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Untitled Article
advantage of the argument lay with him . " Though bis lordship ivas , no doubt , gratified to see the effect produced by his pompous and imposing style upon the
unthinking crowd ; he would have been the first to laugh to scorn the solemn ignoramus ^ wlio should seriously profess to believe , that the advantage of the argument remained with him . ' ** I will
confront the arrogance and injustice of this charge with two authorities , which , of themselves , are sufficient to shew that it is no mark
of ignorance to approve and ap * plaud the successful efforts of Bp . Horsley against the heresies of Dr . Priestley . Mr . Belsham himself quotes Lord Thurlow as an admirer of
Bishop Horsley ' s Tracts in this controversy : and it cannot be denied that he was a goed judge of what is sound reasoning , and not one of the " unthinking crowd . " He expressed strongly , the obliga . tions which the church owed to
her zealous and able advocate . To the approbation of Lord Thurlow , we may add the judgment of a writer , who was certainly noignoramus , but deeply conversant in profound and accurate
investigation . u I publicly request you , " ( says Mr . Whitaker , in the dedication of his Origin of * Ariani $ m to the Bishop , ) " to accept a copy of the present work , in order to shew your lordship , and the world ,
my strong sense of the service which you have done to the cause of Christianity , by your late writings against a well-known he retick . Uour writings will continue to be serviceable to the cause , as long as the memoryof that Heretick
* Dr . Priestley * * Claims , pp . stg , 3 O .
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continues in the church : the bane and the antidote will go on in a useful union together /' Yet Mr . Belsham calls Bishop Horsley a baffled and defeated antagonist , ' and pronounces the victory of Dr . Priestley to be de- * cisive and complete- " Mr . Belsham may say this , but he cannot believe it . He may wish his friends , the Unitarians , to believe it ; but he will never persuade any impartial er competent reader to agree with him *
The victories of Dr . Priestley on the subject of religion are like Buonaparte ' s in the neighbourhood of Leipsic , in the campaign of 1813 , vaunted as confidently , and with just as much truth , by the doctor and his successor . His
character , as a chemical experimentalist , his incessant activity in pub * lication , his vauntings and thra * sonic challenges , and last words , bad , no doubt , more influence on many persons than they ought to have had ; considering his glaring
insufficiency in ecclesiastical antu quities , and in the original languages of scripture , and of the primitive church . But this influence was , I believe , in the minds of almost all persons who
were competent to judge of the subject , and with the public at large , effectually dissipated by the learning and acuteness , and powerful eloquence of Bishop Horsley , The attention of the public is , however , now called to a review
of the controversy between Bp . Horsley and Dr . Priestley , by the Calm Inquiry , and the Claims of Dr Priestley ; in which we are most unexpectedly informed , that we were all mistaken in the supposed
triumphs of Bishop Jlorsley ;—and that victory was all on the
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Bp * Burgess * s Address to Unitarians 0 $ 05
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1814, page 605, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2445/page/17/
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