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VOL . XIX . 4 Y
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Dr . Gale a Trinitarian . _ 713
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about ifc !*; jSjich J ^ ii giiage was to be expected * *^ cannot foe easily justified ^ plp ^ ^^^ i <^|^ . Dr . Gale ecrtnes y $ t ^ fearer to orthodpay * ( p . 3 J >) while defending his intimate frfeud Le Clerc against Dr .
WalPs attack on " . his suspected heterodoxy concerning the blessed Trinity , and particularly the Deity of Christ . " Now a Unitarian , of any description , who designed not to be misunderstood , would scarcely speak pf the Deity of Christ , stMi less would he compliment
the Triniijtf Xin his judgment a gross perversion ^ of Christian verity , an absurdity , spcl not a mystery ) with the epithet h $ 0 $ e < L Dr . Gale , however , proceed ci > class "Dr . Wall among ** the
those w ^ dispense with rules of ch ^ riiy and ibrhe arance , which the frve ^^^ m ^ Gop so repeatedly enjoins , and hexs made the discriminating
badge of Iiis disciples . " Soon after , ( p . 36 , ) he quotes from the Parrha-* kmd 9 with evicfeht approbatiQjn , a t ( passage that strikes at- the vqry root of Socinianism , " I copy the following from Dr . Gale ' s translation . € t The
apostles speak of the Messiah not only a $ off a niafv itut ift the . very same terms as of God the Father , and ascribe to hiin the creatloia of the world ; whence it is plain they in no wise looked on him as a man only , but as united to the Divinity in so close a manner that we may truly ascribe to him those things which
were done by God long before he was born . " * JHe had just before shewn that Le Cierc did " neither approve the opinion of the Arians , nor the Photinians * way of interpreting tbose
Scriptures which speak of the divinity of Christ / ' I will only add , that , referring ( p . 472 ) to the famous Letter of Pliny to Trajaji , he represents the primitive Christians as Christ ' s " most
zealous adorers , and those who pro ^ fessed to worship him as God . " * " Les apotres parlent du Messie , non settlement comme d' un homme , mais encore dans les memes termes , que de Dieu le P&re , et ils lui attribuent la creation du monde ; ce qui nous fait
comprendre qu * ils ne I ' ont nullement regard ^ comme un simple homme , mais comme £ taut uni k la Divinity d' unc manure si 6 troite , qu ' on peut lui attribuer ce que Dieu a fait long temps avant qw'il naquit . " Parrhasiana , ( 1701 , ) 1 . 419 .
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f Such Pr . Gale appears in 1711 , at the age of thirty-one . \^ liether his opinions vyere , altered during the succeeding ten years , ( for lie dte& iii 1721 , ) I have no means of asewtaiiiing , as I am unacquainted with any of
his writings , besides tlve Reflexions , except " A Thanksgiving Sermoa preached November 5 , 1713 ^ " and which appears to have much advanced the preachers reputation . This sermon contains nothing to the present purpose , but too much of Protestant
and Antigallican virulence , and of a descending to those common-places of the day , a tirade against Popery , as " dispensing with all manner of oaths and obligations ; so that one can never depend upon any Roman Catholics : " and a panegyric oa ' * King Wiliiatiia of
glorious memory ; whose great soul was set so much on the good of aiankind , that , not content to make us happy during his own life , but , looking forward through distant ages , he bent his special care to transmit the religion aud liberties he had saved down-to the end of time / 5 Then , 011
the authority of the Act of Settlement , and as if * ¦ ' his visual nerve" had been strengthened , like that of our first father by Milton ' s angel , the preacher beholds through the long vista of ages 6 % ^ " ^ *¦» * <¦ j-w ^ -fc . y ~ v j ^ m *^« •¦ ^\ ^ " * ^ "V *• I W ¦^ M ^ V V . / "V fm ^* 4 fX ^»* V ^ yfc Ibtt ^ ^^ * -fc rf ^ *^ fc succession of Protestant princes
" a in the line of" her present Majesty and that of the illustrious Hpuse of Hanover . " Here I take leave of the courtly seer > with his anticipations of illustrious Houses , " down to the end
of time , " and willingly return to Pr . Gale in his higher arid more appropriate character . In 1715 , Mr . Whiston formed the
" Society for promoting Primitive Christianity . " In his Memoirs of Dr . Clarke , ( Ed . 2 , p . 58 , ) he relates the first chairman was " Dr . John Gale , "
who was succeeded by " Mr . Arthur Onslow , " afterwards the celebrated Speaker . The third and last tiiairinan was . "Mr ;' Thomas Emiyii , " till the dissolution of the society in 1717 . The result of these associations on the
theology of Dr . Gale , does not appear either in the Brit . Bid * . ( X . 237 ) , the Gen . Biog . Diet . ( V . 490 ) , or the Sketch by Dr . Toulmin , Prot + Diss . Mag .. ( III . 41 ) . In these I hav $ found no account whatever of Dr , Gale ' s sentiments on the Trinity . It is probable , however , that sotaewhere iuhis
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1824, page 713, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2531/page/9/
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