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    will ever rise superior to oppression , and will draw lustre from reproach . The vapours which gather round the saw , and follow it in its course , seldom fail at the close to form a magnificent theatre for his reception , and to invest with variegated tints and with softened effulgence the luminary which they cannot hide . ' ^ he ~ vi 0 lenee- © £ e ^ our tenets , took place after a severe temporary attack of rnental

    alienation , which incapacitated him for some time from pursuing his ministerial duties , and induced in him a much sterner spirit of theology than he had previously professed . His letters give a very gloomy picture of the state of his mind ; they show that he was tossed upon a sea of disquietude ; and any deviation in others from that strictness of faith which suffering had produced in him , he regarded with extreme displeasure . Many of his private sentiments were at this time tinctured with superstition , and perhaps it cannot be much wondered that hatred of Unitarianism , which

    is the very freedom and liberty of the soul , chimed in with the existing habit of his mind . With most , bigotry originates in ignorance and in narrowness of conception ; but neither of these can be imputed to him ; and we do not see to what cause but that we have assigned , his injustice towards us can be referred . His desire to disparage Unitarians leads him into a thousand inconsistencies ; for instance , in speaking of LiridseyV magnanimous secession from the establishment , he designates the various

    modes by which , before he resolved to abandon it , he excused his continuance in its communion , as Jesuitical , and unworthy of true dignity ; and ascribes the hold they were suffered to retain to the attenuated conception of the evil of sin produced by Unitarianism . Now , is it not the more logical inference , that it was by the strength of Unitarian principles this venerable confessor was drawn away from what he deemed an irreligious service ? Had Unitarianism tended to weaken the calls of conscience , he would

    have remained to the end of his life in the enjoyment of unrighteous "wealth , ft was only when his convictions of the truth and importance of Unitarianism became confirmed , that he attained the requisite degree of resolution to sever old associations . His continued ministry in the Church after scruples had once entered his mind , is a condemnation of the system of establishments , and no proof that Unitarianism encourages laxity of principle and selftampering . So long as he was not altogether an Unitarian , he remained in the Church t but as soon as ever the

    chan&eofsentiment was completed , he brought to mnnd all the . duties it involved , and he instantly separated himself , and came out from among them . I Again , in the same article he strongly Reprobates the notion of / Jr ^ jBelsham , that God is the author of sin and evil , though it is not contended that he views it with complacency , and will not in the end destroy it , Now in his admirable sermon , ' The Senti-

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    262 ON THE CHARACTER AND

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 1, 1833, page 262, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2621/page/6/