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    Untitled Article

    We exercise no liberty but what he claims and uses for himself ; and , as to the extent to which we are carried , we are led on unconsciously and unintentionally , our sole object being truth , our v . sole determination being not to stop till we find a safe footing for our steps . A strong and ardent mind such as his , must be expected to have firm opinions . The acuteness of perception and ~ Th ^ i / tgTraT ^ f ~ te

    brings home to his bosom , as it were , and makes part and parcel of his mental furniture , sentiments much revolved , inevitably lead him to lay great stress upon them . For our own parts , we lightly esteem lukewarm advocates ; yet warm feelings constitute no apology for bigotry ; nor , however important to Christian redemption Hall may deem those tenets which we discard , has he any right to impugn our honesty , or to consign us to perdition . In his reply to Kinghorne , in the free communion controversy , this f

    beautiful passage occurs : As the dictates of Christian charity will always be found to coincide with the justest principles of reason , the first effect of inquiry will be to enlighten the mind , the second to expand and enlarge the heart ; and when the Spirit is poured down from on high , he will effectually teach us that Ci God is love , " and that we never please him more than when we embrace with open arms , without distinction of sect or party , all who bear his image , . ' ( vol . ii . p » 495 . ) Is it not surprising that a person

    who could write thus , should in a great and important matter contradict his principles and professions ? To be spoken against is nothing new to us ; but in the present case we feel . the more aggrieved from the circumstance that our calumniator possesses so much that we cordially admire and approve , has done so much service to the cause of real and true religion , that we would fain

    have considered ourselves fellow-labourers with him . His widely diffused reputation may give a currency to his imputations , which cannot soon be stopped ; and the aphoristic way in which he embodies some of his denunciations against Unitarians , renders them , to . use au expression ^ . plau sibilities , ' excellent stories to pelt with . ' We consider his obliquity in this respect a mental phenomenon , altogether unaccountable .

    At the commencement of his career he was half suspected of -Socinianisra , though ( there is reason to suppose ) without just cause , The following is an instance of the manner in which he speaks of Dr . Priestley * . The religious tenets of Dr . Priestley appear to me erroneous in the . extreme ; but I should be sorry to suffer any difference of sentiment to diminish my sensibility to

    virtue , or my admiration of genius . From him the poisoned arrow will fall pointless ; his enlightened and active mind , his unwearied assiduity , the extent of his researches , the light he has poured into every department of science , will be the admiration of that period when the greater part of those who have favoured or those who have opposed him , will be alike forgotten , Distinguished merit

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    WRITINGS OF ROBERT HALL , 261

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 1, 1833, page 261, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2621/page/5/