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Remonstrance on V&h 9 &f of Calvinism . 375
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Ofam h&ve I vrklred that some equitable tfensor would interpose on such occasion ^ , to repress wrong represent rations , fcot only in your work , but in all other religious publications . Surely it would he no great degree of moral heroism , for men to lay upon
their consciences the obligation of taking- the requisite pains to understand , before they rebuke ; and to describe fairly the doctrines held by others ^ howevfcr much $ hey ibay disapprove them . I should dread , indeed , to set my foot on this thorny
ground ; not knotving how far I might be drawn into the thicket of replies and rejoinders , and having neither the love of eroHtrovefsy not the leisure for it . But I cannot pass by two passages in the last Number of the Repository ,
which appear to me to call loudly , the one for severe fepreherisidn * ahd the dthe * fdr respectful remonstrance . I am not presuming to determine who is right and who -is wrong , upon the points of dodtrine referred to . Every man should examine for himself these
great q ^ stions , with a serious noind , and avaiffiag Mlnself of all the tight thit he can procure * I only plead for fair treatment * t thiak , Sir , yt > u could not feel pleasure iii admitting- to a place in
yotir pages the u Satiric Fragment " on the doctrine of the Trinity ( p . 421 ) . 1 trust that many who reject that doctrine , feel the duty of discussing it with seriousness . The inquiry , What has God revealed concerning his own nature and manner of existence ? is ,
m every point of view , a solemn and ftwful subject ; and which never , I humbly think , should be entered upon without a serious and devotional state of mind . The broad jesting and buffoonery of that Fragment are unworthy of any rational and candid enemy of the doctrine thus ridiculed . The
author ought to have reflected that many have been and are conscientious believers of that doctrine , who have not taken it upon trust , who do not build their faith on prepossessions ^ who have <* ar £ fully exercised their best reasoning powers upon the
question , and who would not believe Without what appeared to them rational and sufficient proof . The wit and ingenuity 6 f the writer have , I fear , inebriated his judgment . He cduld scarcely , otherwise , suppose that his
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representations stood upon an honest basis . Whoever opposes the Trinitarian doctrine should do it the justice to recollect , that those who maintain it carefully guard us against imaginingthat they hold the Divine Essence to be One and Three , in the same sense , or under the same relations . Whether
their interpretations of scripture , on which alotie they rest their belief , be fcorrect or not , it ought not to be forgotten that , in their own conceptions , they fully believe and strenuously dissert the Unity of God .
My other objection is to the strain of representation in page 417 , which identifies Calvinism with the gross and revolting notions of Antinomianism . It is peculiarly painful to see this unjust and confused manner of representation come from so respectable a person as Mr . Worsley . He
exults in his truly illustrious ancestry : but haa he forgotten that George and Obadiah Hughes were Calvinists ? Be justly celebrates ** the purity e of their principles , " and he can scarcely fail to know that they , with the great body of the Puritans aad Nonconformists , held the doctrine of Divine Influence in the conversion and
sanetification of souls ; while they perceived not the least inconsistency iu exhortations and invitations , arguments and persuasions , addressed to the unconverted , urging them to make a sincere application to the Saviour , and u to pray for pardon , ' * and for all other spiritual blessings .
Be Mr . Worsley ' s own religious opinions what they may , I cannot but be astonished that he should be so little acquainted with the faith of his reverend ancestors and of all consistent Calvinists , as to say concerning such a style of exhortation , that it " is a
needless and must be aa absurd tiling , if none can pray as they ought , but they who arc already renewed by the Holy Ghost , and that number is exceedingly small . As well might men pray to a picture or a statue ; a 3 well talk to the wind / ' Uptin the ground
of this assumption , he applauds as u consistency" and «• integrity , * ' that which to my perceptions appears to be no other than horrid impiety . Is it possible that Mir . Vforsley ' s theological reading should be so sc&iifey , pr that his investigations of religious doctrine ^ have been so c rude and
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vol . xix . o z
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1824, page 375, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2528/page/25/
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