A view of the general tenour of the New Testament regarding the nature and dignity of Jesus Christ : including a collection of the various passages in the Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, and the Epistles which relate to that subject. To which are now added a correspondence with the late Bishop of Salisbury, together with remarks on the pre-existence of Christ, and on toleration and fanaticism

Front matter

PRINCETON, N. J.

•

DONATION OF

Preface To The Second Edition

chief points in his letter, for his own private satis¬ faction, when requested to do so, would have shown a want of the respect due to his character as a scholar and a clergyman, and an insensibility to the courtesy and charitable forbearance with which he had treated what he might naturally have con¬ sidered as a very presumptuous publication. I therefore obeyed him, and stated in a letter of no great length the objections that arose in my mind to his public answer to my tract. He received it in good part, and wrote to me again : thus other communications passed between us that make a continuation of the subject of my little work, and of the “Remarks ” of my learned opponent. This cor¬ respondence cannot, I readily confess, be thoroughly understood but by those who have read His Lord¬ ship’s public letter ; yet as that work has passed through two editions, while the other which gave occasion for it has not, properly speaking, passed through one, I may presume the reader to be ac¬ quainted with it, or at least to have it in his power to become so.

After all these letters had been written and the dates of them become old, a tract, published in 1836, entitled, “ Christian Theology, or the Doctrine of the Trinity and the Ministration of the Holy Spirit, the leading and prevailing doctrine of the New Testament ; addressed to the humblest understand¬ ing as well as to the most enlightened, in a second

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

Vll letter to Mrs. Joanna Baillie,”— appeared. The chief purpose of this public letter is' to confute what I had alleged, — :namely, that a person of plain understand¬ ing, previously uninstructed in the doctrine of the Trinity, might read through the whole of the New Testament without being aware that such a doctrine is taught in it. This work states all the different passages which the author conceives must have en¬ abled an unlearned reader of ordinary capacity, from a diligent perusal of Scripture, to make out the doctrine for himself, and dwells particularly on the famous text of St. John concerning the three witnesses, of the authenticity of which he has no doubt. My last letter is in answer to this, which drew from my candid and liberal opponent a note full of courtesy and kindness ; and thus ended our amicable controversy, in a spirit of Christian cha¬ rity that has too seldom accompanied such differ¬ ences of opinion.

Having then altered my intention, as above men¬ tioned, I wrote not long since to His Lordship, telling him of my proposed second edition of the “ View,” and saying I should be glad to add to it the letters that had passed between us on the sub¬ ject. To this communication I received an imme¬ diate and favourable reply, which 1 beg to subjoin to the others ; and one also received a short time be¬ fore, which, though not connected with the subject in question, I have pleasure, now that he is no

VI 11

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

more, in presenting to the reader, because it shows the amiable feeling and discriminating taste of the writer, at an age when both are often supposed to be blunted. It was occasioned by bis having sent me some printed verses on serious subjects, and my having in return sent to him my lines on the death of Sir Walter Scott, and a manuscript copy of Mrs. Hemans’s beautiful death-bed sonnet. I have plea¬ sure also in doing so, because it contains a just tri¬ bute to our most accomplished poetess, the beauti¬ ful living light of whose genius has been so lately ex¬ tinguished, though its reflected rays will remain with us for ever. I am truly concerned that his letters must nowbe presented to the public as posthumous ; and feel that the late melancholy event that made them so, has deprived myself (though personally unknown to him) of a mild, charitable and liberal opponent, — of a sincere well-wisher and friend.

To the present edition I have added communi¬ cations with an acute and ingenious friend on a sub¬ ject very nearly connected with the “ New Testa¬ ment View,” and naturally arising out of it. I had requested my friend to state to me the chief objections made by the second sect of Unitarians to the supposed pre-existence of our Saviour ; and this being complied with, I endeavoured to answer their objections by pointing out various texts, drawn from the Gospels and Epistles, that appeared to me strongly to support the idea of his pre-existence.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

IX

And I am now glad to have an opportunity of touching upon this subject ; for in my tract I have been thought to condemn their opinions in too sum¬ mary a way, without showing grounds for my dis¬ sent.

Some apology, I feel, ought to be made for the detached reflections inserted at the end ; yet as they are all allied to the main design of the book and are not very long, I trust their being thus produced will be pardoned.

In an Appendix will be found an exposition of texts, similar to those in the main body of the work, from the Revelation of St. John ; and I do so, not because I have altered my opinion regarding the authenticity of that book, but that those readers who do receive it as of good authority may have the satisfaction of seeing in sequence what it actu¬ ally contains relating to the present subject.

And now I must be allowed to say a few words of grateful acknowledgment for the various friendly letters I have received since the publication of the “ New Testament View,” from excellent people who have thought my opinions expressed therein very erroneous, and have anxiously wished to con¬ vince me of my errors, by laying before me the chief arguments made use of by orthodox divines in sup¬ port of their creeds. Supposing me not to be ac¬ quainted with those arguments before, there was good cause indeed why I should no longer be al-

X

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

lowed to remain in ignorance. The diligent pains taken by them for my instruction, I feel very sen¬ sibly as a real Christian kindness, and they have my sincere thanks. I have received also from most benevolent persons, who seemed to think that my salvation was in danger from my errors in belief, letters of friendly warning ; and to them I am par¬ ticularly beholden ; for they did, not in the spirit of dictation, but of real humanity, what was pain¬ ful for themselves to save a soul from destruction. Can any service deserve grateful acknowledgments more than this ?

To the Clergymen of the Established Church — those who have long been my friends and ac¬ quaintances, and whom I hope to retain as such to the end of my days, — I feel myself much indebted. Many of them, firm in the belief of, and zealous for the orthodox doctrine, have not suffered their own prepossessions to stand in the way of kindness to an offender, as they might naturally deem me to be. They have on every occasion, as far as I know, treated me with mild forbearance ; I have received acts of friendship, and favour, and courtesy from some of them, and I do not know one of them all who has in regard to myself departed from that Christian grace so eloquently described by St. Paul. “ Charity suffereth long and is kind,” says the apostle of their Lord, and I feel that they have obeyed his instructions.