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speaking, they ought not to have done it. And in this latter predicament I scruple not to say are all those who profess that they subscribed the articles not because they really believed them, but because they thought, or had been led to think, that on some other principle, be it what it will, whether that lately advanced by Mr. Paley or any other, they might lawfully, i. e. legally, subscribe without believing them. And how great is the number of those clergymen, in other respects worthy and honest, who are in this situation, cannot be altogether unknown to your Lordships.

It is, my Lords, a disgrace to this country and to human nature, that men should on any pretence whatever subscribe to what they do not believe. It is perhaps the greatest article in the account of our national. guilt, and consequently that which threatens us with the heaviest of God's judgements. But this guilt is yours, if by your means the cause of it might be removed, and it be not removed. And can it be doubted but that, if your Lordships joined in remonstrance to Government on the subject, this great evil, with all its consequences. natural and moral, would be removed, and without delay?

You may say, that, as sincere believers in the truth and importance of the doctrine of the Trinity, you think it your duty to maintain it at all events. But, without inquiring into the foundation of this your firm faith, or questioning you about the seriousness and impar tiality of your inquiries, I would now observe, that what we have to propose is not to prevent the serious belief of that or of any other doctrine, but only to remove every temptation to profess a belief of what is

not really believed. To continue such a temptation as this cannot surely be for the credit of the doctrine of the Trinity, or your own; as it implies a suspicion that, without this additional motive, which is independent of all evidence of its truth, the very profession of this belief might cease.

When this great temptation to insincerity is removed, all men will still believe as they see reason; and this is what all your restrictions cannot prevent. But it is certainly desirable that public institutions should be calculated to favour sincerity as well as truth. With respect to the latter, men will think differently; but all men know what is common honesty, sincerity, or integrity. All likewise agree in acknowledging the value of it, and also that the public teachers of religion and morality should set others an example of the strictest adherence to it.

Now this greatest of all points will be secured by expunging from your public creeds, and the public offices of your religion, whatever shall imply a belief in any doctrine to which a serious christian may object. When this is done, all men may still believe the doctrine of the Trinity if they think there is sufficient evidence for it, and if they please they may introduce it in their private devotions; only in public let them content themselves with such services as all their fellow christians may join in.

Besides, nothing is more evident than that all the provision you make to secure uniformity of doctrine within your church, and especially the real belief of the doctrine of the Trinity, does not answer the end. It only produces refinements in sophistical casuistry. On some pretence or other very different opinions are

well known to be held, and are even openly contended for, by the members of your communion; persons who subscribed all your articles, and who join in the habitual use of your trinitarian liturgy. Lady Moyer's Lecture was established for the sole purpose of inculcating the doctrine of the Trinity; and yet one of her lecturers, Dr. Benjamin Dawson, in his sermons on that very occasion, preached nothing but Socinianism under another name. The discourses are before the public, and may at any time be examined.

A very ingenious defence of Arianism was written by another member of your church, the Rev. Mr. Hopkins, lately deceased, entitled An Appeal to Common Sense. And there is no doubt of Dr. Clarke, Dr. Jortin, and Mr. Jackson, with many other learned and respectable members of your church, as well as Mr. Whiston, who honestly left the church on that account, and as Mr. Peirce, Mr. Emlyn, and Dr. Benson, among the dissenters, having entertained the same opinion. It is also well known that the majority of the learned clergy are professed Arminians, though the compilers of the articles, and great numbers of the more zealous of the clergy, are Calvinists. And to my certain knowledge there have been unbelievers among your clergy as well as among those of the church of Rome. It is not therefore uniformity of faith, but a system of hypocrisy, that is supported by your subscriptions. If then you be the friends of sincerity and truth, you will not hesitate to abolish them, especially in universities, where they ensnare and seduce the unwary and the uninformed.

That an agreement of Unitarians and Trinitarians in the public forms of worship is really practicable, and

even not liable to much objection, is evident from the actual construction of by far the greater part of your public offices. For in them there are addresses to God the Father only. Consequently, if those prayers to which Unitarians now object were altered, so as to make them of a piece with the rest, and by this means the whole service were made uniform, it could not give any just cause of offence to those who now approve the greatest part of it*.

If this alteration were made, all the prayers in the liturgy would be addressed to the one true God, and in the use of these prayers Trinitarians might certainly join, because they now do actually join in such prayers; mentally conceiving, if they please, and as I suppose they now do, that in this one God there are three persons; while the Unitarians could use the same form of words without any such ideas. If this one God was uniformly addressed by the appellation of Father, it it is what no Trinitarian could reasonably object to; because it is the style in which the greater part of the prayers of the church are now drawn up, and to which he has of course been most accustomed.

We Unitarians should never exclude you from joining in our devotions, because we should not use any language that you could not adopt; but your Trinitarian forms absolutely exclude us. If, therefore, there be any sin in schism, it lies wholly at your door; because it is you who force us to separate ourselves, when, without any violation of your consciences, you might admit us to join with you. What then is there

* It is a remarkable circumstance, that in the first part of the liturgy there is no appearance of Trinitarianism. No Trinitarian doxology. Qu. Was not this the most early composed?

unreasonable in our demands, when you might grant them in their utmost extent without the least injury to yourselves? Thus the unity of the church, and the extinction of all sects, which is your own favourite object, depend entirely upon yourselves; and the acquisition would cost you nothing.

How glorious, my Lords, would it be to the heads of any christian establishment to require nothing of the members of it besides the profession of our common christianity, and to leave all particular opinions to every man's own conscience! Every cause of unpleasing contention would then be removed, and one of the most popular objections to christianity would be removed with it, viz. the want of harmony among christians. We should then meet as brethren, and the disciples of one common master; and with respect to all our differences, having no object but truth, they would be discussed without animosity. No opinion having then any thing in its favour besides its own proper evidence, all prejudice would much sooner give way; and truth, which we all profess to aim at, would be much sooner attained, and become universal.

But the honour of producing so great and glorious a revolution is, I believe, too great for any powers, civil or ecclesiastical, that will be able to effect it. It is a scheme worthy of God only, and which in due time will be brought about by his good providence, contrary to the wishes of all the ruling powers of the world, or of those who direct their councils. In the mean time, we Unitarians shall not fail to do every thing in our power to exhibit these enlarged views of things; confident that in this we are the instruments in the hands of providence; that our principles, being

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