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the Unitarian doctrine from that which he avowed In his pamphlet . He has quitted the fair ground upon which he stood , and now confesses that he did it to " prevent a monopoly of good things , " by shewing
that the Unitarian might consistently have a share of them . Monopoly of good things ! Hear this , ye shades of Lindsey , Disney and Wakefield ! Hear this , ye men of integrity , now living " , who , with talents which might open to you , on facile hinges , the gates of
preferment , still persevere in what ye deem to be the better path , and for this very reason that ye think thereby ( in the language of Mr . Worsley ) " you have the fairest prospect of advancing the truth ** 1 Why do ye appeal against the Test Act ? Why do ye
petition against the Marriage Ceremony ? Why do ye build separate places of worship ? I will venture to assert , that a more strange concatenation of sentiments was never strung together than in this letter of the Friend to Inquiry . I appeal to
Unitarians themselves . My opinion is , that if the Unitarian caa put & bridle on his conscience , he ought also to put it on his lips . My opinion is , that
his protest does not clear him from hypocrisy , while he aims by external conformity / ' not to be shut out " from a share of good things / 5 and that such conduct does not deserve the compliment of " fearless . " As to official
dignity ! my idea is , that if a professed Unitarian takes the sacrament for the express purpose of obtaining any office , he obtains it by perjury ; and that if he at the same time
proclaims and propagates his opinions , he triumphs in his shame . When I speak of a Unitarian , I speak of those * who hold the strict and proper humanity of Christ as one of their fundamental
tenets . " But I will not trespass any farther . I beg you to give a place to a fevv arguments , which I had already published on the inconsistency of a Unitarian claiming to be a consistent member of the Church .
Permit me , before I conclude , to enter my protest against such expressions as ' * a small and remote town /' &c . Is the propagation of right principles to be checked , because they may originate among people in an humble class , and in a remote town ? At what mile-stone from Hyde-Park Cor-
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ner does respectability begin ? Shall Carey ' s Book of Roads be an Index Purgatorius , and shew by an author ' s residence whether any thing that comes from him can be good ? Burn your Nautical Almanacks , ye British
captains , for how can they be your guides in the Pacific Ocean or at the North Pole , when ye shall be informed ( as is the fact ) that the calculations were made by an inhabitant of a remote village in Cornwall ! Break your lamps , ye labourers in the bowels of the earth , for of what use can
things be which were invented by a native of Penzance 1 Away with the chilling and degrading sentiment Truth is truth , let it come from where it will ; and it is one mark of the great improvement of modern times , that such is the facility of intercourse , that in the diffusion of opinion distance seems annihilated : it flies like
the electric fluid , and seems every where almost at once . I am aware that I expose myself to raillery by such exclamation . Far be it from me to attach any importance to myself ; but 1 do think that this " Cornish Controversy" ( as you term it )
has shewn , in a conspicuous light , and by the adoption of it in your pages , in a permanent light , a most important feature of the present time 3 . Look at the Nonjuror in the beginning of the last century : see him conscientiously retiring from the preferment , honours and the means of life ; and
see the Dissenter of the present day ,, the disbeliever in the authenticity of the Gospels , attending the services of the Church , and partaking- of its sacraments , approaching the table , not with compunctions of conscience , but demanding- the offices of the Church with a Writ in one hand and a Prayer Book in the other . Are not these
things new ? Are they not important ? Are they not worthy of observation ? Is consistency a virJue , or is it not ? If it ceases to be thought so , has not a most important change taken place in public opinion ? Why a sneer at a
remote corner ? That these things have been exhibited in a remote place adds to their interest ; because , if they had happened in the crowd and fumes of the metropolis , they might have escaped notice : a light set on a hill is more apparent in the country than in a city . Look at Mr . Wesley alone ,
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338 Cornish Controversy s Mf 0 Le Grice in Reply 0
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1824, page 338, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2525/page/18/
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