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Untitled Article
to receive more consideration than they haye hitherto -done , from the advocates pf the flew theory , and are . well worth the attention of every ing ^ Qjous and cai > did experimentalist . * Dr . Priestley had been recommenced to Lord Shelburne
( afterwards Marquis of Lahsdown ) by Dr . Price * as a person qualified t . o be a literary companion to him . Jn this situation he continued seven years ; and in the year 1 ^ 74 he made with his Lordship the tour of Flanders , Holland , and Germany
as far as Strasburg , and returned to England through France , His fame and discoveries had travelled to Paris before him V and , during his residence there , he had frequent opportimitj . es of conversing with the most celebrated literary and philosophical
characters of that rnetropolis ^ * It has often , and with justice , been remarked by the advocates of revealed religion , that philosophical unbelievers frequently reject Christianity from their ignorance of its true character ^ % nd their wan t pf sttentioli t $ its proper evidences * On
this subject we shall give ( he Doctors observations relative to £ he French philosophers , ami also his remarks concerning Drl Franklin ; a ma ^ for who m he had a grea t regard , and whose c haracter he Ka $ endeavoured , on other occasions , tp rescue from injurious and unfounded imputations . € < As I was sufficiently apprized of the fact , I did not wonder , as I otherwise should have done , to find all the philosophical persons to
whom 1 was introduced at Pans Unbelievers in Christianity , and even professed atheists . As I chose cm * all occasions to appear as a Christian ., I was told by sorn £ of them that I was the only person tliey had ever met with , or who ^ e tinderstandrng they had any opinion , who professed to believe Christianity . But qp , interrogating them on the Subject , I soon found that they had grien no proper attention to it ,
and did not really know what Christianity was . This was also the case with a great part of the company thatl saw at Lord Shelburne's ; but £ hope that my always avowing myself to be a Christian , and holding myself read y on all occasions to defend the genuine principles of it , " was not without its use . Having conversed so much with unbelievers * it home and abroad , 1 thought 1 should be able to combat their prejudices with some advantage ; and with this view I wrote , while I was
with Lord Shelburne , the first part of my ** Letters to a Philosophical Unbeliever , * ' in proof of the doctrines of a God and a Providence $ and to this I have added , during my residence at Birmingham , a second part , in defence of the evidences of Christianity . The first pant being replied to by a person who called himself Mr . Hamrnon , I wrote a reply to his piece , which has hitherto remained unanswered . I am happy to find this work of mine has done some good , arid I hope that in due time it will do more , I can truly say , that the greatest
satisfaction I receive from the success of my philosophical pursuits , arises from the height it may give to my attempts to defend Christiaaity , and to free it from those corruptions whicli prevent its reception with philosophical and thinking persons > whose influence with the vujgar # nd the unthinking is very great . ~
Untitled Article
Memoirs of Dr . Priestley . 485
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1806, page 485, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1728/page/37/
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