On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
and I returned home improved in my health , but quite dissatisfied with the manner in whieh my tinae was allowed to slip awayf All this may do very well ; but Irow has the long interval been filled up from your return to the present day ? To shew this , I must
go backwards a little . I have been busily employed for several y ^ ars in elucidating some of the peculiar doctrines , of revelation ; and in giving a view of them , which appeared to me
not only entirely new , but , as far as I can judge , much more rational ' , and , I must add , much more scriptural than any with which I am acquainted . I was engaged with Original Sin at the time when Wardlaw ' s " Unitarianism
Incapable , " &c , fell into my hands . I must state that the doctrine of the Trinity was not included in the plan which I had chalked out for myself . My reason for leaving it out was * not because I did not deem it of the
very fireft importance , but because I despaired of throwing any new light upon the subject , and because the other doctrines which I fondly persuaded myself I could exhibit in a light that would make them perfectly
irresistible , would , in all probability , occupy all that remained of a life not very good at the best , and certainly at that particular period rather precarious . But in reading over Wardlaw , I could not help observing , that all that had been done in defence of the
primary principles of all religion , whether natural or revealed , was so very far from silencing the orthodox , that they only seemed to gather fresh courage from every attack made upon them ; and , half in jest and half in
eaDrnest , I began to fill the margin of his volume with notes as I went along , which might serve as memoranda , if ever I should think of turning my attention to that subject . As the margin soon was crowded , I had recourse
to separate slips of paper , and many of nay notes I wrote more fully out afterwards art by-hours , if you will excuse the expression . At the period of my return from Edinburgh , therefore , I had a large mass of
observations , of explanations of texts and of expositions Of sophism a which were employed by the qrthodox * ull lying hy me . 1 need not add , that iu the course of composition , many Qi * gu «
Untitled Article
ments for the Unity of God , wVitjh I had not met with , many tiew elucida tions of texts , which arc generally brought forward by both parties ^ occurred to me ; and even upon this subject I began to flatter myself that I might do something for the interests
of religion . My papers , however , though valuable to myself , I well knew , could be of no value to any other person , from the detached manner in which they were written ; and as I had then completed Original Sin , I set to the copying and extending and
forming into a whole the- insulated mate * - rials I had by me , and in a short time I got so immersed in the investigation , that I lost sight of every thing' else ; and Wishing , with the greatest enthusiasm , to add one labour more to what
I had done , I brought on myself a return of my former complain ^ which my journey to . Edinburgh had a ; little mitigated , ; and as I have not heea able for many years to sit at my desk
when writing , from a pain act tny breast , I was under the necessity of standing ; and the constant standing about three weeks ago brought on a swelling and inflammation in both my limbs , which has confined me to bed ,
and put a stop to all nay operations . I am , however , getting fast better ; any degree of fever which I had is gone , and I hope in a few days to resume , with more caution , my labours . This , then , is the real stat £ of the
matter . I could not think of writing to you without entering at someilength into the subject of yours . I could not do that without speeding a day or two upon it ; and a day or two , in the way in which I felt my miod , * e $ n $ ed an
age , as it might probably hifrdfcr me from finishing my Essay ; for $ he state of my health is far from being gpod-, and I hoped , » by ^ ljing ' ryeti the truth , and shewing yosu tho qpects- ^ qf t » y silence , to obtain your forgivenf 9 $ i I have now , however , been brought'to a sense of m * y duty * I ; h&ve made a confession of what I otherwise ^ pitkL
perhaps , not have done , arid I wait with some hope of your pardon ??*** . Yoi ^ mus t wtite me soon , notwithstanding my delinquency . I will prove a better child for the time to cflntie . Send me all the ueWs ; not ftbout tr&rie and manufactures , hizt bbout some thing else , -wttiehi is t ff infinitely rmfcre
Untitled Article
^ 36 % etlBT 8 frtm the late Rev . * fame * NicoL
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1822, page 736, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2519/page/16/
-