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to which I alluded ; that he had been so dissatisfied , " I think he said *« disgusted , with what he had heard , that be had not attended their worship , nor associated with them , for many years : that he had sent for an old friend ( the writer of the article to which I am nowreplying ) on purpose that he might tell him his mind on the subject * &c . *'
This , Sir , is the relation which I made in the pulpit ; and it is either true or false . I say this , because it is more than intimatedr it is pretty roundly asserted ^ by ? your correspondent ,, in the geuexal tebor of his . paper , and with a mpdesty peculiarly his own , that the
story was of my own fabrication , ! that I told a Ue in the out pit ! I ! Not that my repu ^ tion is likely to suffer by the slander : I anticipate no danger in placing , my single credit against that of your corresjiondent - I am not indeed aware that it-was ever before called into
question : what I said in the pulpit , Mr . Editor , will be believed , and would havebeenbelieved , though 1 had remained silent . It so happens , however , that the truth of the relation does not depend solely on . my testimony . There were three or four other persons , standing round the bed of the deceased at the
time he made the declaration . They have voluntarily offered their , names as below- and we are all ready , if it were necessary , to give the same testimony upon oath ; which will afford your-cor * respondent an opportunity of convicting of usib usior
us of a conspiracy ,, or indictiing r us or a conspiracy ,. or or mcuctiing perjury . He says ^ " he never once inti * mated to me . the least change in his mind respecting his view of the restoration of mankind : " nor did I , sir , on the occasion above alluded to . narae the word
restoration of mankind , but verhum sapienti sat est .-, he well understood my meaning , for . we had often before conversed on the same subject . But 1 can refresh the memory of your correspondent , by another part of the , same con - versation , which 1 did not rtlate in the pulpit ; , and perhaps the hint , if considered iq all its bearings , may assist his
coAcjeption >( as to what 1 mean by" mere quiBblers . " I asked fhe deceased whether he had conversed with his friend * nd what answer he gave ? H was this * < fl I-read the strrtyuures impartially fop myself , arid T willform my ownopinion )' or words to this effect ; by which I -UfKifer ' 3 to 6 d Mn C . to meart , that ; by thiri answer he was prevented from say-
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ing what otherwise it was his intention to have said . And now , Mr . Editor , that your correspondent has told you what he believes , I will tell you what I know . 1 know that Mr . Coventry had entirely withdrawn from a certain connexion long
before 1 «« married Iws daughter , " or had any intimacy with the family . I know that his principles , even with respect to the * restoration of mankind , ' •" whether true or false , were shaken many years ago ; and that whatever wish he might feel to retain them , he could neither support them in argument , nor was his mind at rest under the
impression of them . I also know , which is of still more importance , and which I declare in the most solemn manner , that he died in the full conviction of the truth of that system which « Mr . Mann would call the eyaogelical plan of salvation ; " that he expressed that conviction in the strongest terms which language cculd ultery and , 1 had almost said , by a thousand reiterations of that expression .
I have conscientiously , and equally , refrained from any remarks favorable to my own system , or unfriendly to that of your correspondent . His attack on my personal truth , in the relation of a matter of fact , is , I repeat , the only consideration which could have thus extorted
from me a single word in reply : an attack , feeble indeed in its effecty Jike that of the old man to whom I refer in my motto ; but made with far less honorable motives : its notorious indecency even in this age when there are no won . ders , really astonishes me . Had tber writer been some young champion ,
desirous of provoking , or rather of creating , an adversary , for the purpose of throwing a lance with him in the polemical held , it would have excited no surprise ; but , that an old man , like him , on the very verge of the grave , and whom hoary hairs ought to have better instructed in the rules of deco *
rum and prudence , should , from partialifty to a system * from prejudice , or any other infirmity of his nature , have taken it tor granted , that an authorized minister of the establishment could so far forget the responsibility of his
character , as to relaie in the pulpit what was not strictly true , and that , too , on an occasion the most solemn , and in the very presence of those who uere acquainted with the circumstances , and cpuld easily have contradicted hijn , if
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Obituary . —The Rev . TV . Mann ' Letter . 345
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1813, page 345, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2428/page/61/
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