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Christians of the earliest age , and next of its ordinary moral influences . When he affirms that the latter , " by which every believer must be regenerated in order to his being saved , are conferred in baptism / ' we require evidence of the declaration . In another
passage he says , " we neither abolish nor weaken the * testimony of the Spirit by bringing it to rest upon the testimony of conscience : and , allowing him to be correct in the principle of his argument , many of his observations are forcibly conceived and
perspicuously expressed . No inconsiderable portion of the time and thoughts of Bishop Horsley appears to have been bestowed on the study of the scriptures . -His learning was extensive : but he possessed
not the sound , discriminating judgment which is necessary to form an accomplished theologian . Hence there is a great inequality in his sermons ; and the -reader ' s admiration yields quickly to weariness and disgust . Some critics * have lamented that this
author did not animadvert on the famous fifteenth and sixteenth chapters in Gibbon ' s History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire . The truth is , the late Prelate of St . Asaph was much better prepared , and perhaps more inclined to be the champion of an established creed than the
advocate of our common Christianity . For another Bishop , of very different and superior endowments , the honour was reserved of successfully resisting one of the most formidable attacks on the religion of Jesus . Yet strange to say , these same critics have overlooked the labours and the merits
of the venerable Dr . Watson ! . We cannot dismiss , the volume before us without adding a few words on the style of Bishop Horsley . In these pages it is usually strong , though often coarse and careless . But in his
more finished compositions , and above all in his controversial tracts , its excellence stands confessed . There are passages in his archidiaconal charge and in his Letters to Dr . Priestley ,
which we first read , thirty years since , With exquisite delight : and lately we have again perused them with almost unabated pleasure . Of course , we Ipeak chiefly of the language , and nor , * ' i ¦ i » >
• •* Q uarterly Review . Article , Gibkon $ «« - ¦ Work * .
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without numerous exceptions , of the temper and the sentiment . It is remarkable , that whenever his positions are most untenable , his reasoning weakest and his insolence greatest , he is especially studious to select his words and to arrange his periods .
There are workmen who conceal , or attempt to conceal , defects in a fabric by covering the flaws with much ex * ternal ornament : and experience ha * taught us to suspect the soundness of those parts of Dr . Horsley ' s polemical labours in which he is exhibited with most advantage merely as a writer .
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Review . —Behhairis Letter * to the Bishop of London . 759
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Art . II .- —Letters addressed to the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of London , in Vindication of the Unitarians . By Thomas Belshawi , Minister of the Chapel in Essex Street , 8 vo . pp . 9 < 2 . Hunter . 1815 .
WE have already reviewed the Bishop of London ' s Charge , ( p . 5769 &c . ) and in pp . 305—3 O 8 we extracted the whole passage which relates to Unitarians . This
denomination of Christians may justly complain of his lordship ' s language , but they may well rejoice that from the episcopal chair attention has been called to their doctrines : these ** Let *
ters shew that they welcome every opportunity of making their faith public . The Letters are Five in number . Letter I . is introductory , and contains a statement of the religious opinions of the Unitarians .. The
statement is remarkably clear , and we think perfectly correct . Every Unitarian does not believe all the articles here confessed , or disbelieve all th € articles here renounced , but thev
certain ly describe both the belief and the disbelief of the majority , from whom alone the faitli of a community is to be determined . We make no exception to Mr . Belsham ' s correctness on
account of his excluding Arians from the Unitarian name , whatever be our own conviction , because this is mat- * ter of opinion and not of faith . In Letter II . Mr . Bel sham refute * the allegation of the Bishop that the Unitarians are in alliance with other
sects to overturn the Established Church . He maintains that the Establishment is perfectly secure , resting upon the law of the land j that the Dissenters in general hold the maxim
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1815, page 759, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1767/page/31/
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