fidence in the first editors of the Greek text of the New Testament, and in the fact, that the Verse was extant in the MSS. from which the Greek Testament was edited ;-a confidence confirmed by the internal evidence of the passages, and by the inextricable difficulties and mysticisms attending the construction and interpretation of the eighth verse in the absence of the seventh, which must always be felt, and is sometimes acknowledged.*

I have always thought that the writings of Dr. Clarke have had more than their due influence in promoting opinions differing from the generally-received doctrine of the Christian Church, which is the subject of the following Letter. I have, therefore, in the Postscript to it, and in the Appendix, taken some pains to show the failure of his final conclusions from the premises of the two main

* "I am far from satisfied" (says a learned opponent of the seventh Verse)" that I have given the right interpretation of this difficult passage," the eighth Verse. (Dr. Shuttleworth ad loc.)

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EPISTOLARY PREFACE.

parts of his Work on the Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity, as well as of his objection to the controverted Verse of St. John.

Dr. Clarke's objections to this Verse, though confined to very narrow limits, comprehend the main substance of the opposition which has been made to it in relation to MSS., to the Fathers, and ancient Versions. I have, therefore, in the Appendix, adopted Dr. Clarke's Note, and Mr. Gibbon's in another Tract, as compendiums of the controversy, for the convenience of readers not initiated in the Inquiry. An answer to Dr. Clarke, or to Mr. Gibbon, is, in truth, an answer to Michaelis and to Griesbach, and therefore to Mr. Porson's Letters, when divested of their wit, and ridicule, and other extraneous and distracting

ornaments.

I am, MADAM,

With very sincere respect,

Your faithful Servant,

T. SARUM.

ΤΟ

MRS. JOANNA BAILLIE.

MADAM,

THE value of every religious doctrine depends on its accordance with the revealed Word of God; and for the belief of such doctrine, a Christian's only concern is to determine, as far as he can by himself, or by the aid of others, whether it be a part of the written Word of God, or not: a principle which is acknowledged by your own candid appeal to the authority of the Scriptures. The Scriptures, therefore, are the standard, to which alone, in every religious question, an appeal can properly and ultimately be made. For all Scripture is given by inspi"ration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, "for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (2 Tim. iii. 16). And there

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fore the Church of England holds, "that "whatever is not read in Scripture, nor may "be proved thereby, is not to be required "of any man that it should be believed as "an article of faith, or be thought requisite "or necessary to salvation" (Article vi). It teaches, that the doctrine of the Three Creeds (and, therefore, the doctrine of the Trinity, which is professed in one of them) "ought thoroughly to be received and believed, be"cause it may be proved by most certain "warrants of Scripture" (Art. viii.) And it may not unreasonably be supposed, that any doctrine which the Christian world has generally professed, and believed to be true, is read in Scripture, and may be proved thereby. Yet, in all ages of Christianity, there have been dissentients from the general doctrine of the Church, even in points most intimately connected with the first principles of the Christian Faith.

In our present time, while some maintain that the doctrine of the Trinity is the leading and pervading doctrine of the New Testament, others have thought, that a man of plain un

derstanding, previously uninstructed, may read through the whole of the New Testament without being aware of the doctrine. In this late period of Christianity, and in the present advanced state of general knowledge, it may be difficult to find any one so wholly uninstructed in Christian doctrine as the hypothesis requires, and at the same time competent to form an adequate opinion of what he reads. But admitting that there may still be found persons who "have not so much as "heard whether there be any Holy Ghost' (Acts xix. 2), it may not be without its use or interest, even to professed believers, to trace the evidences of the great doctrine in question, progressively through the several books of the New Testament, as they lie in the way of a reader, who, for the first time, enters on the study of the Sacred Volume.

The first event recorded in the New Testament is the birth of the Son of God, which our Inquirer finds in the first chapter of the first Gospel. In the narrative of this event, compared with the same event in St. Luke's Gospel, he finds recorded Three Divine