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Dr. now Bp. Horseley, Mr. White, Mr. Howes, Dr. Horne, dean of Canterbury, and prefident of Magdalen college, Oxford, have lately appeared in print against our author, chiefly with an intention to confute what he has advanced concerning the divine unity, and the perfon of Christ. The state of the argument betwixt himfelf and Dr. Horfeley, Dr. Priestley has mentioned in page 10, &c. of his letters to Dr. Horne; and has made fome animadverfions on Mr. White, in his "Im

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portance and extent of free inquiry in "matters of religion ;" and in his Defences of Unitarianifm for the year 1787, p. 71 to 108, hath made a full reply to the charges, which Mr. Howes hath brought against him.

The prefident of Magdalen maintains, that there are three divine persons, who are each of them Gods, and equally to be worfhiped; and yet that these three perfons, thus diftinctly to be invoked, are not three Gods, but one God: a doctrine, and a worship this, as appears from the face of the fcriptures, and will more appear the

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more accurately they are examined, wholly unknown to Mofes, and to Jefus, and his apoftles: and, to the philofophic inquirer, nature's (a) light certainly teaches its great author and creator, GoD, to be one perfon only, one confcious mind, one fingle intelligent agent, wife and good.

After having fhewn the inconclusiveness of Dr. Horne's arguments in defence of this Trinity in Unity, as he ftiles it from the creed afcribed to Athanafius, it was natural

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(a) "The plain argument for the exiftence of the "Deity, obvious to all, and carrying irrefiftible conviction "with it, is from the evident contrivance and fitness of (( things for one another, which we meet with throughparts of the universe. There is no need of nice " and fubtle reasonings in this matter: a manifeft contri"vance immediately fuggefts a contriver. It strikes us "like a fenfation; and artful reafonings against it may ❝ puzzle us, but it is without fhaking our belief. No << perfon, for example, that knows the principles of op"tics, and the structure of the eye, can believe that it was "formed without fkill in that science; or that the car was "formed without the knowlege of founds; or that the male "and female in animals were not formed for each other, and "for continuing the fpecies. All our accounts of nature "are full of inftances of this kind. The admirable and "beautiful ftructure of things for final caufes, exalts our "idea of the Contriver: the unity of defign fhews him to «be One.”—Maclaurin's account of Sir Ifaac Newton's philofophical discoveries, p. 400. 8vo.

for Dr. Priestley to turn his eyes to you, O ye noble, and ingenuous youth, the nation's hope, and future ornament and support, I trust! concerned and grieved at the thought, that you should be constrained at any time, particularly at fo early a period as fome of you have done, to fubfcribe and declare your belief of a doctrine so irreconcileable to reafon and to fcripture, together with that of original or birth-fin, &c. &c. (b) connected with it.

From a forefight of the difficulties, in which those of you in particular, who are defigned for facred orders, will probably be involved, if ever you should search the fcriptures in earnest for yourselves, and find the daily fervice of the church, in which you are bound to minifter, and the articles of faith, to which your teachings are to be conformable, inconfiftent with the convictions of your confciences; he preffes and folicits

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(b) A late excellent prelate, who earnestly wished for a farther reformation, and was not wanting in endeavours to promote it, was wont fometimes in familiar converfation with friends, humouroufly to call original or birth-fin, the fin of being born.

folicits you, by the most cogent and affectionate arguments (d), to confider this in time, and to take the measures, which might be effectual to remedy and redress fo heavy a grievance.'

Nor are thofe among you, who are intended merely to discharge the duties and offices of civil life, unconcerned in this matter as they may imagine, fo as to be under no obligation to take a part in it.

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(c) "Let titles of honour and dominion go as the pro"vidence of God will have, yet quiet and peaceable men "will not fail of their obedience: no more will I of aught, "so be that God and good confcience command not the con་ trary. A higher degree of duty I do not fee any man " can demand at my hands: for whereas the exception of

good confcience founds not well with many men, because "ofttimes under that form, pertinacy and wilfulness is "fufpected to couch itself; in this cafe, it concerns every "man fincerely to know the truth of his own heart, and "fo accordingly to determine of his own way, whatfover "the judgment of his fuperiors be, or whatsoever event be

fall him. For fince, in cafe of confcience, many times "there is a neceffity to fall either into the hands of men, or "into the hands of God; of these two, whether is the best, "I leave every particular man to judge: only I will add thus "much, it is a fearful thing to trifle with confcience; for most "affuredly, according unto it, a man fhall ftand or fall at "the laft."-Letter of Mr. Hales to Abp. Laud,

Next to officiating and adminiftring in forms of worship contrary to the fenfe of their own minds, and invoking those whom they believe not to be gods, or capable of hearing and helping them; near of kin to this, and not much inferior surely is the fault of joining in worship directed to such objects, and thereby giving fanction and encouragement to it. Your first apprehenfions, I am perfuaded, would lead you to think that no good mind could be eafy in such a cuftomary practice; although many fuch there have been, and are, who can bring themselves to be fatisfied with it, through the force of habit, and from various reafons, and particularly by fuppofing, that as the wrong part of the worship is not their act, they may fafely join in the parts they approve, and have nothing to do with the others. But whether this be a conduct ftrictly upright, and what a chriftian ought to acquiesce in, as agreeable with his divine master's teachings, deferves your matureft confideration.

It is not therefore impertinently, or without juft caufe, that Dr. Priestley has taken

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