xii SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR'S LIFE. 



of Scripture was that which alone accorded with the system of revealed 

 truth, and declared his conviction, " that there was no intermediate ground 

 upon which a sound reasoner could make a fair stand between that of pure 

 Deism, and that of moderate orthodoxy, as held by the evangelical classes 

 both of churchmen and dissenters." 



It is but candid to remind the reader, that this great change of sentiment, 

 followed as it was by a correspondent change of practice, took place when 

 its subject was in the vigour of manhood, and the maturity of his intellectual 

 acquirements. And to exhibit this change, as it was, thorough and radical, 

 notwithstanding it has been insinuated otherwise, the following notes in his 

 Bible are inserted, v/ritten by himself. 



" Hebrews x. 19, 20. The spirit of man is concealed by the veil of the 

 flesh : the spiritual things of the law, the holy of holies, were concealed by 

 the veil of the temple. Christ is the end and sum of the whole ; and as 

 the high-priest entered into the holy of holies by the veil of the temple 

 under the law, so we can only enter into the holiest by ' the blood of Jesus,' 

 by the veil of his flesh, or incarnation, of which the veil of the temple was 

 a striking type. And never did type and antitype more completely har- 

 monize with each other, and prove their relation : for when Christ exclaimed 

 upon the cross, 'It is finished,' and gave up the ghost — when the veil of 

 his flesh was rent, the veil of the temple was rent at the same moment. 

 The former entrance into the holy of holies, which was only temporary and 

 typical, then vanished — and the ' new and living way,' the way everlasting, 

 was then opened ; and what under the old dispensation was only open to 

 the high-priest, and that but once a year, was, from that moment, open to 

 us all, and open for all times and all occasions — a consecrated way, in 

 which we are exhorted to enter with all boldness, in full assurance of faith; 

 having ' our hearts first sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies 

 washed with pure water.' " 



" Genesis ii. 23, 24. Under the figurative language contained in these 

 two verses is a concealed representation of the whole mystery of the gospel 

 — the union of Christ with the church, the glorious bride, that in the fulness 

 of the times he will present to himself, free from spot or wrinkle, holy and 

 without blemish. St. Paul expressly tells us, Eph. v. 30, 31, that this mo- 

 mentous fact is here referred to, and spoken of in veiled or esoteric lan- 

 guage. It is the first reference in the Old Testament — the earliest history 

 of man, therefore, opens with it ; it was the mystery of Paradise — ' the 

 hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto his own glory.' " 



" Genesis iii. 7. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they 

 knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig-leaves," &c. 



" It is so in every age and every part of the world. The moment a man 

 becomes consciously guilty, his eyes are opened to the knowledge of evil ; 

 — he feels himself naked, and seeks a cover or a hiding-place : he is full 

 of shame, and cannot endure to be looked at even by his fellows ; — he 

 endeavours by some flimsy pretext, some apron of fig-leaves, to screen 

 either himself or the deed he has committed from their eyes. But most of 

 all does he feel his nakedness before God, and endeavour to hide from his 

 presence. Happy, indeed, is he, who, with this consciousness of guilt and 

 shame, is able by any means to discern a covering that may conceal the 



