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wliich you analyzed the controversy , and , if the grounds on which you proceeded were admitted , the justness of your decision . My object is to shew that this ground is entirely mistaken ; and to open a new path of inquiry which shall inevitably lead to the reestablishment of the verse in the
hearts and conviction of mankind Important and curious as the question of its authenticity is in itself , it has a far higher claim on your attention and that of the public , on account of the consequences it involves . If I prove the genuineness of this text , the orthodox faith , whether established
by power or by prejudice , will receive a shock which shall shatter its very foundations , and bring it at no distant period completely to the ground ; while on the other hand , additional strength and lustre will be given to the evidences of Christianity , as it came from the hands of Christ and
his apostles . This consideration more than mere curiosity , must , if founded on truth , inevitably engage you again in the controversy , and induce you to employ your powerful pen in refuting my views . I then , Sir , summon you
a second time to the field ; and I pray God that you may come in the exercise of that Christian spirit of which you have , given me and others a fine example in your review of this question . Mistake me not : this summons
is an invitation , not a challenge-Whatever confidence I have in my cause , I have none in myself that would warrant me in defying your hostility . I wish you to come forth , not that I might combat you , but that I might enlist under your banners ;
that if in the main I am right , I might receive your assistance—if otherwise , your opposition , to come at a final decision , and through you , give the
nation an opportunity tor know the issue of a discussion which , if taken in all its bearings , is one of the most momentous and interesting that has ever engaged the attention of the Christian world . "
The Unitarians have ever been the most strenuous adversaries of the verse . Mr . Belsham , Dr . Carpenter , Mr . Kenrick and Mr . Fox have done all they can , to fasten on the public mind a conviction of its forgery . These gentlemen will feel it their duty to attend to the new views unfolded in
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these Letters and come forward if convinced of their error publicly to acknowledge it . If they should still continue of the same opinion , let them state their objections , and I engage
either to remove them , or , if I be unable to triumph , candidly to own the validity of their reasonings whenever they have any weight . Truth is our common object , and as I expect courtesy and candour from them , they may depend on the exercise of the same Christian spirit from me .
In discussing the question , my thoughts vvere necessarily directed to Porson ' s Letters against Travis , I felt an instinctive desire to single out this classical champion of England as most
worthy of my lance ; and I flatter myself that in every rencontre , I have brought him , like Goliath by the sling of David , prostrate to the ground Mr . Frend was in habits of intercourse
with him at the time he wrote his celebrated Letters ; and as that gentleman is not unacquainted with the state of tlie controversy , he may think fit to meet me in the Repository , and attempt to justify the views of his late illustrious friend . BEN DAVID .
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Clapton , Sir , August 21 , 1825 . JTHHE original of the annexed part JL of a letter from Dr . Toulmin is
in the very valuable collection of autographs > belonging to Mr . Upcot , of the London Institution , who obligingly permitted me to transcribe it . The date and place vvere , no doubt , at the beginning of the letter , which has been lost , as well as the direction . Dr . Toulmiti resided at Taunton from 1765 to 1804 , when he removed to Birmingham , and the date must have been before 1777 , when he published his Memoirs of Socinus , for which he was , evidently , now collecting materials .
Joy a passage m the letter it appears to have been addressed to Dr . Caider , who died a few years since , and of whom there are some notices in your volume for 1816 ( XI . 345 ) . Of Dr . Jeffries who died in 1784 , I gave an account in your XHIth Volume , Cp-752 , ) taken from Dr . Toulmin ' s Memoir of his friend in the Protestant Dissenters' Magazine ( VI . 3—5 ) . The ' * translation" of " the Life oi
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534 Ben David on his Defence of 1 John v . 7-
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1825, page 534, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2540/page/20/
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