Church are agreeable to Scripture, and consequently that there is no real cause to dissent from them, if under such circumstances, and before such an audience, he cannot make this declaration, without giving offence to those, who are of a different persuasion, the persons so offended must expect something more than the free exercise of their own opinions; they must be unwilling to grant to the Establishment the same toleration of religious sentiment, which they claim and enjoy themselves. These remarks are so obvious, that I should have thought it unnecessary to introduce them, if I had not received a letter containing reproaches for making the declaration in question*. This letter, as appears from the post-mark, was put into the post-office at Cambridge. It was sent on Sept. 15, more than three months after the Lectures were finished, but only three days after the manuscript had been sent to the printingoffice for publication. There are various indications of its being written in a disguised hand. No name is affixed to it: but it appears to have been composed by a person not unacquainted with the subject, though upon the whole it is an incoherent rhapsody. The writer begins with expressing his surprise at the "false assertion," as he calls it, contained in the abovementioned declaration. He then immediately proceeds to correct an error, which in his opinion I had committed on a former occasion, in maintaining that the Articles of our Church When, according to the plan proposed in the second Lecture, the time shall arrive for the description of that branch of Divinity, which relates to the Doctrines of the Bible, it will be examined with all the attention, which the importance of the subject requires. But to enter upon this branch, before those, which precede it, have been fully described, would defeat the very object of that theological order, without which it is impossible to form such a system of Theology, as shall exempt us from the danger of arguing in a circle. Church are not Calvinistic, though " every person, who has read, knows (as he asserts) that the authors of them were Calvinists." But the letter is chiefly distinguished by the spirit of intolerance, which it uniformly breathes, and by the views of the writer, which it too manifestly discovers. In these respects it is so remarkable, that I at first intended to publish it but, as it is too long for insertion in this Preface, I will quote only one sentence. Having previously extolled the present state of religious toleration in France, which I am sure no English dissenter, who had read the Articles organiques des Cultes Protestans in the late French Concordat, would wish to see adopted in this country, he proceeds, with manifest reference to the Church of England, in the following manner, "Antichrist must fall: the late events on the Continent prove, that the blood of the Saints, must be avenged."--From this single sentence a tolerable judgement may be formed, both of the temper, and of the wishes of the writer. It is to be hoped, that there are not many, who with the same sentiments unite equal zeal. The Lectures now published were delivered in the University Church on six successive Saturdays, in the Easter Term. And it is my intention to give the same number in every Easter Term, till the Course is finished. Cambridge, Oct. 14. 1809. 1 CORRECTIONS and ADDITIONS. Page 7. line 23. for added' read 'united.' 9. last line, after Atheism' add a comma. 49. at the end of the paragraph add, "The last edition was published in 1803." 53. line 2. add, "As the first edition of Michaelis's Introduction still appears in catalogues of books, it is necessary to warn the Reader of the material difference between that edition, and the fourth edition of that work, which was translated by the author of these Lectures. The one (namely in the original) consisted of a single octavo, the other consists of two quartos." 76. line 18. for born in' read born at.' |