DISCOURSE, On Dccasion of the Death of Dr. Priestley; Ο Χριςος, και οι Αποσολοί, ο διαλεκτικην ημιν παρεδισαν τέχ Socrates Hist. Eccl. lib.i. c. S. LONDON: Printed by C. Stower, Pater Noster Row, FOR W. VIDler, 187, HIGH HOLBORN, AND J. JOHNSON, 1805. iii Advertisement. THE substance of these Letters has appeared in the Universal Theological Magazine; and at the desire of some friends, in whose judgment the author places. confidence, they are now reprinted in a separate form, with some corrections, and a few additional notes and observations. The author was the more disposed to comply in this instance with the wishes of his friends, because, notwithstanding his extreme dislike to a personal theological controversy, he was inclined to hope, that a more general circulation of these Letters might contribute to communicate more correct ideas of the tenets, and to excite a greater abhorrence of the spirit of Calvinism, the direct tendency of which is to generate hatred both of God and man, and which represents the character of the Divine Being in a light more odious than that of the voluptuous Jupiter, of the sanguinary and fe rocious Moloch, or even of its own imaginary, I malignant, and mischievous, but not altogether omnipotent, and infinite, Devil. TO · to viosdr ger brudt mult retia re, 19:05 The author having been educated in the bosom of Calvinism, knows something of the views and feelings of a genuine Calvinist and from his own observation and experience hel is assured, that such persons are more deserve ing of compassion than of censure. He has also known among the Calvinists many persons of great piety, and worth of character, tov which, in his Discourse on the lamented death of Dr. Priestley, he was eager to bear his testqE timony, in order to shew, that whatever heit thought of the system, he was, no denemy tou the persons of those who profess it. If int the warmth of his zeal to manifest his cathoon licism, he has inadvertently over-stepped the as limits of perfect correctness, and has appearedil * See Dr. Priestley's account of his own feelings when he was a practical Calvinist, Discourse on Occasion of Drillsa Priestley's Death, p. 18, note. He there says, "I had occáznot σε sionally such distress of mind, as it is not in " T's upon with horror," to |
