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tial account of his writings should I ) 1 given , with the same freedom of remark as in the other oases . " This is readily granted . But he has ^ orie far beyond what he here pleads for , having brought forward the difficulties which attend the Doctor's hypothesis concerning the'p re-existence of Christ ' s human soul , an I taken occasion to introduce a great deal in favour of the most generally received
opinions in relation to this subject . We allow that he has clearly proved the Doctor ' s idea of Christ ' s pre-existence to be un tenable . But it does not follow that the
Athanasian doctrine is the true one , which this aufhor seems to maintain ; though in some passages he speaks in a-manner inconsistent with it , and manifestly contradicts himself . His ideas , like those of most writers on the samo side , are to the full as inuch confu&cd as he represents those of Dr . Watts to be ; of whom he says , p . 38 , that he " studied the doctrine of the trinity as some Indian devotees are said to have con . ten ? plated . < the sun , till their own sight was darkened / ' How this author has studied the same
doctrine we cannot pretend to say , but if he has more light than Dr . Watts , he has not the most happy method of communicating it , but to us he appears to . . darken counsel by words witkavt knowledge . iC As to the distinction , " he says ,
]) . 43 y between a real , modal , or scriptural trinity , it is too metaphysical for Christianity , which Mas in beaded for the simplest of the common people . ; and 1 believe it would puzzle the most acute philosophers to define a medium
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between real and rnodnl . ' We believe so too . But then we should be glad to km > w what hypothesis the gentleman adopts . In the next page he strongl y objects to the sentiment of the realists ^ and quotes a passage from Dr . Hopkins to prove that i ' by persons in the trinity , we must not understand the same as when we speak of persons among men . " That is to say , they are not real persons . But he all along objects to the notion of modal persons , which is what he censures in Dr . Watts . If then there is
no medium between the one and the other , w ha t is it that this author maintains ? We know of no other scheme but that which denies the trinity altogether , and think that
to be consistent , he should come over to the Unitarians . In one place he says , p . 40 . u How far it may be necessary to adopt any human explication of this divine mystery , I have my doubts . " What room is there for doubt in the case ? If it hv
a divine mystery , the attempt to explain it at all is presumptuous and vain . But to pretend to explain it . by any such human schemes or scholastic phrases , as are themselves inexplicable , is to the last degree absurd . We meet with several things
in this memoir which are worthy of discussion , and as the author appears to bs a man of sense aud candour , such a discussion with a person of the same description , on the opposite side , plight be
advantageous for the discovery of truth . Some few passages occur , even in respect to Dr . Waits'himself , which are not quite cou-
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. 4 32 Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Dr . IVatfs
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1807, page 432, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2383/page/36/
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