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Untitled Article
-mention the established religion of hi £ country , he has treated it with all the respect which was consistent with a paramount re . -gard to truth ; and if he has dif .
-fered from any of her eminent theological writers , he is not conscious that he has upon such occasions departed from the forms ^ f civilised sotiety . In the intercourses of life it has been his
fortune to be occasionally connected with and even nearly related to gome persons of no mean station in the church . And it lias been his happiness to be acquainted with many whose morals have been an ornament to
* feeir profession . Nor do his sen - thneftts , either concerning the expedience of an established religion , or the advantage of an episcopal hierarchy , or the propriety of ptiblic liturgies , differ so far from thbseof the best writers of the
established church , as those of many of his nonconformist brethren . But upott the subject of Christian dtttitrme , und especially the fun . damental truth of the Unity of
Oodand the object of tvtfr&hip , lie tfeete it his duty to be firm . He ^ ati make ito compromise * ith antichristian erfror . But
* tfhtife : < ti& bears his public ^ festimo-Wjr' t' 6 ^ vhkt i& > ^ oriceivefc , < after 4 ong and patient inquiry , to be I he pVLTG ddbfririe of Christ , he is solicitous to abstain from all
illiberal reflections upon the talents , learning arid character of those Who conscientiously hold opinions Which were once his ownw 'With these views' he' has cau
-< io \ isly' refrained from entering itito controversy with the esta . btished clergy \ and has remained silent under an enormous mass of obloquy , df misrepresentation and
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contemptuous abuse . Nor would he hiive deviated from his general rule upon the present occasion had he not flattered himself that by the attention which this con
troversy may excite , the complete , indisputable victory of his ho . ! noured and departed friend over his learned and able antagonist might become more generally known ; and that from henceforth no cm . hallowed arm might presume to tear from the brow of Dr .
Priestley his well-earned laurels . The reverend gentleman coneludes his animadversions with expressing an assurance that if the public receive his work with Candour , * ' the sentiments of Mr ,
Belsham will give him no concern * " No doubt he speaks the truths And with equal sincerity Mr . B . can return the compliment that if his works are an .
proved by the lovers of truth , and -the serious enquirers after it—the sentiments © f the whole body of * prefermeiit * &uftteirs vttil give him ho molestation whatever .
The Appendix closfes with a Gre ^ k jserit&Mie , penhaps i nteiided fot ihe Printed eye ; who , though he may be ho theblogian , is « aidto be an elegmnt scholar , and though he may 'be 'vety indifferent to the fate bf the thurdh at JBlia , may
fefei interested in ehe fortunes of a clergyman whom lie has graciously permitted to dedicate to him a defence of that criaay edifice . In these lines the teverefrid prebend ^ ry expresses his earnest wish , a wish iti which the writer of this
letter , and nb doubt many others , heartily concur , that he was completely oM of debt . O < psito ^ pjfon W ievf k . r . A . And if the Pnnce Regent should take t ^ hint , and graciously relieve the
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y $ t ) Mr * &eUham ' $ Reply to the Rev . JfiV Horsley .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1813, page 730, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2434/page/38/
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