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    respect , is this deficiency more palpable than in the hypothesis that tminn between the Catholic and Protestant churches would heal all discords and overcome Unitarianism and Dissent . " ** ft As to the Unitarians , Hume admits that there is nothing irrational in the doctrine of a Trinity , and all philosophers know that it is absurd to argue d priori concerning Deity . But this the Unitarians do ; they allegate what is insusceptible of proof , and as they deny future punishments , the proper mode of overcoming them is to alarm the fears of mankind upon that particular point ; and it being impossible to extirpate religion out of the human mind , it is the only mode by which success can be obtamed . The Unitarian says , that the souls of the wicked are annihilated after death ,- but matter only is susceptible of decomposition , and who can predicate tnortality where there caunot be decomposition ?"'

    The authority of the work in which it appeared , not the importance of the passage itself , induced the writer to send the following note to the Editor of the Gentleman ' s Magazine .

    « Sir , " In the number of your work for November there is found an article of review ( p . 346 ) , on some statements in which , 1 , as one of those who are therein misrepresented , claim the privilege to make one or two remarks . It is not my intention to follow the writer through the inconsequential train of observation in which he indulges , but to tell him , that however much knowledge lie may arrogate to himself , he is either profoundly ignorant or bad-inrentioned in relation to the subject on which he has undertaken to instruct others . He

    commences with charging the Unitarians with arguing a priori concerning Deity— - which is untrue ; lie proceeds to assert that they allegate what is insusceptible of proof- —which is assertion without evidence ; and he closes his misrepresentations by affirming that they deny future punishment , and hold that the souls of the wicked are annihilated after death— -which is also untrue .

    ** I do not undertake , Mr . Editor , to aflirm , that no one of those who are known by the name of Unitarian Christians has entertained any of these notions ; hut I can truly say , that though my acquaintance with Unitarians is extensive , I know not one person who holds the errors ascribed by yourself or your agent to the whole body ; while I do

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    Miscellaneous Correspondence . 273

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    On Public Worship . To the Editor . Sir , Perhaps some of your able correspondents would have no objection to discuss the right and the wrong , the

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    most solemnly declare that the arteged opinions form no part of the Unitarian doctrines—are not received by the Uuitnrians as a body—nor by any considerable part . You will , I hope , as an act of justice to a misrepresented body of Christians , give these remarks insertion , if possible , in your forthcoming number , aud oblige " Your humble servant , "JOHN R . BEARD , Unitarian Minister .

    " Manchester , Nov . 9 , 1829 . " The injury was public—so ought the reparation to have been ; but the only notice taken of the above letter , which notice wantonly adds to the misrepresentations complained of , is the following , copied from the " Minor Correspondence" in the number published March 1 st :

    " We hare communicated Mr . Beard ' s letter to the writer of the article complained of , and his answer is as follows : Mr . Beard had certainly no idea of meeting with a razor in the critic , a Trinitarian clergyman of the Church of England . The latter is bound by the canons and his ordination vow to support the doctrine of the Church to which he belongs ; and that doctriue is , that unless Christ be God as well as man , the atonement is not efficacious . The main point of Mr . Beard ' s letter is a denial that the Unitarians argue a priori concerning Deity ; but how is it possible for them to impugn the doctrine of a Trinity without predicating , that there cannot be a Triune Deity , the possibility of which even Hume admits ? A » to other points of his letter , many clergymen are of opinion ( and not without reason ) that Unitarianism tempts its followers to commit the sin

    against the Holy Ghost , and therefore is the most pernicious form of Dissent . Concerning the insults in Mr . Beard ' s letter , the clergy every day meet with rampant sectaries of all kinds , and if they know their duty , only pray for the conversion of them in common icith Jews , Turks , injidels , and heretics . " The reader is left to make his own reflections . J . It . B .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1830, page 273, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2583/page/57/