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    not carried on with us in a precipitate tumultuous manner , ** but € i advanced , under the eye of the magistrate , by slow degrees . ; nay ,

    it was more than once , checked and kept back by him * . ** Such is the natural and easy progress of a kingdom , which " is not of this world . " Bishop Hurd , in * deed , unlike our Burnetts and

    Tiliotsons of former , or pur Laws and Watsons of later times , appears to have regarded the church of England , as a poet was once complimented by his friend , I read thee over with 3 lover ' s eye . Thou hast no faults * or I no faults can

    Thou art all beauty , or all blindness I . Some passages in the Sermons , tlrew from Dr . Priestley 44 Considerations' * addressed to their author at the close of the ci

    History of the Corruptions of Christianity . " The historian describes it as * one of the worst symptoms of the present * timos ^ that men of the greatest eminence in the churchy and of the most unquestionable ability ^ appear to be

    either wholly indifferent to the subject , or , instead of promoting a farther reformation , employ all their ingenuity to make men acquiesce in the present system /* He adds— * to see such men as

    Bishop Hurd in this class of wri - ters , a class so little respectable , \ vhen he is qualified to class with Tillotson , Hoadley , and Clarke , equally excites one ' s pity and indignation f . "

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    The indignation upon this oc . casion appears to have been reciprocal , and expressed by our prelate somewhat coarsely , if

    ihe learned Editor of ** Tracts , " fire , whom We have so often had occasion to quote , had been rightly informed , Bishop Hurd allow . ed himself to distinguish the work of his opponent b y the ** emphatical but indelicate name" of •*

    miserable trash % * ' Nor are there wanting traces of this indignation still rankling in our author ' s bo . sum , when preparing his biographical ** Discourse" on Warburton . We there read of " English Disciplinariansy now rising again

    in the shape of Levellers and Soctnians ; but to fall again , in good time , by one or other of our learned clergy , going forth against them , in the spirit of order and orthodoxy || . " We are also warned against ic who lory in

    some g Socinmn impieties § . " Such is the railing accusation brought against his opponent , by a scholar and divine in defect of argument ; yet the character and writings of Bishop Law , with whom he had sat on the same bench .

    might have relieved Socinians from this charge of impiety . Bishop Watson too , was still living to shew , and we trust he has not yet altered his oprnion ^ that Socinians might be as good Chris * tians as himself , or the most dis * tinguished champions of the orthodox church fl .

    * Hurd ' s Sermons , I . 17 , ii . 387 * ancJX 339 . f " Hist , of Corrupt . " ii . 47 *« \ " Tracts by Warburton , " &c . p . 169 . U " Discourse , " Sec pp . 84 , 85 . h This predictfon" < u * to u one half of it /* the Bishop considered ** completely fulfilled by J > n Horfilev ' s Charge , m& his unanswerable Letters . •' - —See the Note Ib . ^ p . 85 * § Ib , p , 11 * . ^ * Newton and Locke were esteemed Socinians , Lardner was an avowed one $ Clarke and Whiston were declared Arians 5 Bui } aud Watcttend were professed

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    530 Memoir of the late ttieh . Wurd , D . X > . Bp . of Worcester .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1808, page 530, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2397/page/6/