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the Protestant- Dissenters , still padre than the members of the Established Church ; and it was on occasion of the famous decision of a body of Nonconformist ministers , of their resolution by a small majority , not to subscribe to the first article of the Church
of England , that Sir Joseph Jekyil declared , c < the Bible had carried it by four . " Only a short time before this stormy season , the great name of Clarke had powerfully awakened public attention to the " Scripture
doctrine of the Trinity . * ' His work , so entitled , is still read \ the writings of such a man being composed of no perishable materials , and possessing more than a temporary interest . But the controversy which it occasioned , almost ceases to be remembered ;
though it made a strong impression upon a number of the clergy , and the Dissenting ministers of a former generation . Several , indeed , of the dignitaries , and some even of the prelates , in the reign of George the Second , appear to have been by no ir ^ eans fond either of loftv ecclesiastical claims or
of those views of the Trinity which are stated in human creeds . A large and most respectable class of men , followed Dr . S . Clarke—not , perhaps , in all his religious tenets , but certainly —in his manner of investigating the sense of the Scriptures , and of submitting to the world the result of the
investigation . They resembled him , too , in that sobriety of mind , and vigour of understanding , and genuine candour and Catholicism of spirit , which are yet more valuable than all the treasures of the profoundest and amplest erudition . Who that can
estimate the characters and writings of such individuals as Jackson , ( of Rossington , ) Sykes , Jortin , the Bishops Clayton and Hoadly , and of others who were formed in the same school , and who laboured in the same field ,
but must lament that they have left so few successors ? By these sons and ministers and guardians of the Episcopal Church her reputation was sustained and extended ; while , in a different sphere , Lardtter and Lord
Barrington were either illustrating and supporting the evidences of our common Christianity , or jointly discussing " the doctrines of the New ' Testament , with regard to the person and preexistence of Christ . " The masterly
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and , we must think , unanswerable fg Letter on the Logos , " was drawn ; iij * in 1730 , though it was not published until a considerable time afterwards : the more generally and the riiore attentively it is read , the higher mil be the value placed on its learning * , its arguments and its temper .
In looking back on the theological debates of the last age , we shall discover that , although the Trinitamnt controversy was kept alive , other questions occupied , nevertheless , a larger portion of the public mind . The more prominent controversies were the Pro ~
testant , the Detstical and the Bango ~ rian * At the same time , the inquiry which respected the object of worship and " the person of Christ , " did not fail to associate itself , in a great
degree , with vindications of the rights of conscience , with fearless statements and irrefragable proofs of the sufficiency of Scripture , and of the unlawfulness of subscription to human articles of faith . The intimate alliance
between doctrinal truth and an opposition to ecclesiastical and priestly claims , was especially developed in the several cases of Whiston and of Emlyn , and in those proceedings , at Salters' Hall , and at Exeter , with which we cannot refrain from
connecting in a particular manner , the names of Peirce and Hallet . The politics ( so we are compelled to style them ) of the State and those of the Established Church , are inseparably related to each other , and bear , with
hardly any variation , the samecliaraeter . Scarcely had George the Third ascended the throne , when it became evident that the court cherished a strong prepossession in favour of those high maxims of government , which the once formidable efforts of the
Pretenders had placed in a sort of abeyance . The new reign excited some hopes , and some apprehensions , that seemed to have been dormant . Its commencement was dark and inauspicious , and presented scenes , over which the enlightened historian would gladly
draw the veil , did not a faithful regard to the interests of his country and of posterity forbid his silence . The first memorable event connected with theology , and with ecclesiastical discipline , was the defeat of the petitioning clergy ^ in 1772 . A number of the ministers of the Church of England , and among
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Review .- * - * - Wetlbel < miP * petie ?* io Archdeacon tVrangham . 221
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1825, page 221, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2535/page/29/
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