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Basle Churches , ) of all co-operation or approbation of this conduct . Forty heads of families in his congregation bore their testimony to the worth of his ch&racter and talents , and petitioned for his restoration ; but all was unavailing , and he saw himself deprived at once of all means of support ,
degraded from his clerical functions , and reduced to the aecessity of seeking in a foreign land , the means of subsistence , and the opportunity of pub * lishing the result of his labours in a cause to which persecution and opposition only contributed to attach him still more strongly .
He bade adieu , in 1730 , to his un * grateful country , and to his father and family , whose attachment to his interests seemed likely only to involve them in the same fate , * arid sought
refuge at Amsterdam , where several of his family enjoyed a high reputation in their business of printers and booksellers , and where the gradually expanding liberality of the Remonstrant Churches offered him
the prospect of a safe asylum from the malice of his persecutors . Here i ) y accident in their house , he met with the senior pastor of the Remonstrant Church at Amsterdam , by whom , after he had told him the
history of his persecution , and the unprotected state in which he remained , he was immediately recommended to succeed the celebrated Le Clerc in the professorship of philosophy , at their college ; but as he
had been publicly degraded upon the records of the Basle Church , he was recommended , for the sake of his own dignity , as well as that of the college , to vindicate himself fram the aspersions thrown on his name and
character , either by writing , or an appeal at once to the Council . Wetstein ' s independent spirit , and the hope that this would be the shortest way of ending his troubles , determined him to adopt the latter course , and he once more measured back his steps to Basle to renew his troubles and
* Debeo mijii ipsi et amicis meis nt eorunn de me judicuim exi&timationem Miearn ttiear ; debeo patri optimo Jo . Rod . Wetstenio , p . m . et fratri carissimo Petro Wetste nio , mala plurirna passis , quod causam mcam melioram semper judicavissont . Prolegoiiu 218 .
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vexations . The malice of his enemies threw every impediment in . his way , though the Council were certainly favourably disposed towards him ; and it was not till 1733 , that ( after finally establishing the frivolousness and falsehood of the charges brought
against him , and the inadequacy and partiality of the evidence which had supported them , and obtaining a complete acquittal and restitution to bis functions ) he was able to return to Amsterdam and take possession of his office .
It was no small honour to Wetstein , and at the same time considerable proof of the idea which was entertained by the Remonstrants , as to the freedom of his religious opinions , that he should have been thus chosen to succeed such a man as Le Clerc .
Le Clerc had , like Wetstein , been born and brought up in a high school of orthodoxy at Geneva . The independence , however , of his mind soon drew him from the narrow dogmas of Calvin ; and the perusal of the works of such men as Curcellaeus and
Simon Episcopius , led him to . such a different system of theology from that which was the standard of faith in his native place , that he , like Wetstein , found it necessary to sacri-. fice his country to the cultivation-of what he considered to be truth . For
nearly half a century he had ably discharged the duties of the Remonstrant professorship , and his numerous and valuable philosophic and literary labours , it is superfluous to observe ,
abundantly prove the industry of his mind , and the liberal spirit of his theological inquiries . There is no . appellation , perhaps , more descriptive of the talents and varied labours of
Le Clerc , than that of * the Dr . Priestley of his day , " possessing all the independent genius and acuteness of his modern parallel , tempered in his theological pursuits , with somewhat more coolness of judgment and "discretion . He was the first man who dared to
hazard what were then deemed very bold positions on the tender subject of the inspiration of the sacred writings ; and the full liberty in which he indulged in speculations on religious matters , the freedom with which he ventured to differ from the highest names , and draw his own conclusions
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The Nonconformist . No , IX . 258
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1819, page 253, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1771/page/41/
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