the Rev. W. Turner , Jun. , MA., Lives of the eminent Unitarians

[8] was originally bred up to the legal profession, and afterwards spent most of his life in courts, engaged for the most part in laborious occupations. Having embraced the Protestant faith, he quitted his country and settled in England, where, under the protection of Queen Elizabeth, he obtained some employment connected with fortifications, for which his skill in mathematics eminently fitted him. The work from which the above extract is taken shews him to have been not only a man of an enlarged and liberal spirit, far beyond the prevailing temper of the times in which he lived, but a firm believer in the unity of God.

It is not in the unseemly spirit of vain boasting that we claim for the Unitarians in general, of that and of every other period, a greater freedom from this unchristian temper than is to be found in any other sect. It is true that the practical influence of their principles may be expected to lead to this result, because they are not called upon, like many others, to regard the right path (meaning their own path) to be essential to salvation. But, unhappily, we so rarely find men's practice in all respects conformable to their avowed principles, that this exemption is, perhaps, in a great measure, to be ascribed to the good fortune of the Unitarians, in having been very little exposed to the temptation. Long may they continue to enjoy this fortunate exemption! May the time never come when a synod or consistory of professed Unitarians shall be in such a manner connected with or dependent on the state, as to be invested with power which they may be tempted to abuse, in seeking to lord it over the consciences of men!—‘With good and religious reason (says ’