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    that a writer in the Monthly jRewitw , Feb . 1762 , had spoken of Dr . Watts ' s change of opinion , i 4 with respect to some points of what is called orthodoxy , as

    undeniable , " as " well known ' * to Lardner , and by him communicated to the late excellent Mr . Merivale of Exeter , from whose mouth 4 < the reviewer immediately received it . " This identical

    communication to Mr . M . it would seem , has recently been printed , for the first time , in Belsham ' s Memoirs of Mr . Lindsey . As it was extracted thence in a late

    number of the Repository ^ there is no necessity for my transcribing it : though the date of it does not appear , and though I am neither able nor concerned to say why Dr . Priestley ( 8 ) withheld from the world the letter of Mr *

    Merivale ' s in which it is contained , I nevertheless , without hesitation , admit its genuineness . My present inquiry will be , whether Mr . Palmer has invalidated the

    testimony of Lardner - and I shall hope to shew hereafter that it is confirmed by strong presumptive evidence arising from passages and documents in the worthy author ' s pamphlets on this subject .

    He has presemted " The Rev . Joseph Smith , of Manchester , " and the public with five letters . The iirst is introductory . In the second and third an attempt is

    made to repel Dr . Lardner ' s testimony as insufficient : and positive evidence of the orthodoxy of Watts is professedly adduced in the fourth and fifth .

    All the objections , Mr . Editor , which the Letter-writer urges against the testimony of Lardner , may fee resolved into the follow - ing : that this witness had not

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    read the whole of Dr . Watts ' s m * . nuscripts ; that his communica . tion to Mr . Merivale is destitute of accuracy and precision ; that the substance of it is little more

    than positive assertion made and repeated ; that it is far from bein * decisive of Watts having renounced the doctrine of Christ ' s pre . existence : that it leads to some

    conclusions which the ckaracter of this celebrated man refutes ; that it is not consistent with two books which he printed within that number of years of his

    decease , with information sent by Dr . Jennings to Dr . Doddridge , and with other facts and dates ; that the worthy family with whom Dr . Watts resided , did not understand that he was become an

    Unitarian ; and that Mr . Neal ( partial to his own opinion , as he was in the sentiments of his uncle Lardner ) would naturally make the most of what dropped from the lips of Dr . Watts . ( 1 . ) It is alleged ( 14 ) that Lardner c < had not read axx Dr .

    Watts ' s M . SS . for be says that his nephew only shewed him some of them , consequently he can scarcely be admitted as a thoroughly competent judge /* ^ k . T _ . . /^ ^ 1 . _ J - 1 ' ^ C 4-lin Sirthe decision of the

    Now , , author of the Credibility , tyc . on this matter , was formed not merely from those of the M . SS . which he had read , but , moreover , from his conversations with his near

    relation Mr . Neal , who was one of the executors , who had possession of the papers , who , doubt , less , was welt acquainted with their contents , land who , thoug h he did not " chuse to meddle with them" * jast upon the deathj "

    * Palmer ' s Appendix t » J 6 bn « cm Life of Watts .

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    7 l 6 Strictures on a recent Publication of Mr . Palmer ' s . —No . 7

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1813, page 716, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2434/page/24/