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Had you no argument to convince unitarians of their errors, no persuasions to turn them from their sins? Had you no word of counsel and advice to diminish, rather than strengthen the prejudices of their enemies; to allay, rather than inflame the passions? Were the sympathies of your nature blotted out, and the common feelings of benevolence frozen in your soul? Had you no compassion, no kind wishes for the beings, whom you represent to be diving into the depths of depravity by system, and seeking their ruin upon principle? While hurrying down this dreadful precipice, did you think it the part of a christian to add what force you could to increase their velocity, and hasten their destruction? Could you not make a single effort to rescue and save? Such, it seems to me, would have been the conduct of a christian minister, who felt that interest for the eternal welfare of his fellow men, which every christian minister ought to feel.

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I respect your character, talents, learning, virtues, as highly as any other person; but I do not respect these enough to allow you to judge and condemn my moral and religious character, and that of my brethren, without demanding of you some reason for such condemnation. That you had been misinformed and deceived is no justification. This will not heal the breach you have made, nor prevent the ill effects of your sentence. It was a case in which no man ought to have felt at liberty to act, without the most positive knowledge of facts. Your sentence of condemnation concerns us, not merely as christians, but as men, as members of society. You represent us as immoral from the influence of our religious principles; and if this be true, we ought to be shunned by all good persons, as dangerous to the peace and order of the community. You would raise against

us the inquisition of public opinion, and not only sub.ject us to the prejudices of party zeal, and the caprices of ignorant credulity, but you would banish us from the privileges of society, the affections of friends, the charity and respect of the virtuous and the well informed, Sir, the course you have pursued needs explanation; you have assumed a right, which it is your duty to make good. You owe it to yourself; you owe it to those, who have been deceived by your representations; you owe it to the cause of truth, and of good faith; and above all, you owe it to those, whom you have traduced and injured, whether intentionally or not, to come forward with some testimony in your support, some proof of your assertions, some reasons for your violent attack on their morals, and their religious character. This is what they have a right to expect and demand.

A UNITARIAN OF BALTIMORE.

Among other English unitarians, not mentioned above, whose talents and learning have never been disputed, and whose moral character will bear any scrutiny, which the eagle-eyed malice of their enemies can make, may be numbered the following; namely, Bishop Clayton, Abernethy, Leland, Lowman, William Penn, Palmer, Tyrrwhit, Disney, Kenrick, Simpson, Toulmin, Reynolds, Estlin, Dr. Enfield, Bretland, Turner. To these may be added from among the earlier English unitarians, Elwall, Biddle, Firmin, and Hopton Haines, the friend and associate of Newton. The rare virtues of Biddle and Firmin have been celebrated by all parties. Bishop Burnet bears the highest testimony to the excellence of the latter. History of his own Times, vol. III. p. 292. And even John Pye Smith, to whom the virtues of other unitarians seem not to be virtues, calls Firmin a "mirror of charity."-Letters to Belsham, p. 88.

Another writer has called Firmin "a man of extraordinary affecions and abilities, for the great works of charity and piety." And the following are the words of the bishop of Gloucester, who was with him when he died. "He told me he was now going; and I trust, saiçi he, God will not condemn me to worse company, than I have loved and

used,' in the present life. I replied, that he had been an extraordinary example of charity; the poor had a wonderful blessing in you; 1 doubt not these works will follow you, if you have no expectation from the merit of them, but rely on the infinite goodness of God, and the merits of our Saviour Here he answered, I do so; and I say in the words of my Saviour, "When I have done all, I um but an unprofitable servant."

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Biddle was among the earliest of the English Unitarians. He suffered persecution, imprisonment, and many temporal calamities on account of his religious sentiments. No man has been more celebrated for his humanity, benevolence, and piety. His biographers tell that "he had such a lively sense of the obligations of humanity and kindness, that it was one of his first lessons, not only to relieve, but to visit the sick and poor, as the best means of administering comfort to them, and of gaining an exact knowledge of their circumstances; and as affording an opportunity to assist them by our counsel, or our interest, more effectually than we do or can bestow upon them." And again; "He was a strict observer himself, and a severe exacter in others, of reverence in speaking of God, and Christ, and holy things; so that he would by no means hear their names, or any sentence of holy scripture, used vainly or lightly,—and even in his common converse, he always retained an awe of the divine presence." See a Short Account of his Life,—and also Toulmin's Review of his life, p. 130, 131.

The following testimony to the excellent character of Dr. Priestley, is from the pen of the celebrated Dr. Samuel Parr, who knew him well. It is contained in his letter from Irenopolis to the inhabitants of Eleuthropolis. "I confess with sorrow, that in too many instances, such modes of defence have been used against this formidable Heresiarch, as would hardly be justifiable in the support of revelation itself, against the arrogance of a Bolingbroke, the buffoonery of a Mandeville, and the levity of a Voltaire. But the cause of orthodoxy requires not such aids. The church of England approves them not. The spirit of christianity warrants them not. Let Dr. Priestley be confuted where he is mistaken. Let him be exposed where he is superficial. Let him be rebuked where he is censorious. Let him be repressed where he is dogmatical. But let not his attainments be depreciated, because they are numerous almost without a parallel. Let not his talents be ridiculed, because they are superlatively great. Let not his morals be vilified, because they are correct without austerity, and exemplary without ostentation; because they present

even to common observers the innocence of a hermit, and the simplicity of a patriarch; and because a philosophic eye will at once diseover in them the deep fixed root of virtuous principle, and the solid trunk of virtuous habit."-See Appendix to Magee on the Atonement, p. 477.

Even Dr. Horsley was forced to confess his respect for the talents and worth of his great antagonist. After expressing the little regard he had for Dr. Priestley's "argument on a particular subject," he goes on to add; "This hinders not, but that I may entertain the respect, which 1 profess for your learning in other subjects; for your abilities in all subjects in which you are learned; and a cordial esteem and affection for the virtues of your character, which I believe to be great and amiable." Horsley's Letters to Priestley, p. 276. Let. XVII.

The following remarks on the character of Lindsey are from a trinitarian, the Rev. Job Orton, who has been called the "last of the Puritans." They are contained in his Letters to Dissenting Ministers.

"I am exceedingly glad," says he, "to hear, that Mr. Lindsey's chapel was so well filled, especially in the summer season, when the London congregations are generally thin. I have had two or three letters from that worthy and excellent man, whom I much esteem, and hold in the same veneration as I should have done one of the ejected and silenced Ministers a century ago. I have nothing to do with his particular sentiments; but his good sense, learning, piety, integrity, and desire to do good, demand the esteem and affection of every consistent Christian, especially every consistent Dissenter.

"Were I to publish an account of ejected and silenced Ministers, I should be strongly tempted to insert Mr. Lindsey in the list, which he mentions with so much veneration. He certainly deserves as much respect and honour as any one of them, for the part he has acted. Perhaps few of them exceeded him in learning or Piety. I venerate him as f would any of your confessors. As to his particular sentiments, they are nothing to me, any more than Baxter's, or Tombes's, or John Goodwin's. An honest, pious man, who makes such a sacrifice to truth and conscience, as he has done, is a glorious character, and deserves the respect, esteem, and veneration of every true christian, whatever his particular sentiments may be."-See Monthly Repository, Vol. I. p. 304.

Emlyn was remarkable for his piety and virtues. After a minute account of the interesting events of his life, of his patience and fortitude during his imprisonment and sufferings for his faith, his biographer adds; “Thus lived, thus died this excellent, holy, good man,

this eminently faithful servant of God; and in him the world has lost one of the brightest examples of substantial, unaffected piety; of serious, rational devotion; of a steady, unshaken, integrity; and an undaunted christian courage." Life of Thomas Emlyn, p. 98. London,

1746.

Archbishop Tillotson speaks of the "incomparable Chillingworth," and calls him "the glory of his age and nation." Sixth sermon on the Efficacy of Faith.

The amiable and christian virtues of Dr. Enfield are well known. Dr. Aiken, who was intimately acquainted with him, has said, that "religion was to him rather a principle, than a sentiment, and he was more solicitous to deduce from it a rule of life, enforced by its peculiar sanctions, than to elevate it into a source of feeling. His writings breathe the very spirit of his gentle and generous soul. He loved mankind, and wished nothing so much as to render them the worthy objects of love." Aiken's Life of Enfield, prefixed to his Sermons, p. 14, 27.

The character of Dr. Jebb, as delineated by Dr. Disney and others, shows him to have been a man of the noblest virtues, of warm piety, and the purest benevolence. Mr. Capel Lofft has described in glowing terms his "amiable, elevated, and exemplary character." "He - died," says another writer, "a martyr to his zeal and activity in promoting knowledge, piety and virtue.” See Memoirs of Jebb, p. 233.

Of Dr. Disney, his biographer writes, that, "In every thing he did, he acted under the influence of religion, and as in the continual presence of God. Piety was the leading feature in his character; and his desire to promote it in others, the first object of his mind and thoughts. 'T'he amendment of the morals of every person, the wealthiest and the poorest, with whom he had any intercourse, occupied his chief attention. All his undertakings had this end in view." Memoir prefixed to his Discourses, p. 23, 24.

The following is the character of Dr. Kenrick of Exeter, who was distinguished for his love of religious truth, and his profound attainments in theology."In a moral and religious view he attained to great eminence. Firm, upright, independent, he was, at the same time, kind and tender in his feelings, candid in his judgments, cordial and steadfast in his friendships, and generous and beneficent in his various intercourses with the world. The purity of his mind, his dis interestedness and self denial, and the zeal, which he constantly exercised for the accomplishment of important objects, were the genuine Fruits of christian piety and faith. His devotion was a principle and

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