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... But he goes much further : he is calumnious as well as inconsistent . According to the Archdeacon of Cleveland , Unitarianism € S conciliates not only the Pyrhhonist , but the profligate . " Here he sacrifices truth , and his own character for candour and
discernment , to the love of alliteration . A false and perverted taste will eagerly combine together the Pyrhlionist and the profligate : and the play upon the words shall be so
much the easier to the disputant , if his pen be dipped in the gall of the odium theologicurn . We suspect that Lord C ^ lthorpe * has known a great deal more of Unitarians than has
fallen to the lot of Archdeacon Wrangham ; and though the creed and its professors are not exactly the same thing , there is still a shrewd presumption that they do not vastly differ from each other . Now Lord
Calthorpe ( we say nothing of his theological qualifications or ( decisions ) was pleased to bear his testimony in favour , of the moral charities and deportment of Unitarians . Certainly , he did not describe them as profligates ; and in expressing his opinion of their creed , he was too honest and honourable to maintain that it
conciliated the profligate . Something he assuredly knew of their character and reputation in society : nor was he unjust to his own convictions , and to
their humble and , we will add , unforfeited , pretensions . The dignitary before U 8 , outrages decency ^ nd common opinion :
" It is impossible , " remarks Mr . Wellbeloved , " for any conscientious Unitarian , who experiences the animating and the purifying influences of his faith , to read this passage without feelings of indignation . I hesitate not to avow that such are my feelings ; but they are mingled with sentiments of deep regret , that
one , from whose extensive learning , cotre ct taste , enlightened understanding , and general urhanity of manners , every thing fair , and candid , and honourable , might have been justly expected , should thus violate truth and charity , in the service of a party , and afford the sanction of his authority to the revilings and the calurn » nies of ignorance and bigotry . *'—Pp . 76 , 77 . After convicting the Archdeacon of Cleveland of a misapprehension , or
* Mou . Repos . XIX , 246 .
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more than misapprehension , of passages in Dr . Priestley's writings , the author of the " Three Letters * ' admirably vindicates the memory of that great and much-injured man from vulgar calumny . He appeals to
incontrovertible facts , in proof of his supreme love and value oF the Scriptures ; he confidently invites serious and candid persons to read his devotional and practical works , and even those of a controversial and speculative nature , as illustrative of his excellent spirit . Speaking" of him in his polemical character , he justly says ,
" He was no bicker < er no skirmisher . He engaged in what he felt to be a momentous and an arduous contest , in defence of genuine Christianity ; and he engaged in it with all his might , fairly , honourably , aud , I will add , not without success—success as distinguished and as
merited as auy that attended his physical speculations . Virulence belonged not to him . His language may be occasionally strong , but it is not bitter ; and the severest expressions he erer employs ,
betray no resentment or malignity , but only a virtuous indignation against groundless suspicions , misrepresentations , and calumnies , tending at once to injure his own character and to impede the progress of truth . "—P . 93 .
Mr . Wellbeloved is naturally led to make an estimate * of Dr . Priestley ' s controversy with Bishop Horsley : this he does at gome length , and with much accuracy and fairness ; and the result he thus states :
(< On one or two points of minor importance , 1 allow that he was foiled : but on every leading question , and especially on that which formed the chief topic of discussion , the existence of a church of Orthodox Hebrew Christians at JEliay he was decidedly and triumphantly victorious . "—P . 91 ) .
Our author does not close the second of his letters without briefly adverting to Archdeacon Wrangham ' s attack on Mr . Belsham for having " in an unguarded hurst , which it is
painful to transcribe , represented the promised Messiah as a man constituted in all respects like other men , subject to the same infirmities , the same ignorance , prejudices , and frailties ! appearing eveu to insinuate that his ' prU
¦* In which undertaking he shews that Archdeacon W . is a buanger to Dr . Priestley's writings .
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Review—flFellbeloveds ' Letters to Archdeacon ffrangham . 9 h
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1825, page 95, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2533/page/31/
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