In the course of his narration, he, who writes these pages, now approaches a period peculiarly interesting to himself, because it was the period of his first acquaintance with the highly distinguished person, to whose memory they are, with mingled reverence and affection, dedicated. Thirty-six years ago, that acquaintance began; and it soon ripened into a friendship, kind and condescending, the writer is sensible, on the one part, grateful and respectful, he is sure, on the other. He thinks he may here adopt and apply the language of a favourite author: “Ego admiratione quadam virtutis ejus; ille vicissim opinione fortasse nonnulla, quam de meis moribus habebat, me dilexit: auxit benevolentiam consuetude”1
Through the long space of time just mentioned, living within the distance of four miles, his intercourse with Dr. Parr was frequent, and always
1 Cic. de Am. |
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Others have complained, and apparently not without just reason, of the loss of Dr. Parr’s friendly regards from slight or insufficient causes. But it has been the fortune of the writer to possess and enjoy all the pleasures and advantages of that friendship, without interruption, from the day of its first commencing to the hour which closes, in this world, all human friendships. He boldly adds, that though a sincere and profound admirer, he was no flatterer of Dr. Parr; and that the firmness, and sometimes even the warmth with which he opposed in him whatever appeared to his own honest judgment erroneous in opinion, or wrong in action, instead of diminishing the kind and
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In July, 1790, the writer was ordained minister of the High-street Chapel, in Warwick; when the sermon,2 usually addressed at such a time to the congregation, was delivered by Dr. Priestley; and the charge, usually addressed to the minister, by Mr. Belsham. “On that occasion,” as Dr. Parr himself relates, “having never witnessed the ceremony of ordination among the dissenters, he was present.”3 On the preceding Sunday, too, as he also relates, “knowing that, in the city of Dublin, churchmen, dissenters, and catholics, lay aside all distinctions to attend sermons for charity-schools, he was present, when Dr. Priestley delivered a sermon of that kind in the same chapel.”—“He thought it no disgrace,” are his own words, “to go and hear a sensible discourse, delivered by a distinguished preacher, however he might differ from him upon abstruse points of speculation.”—“Very few and very simple,” said he, on another occasion, “are the truths, which we have any of us a right to pronounce necessary to salvation. It is extremely unsafe to bewilder the judgment, or to inflame the passions of men, upon those abstruse subjects of controversy, about which bigots indeed may dogmatise with fierce and imperious confidence; whilst they, who are scholars with
1 See App. No. V. 2 This sermon was afterwards published. Dr. Parr notes it, in his Catalogue of Books, as “a very judicious sermon.”—Bibl. Parr. p. 549. 3 Sequel, p. 100. |
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The ordination-services of the chapel, just mentioned, were followed, as usual upon such occasions, by a public dinner, to which Dr. Parr had been previously invited. In the most obliging manner, he accepted the invitation; and nothing could exceed the greeting of joyful welcome, with which he was received, on entering, the room where the company was assembled. The present writer, young as he then was, may be pardoned, when he confesses the pride mingled with the pleasure which he felt, on being placed at the head of the table, to see himself supported on his right by Dr. Parr, and on his left by Dr. Priestley, two of the most celebrated divines—one of his own, and the other of the national church,—honoured, too, with the presence of a third divine, Mr. Belsham, scarcely less distinguished than the former, and of several other ministers of great respectability; and surrounded by a large company of friends and well-wishers. To him it was, indeed, an interesting and important day; and he still looks back to the honours of it, with delighted recollection, not unmingled, he hopes, with sentiments of a higher and more serious nature. “Unus ille dies sibi quidem immortalitatis instar fuit.”
The conversation, as might be supposed, was
1 Discourse on Education, p. 25. |
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1 Discourse on Education, p. 27. |
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It was on the above occasion, that Dr. Parr was introduced to a personal acquaintance with Dr. Priestley. But it appears from one of his earliest publications, that he had long entertained for him all the sentiments expressed in the following words: “The man lives not, who has a more sincere veneration for his talents and his virtues, than I have.”1 In another publication, he remarks: “Having had occasion, in one of my works, to censure Dr. Priestley, when he had replied with equal firmness and equal politeness, I was so graceless, as neither to despise nor hate him.”2
In the same publication he relates, that when “he preached for the charity-schools at Birmingham, he earnestly recommended to the attention of his audience two admirable sermons, written by Dr. Priestley, one of which is on Habitual Devotion, and the other on The duty of not living to ourselves.”2 But though he stated that he bestowed, upon these sermons, the praise which they deserve, yet he has not stated the high and energetic terms, worthy of himself, in which that praise was conveyed. “Of the two sermons, now mentioned,” said the eloquent preacher, “I confidently affirm, that the wisest man cannot read them without being wiser, nor the best man without being better.” All, who have perused the excellent sermons, here referred to, must acknowledge, that great and generous as the praise is, it is not more than equal to their merits.
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1 Discourse on Education, notes, p. 15. 2 Sequel, p. 98, 99. |
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With such strong prepossessions in favour of Dr. Priestley, none will be surprised to hear, that Dr. Parr was eager to embrace the opportunity of forming an acquaintance with him; and that the acquaintance, thus begun, was the commencement of a friendship, which was terminated only by death. From this time, their intercourse was not unfrequent; and yet, says Dr. Parr, “living as I have done, for the space of more than five years, within the distance of sixteen miles from Dr. Priestley, I have seen him far less often, than one man of letters would wish to see another, under the same circumstances.”1
But even this degree of personal intercourse, too scanty for their mutual wishes, was of short continuance; for, beginning in July 1790, it was closed by the hand of violence, for ever, on the dreadful fourteenth of July 1791. Deep is the blot of shame, with which that period is marked in the annals of English history! Blind and infatuated bigotry broke loose from all the restraints of law, and even of common justice and humanity; and its rage, artfully excited and fomented by interested men, was basely directed against one obnoxious, but most virtuous and illustrious individual. His house, his library, his philosophical apparatus, the most truly valuable and useful that any individual ever possessed; his manuscripts, the labours of many years of his life, were all consumed in one tremendous conflagration; and his life itself was saved only by flight. Nor did his persecution end here.
1 Sequel, p. 105. |
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Such was the barbarous persecution—reviving, at the end of the eighteenth century, all the bad spirit of the dark ages—which the great and excellent man was fated to endure, with whom Dr. Parr had so lately entered into pleasing and friendly intercourse; and whom, far from slighting and deserting him under these trying circumstances, he drew closer to his heart. The high estimation in which he had ever held his talents, and his moral worth, was raised still higher, by commiseration for sufferings, so great and unmerited, and by admiration of the calm composure, so worthy the philosopher, and of the magnanimous forgiveness, so becoming the Christian, with which they were endured. After Dr. Priestley’s flight from Birmingham, during the short interval of his continuance in England, when few opportunities of personal communication occurred, Dr. Parr wrote to him frequent letters either of advice or condolence; and when far removed from his native land, Dr. Parr still followed him, with kind and friendly sympathy; and never shrunk from the task, invidious and even dangerous as it then was, of standing forth, in attestation of his merits, or in vindication of his honourable fame, against all his ignorant or malignant opposers.
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It would be unjust to withhold the following encomium, written, it must be remembered, at a time, when the great name, on which its praises are so liberally bestowed, was, more than usually, the object of the boldest and the bitterest calumnies.
“Let Dr. Priestley be confuted, where he is mistaken. Let him be exposed, where he is superficial. Let him be repressed, where he is dogmatical. Let him be rebuked, where he is censorious. But let not his attainments be depreciated, because they are numerous, almost without a parallel. Let not his talents be ridiculed, because they are superlatively great. Let not his morals be vilified, because they are correct without austerity, and exemplary without ostentation; because they present, even to common observers, the innocence of a hermit and the simplicity of a patriarch; and because a philosophic eye will at once discover in them the deep-fixed root of virtuous principle, and the solid trunk of virtuous habit.”1
Who can decide—whether the sentiments in the following passage are more honourable to him, by whom they were uttered, or to him on whose behalf they were so generously expressed—especially “the evil days” and “the evil tongues” considered, on which they had then so unhappily fallen?
“I have visited him, as I hope to visit him again, because he is an unaffected, unassuming, and very interesting companion. I will not, in
1 Letter from Irenopolis, p. 18. |
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Early in 1804 death deprived the world of the great philosopher and divine, of whom blind and remorseless bigotry had, ten years before, bereaved his country; and when his former congregation, at Birmingham, did honour to themselves by erecting a monument to his memory, from the pen of Dr. Parr proceeded the inscription,2 which conveys to posterity the admiration of his virtues and the
1 Sequel to a printed Paper, p. 106 2 App. No. III. |
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A bold polemic, like Dr. Priestley,
fearlessly attacking the main articles of the popular creed, and publicly challenging its
advocates to stand forth in its defence, soon found himself assailed, as might have been
expected, by a whole host of adversaries. Amongst these came forward, with proud look and
menacing air, that celebrated champion of high orthodoxy and high episcopacy, Dr. Horsley; who was richly rewarded for his exertions, by
being promoted successively to the see of St. David’s, Rochester, and St. Asaph. He
was a man endued with great powers of mind, and possessed of vast stores of erudition; of
that kind,
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But if the censorious spirit of Bishop
Horsley’s religion was an object of abhorrence to Dr. Parr, equally so was the arbitrary spirit of his
politics. It is impossible ever to forget, and it will be difficult even to forgive, the
treasonable offence, committed against the sacred rights of men and of Britons, by that
amazing and monstrous declaration, uttered in his place in parliament, “that the
people have nothing to do with the laws but to obey them.” The strong
indignation excited in the mind of Dr. Parr, by so extreme an outrage
against all the natural feelings, and constitutional
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Among the divines engaged in the ordination-service, as above related, was the Rev. Thomas Belsham, formerly tutor in the academy at Daventry, and afterwards in the college at Hackney; and subsequently, the successor of the excellent and venerable Theophilus Lindsey, as minister of Essex-street Chapel, in London. He was then first introduced to the personal acquaintance of Dr. Parr; and from that time a friendly intimacy commenced, which proved the unfailing source of mutual pleasure. Dr. Parr always spoke of Mr. Belsham in terms of high regard; and often expressed admiration of his talents as a man, of his attainments as a scholar, and his powers as a writer.
One of the latest of the numerous publications, with which Mr. Belsham has favoured the world, is “A Translation and Exposition of the Epistles of Paul the Apostle, with notes.” This work, Dr. Parr considered as one of the most important theological works, that have appeared for a century past. Of the preliminary dissertation in particular, as a clear, reasonable and judicious exposition of
1 New Monthly Mag. Aug. 1826. He denominated Horsley, in the Greek verse, Ίππώτης. |
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As the great public advocate for the Unitarian faith, it might almost be said that Mr. Belsham succeeded into the place of the zealous, the active, the intrepid Priestley; and many are the contro-
1 “The Epistles of Paul translated, &c. This excellent work of Belsham was given to me by the writer. I do not entirely agree with him upon some doctrinal points; but I ought to commend the matter, style, and spirit of the preface; and, in my opinion, the translation does great credit to the diligence, judgment, erudition, and piety of my much respected friend. S. P.”—Bibl. Parr. p. 21. |
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1 Bibl. Parr. p. 21. 2 “The Divinity of Christ proved from his own declarations, &c. by Bp. Burgess. From the eminently learned and truly pious author.”—Bibl. Parr. p. 567.—And so, as the reader probably knows, “the little secret” is told—told by one of the high orthodox party—told with all the indignation, which all honest men of all parties must feel! See Gent. Mag. Oct. 1827. There it will be seen, proved by credible testimony, that, after the above note, stands in the original Ms. of the Catalogue the following words—He does not convince me. “Few but significant words!” exclaims the detecter of the artifice; on the omission of which he has justly fixed the broad mark of “disingenuousness.”—“To my mind,” adds he, “on the subject of Dr. Parr’s religious opinions, these few words |
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It was the unhappiness of the present writer to be embroiled, very early in life, in a contest with some of the high churchmen of Warwick; who were urged on by two or three of their clergy, certainly, not the most distinguished among their brethren for understanding, learning, or character. On the first establishment of their own Sunday-
speak volumes.” It is reported that other omissions, equally important, have been discovered by means of printed copies of cancelled sheets, which have found their way into the hands of several persons; by some of whom, it is hoped, they will be given to the public. But there is another and a better hope, which the writer ventures to express, namely, that by immediately publishing the omitted parts, the editor of the Catalogue will make his own amende honorable for conduct so unfair to the public, and so discreditable to himself. The apology set up by the editor of the Gent. Mag., if it justify the omission of what would hurt the feelings of any living person—which, indeed, is as far as the apologist carries it, and which, even to that extent, might be questioned—yet beyond that point, certainly, the apology cannot for a moment be admitted. The opinions on important subjects which Dr. Parr has recorded, with a view to publication, most surely cannot be suppressed, without at once defrauding the public of their right, and doing violence to those wishes of the dead, which all are accustomed to regard with reverence as sacred. 1 Birch’s Life of Tillotson, p. 321. |
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1 Words of a handbill publicly circulated. 2 See a list of the pamphlets published on this occasion, Bibl. Parr. p. 84. |
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