerely , THOMAS FOSTER .
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7 Month , 1822 . Respected Friend , IN the Repository of 6 month last , ( pp . 271—273 , ) there waa a letter on Penn's Sand y Foundation Shaken , in which the writer says , " Whatever constructions individuals may have put upon that pamphlet , entirely opposite to W . Penn ? * views and
inten-Uuns , his subsequent declaration of his principles , and his public vindication of them in a work eutitled , ' Innocency with her OpeaFace / removes from Mm every possible imputation of Jtolding Unitarian doctrine "
I am at a loss to conceive how any impautial and candid inquirer after fcwutfa , / could attive at such a conclusion , after carefully perusing ; tbe Sandy Foundation Shaken , in . ' which . Won . Penn so ably refutes "those so generally believed arid applauded doc-
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trines of one Golf , subsisting in three distinct and separate persons , &c , &c . > from the authority of Scripture tesiimonies and ri ght reason . " In the Prefatory Advertisement of the folio edition of Penn ' s Works ,
1761 , we are informed , " that it was judged expedient , previously to another impression , to review the whole , and to select for publication all such parts of our author ' s writings as have an immediate tendency to promote the cause of religion in general ,
containing doctrines in which people of all nations , ranks and conditions are interested without dispute ; and such likewise as , at the same time that they contribute to the same great end , the increase of primitive Christianity in life and doctrines , include an apology for the religious principles and
practice of the people to whom he was united in profession . " In this edition , and also in another , printed in 1782 , which has been sanctioned , reviewed and published by the Society of Friends , is inserted the Sandy Foundation Shaken , and , if I mistake not , it is also contained in the edition of
Penn ' s Works now printing . If , then , the Society disapproves of the doctrines insisted upon and logically deduced in this work , for what reason have they " selected" it for publication in preference to others of a controversial nature , which they have omitted ?
From this edition I extract the following paragraph , which I believe is not in the " Unitarian edition : " " No one substance can have three distinct subsistences , and preserve its own unity : for , granting them the most favourable definition , every subsistence will have its own substance ; so that three distinct subsistences or
manners of being , will require three distinct substances or beings , consequently three Gods . For if the infinite Godhead subsists in three separate manners or forms , there is not any one of them a perfect and complete subsistence without the other
two ; so parts and something finite is in God ; or if infinite , then three distinct infinite subsistences ; and what is this but to assert three Gods , since none is infinite but God ? And , on the contrary , there being an inseparability betwixt the substance and its
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Penh ' s < ' Sandy Fot&clatidn" . 469
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1822, page 469, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2515/page/13/
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