then putting out the other by an argument that
best suits the time. Yea, how oft is the candle of the wicked put
out by such glorious learning as this. Nay, _I_ doubt not but a man
of your principles, were he put upon it, would not stick to count
those you call gospel-positive precepts,
[Footnote: "Latitudinarian." This term is used of a "remarkable
class of divines," who flourished in England about the middle and
towards the close of the seventeenth century. Coleridge, in his
Literary Remains, says that they were generally Platonists, and all
of them admirers of Grotius. "They fell into the mistake of finding
in the Greek philosophy many anticipations of the Christian faith,
which in fact were but its echoes. The inference is as perilous as
inevitable, namely, that even the mysteries of Christianity needed
no revelation, having been previously discovered and set forth by
unaided reason." They are thus characterized by Dr. Wm. R. Williams,
("Miscellanies," p. 196:) "Against infidelity and popery they did
good service in the cause of truth. Their dread of enthusiasm made
them frigid, and their mastery of the ancient philosophy made them
profound. Their doctrines were generally Arrninian. Their notions of
church power were less rigid than those of the rival party, and they
were also more tolerant of difference in opinion.
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