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    heard it called a master-piece of policy , and in its effects it has been , I grant , as advantageous to the church as if it had been a long-studied device ; but I have no doubt that it was composed originally in a frolic by a corftpany of drunken priests , and issued into the world with a view to try the credulity of mankind ; and that when it was found so serviceable in subduing the human mind , and raising the importance of Ecclesiastics , that which had been formed to raise a laugh was retained to serve as a perpetual source to the church of

    reverence and gai n ^ Without troubling you with the Bishop ' s explanation and defence of the Athanasian jargon , I shall merely give you his advertisement of its design . " The first ( the italics are the Bishop ' s ) and main object of the Athanasian creed is to assert the unity of the Godhead ! " Who will henceforth reject this Unitarian symbol ? cc The second object is to maintain the divinity of Jesus Christy against Cerinthians , Photinians , Socinians , and a species of Deists , who call themselves

    Unitarians "— SPECIES OF DEISTS WHO CALL THEMSELVES itnjtarians ! headed by Sir Isaac Newton , Mr . Locke , Dr » Lardner , Dr . Jebb ^ Mr . Wakefield , and the present bishop of LJandaff , Bishop Burgess ' s brother and neighbour ! ! Oh A for another caliph Omar to commit the works of all these unbelievers to the flames I The Bishop talks of Dei 9 ts : I , Sir ^ could point out a species of them , odious and criminal to the last degree ^ " who call themselves " Athanasians , who officiate as priests , or receive princely stipends as prelates in an Athanasian church , who stigmatize every conscientious Dissenter

    as a schismatic , and call down fire from heaven upon hiir ^ and raise , as far as they dare , a fire upon earth around him ; and who , at the same time , laugh in their sleeves not only at the doctrine of the church , but at its religion , talk prophanely , drink , game , whore , and live , to use the common saying , as if there were neither God nor devil . These profligate wretches

    ( and there may have been same such formerly , even in the see of St . David's ) I will not call Deists ; for that is a word which implies the existence of some degree of religion ; but I am , at the same time , unable to apply to them any term which will adequately express their gross wickedness and daring impiety " . They will not , I am pleased to reflect , be mistaken for Unitarians . I had much more to say , but I fear I have kept on writing till I have tired your patience . I intended to have followed the author in his " Extracts from Canons , Acts of Parliament /* Sec . which forbid * threaten , and denounce penalties on dissent .

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    640 Bp . Burgess ' s Principles . "'

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1806, page 640, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1731/page/24/