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Untitled Article
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THE UNITARIAN CHRONICLE.
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Untitled Article
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DIARY OF THE REV. T. BELSHAM.
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Transcript
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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
Ihk memoirs , lately published , of that learned , eminent , successful , and venerated advocate of Unitarian Christianity , imperfect and unsatisfactory as they are in many respects , are most deeply interesting and instructive , from the copious extracts which have been made from his Diary , kept , not with mechanical regularity , but as a means of recording the strong thoughts and feelings which from time to time arose in his mind .
We present some portions of the Diary to those of our readers who may not yet have had the pleasure , we may say delight , of reading the memoirs , with a view of showing the gradual increase of happiness which accompanied Mr . Belsham ' s change of religious opinions , untile he had for some years been fixed in the belief of those sublime and animating truths which it was the business of his life to set forth , illustrate , and enforce ; and to do which , with the great apostle of the Gentiles , whose writings he has so admirably elucidated and vindicated , he esteemed a grace given * unto him .
We have spoken of a gradual increase of happiness , until Mr * Belsham had been for " some years fixed in the firm belief , and practical application of Unitarian doctrine , because he did not , and could ^ ot , at once reap all its advantages frorn . the change , which in the course of Divine Providence he was led to make .
The mind does not readily throw off its habits , and especially its religious habits . They are altered by a process almost as gradual as that by which they are formed . They do not follow the decisions of the judgment , but by slow degrees , and by repeated applications of the new opinions to the sources of feeling . The truth of this will be seen in the course of the following extracts .
Mr . Belsham was bom April 15 , 1750 , O . S . At the age of little more than sixteen he was admitted into the academy at Daventry , then under the superintendence of Dr . Ashwojcth , 1766 . In a paper written during the course of this year , the following expressions occur .
My state of mind through this week has been variable . Sometimes I am , at least I think myself to be , pretty deeply affected with divine things , but at other times I am quite hardened . Sometimes I have some hope that God will adop s t me , notwithstanding my unworthiness ; at other times I am ready to sit down in hopeless despair .
The Unitarian Chronicle.
THE UNITARIAN CHRONICLE .
Untitled Article
Voi ., 11 . * K
Diary Of The Rev. T. Belsham.
DIARY OF THE REV . T . BELSHAM .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 1, 1833, page unpag, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2613/page/1/
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