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REVIEW. € * Still pleased to praise, yet not afraid to blame.'*—Pope.
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Untitled Article
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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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Review. € * Still Pleased To Praise, Yet Not Afraid To Blame.'*—Pope.
REVIEW . € * Still pleased to praise , yet not afraid to blame . ' *—Pope .
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Art . I . — < dn Examination of the Charges made against Unitarians and Unitariamsm , and the Improved Version , by the Right Rev . Dr . Magee , Bishop of Raphoe , in his "Discourses and Dissertations on
Atonement and Sacrifice : " with some Strictures on the Statements of the Bishop of St . David ' s , Dr . Hales , Dean Graves * Dr . Nares , Dr . Pye Smith , and Mr . Rennet ,
8 fc . ; and on the System pursued ot / some reeent Editors of the Greek Testament . By Lant Carpenter , LL . D . 8 vo . pp . 502 . Bristol , printed and sold by T . J . Manchee ; sold also by Longman and Co .,
London . 1820 . npRINITARIANS and Calvinists , jL both in the Church of England and out of it , have long called for an answer from Unitarians to Dr . Magee ' s " Discourses and Dissertations , " and have triumphed not a little in this unanswerable publication . To the
Bishop ' s statements and charges there have indeed been replies in our Repository and other works , which that redoubtable polemic has found it easier to sneer at than to dispose of in fair argument . But the difficulty of making a complete answer to him must be
admitted ; though the difficulty arises solel y from causes not very creditable to his reputation as an author or a divine . His volumes form a heterogeneous and discordant mass , rudis indigestaque moles , a chaotic confusion , which it requires no small portion of
time and labour to reduce into any thing like order . They treat of the atonement and of every thing else . They abound with false quotations and complex misstatements . The text is
overwhelmed by notes , and the notes have often nothing in common with the text , except the odium theologicum which pervades both , and in which alone the author preserves the appearance of uniformity .
Who could willingly engage in controversy with an author who , imitating the example of a more acute and powerful disputant , and , as may reasonably be supposed , with similar expectancies , endeavours to bear down the doctrines
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of an unpopular sect , and the arguments * of those who defend them , by vilifying the talents and the character of his opponents ? It is a savage species of warfare that is to be opposed . And if the author of a reply to the Dean of Cork * not succeed in convincing him , that he has offended against the laws of Christian
equity and candour , —that he has been guilty of glaring perversion of our views , injurious misrepresentations of our arguments , and illiberal aspersion of our motives , —and « 4 n dispelling the mists with which the learned Dignitary appears enveloped , which prevent him , to take the most favourable supposition , from
understanding that which he condemns , and which cause him to combat , instead of realities , the monsters of his own creation , —he can expect nothing but a repetition of * false and slanderous imputations' directed against himself , certainly not to the advantage of his peace or of his good name .
" There is nothing in the character of Dr . Magee ' s work , to make the examination of it interesting . There is scarcely an oasis to afford rest and refreshment to the wearied mind , while traversing the desert . Those who , in perusing the writings of the Dean of Cork , merely look for the indications of scholarship
and extensive reading , for caustic ardour and controversial dexterity , for confidence in his own critical and theological decisions , for supercilious and abusive invectives against those whom he attacks , and for the most extravagant assumption of superiority to them , will be satisfied r
but if any seek for the luminous arrangement and close reasoning of the sound logician , for the accurate , cautious inferences of the mathematician , for the discriminating penetration and enlarged comprehension of mind which should be learnt in the schools of literature and
philosophy , or for that well-proportioned union of independence of understanding and humility of soul , that correctness and impartiality in the statement of evidence , and that openness to conviction , and ability to discern what is just and important in the midst of apparent error , which form some of the striking characteristics of him who pursues truth , fearlessly yet judiciously , for the love of it ,
* The Dean of Cork was promoted to the bishoprick of . Raphoe in the period between the writing and printing of the greater part of the ** Examination" and its publication . Ed .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1821, page 109, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2497/page/45/
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