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On Milton ' s New Work . Thus lovely Halcyons dive into the main , Then shew far off their shining plumes again ! Cowpeb-Islington ,
Sir , Dec . 4 , 1325 . 1 HAVE been much amused ' with certain critiques of MUtons newlyrecovered theological work entiled , " A Treatise on Christian Doctrine , compiled from the Holy Scriptures , translated from the original Latin by order of his Majesty . " The remarks of the Reviewers of the Congregational and of the Evangelical Magazines are characterized by similar lamentations of its extreme heterodoxy . There is , however , one wide difference between them . The former pronounces it the imbecile ebullition of
dotage , and of course unworthy of attention . The latter makes no such insinuation , but , speaking highly of the literary merit of the work , means to institute a series of essays for the refutation of its contents . This is
fair and entitled to commendation . " The cause of truth ( says Dr . Priestley ) may be compared to an engine constructed so as to be put in motion by the tide , and which is kepit in its proper movement whether the water ilows in or flows out ! Nothing here is wanting but motion , it being impossible for that motion from whatever
quarter it arise to operate unfavourably . " With unimpeded career , overwhelming all opposition , Truth will have her victory .
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But the Evangelical critic has a paragraph which must not pass im ~ noticed . ff To some of our Baptist brethren it will not be a little gratifying to find that Milton was on their side . The triumph is , however , in some degree moderated by the circumstance that his extreme
heterodoxy in other particulars must for ever annihilate him as a theological authority . If , however , they will boast of him , let them not forget that he was an Arian , a Polygamist > a Materialist * a Humanitarian , and in fact an abettor of almost every error which has infested the Church of
God 1 " Now here is a strange jumble of hard names flung together with the view of branding the character of the illustrious author of Paradise Lost with obloquy . The writer is doubtless acquainted with the efficacy o £ abuse instead of argument , and is well aware of the due effect it will have on
the readers of the Evangelical Magazine . Be it so . I envy not his satisfaction . Milton was certainly , as it appears from this work , an Arian and a Polygamist and a Materialist , but not a Humanitarian * Arianism and
Humanitarianism are m direct opposition to each other , and this sagacious critic ought to have known it . The Particular Baptists indeed are confessedly moderated in their triumph on finding Milton a Baptist , bv his alleged heterodoxy . But it should be known that a large and respectable portion of the General Baptists exult without reserve in discovering this great man among their ranks . That he was a Baptist and an Arian Baptist I rejoice to find , and more
especially that he became so by the diligent study of the Old and New Testament . Upon his richly impregnated and capacious mind truth shone not through the murky atmosphere of creeds and confessions , but from the broad and unsullied mirror of the
word of God ! Milton ' s undisguised avowal of the despised doctrine of Adult Baptism must be particularly offensive to the Psedobaptists , —it is proclaimed in these memorable words : " Under
the gospel the first of the sacraments , commonly so called , is Baptism , wherein the bodies of believers who engage themselves to pureness of life , are immersed in running water , to signify
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710 ® n Milton ' srJVew fTcfk .
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criticisms , but for his moderation and caution in stating matters of faith , " a rash and inconsistent misinterpreter of Scripture "" -which in the usual style of this liberal Review
would be an appropriate definition of a learned Unitarian biblical critic . This the venerable Theophilus Lindsey undoubtedly was , and the Quarterly Reviewer having a faint recollection of a Lindsey resigning church preferment for conscience' sake , and
afterwards boldly defending his conduct by the publication of his scriptural researches tinder the title of an Apology , has confused the whole together , and fancied he was attacking one man , while he wae ignorantly Censuring another . ABRAHAM CLARKE ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1825, page 710, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2543/page/6/
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