Whiston_ (1667-1752), the well-known translator of the works of
Josephus, who was dismissed from his professorship at Cambridge in 1710
for Arianism. A prolific writer and a shrewd debater, Whiston played no
small part in the general leavening of opinion.

But probably the most direct of the literary influences in this
direction came from the pen of _Dr. John Taylor_ (1694-1761), one of the
most able and learned of the Presbyterian divines. His treatises on
_Original Sin_ (1740) and the _Atonement_ (1751) dealt with subjects of
the profoundest importance in relation to the usual Trinitarian scheme
of doctrine. Preferring, for his own part, to be known by no sectarian
name but to be reckoned among 'Christians only,' Taylor was recognized
far and wide as a writer extremely 'dangerous' to the ordinary type of
belief. When the American revivalists were at their height, there were
many quiet and staid New England ministers who found in Taylor a welcome
ally against the extravagances which they witnessed and deplored. The
more logical the Calvinist was, the more vivid in depicting the horrors
of predestined damnation, the more vigorous these men became in
denouncing such a doctrine. Perhaps the growing sense of individual
liberty and personal rights had much to do with the reaction. A theory
based upon the postulate of an absolute and unconditioned sovereignty
divine did not accord with the growing democratic temper. Preachers
began to insist, and hearers to agree, that, whatever 'salvation' is, it
must be reasonable if reasonable creatures are to enjoy its benefits.
Here also, as among the English latitude-men, the conviction grew that
the essentials of a Christian belief must be few and simple and these
such as plain men could understand and discuss; and here, as among the
sober Dissenters at home, men looked askance on unintelligent outbursts
of emotion.