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Christian religion depends 'upon testimony ¦ : now man is competent to judge of tlie weight of testimony ^ though he is not able , I think fully to investigate the nature of tlie soul : and I consider the
testimony concerning * the resurrection < of Jesiis ^ ( and that fact Is the corner-stone of the Christian churchy ) to be worthy of entire credit . ' P . 15 . In January , 1759 s , Mr . Watson took Iii . s Bachelor * of Arts' degree . He was
the second Wrangler of his year , but it was the general opinion that he ought to have been made senior Wrangler . He was elected a Fellow of Trinity College , in 1760 , when he became assistant tutor to Mr . Backhouse . At
the commencement in 1762 , he took his Master of Arts' degree , and was soon after made Moderator for Trinity College . During his year of office tile following occurrence took place ? interesting from the person and the subject involved in it :
u Paley ^ I vemember , had brought me for one of tlie questions he meant for Ms act J 32 ternitas pcenarum contradicit Divi ~ nis attributis . I had accepted it ; and indeed I never refused a question either as moderator or as professor of divinity A few days afterwards , he came to me in
a great fright , saying- that the master of his college ( Dr . Thomas , Dean of EJy ) 9 had sent to him , and insisted on his not keeping on such a question . I readily permitted him to change it , and told him , that if it would lessen his master ' s apprehensions , he might put in non before
contradicit j and he did so . Dr . Thomas , I had little doubt , was afraid of being looked upon as a heretic at Lambeth , for suffering- a member of his college to dispute on such a question , notwithstanding what Tifiotson had published on the subject many years before . " Pp . 19 , 20 .
By some remarks that are here made , it appears that Di \ Watson was sceptical on the duration of future punishment . He ask « , with unexpected simplicity , " But how is it
proved that the everlasting punishment of the wicked may not answer a henevolent end 9 may not be the mean of keeping the righteous in everlasting holiness and obedience £ " P . 20 .
On the death- of Dr . Hadley * in 1764 * he was elected Professor of Chemistry , under circumstances ^ as he himself ' explains , not a little extraordinary *
u the time this Iionour was conferred upon « nc ? ,. / knew nothing at all of Cheviistviy . ) had never read a syllable on the
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subject 9 jnor seen a single experiment * & it / but 1 ' was-tired with mathematics and natural philosophy , and the vehementissima gloria cupido stimulated me to try ray strength in a new pursuit , and the kindness of the University fit was always kind
to me ) animated meto very extraordinary exertions . I sent immediately after my election for an operator to Paris \ I buried myself as it were in my laboratory , at least as much as my other avocations would permit ; and in fourteen months from my election , I read a course of chemical lectures to a very full audience , consisting of persons of all ages and degrees in the University . " Pp . 28 , 29 * Naming Mr . ( afterwards Dr . ) Jebb s
as bringing on the subject of annual examinations in 1774 , the biographer coldly describes him as a " a very honest and intelligent , but unpopular man . " P . 30 .
In 1766 , tlie professorship of Chemistry , at Cambridge , was endowed , through Mr . Watson ' s exertions , with a stipend from the Crown of £ IOC per annum . He became , in 17679 one of the Head Tutors in Trinity College ,, He printed * in 1768 s , his Institutiones
Metallurgies , and about the same time was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society . In 1769 * he preached an Assize Sermon at Cambridge , which he afterwards published , dedicated '" to
the only person to whom" he u owed any obligation , Mr . Luther . I made it a rule , ( he adds , ) never to dedicate to those from whom I expected favours , but to those only from whom I had received them . The dedication
of my Collection of Theological Tracts to the Queen did not come under either of these descriptions ; it proceeded from the opinion I then entertained of her merit , as a wife and a mother . '' P . 84 . In 1771 , Dr . Watson succeeded Dr .
Rutherforth as Regius Professor of Divhrity , being created a doctor by royal mandate the day before his election * He found the professorship hot worth quite £ 330 . a-year , and he takes
credit to himselt tor having made it worth £ 1000 . at the least , in this situation Dr . Watson was at the head of a theological school , which , we trust , still subsists ; the character of which is well described in his account of
himself as Divinity Professor . u I reduced the study of divinity into as narrow a compass as I eoujd , for I determined to study nothing * bat my Biblfg , being" much" unconcerned about ttje opU
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Review , *— -Life of the Bishop of Landaff . S 3
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1818, page 53, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2472/page/53/
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