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    tile . source of controversy , in which he engaged without reluctance , and also without those uneasy feelings of irritation which so commonly accompany warfare of this kind . The renewed applications of the dissenters

    for relief from the penalties and disabilities of the corporation and test acts afforded another topic ; of discussion , in which Dr . Priestley , with his sentiments on civil and religious liberty , could not fail to take a part ; and convinced as he was that all

    ecclesiastical establishments were hostile to the rights of private judgment , and the propagation of truth , he did not hesitate to represent them as all anti-Christian , and predict their downfall . 23 Thus he came to be regarded

    Discourses by Dr . Priestley , it appears that this address occasioned a correspondence somewhat uncourteous , between them , and perhaps not quite unobtrusive on the part of Dr . Priestley . Nor has the Historian failed to vent his rancour in his chapter where , referring' to some position by

    Dr . Priestley , he invites the priest and the magistrate to tremble—a broad hint for persecution—differing only in style from the vulgar watch-word the Church is in danger . Mr . Gibbon was indeed not very suitably addressed on the evidences of Christianity , to the practical influence of which a man so impure in heart as some

    of his notes discover him , could be little disposed . Dr . Priestley should hare recollected the maxiai of his predecessor JBiddle , to discuss serious subjects only with serious persons . The occasional impurities of Gibbon ' s History are "well exposed by a distinguished scholar who was himself no precisian . See Porson ' s Preface to his Letters to Travis .

    Tlie second part of the u History of the Corruptions" was addressed to the consideration of Bishop Hurd , who seems not to have forgotten the circumstance , in his Life of Warburton . See our 3 d Vol . p . 530 . Tlie opposition- from various quarters , 1

    to this History' produced , in 1786 , the CL History of early Opinions concerning * Jesus Christ , * ' in four volumes , dedicated to his munificent friend , Mrs . Rayner , a work still more fruitful of controversy , and which engaged the author in its defence through several succeeding years .

    23 In Itejlections to bis Sermon on Free Inquiry , preached Nov . 5 , 1785 , Dr . Priestley thus expressed himself : u The present silent propagation of truth may even foe compared to those causes of nature which lie dormant for a time , but which in proper * circumstances act with the greatest violence . We arc , as it were , laying gunpowder , grain by grain , under

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    not only as the chief , heresiarch in matters of doctrine , but as the most dangerous and inveterate enemy of the established cliurch in its connection with the state . Some of the clergy of Birmingham having warmly opposed the dissenters' claims , Dr * Priestley published a series of " Familiar Letters to the Inhabitants , of

    Birmingham , " on this and other topics connected with religion , which were probably not less provoking to the adverse party from the style of ironical pleasantry in which they were written . In this state of irritation .

    * he old building * of error and superstition , which a single spark may hereafter inflame , so as to produce an instantaneous explosion , in consequence of which that edifice , tlie erection of which has been the work of ages , maybe overturned in a moment , and so effectually , as that the same foundation can never be built upon again . "

    The latter of these sentences was very publicly quoted on a memorable occasion , March 2 nd , 1790 . Mr . Fox moved in the House of Commons for the repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts . Among ; other opponents , appealed the respectable Sir

    W . Dolben , then member for Oxford University , who read from some controversial pamphlet the latter alarming sentence , and appalled the house by dealing * out the gunpowder ^ r « iw by grain . Mr . Courtenay , whose pleasantry had often relieved the tedium of parliamentary debate ,

    attempted to calm , the perturbed spirits of the worthy baronet by reminding him that his true Church , the best constituted Church in the world , could be in no danger , a * the gunpowder was designed only to destroy an old building of error and superstition .

    The present writer witnessed this seen * from the gallery of the House , where among the crowd collected on the occasion was Dr . Priestley himself He has mentioned the fears of Sir W . Dolben , which he attributes to some of the bishops , in his Preface to Fiim . Letters , p . 9 . The circumstance was also ludicrously introduced in Epistola Wacaronica ^ attributed to Dr . Gedcles .

    24 These letters chiefly respect the accusations brought against Dissenters , and especially Unitarians , by two clergymen , Messrs . Madan and Burn . The g roundless calumny there stated respecting Dr .

    Priestley ' s interview with Silas Deane , his death-bed , as circulated by the clergy , but fully exposed by a Baptist minister " who was with Mr , Deane when he died , " shews what a . height the odium theologicutn agaiust Dr . Priestley had attained .

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    8 Memoir of the late Rev . Joseph Priestley , LL . D . JP JR . S * fye *

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1815, page 8, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1756/page/8/