On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
xvtek , " a canon of criticism and the alteration of the text in Rom . ix . 5 , the first of the "Three Additional Letters" is concluded . —Pp . 57—62 . In the second our author resumes the subject of the alleged orthodoxy
of Watts , Locke , Sir I . Newton , &c , &c . ; and this , not for the purpose , as the Archdeacon of Cleveland inaccurately represents , and inelegantly and vulgarly phrases it , of " bolstering up a sect , ' * but of vindicating truth , and repelling hasty , illiberal and unjust charges .
From an Inquiry into the Comparative Moral Tendency of Trinitarian and Unitarian Doctrines , fye ., by Jared Sparks , * [ Boston , Massachusetts , 1823 , ] the writer of the " Three Additional Letters , " quotes the following words of Dr . Watts himself ,
who says to his correspondent , the Rev . Dr . Colman , of Boston , and this in 1747 , the year before that of his own death , " I am glad my book of Useful Questions came safe to your
hand . I think I have said every thing concerning the Son of God , which Scripture says ; but I could not go so far as to say , with some of our orthodox divines , that the Son is equal with the Father ; because our Lord himself
expressly says , * The Father is greater than I /"—P . 65 [ note ] . Many pages are employed by Mr . Wellbeloved { 67—87 ) in a " further examination of Mr . Locke ' s theological writings , with a view to the question , whether he were a Trinitarian or an
Antitrinitarian ? This renewed and extended inquiry our author conducts with great intelligence , discernment , impartiality and candour : and it fully justifies his former representation . No part either of the " Three Letters" or
of the " Three Additional Letters , " does more credit to his powers of criticism and reasoning . Perhaps we may be allowed to embrace this opportunity of recommending to our readers generally , and especially to those of them who make religious
* Mr . Sparks , whom the Archdeacon of Cleveland ' s opponent justly characterizes as " a learned and intelligent Transatlantic Unitarian , ' adds , " The
original of this letter , I believe , is retained among the files of the Massachusetts Historical Society . " The reference frhould have been to p . 393 of the Inquinj , &c .
Untitled Article
knowledge their primary object , the attentive perusal of Locke ' s correspondence—nor least of that with Limborch : it is a faithful and most engaging picture of the man , and discloses his enlightened , supreme attachment
to Christian liberty and truth . The absoLute unity of God , was a favourite tenet with Locke , * than whom it is probable that no philosopher has done more—if we may not add , so muchfor the instruction and improvement of mankind .
The Archdeacon o f Cleveland , it seems , has endeavoured to defend the orthodoxy of Sir Isaac Newton- Unttarians , or rather Antitrinitarians , claim the illustrious author of the
Principia , upon better ground than what the dignitary calls " the Canon of Suppression , " than his silence in behalf of received doctrines , than his omission of cautions against any such erroneous tenets . What Mr .
Wellbeloved says concerning the writings and history of that most gifted of uninspired men , will satisfy our readers , that he is to be enrolled under the banners of Antitrinitarianisni . We think it especially disgraceful to Archdeacon Wrangham's judgment and candour , that he aims at describing
Sir I . Newton ' s opposition to Whiston's admission into the Royal Society as being produced by the tc heresy *' of that very honest and meritorious , yet very eccentric , individual . There
is no evidence whatever of such having " been the ground of the President's objection . Nothing is easier , nothing more natural , than to conceive that reasons quite distinct from this , though not perhaps just and valid , operated to the exclusion of Newton ' s successor
in the Lucasian professorship . —Pp . 87 —94 . The case of another Cambridge man , Bishop Edmund Law , is next considered by the dignitary ; and with no greater success . Could it
antecedently have been supposed , that a clergyman of Archdeacon Wranghain's station , connexions , standing , and literary character , was altogether ignorant of the progress of that Prelate ' s theological sentiments , or of the variations in the successive editions of the
Considerations , &x \ ? Still further , could it have been imagined , that one * Familiar Letters , 330 5 &c .
Untitled Article
tlevtei&j—fiPellbeloved's Letters to Archdeacon PFrangham * 165
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1825, page 165, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2534/page/37/
-