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of his fellow-townsmen , as well as of many of his pupils who were settled at a distance . He was the author of several learned and very useful works . His earliest acknowledged publication is entitled , "Intimations and Evidences of a Future
State ; " in which the various natural arguments for a future state are stated with great clearness , and have at least their full weight attributed to them ; at the same time the great importance of
Christianity as bringing immortality to clear and certain light , is admitted and enforced . Some rather harsh things are said of those who do not lay so much stress on the natural arguments , which the author perhaps would at a later period have softened . A valuable
continuation of this work was afterwards published . His " Popular Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion , " is his next and most considerable work , and it is calculated to be eminently useful : but it did not become so extensively known , nor did its author reap so much either of
reputation or of profit from it , as he had a good right to expect . The manuscript having been sent to a London bookseller , was submitted by him to an author of considerable eminence , whom he was in the habit of consulting , for his judgment upon it : in the hauds of this gentleman
it remained for several years , and , when returned to the author , it was so altered by corrections , curtailments , and additions , as to be in many parts illegible , and , at least in the author ' s opinion , by no means on the whole improved ; at all events , it could not appear as his work
it was therefore necessary to have the whole manuscript re-transcribed . In the mean time Paley ' s " Evidences of Christianity" and " Natural Theology" had appeared , and had deservedly obtained possession of the market . Two editions , however , of the work were sold ; and if a number of political references to events
now gone by , which never , perhaps , ought to have appeared in a work of such a uature , were left out , it would still be a very useful book to put into the hands of young persons , Mr . Watson's acquaintance with Natural History enabled him to answer in a pleasing and satisfactory manner many of the old objections of Pliny and others to the constitution and
course of nature , and his arrangement of the evidences of revelation is in many respects new and very ingenious , and the wr \ ole is written with such an easy , cheerful simplicity , as to pve his reader a
pleasing idea of the character of God as displayed in his works and his government of them , of the value of man as the most distinguished terrestrial creature of God , and of the importance of that gospel
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which allows him to look upon God as his Father , and invests him with the privileges and hopes of a highly-favoured servant and child of God . About the year 1811 came out his " Plain Statement of some of the most important
Principles of Religion , as a preservative against Infidelity , Enthusiasm and Immorality , " [ see Mon . Repos . VII . 176—179 J which came to a second and enlarged edition in 1814 : his object is to prove that Christianity is a rational system , in order to which he first lays down the
great leading truths of natural religion , concerning the existence , perfections and providence of God , shews the importance of entertaining worthy conceptions of him , and the worship due to him ; that revealed religion , in both its dispensations , inculcates the same great truths , but
that Christianity explains most perfectly the various branches of religious duty , and adds the most important and effectual sanctions . It is a work which well deserves to be reprinted in a cheap form for the use of young persons . " The
chapter on Internal Feelings / ' observes the British Critic , ( July 1811 , ) " consider as a most important tract in itself , and could well wish to see it generally circulated , either detached , or with this admirable book . " * It was not
to be expected that this book should please those who wish to make religion consist of something else than a good life ; accordingly , a rather angry controversy took place , which , being entirely local , may now be as well forgotten . His " Dissertations on various
interesting Subjects , with a view to illustrate the amiable and moral Spirit of Christ ' s Religion , and to correct the immoral Tendency of some Doctrines at present Popular and Fashionable , " may be considered as a sequel to the " Plaiu Statement . " In these he treats of religion and
superstition with its various modifications , on reason and faith , on the perversions of Christ ' s moral doctrines , on the doctrine of sudden conversions -f and death-bed repentance , on the use and abuses of the sabbath and of prayer , on internal feelings and some supposed influences of the
spirit , and on cheerfulness and the innocent enjoyments of society , as perfectly compatible with Christianity and with the example of Christ . As on many of these topics he expressed himself with greater freedom than he had done in his " Plain Statement , " he expected that this work would be exposed to still more
* The whole chapter is extracted in our Review of the work , ut sup . Ed * f On which we have lately had so excellent a discourses by Mr . Robbenls .
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624 Obituary . —Rev . Thomas Wtitsort .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1825, page 624, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2541/page/48/
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