1802. ] 
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COPY of a LETTER from the REV. MRe 
ROBINSON, of CAMBRIDGE, 10 MRa 
MARSOM, Of LONDON, dated: CHESTER: . 
TON, WEDNESDAY, May 7,1783. 
I Accept with gratitude both the pam- 
fend me, and I thank Mr. Taylor for this 
additional proof of his efteem. 
Eleven years ago, I publifhed a Preface 
to the third volume of a Tranflation of 
Saurin’s Sermons on the Doétrine of Chrif- 
tian Liberty, and in page 7 I faid, ‘* Mere 
mental errors, if they be not entirely inno- 
cent in the account of the Supreme Go- 
vernor of Mankind, cannot be, however, 
objects of blame and punifhment among 
men.’’ £rror is miftake 5 mental error is 
miftake of the mind ; mere mental error is 
fuch a miftake of the mind as doth not af- 
fect the heart and life. This harmlefs 
pofition expofed me to many cenfures, and 
by a certain clafs of men my name hath 
been caf out as evil ; ever fince they have 
thought it a duty to preach and print 
againft me, and to treat me with perfonal 
infults.. Albout_a year ago, I-heard by a 
gentleman of Queen’s Coflege, that Sykes 
had publifhed the fame fentiment, and, 
fince that, I faw, in Dr. Difney’s Life of 
Sykes, an account of it. Ever fince I 
have endeavoured to procure the book, but 
never could -till the week your’s arrived. 
‘Three days before, I had feen it in a 
Lynn-catalogue, and I inftantly wrote and 
procured it, but it was the firft edition. 
Next day, a fellow of Trinity College 
found a fecond edition, in the College- 
library, and lent it me. Then came your’s, 
the laft and beft edition, for which 
I moft fincerely thank you. People are 
fo'thoughtlefs as to exclaim—* If this be 
allowed, the doors of our churches will be. 
thrown wide open to all. erroneous per- 
fons.”” I deny the fact, for I ‘can eafier 
find profeffors of a fpeculative fyftem, 
than men of a holy life, and unholy pro- 
feflors are the moft grievous Hereticks. 
Whio is to judge of error, you or I 
There is no fafe ground of aétion, except 
the leaving of every individual to judge 
for himfelf, and account to his matter. 
My thanks are due moft fincerely for your 
own performance*: I have read it with 
it 
* The writer refers, in this place, toa 
Tra& on the Imperfonality of the Holy 
Ghoft, written and publifhed by Mr, Mar- 
fom : 
phlets you were fo complaifant as to’ 
3 you: 
for me, or I for you, or each for himfelf? 
( 521 ) 
ORIGINAL LETTERS. 
the moft glowing affection for the author. 
I love a man who thinks for himfelf, 
think what he will.. I honour the virtue 
of every one who dares to be free, and to 
fhake off the petty tyranny of ecclefiattics, 
who bind the grievous burdens of tyran- 
nical fyftems upon the coniciences of 
another man’s difciples—difciples whom 
‘they neither created, nor redeemed, hor are 
appointed to judge. My foul, come not 
thou into their intolerant afflembly ! 
As to perlonality in God, a trinity of 
perfons, I think it the moft abfurd of all 
abfurdities ; and, in my opinion, a man 
who hath brought himfelf to beiieve the 
popular doftrine of the trinity, hath done 
all his work ; for, after that, there can be 
nothing hard, nothing inevident, the more 
unintelligible, the more credible ; and, ag 
‘this ferves the purpofe of producing im- 
plicit faith in pretended guides, priefts 
will always try to keep it in credit. The 
Bible reads eafy, if we confider God one; 
Jefus, the Son of God; and the Holy 
Ghoft, -the Izfluence of God. But this 
‘would, fpoil trade, the Scriptures would 
become plain and eafy, and a Jearned: - 
prieflhood would be unneceflary to make 
‘out,,-and. unfold that hard {cience Chrittia- 
nity tous poor blind creatures: Verily, . 
my friend, prieftcraft is at the bottom of 
all this burlefque upon religion, for fuch [ 
account the grimace of one man’s pretend- » 
ing to take care of anotherman’s foul. The 
direct end of all their {chemes is to cheat 
‘people into a difufe of their own under- 
ftandings, and to pitch their eyes,and place / 
their affections, upon a frail, and oftena 
wicked, proxy. ‘ta 
Iam forry,; I had not the pleafure of 
knowing you when FE was in London; at 
prefent I have no immediate bufinels - 
there, and if I had, my ftay would be 
fhort, not becaufe Ihave not innumerable 
friends there whom I efteem, but becaufe 
my prefent avocation is here—here Iam, 
far from the din of unprofitable difputes 
about words and phrafes. Here Ienjoya - 
daily intercourfe with men of the firft lite- 
rature, and the molt amiable difpofitions, — 
fincere difciples of Jefus, who, thanks to 
Divine Goodnefs, are in this univerfity 
ftudying the ‘Holy Scriptures, and devoting 
their fine talents to the fervice of truth. 
Here too is a church of divers fentiments, ~ 
but of uniform goodnefs, who enjoy Chrif- 
tian liberty, without afluming authority 
over one another, Here I weed my gar- 
den, plough the filvereftream with my 
two-oar 
