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LETTER

TO THE

RIGHT HON. N. VANSITTART, M. P.

BEING

AN ANSWER

TO HIS

SECOND LETTER

ON

The British and Foreign Bible Society;

AND, AT THE SAME TIME,

AN ANSWER

ΤΟ

WHATEVER IS ARGUMENTATIVE IN OTHER PAMPHLETS,

WHICH HAVE BEEN

LATELY WRITTEN TO THE SAME PURPOSE.

BY HERBERT MARSH, D. D. F. R. S.

Margaret Professor of Divinity in Cambridge.

1812.

VOL. I.

No. II.

2 A

A LETTER, &c.

DEAR SIR,

My " Inquiry into the consequences of neglecting to give the Prayer-Book with the Bible," having excited a host of adversaries, who have assailed me in every possible way, and with every possible weapon, it is necessary that I should attempt a vindication of that Inquiry, lest silence should be construed into an inability to answer. But that which chiefly induces me to remain for the present on the field of controversy, is the honor of combating so distinguished a champion as yourself. The second Letter, with which you have lately honored me, contains every thing in the shape of argument, which has been advanced by the united efforts of my other adversaries, whether in the form of Speeches, Letters, Prefaces, or Reviews; and contains it unmixed with extraneous matter, which serves only to divert the reader from the subject of discussion, and to confound where it cannot

confute. Indeed one of my adversaries, whose situation it would especially befit, to practise the benevolence which we are ordained to preach, has not only departed from the subject of inquiry, and thus left it precisely where he found it, but has substituted for argument a mass of personal invective, which it would be no less degrading to notice, than it was disgraceful to advance. And I am sure you will agree with me in the opinion, that when an author breathes nothing but the spirit, which the Gospel was intended to subdue, he will hardly contribute to the diffusion of the precepts, which the Gospel was intended to convey. However extensively we may disperse the letter of it, yet if our own example is at variance with its spirit, we defeat by our actions what we recommend by our words. The gentleness of its divine Author, and the mild conduct of the Apostles, form a striking contrast with the impetuosity thus displayed by advocates for the Bible Society and impartial observers will suspect, that men who violate the laws of decorum, are pleading, not for piety, but for power.

To so much the more advantage does your own pamphlet appear, when contrasted with publications like these. It is true, that the "amiable spirit," which I commended in your first Letter, is less perceptible in your second. But you every-where preserve the character and the language of a gentleman; you have never departed from your subject to compensate, by personality, the deficiency of argu ment; you have stated with precision the propositions' which you intend to combat, and to that statement you have adhered. For this reason, no less than for the reasons before assigned, I select your pamphlet, as that which, above all others, is intitled to regard; so much so indeed, that an answer to your pamphlet is an answer to all the rest. I mean, as far as argument is concerned: for

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