104 MEMOIRS OF 



world to his conjectures, consuming almost all his life in 

 these vain efforts, and at length plunging himself into an 

 abyss of misery. Here, like himself, I have need of all your 

 indulgence ; perhaps the details into which I am a))out to 

 enter will, to some, appear foreign to the place in which I 

 speak, but it is here, I think, that the terrible example they 

 give ought to be heard with the greatest interest. I have 

 already told you that Priestley was a minister of religion, 

 and I am forced to add, that he professed four different creeds 

 before he could decide on teaching one of them in his public 

 capacity. Brought up in all the severity of the presbyterian 

 faith, which we call Oalvinistic, and in all the bitterness 

 of predestination, such as Gomar taught it, he scarcely be- 

 gan to reflect, before he turned to the milder doctrine of Ar- 

 rninius. But, as he advanced, he always seemed to find 

 too much to believe : he therefore adopted the tenets of the 

 Arians, who, after having invaded Christianity from the 

 time of the successors of Constantine, have now no other 

 asylum than in England, but whose faith is decorated by 

 the names of Milton, Clarke, and Locke, and even, as re- 

 port says, that of Newton, and whose reputations, in some 

 measure, repair the loss of former power. 



"Arianism, while it declares Christ to be a creature, be- 

 lieves him, nevertheless, to be a being of a superior nature, 

 produced before the world, and the organ of tlie Creator in 

 the production of other beings. This is the doctrine clothed 

 in the magnificent poetry of the Paradise Lost. After hav- 

 ing long professed this, Priestley abandoned it, in order to 

 become a Unitarian, or that which we call Socinian. 

 There are few, perhaps, among those who now hear me, 

 who have ever informed themselves in what these two sects 

 differ. It is. that the Socinians deny the pre-existence of 

 Christ, and only look upon him as a man, though they re- 

 vere in him the Saviour of the world; and they acknow- 

 ledge that the Divinity was united to him, in order to effect 

 this great work. This subtle, shade between two heresies, 

 for thirty years occupied that head which was required for 

 the most important questions of science, and, without com- 

 parison, caused Priestley to write more volumes than he 



ever produced on the different species of air His last 



moments were full of those feelings of piety which had ani- 



