INTRODUCTION. THE name of an Individual who is far advanced in years, and now known only to a very limited circle of friends, can have no influence with the Christian world in recommending a serious perusal of the following pages. Yet it seems to be proper that the author of such a work should declare himself, and that some apology be offered for its publication:-this shall be briefly done without regard to the charge of egotism. I am a member of the Church of England, because, take it for all in all, I believe it to be the best Church of the present day. I am, however, of William Law's opinion, that the purest Christian Church now existing, is only the vestige of a better thing. Still, it is natural to a person of a serious turn of mind, to wish that he might rightly understand, and entirely believe, every important article of doctrine professed by the Church of which he is a member: it was decidedly the case with me. I had been in the habit of reading the Holy Scriptures the greater part of my life, and I seldom opened the book without meeting some passages which appeared to me to be directly opposed to the doctrine of the Trinity, in the way in which that doctrine is set forth in the Athanasian and Nicene Creeds. This was a cause of grief to me for many years. I eagerly read every book I could meet with, written in defence of these creeds, and most scrupulously shunned the writings of those who controverted them. In the course of my researches, I sometimes met with arguments, managed with such address and ability as made a strong impression on my mind, in favour of the doctrine; but, on my return to the Bible, these impressions were constantly effaced. For one text or expression, from which the doctrine could, in any possible way be inferred, I met with ten, which, in my humble judgment, pointedly and unequivocally denied it. I was at length informed, that the Rev. Mr. Jones, of Nayland, had published a work which set the matter at rest;-that he had incontrovertibly proved the doctrine to be scrip tural. I immediately procured his "Catholic "Doctrine of a Trinity," and read it with attention. It did not appear to me to be by any means satisfactory: I could not but suspect that he had dealt unfairly with the Holy Scriptures. I resolved to take the first convenient opportunity of setting about a minute examination of every text he had quoted, and every argument he had advanced. I foresaw that this would be a laborious task, requiring much time, and, as far as possible, an abstraction from every other pursuit. Many years passed over before I found a fit opportunity for the undertaking: it was not till the winter of 1825, when confined by ill health, that I commenced my task. I considered the matter to be of so much importance to my own peace of mind, that, for more than two years, it was principally, I may almost say exclusively, the subject of my meditations, and the object of my inquiry. I made the Sacred Scriptures my guide, and wholly unassisted (excepting only by the comments of writers deemed orthodox) I laboured through the work. No one can hesitate to give Mr. Jones |