EIGHTH AND NINTH

LETTERS

TO THE

REV. SAMUEL MILLER, D. D.

PROFESSOR OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND CHURCH GOVERNMENT

IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN
CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES, AT PRINCTON.

ON HIS

CHARGES AGAINST UNITARIANS.

[From the Unitarian Miscellany.]

By Javed Sharks.

་

Baltimore:

JOHN D. TOY, PRINTER,
Corner of Market street and St. Paul's lane.

1822.

any vel evolution war er selten ohne einen seine Briefe, sobald sie geschrieben waren, in Briefbi In späteren Lebensjahren gebrauchte er eine Abdruck auf diese Art erhaltenen Abdrücke sind noch jetzt vork

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EIGHTH LETTER

TO THE

REV. SAMUEL MILLER, D.D.

SIR,

In my first letter I incidentally mentioned the names of several persons, whose lives and characters, it was thought, afforded no feeble testimony to the incorrectness of your charges of immorality and irreligion against unitarians. I was so unfortunate, however, as to select a few names to which you have taken great exceptions. Among these you specify Clayton, Hoadly, Chillingworth, Law, Blackburne; and your principle of selection would embrace Dr. Samuel Clarke, and all others, who were unitarians, and at the same time belonged to the English Church. You are amazed, that any one should refer to such men as examples of morality. "I am astonished," you say, "and know not how men, whom I am compelled to consider as honest and sincere themselves, can so far suffer their zeal to triumph over their prudence, I had almost said over their moral sense, as to claim such associates." It is presumed, that all your readers, who know any thing of the characters of these persons, have been equally astonished, that your own "zeal should so far triumph over your prudence," as to suffer you to arraign before your individual

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which I am persuaded you will not, that these men were
remarkable for their practical goodness. Why then are
they loaded with charges so heavy and offensive, why
so much abhorrence expressed of their very names, why
are they libelled and proscribed as men, who were a dis-
grace to their profession, who are to be reprobated and
condemned as malefactors, and whom no honest man
in defence of a good cause can "claim as associates?"
You answer, that in belonging to the Church of Eng-
land, they subscribed to articles which they did not be-
lieve. It follows, that they were hypocrites, and their
goodness a show for their own convenience and interest.
As the burden of your charges rests on this point, it
shall be examined with some attention.

The question is, whether these men did not obey the
dictates of conscience, and conform to the decision of
their judgment in the course they pursued. If so, it
would have been criminal to act differently. They are
not to be judged by a rule, which any individual, not
acquainted with their motives, may imagine he should
prescribe to himself under similar circumstances. By
- this mode of judging, you would admit no man to be
conscientious, or sincere, or to act rightly, till he should
be guided by your rule. You have denounced these
men as hypocrites, immoral, and irreligious, on princi-
ples by which every man in the community might, in a
greater or less degree, come under the same censure.
When you can prove by a man's conduct, that he aims
to promote selfish interests and unholy purposes by a
sacrifice of every thing, which can dignify and adorn the
human character, or that he disregards all the laws of
right reason and of revelation, which concern him as
an immortal and accountable being, you may then, and
not before, discover some show of justice in such a sen-

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ecoviation war er selten ohne einen seine Briefe, sobald sie geschrieben waren, in Brieft In spåteren Lebensjahren gebrauchte er eine Abdruck-s auf diese Art erhaltenen Abdrücke sind noch jetzt vorha