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highly distinguished , as one of the chief of that race of learned printers , which has almost become extinct ; and his prefaces to the various works which he published , will remain arriple monuments of his taste and erudition . The father of Wetstein was at the
time of the latter ' s birth , in 1693 , pastor of the church of St . Leonard ' s , at Basle . He bestowed great pains on his son ' s education , and the result was most gratifying . Endowed by nature with a vigorous constitution and an active and powerful mind ,
Wetstein soon ran through the outline of his education . At eleven years he had passed through all the preparatory ecurses , and entered the University . In his 20 th year he was ordained a
minister , and on that occasion chose for his disputation the topic to which be never ceased to devote himself through Irfe , and produced a learned disquisition on the text and various readings of the New Testament .
His situation was peculiarly favourable to the cultivation of this his chosen pursuit . The taste of his uncle , John Wetstein , who held the place of librarian , in the duties of which young Wetstein assisted him , inclined the
same way , and he was thus able early to accustom his nephew to the task of collating and examining MSS ., a *) d exercising those powers of discrimination , which were so necessary to the studies which he delighted to cultivate .
The labours of the young theologian during this period of his life , were immense . He waded through the whole mass of Greek and Latin authors , ecclesiastical and profane ,
selecting- all passages illustrative of the use of words and phrases in the sacred writings : he carefully perused the rabbinical books , from which so much information as to the customs and opinions of the Jews is collected in his
great work : the vanous commentators and critics , the ponderous volumes of the Fathers were ajl diligently studied ; and , in short , no labour was thought too heavy , which was endured in the cultivation of his darling- pursuit . But he did not content himself with these exertions ^ t home . In his 21 st year , he set out in pursuit of knowledge , and particularly in searclji of fresh materials fpr the elucidation of the state of the sacred text * After
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passing some time in the different Swiss colleges and churches , he proceeded to France , where he enjoyed , through * the literary celebrity of / hi * family , the acquaintance of the most learned and . distinguished nqen of the day . ^ here lie became intimately
acquainted with such men as Montfaucoii and Cbuiayer ; while in England , to which he next passed , he contracted a friendship , which continued through life , with Bentley , under whose inspection and assistance he employed a eonsiderabletime in the diligent collation of MSS . After again visiting
Paris with the same object , he travelled through Holland and Germany , and returned to Basle in 1717 . He was there chosen deacon of the church of St . Leonard ' s , a situation which he held with honour for nine years , till the bigotry and intolerance of his brethren drove him from it .
The cultivation of his critical studies , and opportunities for the collection of information on the subject , were , however , never neglected ; and he was preparing to set out to Italy , in hopes
of di $ covering some hitherto uneollated MSS ., when his plans were frustrated by the commencement of those animosities and vexations , which eventually deprived Basle of her brightest ornament * and shewed her to be the
genuine inheritor of the spirit of those Reformers to whom she owed her foundation . When one considers the structure which the Reformers ( as far as their power extended ) endeavoured to raise on the ruins , of the one which they had so powerfully attacked ; that
violence , bigotry and savage intolerance , were not only ** the first , " but for a long time almost the only ** fruits of that Reformation which professed to assert the right of private judgment in matters of religion , and to enlighten and humanize mankind $ " * that the demolition of one fabric of cruel (
joinitiation over the rights of conscience only ended , as far as the eye could then reach , in the establishment perhaps of a less imposing , but in many respects of a more galling , tyranny ; that the seeds were then sown of discussions which deluged Euroj > e , through a long-succeeding period , with blood and misery ; tb ^ < Jpctri * jes ri—•— . ; "i \ - "j ~ r- ^ —¦ : * •» - ^ j a w . r ' jr v ^ tkt- ' f * ¦ iv yj gjwu jr' - ar -wi ' -r , * Hogcote leo X .
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The Nonconformist * No . IX . v 24 $
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1819, page 249, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1771/page/37/
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