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both are to be commended for their fairness and good temper , and for the candour they discovered in their style of writing * The amiable disposition , and valuable endowments of Dr . * Watts , are too well known to need any eulogy ; and it is pleasing to find him doing : justice to similar qualities in his opponent . The Doctor did not publish any direct reply to Mr . Tomkins work * but in some of his
subsequent publications he takes occasion to animadvert upon particular parts of it . In the Preface t <* " The Arian invited to the Orthodox Faith , * Dr . Watts speaks in the following handsome manner of his opponent , whom he styles *• a considerable writer . " He says , " I acknowledge my obligations to the author for the terms of
decency and respect , and the language of friendship with which he treats me , both in the Preface and in the greatest part of his book . I receive them as the unmerited civilities of a courteous
stranger : and had I the happiness of knowing his name , perhaps £ should find just occasion to make an equal return . But while 1 am permitted to learn his character no otherwise but
from his writing , I can only treat my unknown friend with all that esteem which his writing deserves . For , I must confess , how superior soever
others may appear in learning and argument , yet I am not willing any writer should exceed me in the practices of a Christian temper . " The Doctor further observes , " In general , I must own , he has written with a
degree of impartiality and fairness beyond what is usual in such controversies ; and if ever he has mistaken my sense , I persuade myself that it was not done with design , because ,
except the places mentioned , there is a general appearance of justice and candour running through his arguments . " The following passage is no less creditable to Dr . Watts * s
candour , than to the critical sagacity of Mr . Tomkins : " I own the light I have received from this author , in the different turn he hath given to some few of those Scriptures which I had brought as proofs of my doctrine ,
which I must acknowledge carries stt £ h a degree of probability , as to weaken the force of my arguments diirivfcd from them ; such as John iii . lS , £ efch . xi . I « , 13 , and perhaps one
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or two more ; for I would not willingly pervert one text of Scripture from its native and sacred sense , to support any article of my faith . ** In the Preface to " Dissertations relating to the Christian Doctrine of the Trinity , " published in 17 $ 5 , and which is a continuation of the foregoing work , Dr . Watts acknowledges the obligations he received from our author in settling his faith upon the
subject . He says , ** Though I was not a stranger to the various human explications , when I wrote that treatise , ( alluding to the ' Christian Doctrine" &c ., ) yet I confess with freedom , I was not at that time engaged in any
one particular scheme . 1 thought the general doctrine of Scripture was plain and evident , but as to the modus of it I was much in doubt : and upon that account I must acknowledge this benefit which I have received from
the author of the * Sober Appeal to a Turk or an Indian / which was written in answer to my book , viz . that by the arguments which he uses , he has almost precluded in my opinion some of those schemes of explication , and inclined my thoughts towards one particular mode of
accounting for this difficult doctrine , which I have in a great measure exhibited in the following discourses . " Dr . Watts pursued the subject under discussion in some subsequent publications ; and in 1748 , Mr . Tomkins published a second edition of his work , to which he added . 1 st . Remarks on Dr . Watts ' s
Three Citations relating to the Doctrine of the Trinity , published in 1734 . —2 d . A Sober Appeal to all that have read the New Testament , whether the reputed Orthodox are not more Chargeable with Preaching
a new Gospel than reputed Arians ?—3 . A Reply to Dr . Waterland ' * Animadversions upon some Passages in the Sober Appeal . Mr . Tomkins did not prefix his name to this work in either of the editions .
In 1732 , Mr . Tomkins published , also without his name , a tract , entitled " Jesus Christ the Mediator between God and Man ; an Advocate fof u « Vpith the TFather , a , nd a Propitiation for the Sins of the World . " The late
Bishop Wajtson speaking of this work says , «« Ttys is a y ^ ry sensible performance , in whiphi the Author ; ^ r deavoura to establish the literal »?* $$
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656 ' Some Account of the Ren * Martin Tomkins .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1819, page 656, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1778/page/4/
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