SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR'S LIFE. 



ix 



gregation, his religious belief 'was in nowise settled ; and by his early fami- 

 liarity with the truth, he was preserved to a great extent from the worst ten- 

 dencies of this system. Hence, says his biographer, " He was too learned 

 and too honest ever to affirm that the belief of the Divinity and atonement of 

 our Lord was unknown in the purest ages of the church, but was engen- 

 dered among other corruptions by false philosophy ; and he had uniformly 

 too great a regard for the scriptures of the New Testament, to assert that 

 the apostles indulged in far-fetched reasoning, or made use of a Greek word 

 (ixovoytvris) which conveyed an erroneous notion, from want of knowledge 

 of the term they ought to have employed : he never contended that St. Paul 

 did not mean to teach the doctrine of the resurrection of the body in the 

 fifteenth chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians ; never sported the 

 pernicious sophism that ' where mystery begins religion ends.' Being 

 * buried alive' in occupations, and immersed in vexations of no ordinary 

 occurrence, he did not commune frequently with his own heart, and too 

 naturally sunk into a lamentable indifference to religion, at least, if that 

 word correctly imply ' converse with God ;' but he never evinced indif- 

 ference to truth and rectitude, nor ever, I believe, became involved in the 

 more awful perplexities of skepticism. 



" Indeed, the Bible was always with him a favourite book ; though for 

 many years, it is to be feared, he turned to it rather as a source of literary 

 amusement, or of critical speculation, than for any higher purposes. After 

 his death there was found an interleaved Pocket Bible, bound in two 

 volumes, in which he often entered notes and observations. This interest- 

 ing relic is now in my possession. The annotations are very numerous, 

 and, by the variations in the handwriting and the appearance of the ink, 

 mark with sufficient accuracy the dates of their insertion, from 1790, when 

 they were commenced, until about 1824, when he found the type in which 

 the Bible is printed too small for him to continue reading it with comfort. 

 These notes present decisive proofs of the nature of his sentiments in dif- 

 ferent periods of his life ; and in some cases mark his solicitude in later 

 age to. correct the errors of the season of speculation and thoughtlessness." 



Although he had become bewildered by adopting erroneous sentiments, 

 yet he never entirely lost his love of truth ; and hence the forced and unna- 

 tural criticisms in which his theological friends indulged, and the skeptical 

 spirit which some of them manifested, by shocking his uprightness, contri- 

 buted to his ultimate emancipation. 



After contending against tlie conflict within him for fourteen years, the 

 preaching at the Socinian chapel at length gave him serious pain ; and lan- 

 guage from the pulpit, which Dr. Good regarded as equivalent to the recom- 

 mendation of skepticism, led to the following correspondence. 



" To THE Reverend . 



« Caroline Place, Jan. 26th^ 1807. 



« Dear Sir, 



" It is with much regret I feel myself compelled to discontinue my 



attendance at the chapel in , and to break off my connexion with 



a society with which I have cordially associated for nearly fourteen years 



*' I sincerely respect your talents, and the indefatigable attention you have 



