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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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commented ... upon , so differently m difterent periodical pptili ^ i ? n& that it may be worth \ yaile if you can spare room for its indention a second time , to cojtnpare the different nQtiqes , The passage is ' .. this :- * - .
** I reduced the study of divinity ii ^ to as narrow a compass as I could , for I determined to study nothing but my Bitiie , being much unconcerned about the opinion of councils , fathers , bishops , and' other men as little inspired as myself . This mode of
proceeding being opposite to the general one * and especially to that of the ^^ sier of Peterhouse , who was a great raider , he used to call mecx , UT 0 $ i § ax'i Q $ 9 ^^^ If-taugiit divine . The Professor ij > £ ^ Ipivintity had been nick-named , i | $ g ] jpus ttaereticorum ; . it was thought to be his duty to demolish every
opinion which militated against what is called the orthodoxy of the Church of England . Now my mind was wholly unbiassed $ I had no prejudices against , I had no predilection for the Church of England , but a sincere regard for the Church of Christ , and an
insuperable objection to every degree of dogmatical intolerance . I never troubled myself with answering any arguments which the opponents in the divinity schools brought against the Articles of the Church , nor ever
admitted their authority as decisive of a difficulty ; but I used on such occasions to say to them , holding the New Testarnent in my hand , En Sacrum Codicem *" " On this simple narrative , " says a writer in the Edinburgh Magazine ,
** it is quite unnecessary for us to make a single observation ; it carries us along with it by the diguified force of truth . Few as the facts are , and told thus in their naked simplicity , without the most remote intention of
winning our sympathy or creating an effect , the excellent narrator inspires us with respect and affection , and we feel towards him a portion of the enthusiasm which was so strong a feature in his character , and raised him
above the sacrifice of one lpta of integrity to the object of his most honourable ambition . " This commendation appears to be too unqualified to lie in perfect harmony with the following remark of the same writer , ** JTj ^ ere might have been something more venerable , mote august in his ima&e
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after death , —something to which the meek and humble Christian woidd have . turned with a purer pleasure , aud from which he might have drawTn a stronger support . Might not im politician have been sunk in the bishop , and the bishop changed into the apostle ; but peace to the ashes ot
a good and a great man . " In the judgment of the Quarterly Reviewer , however , there is no peace to the man , whether living or dead , in whom the Churchman is sunk in
the Christian , and the anglican prelate in the fellow-disciple with all who acknowledge one great teacher and master . It is much to be lamented , that the want of consistency ,
of unity in the character of Bishop Watson , has deprived his friends of the power of denying , that the Reviewer ' s strictures upon his memory , which are written in the most envenomed
spirit of ecclesiastical malignity , have generally any foundation in reason and in facto But his defence would be an easy task if he were always as defensible as when he resolved to b £ what the master of Peterhouse called a self-taught , but should have called a biblical divine . Oh this manner of
studying and teaching divinity , the Reviewer thus comments : — " Such was our Professor ' s conception of the nature of his office , a # d such the entire limits within which his discretion had led him to confine
his theological inquiries * For contemning the fathers * Bentley was well scourged by Thirlby in a passage , which is equally adapted to the late Professor . ' Quid enim magis ridiculum aut fieri aut fingi potest quam
homo Christianus , sacerdos , Theologiae professor , omnibus philosophise studiis initiatus , in siiis peregrin us aut hospes ; Chrysostomum . Augustiniitn , Gregorios , Basilios , Originein ^ Atibena ^ oram , Irenseum , Justiriium » fgnatium ne nomine quideih novit / * ' &c . of
If , indeed , it i ^ ¦ tHe duty the Professor of Divinity in an English university to defend by all ftoA&tble means the < loctrin ^ 8 < rf the Chttrth * of England , there is gbodrea ^ oii fdt the 1
animadversions btmion Bentley arid Watson , because the authority of counciTs and fathfero may be obtained , where tjiat of Jesus and hi * apbeties Either silent or * i |> rfW 6 tf . ^ VBiit-that tile Biihdp wfe Hght as a (^ hriMian ,
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£ & £ On ike QM ^ l ^ ' ^^^ f H 6 n the Life ofjfiMp&Paisort
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1818, page 252, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2475/page/28/
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