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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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Untitled Article
lixisteace of Christ and its concomitant doctrines were assumed as facts , he found himself so embarrassed from beginning" to end , by his sceptical doubts , that he determined from that time to desist from teaching what he now first discovered that he no longer believed . This was in the autumn of 1788 . And conceiving * that , his mind being now made up upon the subject , it was his duty no longer to hold his peace , but to hear his public testimony to the truth ; and , at the same time , being conscious that he no longer possessed
the qualifications which were deemed essential to the offices he sustained , and regarding it as both unhandsome and unjust to put his friends under the disagreeable necessity of dismissing him from his office , which they probably would have thought it their duty to do ; at least , being fully persuaded that it was right to give them their option in the case , he determined to resign both the Academy and the congregation . His resignation of the former he sent in to the trustees in January , 1789 , requesting them to keep it concealed till March , as it would be impossible for him to quit his situation till midsummer ; and he had no desire to make himself the topic of conversation till it became absolutely necessary . "—Pp . 285—291 .
Whether Mr . Belsham was right in his views of the teachings of Scripture upon the per-son of Christ , before or after this great change , it is for every individual to decide for himself by a direct appeal to Scripture . There he will find " the Judge that ends the strife . " But there are several points in the narrative to which it is desirable that attention should be directed , especially the previous character of the individual , the manner in which his inquiries were conducted , the effect of his convictions upon his situation and prospects , and his subsequent conduct and feelings .
Mr . Belsham ' s conversion took place in the full maturity of his mind and character . He was between thirty and forty years of age when he commenced the investigation , in which he continued to be engaged during the lapse of seven or eight years . For his mental abilities and attainments , his moral habits , and his personal piety , we have what is perhaps the best evidence which , after so long a time has elapsed , can possibly be appealed to , in the satisfactory results of the investigations which it must be presumed were
instituted on occasion of the several appointments which had been conferred upon him . He had been subjected to four ordeals of this description . The verdict of the Trustees of the seminary at Daventry , in his original selection Tor the Assistant Tutorship about 1770 , and when he was invited to fill the Divinity Chair in 1781 , and that of the congregations at Worcester and Daventry , cannot lightly be set aside now . He had evidently earned , and retained , a feeling of deep respect , as an accomplished and
faithful Christian minister , in the opinions of those who had every opportunity , and every inducement , to observe him closely and judge him strictly He was not a man to be blown about by every wind of doctrine . His was no unformed , uninformed , and unexercised mind . Could we imagine for a moment the formal carrying on of inquiry by delegation , and the ascertaining of religious truth by substitute , he was a man to whom unlearned Christians might have come with confidence , saying , Examine and
decide this controversy for us . If not that of such a man , let us be told whose conversion is of importance , and ought to impress the honest and humble mind with the duly of fully and impartially examining the subject of dispute . It will be difficult to mention any quality required in such an one , a possessor of which cannot be indicated in the illustrious list of converts to which he belongs ; enriched as it is with the names of Watts , Lindsey , R . Robinson , and many others ; and it will be difficult among
Untitled Article
O-jfi the Character and Writings of the Rev , T . Behham . 77
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1830, page 77, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2581/page/5/
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