necessary to offer to your Lordship, and to the public, in defence of the principles and conduct of that body of christians of which I have the honour to be a member, and in reply to those allegations which your Lordship has brought forward in the Charge to your clergy, at your Lordship's late primary Visitation: which allegations must have been founded in some unfortunate misconception of the doctrine and character of the Unitarians. I have expressed myself with a confidence arising from a firm conviction of the goodness of my cause, and with that independence of mind which is the privilege of advancing years. But I flatter myself that I have in no instance deviated from the respect and deference which are due to your Lordship's elevated station, and still more, to your eminent talents, extensive erudition, and exemplary character. If I have fallen short of my chief design, if I have failed in removing your Lordship's misconceptions, and of abating your Lordship's prepossessions against the Unitarians and their principles, I entreat that your Lordship will impute the failure to its true cause, to a defect, not in the argument, but in the advocate; and sincerely wishing that your Lordship may long continue to occupy, with satisfaction to yourself, and with distinguished usefulness to your country and to the Church, that exalted station to which your Lordship has been lately, and, in the estimation of the most competent and impartial judges, deservedly promoted, and with earnest hope that your Lordship's powerful and extensive influence may ever be exerted in diffusing the truly christian spirit of moderation, forbearance, and charity, Printed by R. and A. Taylor, Shoe-Lane, London. Lately published, in One Volume 8vo. price 10s. 6d. TRACTS in Controversy with BISHOP HORSLEY, by JOSEPH PRIESTLEY, LL.D. F.R.S., with Notes by the Rev. T. BELSHAM, To which is annexed AN APPENDIX, containing a Review of the Controversy, in Four Letters to the Bishops, by the same Author, never before published. The PROGRESS of INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, and RELIGIOUS IMPROVEMENT during the present Reign, represented in a DISCOURSE delivered before the Unitarian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, at Essex-Street Chapel, on Thursday, March 31, 1814, in Commemoration of the Repeal of the Penal Laws against the Impugners of the Doctrine of the Trinity. To which is annexed AN APPENDIX, containing a SUMMARY REVIEW of a Publication of the Lord BISHOP of ST. DAVID'S, entitled "A Brief Memorial, on the Repeal of the 9 and 10 William III. &c." By THOMAS BELSHAM, Minister of the Chapel. Printed for J. Johnson and Co., St. Paul's Churchyard. |