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desired you , if you employed your clerk to write your arguments against the credibility of the Gospels , that you wouW stoew him my answers ; and this led Cfor ifeere was no previous stipulation , iw mntraot ) to a desire on ymi * part to be informed to what persons I might shew yours , that is , if I might so express myself , that you
might have fair play too . This was an incidental stipulation , and not with a view to secrecy ; but solely with the view above-mentioned . I would not have entered ihto the combat with my hands thus tied ; nor would I have entered into a contract which was to
leave you with liberty to unsettle the minds of your neighbours , while I , the minister of the parish town , your natural opponent , was to have no means of shewing my endeavours to defeat your hostilities . Common sense dictates that a preliminary to such a contract must have been , that if I was
not to shew nay defence of the Gospels , you should not mention in conversation with members of ftiy congregation your arguments against them . —There was no contract . I would have spurned at such a contract , which would have thus left the whole field
with you ; I should have been mean , dishonest , untrue to my trust , if I had agreed to such a contract . I have not transgressed -against' your stipulation ; so that you can find no cause
for accusing ; but I will place myself on higher ground . Your opposition was open , and I regarded myself as your open opponent . You only put that in writing which was matter of
your conversation , without caution and without disguise . I always regarded you as proud of your cause , and of your ability to defend it . You tell me in reply to my letters , that
nonfe of my arguments had convinced you , but rather strengthened you in your opinions : publish my Utters , and expose your defeated opponerit . — What will the world think when I tell
them , that you have sent to my printer , and forbidden frim to publish our correspondence ! Would yon > have JJbe world believe that ours was a private investigation of an insulated passage of Scripture ? &o far from it , that
a great part , certainly the main drift of my correspondence with you , isto make you cautious in unsettling the
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faith of your neighbours , and to check your unwearied hostility . What is nearly the conclusion of ray last letter but one , in March last ? * Oh ! Sir , Peace ! P&afce to your neighbours , Peace to your family , Peace to yourself .
" * Vex not with horrid shrieks our quiet grove / " What is the conclusion of my last letter in April ? It is as follows : — 4
Suppose the question were put to me—What is the state of religion in your part of the country ? Should I not be justified in the following statement ? Ours is a religious neighbourhood : sectarians abound : but the
clergy are active , the churches are filled , and religious peace prevails . Ours isv a remote province : it has no communication with any other , and there seems every prospect of that melioration of manner and general improvement , which must result from such a state of society . We have only
one person who interrupts this geiier&i peace , and we more regret this , as he is a gentleman of rank and fortune with a large family , likely to continue amongst us for many generations . The gentlemen of the neighbourhood
are well-informed : their linbits srood ; are well-informed ; their Habits good ; a general wish for harmony prevails : they particularly wish for religious peace , but delightful as Mount ' s Bay and its neighbourhood are , we have , alas ! our rock of offence . '
• - "I then proceed to your avowed wish to try your strength in Parliament towards a reform in the doctrines of the Church , &c . &c , anew Act of Uniformity . Is this , Sir , thte language of a man confidentially
engaged in investigating a doubtful passage of Scripture—of a friend calming another ' s doubts ? It is the expostulation of a firm opponent . You have shewn no delicacy , no hesitation : whereas , I will venture to assert , from
your own documents , which you have published ^ that I have shewn the zeal and earnestness-of an opponent , with the feeling and forbearance of a friend . "You seem not to recollect ever
having said that the divines > f the Church of England were the blind leading the blind : , you said ; ik to a neighbour , the father of a family , who
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146 Correspondence > - * # i a Charge of Heresy against Sir Rose Price , Bart
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1824, page 146, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2522/page/18/
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