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    and often on this object should their regards be fixed and dwell . Jesus had formed a plan to which none of the sages of antiquity had ever been able to rise ; the plan of a divine kingdom embracing and making happy the whole race of man ; a plan , by which he has become

    the greatest benefactor of our species . No ; never enough can Christians consider how much they owe to Jesus and his doctrine ; what a fountain of light and knowledge , of comfort and hope , is thereby opened to them ; from what destructive errors and prejudices , from what base and degrading superstition , it has for ever delivered us !'

    ** These , then , are the passages which may be presumed to be the worst that A . could select out of the list which M . Bost had furnished in his French translation . I can find nothing resembling the sentence which he puts as his last citation . From these and others , it is sufficiently apparent that Dr . H . is

    awfully far from the acknowledgment of the great and peculiar glories of the Gospel . He plainly intimates his coincidence with the sentiment of Lardner and Farmer , on the case of the dsemoniacs . He appears to understand our Lord ' s declaration in Matt , xviii . 3 , in a sense inconsistent with the doctrine of

    the universal depravity of mankind . He adopts the Arminian interpretation of Rom . vii . 8—24 . On the subject of the Atonement , he has the following passage ;— 'A sacrifice of everlasting value , which the grace of God ensures to us , which awakens in the heart joyful

    confidence in him , which banishes all anxious fear from the mind , has been effected by the bloody propitiatory death of Christ . Thus this view of the death of Jesus is infinitely important and beneficial in its practical application and effects . '

    " [ K ] I have no where found such a denial ; yet it is pretty evident that he does not hold inspiration in the sense and to the extent that A . would require . But it is manifest that he maintains the genuineness and authority of the Bible as containing a real and supernatural revelation from God .

    " [ L ] T cannot find any such indication , but every thing the contrary . " [ M ] The extracts given will answer these queries . I can find nothing like the last allegation , but much quite opposite to it . "Thislong investigation has supplied , I conceive , sufficient evidence of all that I have asserted $ namely , that Dr . Haffner is , unhappily , far from the reception of

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    the genuine evangelical doctrines ; ftfH that it is most absurd , unjust , and untrue , to call him an Infidel . " Undoubtedly A . would have been competent to form a judgment upon the character of this Preface , if he had read it in any fair translation . But it appears very

    evident , under these reluctant concessions , that he has not read or even seen the whole composition in any form ; and that all his knowledge of it is derived from M . Bost's little paper of translated extracts , which I have seen , and which I again charge with being most unjustly mutilated , as well as injured by being torn from the connexion . There is no

    inconsistency in my having vindicated M . Bost , as I did also Mr . Haldane , from the aspersions of a Genevese Professor ; and that I now vindicate a Strasburgh Professor from very injurious misrepresentations . It is the bounder * duty of a Christian ' to do good , ' and surely , therefore , to render common justice * unto all men , ' friends or foes ; bufc above all , when the cause of the Gospel is dishonoured by the unjust conduct of its friends towards those whom we are

    compelled to regard as inimical to that Gospel in its completeness and purity .

    Mr . Haldane's Second Reply , " Before many weeks have elapsed , your readers will probably have an opportunity of seeing Dr . Haffner ' s Preface in English , and judging how far it deserves the encomium which Dr . Smith bestowed upon it , when he designated it as ' a valuable and interesting document . * They will then have an opportunity also ,

    of judging whether the respected Doctor has satisfactorily answered any one of the questions I have ventured to submit to him , touching the irreligious character of the Preface . I will only further remark on this head , that Dr . Smith totally misrepresents me , when he asserts that ' all my knowledge of it ( the Preface ) is derived from M . Bost ' s little paper of translated extracts . '

    ****** " In reference to my quotation from Mr . Rose , I beg further to remark t that I only extracted a few sentences which might give the reader an idea of what , after the most liberal allowances for diversity of sentiment , are the heresies of the Rationalists of Germany . I have not at this moment my copy of Mr . Rose ' s book at hand , or I believe I could convince Dr . Smith that the sentence which

    he complains of as being omitted , applies not to the Rationalists , but to the Antisuper naturalists . At all events I cau .

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    132 Intelligence , — German Rationalists .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1827, page 132, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1793/page/52/