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    of friends , and the most serious personal inconvenience and loss . * But it is asked , why should we not extend the pale of the Society , so as to include all Anti-Trinitarians ? The

    answer is , that the , founders of the Society , conceiving the simple huiriatiity of Jesus to be a truth as clear as light , and that misconceptions concerning this fundamental doctrine had paved the way to the grossest

    corruptions of the Christian religion , and being decidedly of opinion that the best way of promoting the reception of truth was by holding it tip clearly and distinctly to public view , unsullied , and undebased with any mixture of error , resolved to act upon tnis

    principle in drawing up their declaration . They could not , therefore , accommodate their preamble to Arianism , even in its least offensive form , and much less to those great and enormous errors which find shelter under the ample covert of Anti-Trinitarianism . If others thftiteftt to form

    societies upon a more comprehensive plan , they are at liberty so to do « No doubt the many will approve and associate ; nor do the supporters of the principle of the Unitarian Society presume to Condemn . Their sole

    object is to hold forth and to defend one essential and primary tf uth > and in the prosecution of this great object , by means ^ Mch ap |> 6 ar to th e tri to be most expedient , it is of little

    concern to them whether they are joiried by the many 0 * the few . They have done what they could ; and they ate confident that the cmise Will prosper , whether thefr eifbrttf be , 6 t be not ,

    honoured as instrufrtental to its simS cess . The preamWe has bee n obj ected to ? Witness the case of Mr . Charles Herbert , late a master of a flourishing school dt Elham , near Canterbury , who , for no otlicf reason tkan because he wag

    discovered to be * n Unitarian , though he made no offensive profession of his creed , was turned out of doors , with very little notice , tog-ether with liis wife and eight or nine children ; and who , in his present residence at i ) orer where he has opened a school , is so- persecuted by the malignity of hia ebemiea , that he would be absolutely unable co etfnk' bread for hU family , if it were noV for the kind but precarious aid of a few liberal friends .

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    as imposing a Test . But bow any society can exist without a [ test , or , in other words , without a definite priii * ciple and object , it fs not easy to conceive . The only questions to be decided in this case are , first , whether

    the object of the Unitarian Society be lawful and desirable , and then whether the means adopted for attaining it are expedient and eligible . And of these the reader will judge , A Test is an obnoxious word * It generally

    expresses something unreasonable and compulsory . But the Unitarian Society compels no one to enter within its pale , and forbids no one to withdraw . It possesses no honours or emoluments to invite men into its

    communion , and deals out no anat hern as , much less does it inflict pains arid penalties upon any who desert its banners . All its members claim and exercise the right of private judgment to its utmost extent .

    Having been a member of the Unitarian So £ ietv from its first formation , and being in facit the individual with whom it originated , I have enjoyed

    the best opportunity of knowing the object and design of the original founders ; and I have taken the liberty of stating these facts , to shew that every change in the preamble of the Society , under whatever pretext , which is calculated to lay it open to Anti-Trinitarians in general , is inconsistent with , and subversive of the

    main object for which the Society was originally planned and established , naiJaily , ' to promulgate the doctrine of ttie simple humanity of Jesus Christ . T \ BELSHAM . ilIk i

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    Stn , HAVE been lately applied to by I nfrfcny persons in and out of the ChUt ^ h of England , very different from myself in opinion , respecting the

    meaning of this parable : and I flatter ttiyself that th £ iiibstance of the answer which I' gave , will not be unacceptable to the readers of the Repository ^ The di fficulty felt on the subject is , that our Lord itr comniehding thfe cotidiict of the steward

    commended prudence at the expense of jiWtfce ; But the matter stands thu « . The uiyust steward represents the membenr of the J ^ vtrisTi ^ himrchy , th ^ teachers of the Iaw , the priests of

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    660 Dr . Jotutfs Remarks on the Parable of the Uhjiist Steward , Luke ^\ i . u

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1819, page 660, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1778/page/8/