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Untitled Article
may be led to suppose that he was really illegitimately begotten . To obviate this groundless charge , permit me to transcribe a paragraph from the memoirs prefixed to his works .
Ci The illustrious character , who is the subject of these memoirs , was son of Richard Toplady , a major , who died at the siege of Carthagena , soon after his birth * His mother ' s maiden name was
Catharine Bate . She was sister to the late Rev . Mr . Julia Bate , and the Rev . Mr . Bate , rector of St . Paul ' s Deptford ; by whom
they were married at the above Church , December 21 ,. 1737 . They had one son named Francis , who died in his infancy , and afterwards our author . He drew his
first breath at Farnham , in Surry , November the 4 th 1740 . His god-fathers were Augustus Middleton , and Adolphus Montague , Esquires ; in honour to whom he bore the Christian name of the
one , and the surname of the other . He received the first rudiments of his education at West-3 ninster-school , where he early evinced and increased a peculiar genius . From his studies at that
place , he accompanied his honoured parent in a journey to Ireland , to pursue claims to arx estate which she had in that kingdom . Notwithstanding the solitary state in which his mother was left , she
anxiousl y watched over him , with the deepest sympathy of affection a » d persevered in a plan for his education and future views in life , which were the principal concerns of her maternal solicitude . The
<> n returned her tender care with " * e utmost affection . Indeed , so Peat was the obligation , which he * Nys conceived he owed her , that
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he never mentioned her , but in words expressive of sensibility and gratitude / ' This extract will tend in some measure , to elucidate ' the obscurity of Mr . Toplady ' s origin , " and to show that Thomas Olivers' piercing awl had to contend with nothin 2 more
than a phantom ! Crassus wishes to be informed whether Mr . Toplady became a Necessarian early or late in life . Areeably to a conversation he once held with the above mentioned Thomas Olivers , at the Foundery , it appears his opinion was fixed before he arrived at the age of eighteen years . ( See his Works , vol . 6 . p . 183 . ) With respect to
his believing , in his latter days , cc the doctrine of the restoration of all men , as the proper result of that of necessity , " I am of an
opinion , it is void of evidence . In his " Dying Avowal / ' written in his last illness , and printed a week after his death , he says : " So certain and so satisfied am I of the
truth of all that I have ever written , that were I now sitting up in my dying bed , with a pen and ink in my hand , and all my religious and controversial writings displayed to my view , I shajald
not strike out a single line / Dr . Priestley must have been informed of something of this kind , about the time he composed his u Disqusitions , " as I find the charge refuted by Mr , Toplady , in a letter
to the Dr ., dated Knightsbridge , Jan . 20 , 1778 . And as this letter will tend to show the high opinion which Mr , Toplady entertained of Dr . Priestley , I shall do myself the pleasure of making an extract from it . —* I am much your debtor , sir , for your lale polite favour from Galne ^ but ,
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defence of Mr . Toplady . 28 S
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1811, page 283, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2416/page/27/
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