Holy Writ; and to give ease and security, in Christian faith, to all piously and honestly disposed minds.

How far that object has been prosecuted in a becoming manner, or has been effectually attained, it is for the reader to decide; but, whatever may be the public decision on this point, it will ever be a source of happiness to the author to feel that he has given expression to his opinions candidly, and, to the best of his power, clearly.

EVERTON, LIVERPOOL,

March 28, 1856.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

IN offering to the public a new edition of this work, the author takes occasion to make a very few remarks for which he requests an indulgent consideration.

Many friendly and most esteemed readers have regretted that the latter or constructive portion of the work had not been placed first, so that it might have shown the Essayist's true and positive faith before his assault was made on the prevalent superstitions regarding the Bible. To the kindness which has been intended by the expression of such regrets, the author attaches a high value: but he is still convinced that the order which he originally adopted is the true and inevitable one; for, with reference to men's reverence for the Bible, as in all other cases of rebuilding, the old ruin must be removed before it can be possible to rear the new edifice. Besides, if a reader had not patience to peruse the whole and compare the parts of a book on such a subject as Inspiration, there would, assuredly, be little hope of allaying his prejudices by any candid course that might be adopted. On these considerations, the general plan of this second edition stands as it did in the first; and for the entire volume, as made up of several parts, the reader's patient investigation is requested.

To the many Reviewers, who have criticised and commended or condemned his work, the author's acknowledgments are due, and they are cordially rendered. Wherever

a suggestion has been made, by friend or foe, which seemed to have any weight in it, he has gladly availed himself of its instruction.

One not unfriendly Reviewer has blamed the Essayist for having failed to acknowledge that the champions of Unitarianism had been his pioneers and precursors in the attempt to demolish the notion of Inspirational Infallibility. The Essayist can only reply, that he is not altogether unacquainted with the published writings of Priestley, Channing, Martineau, and other leaders of the Unitarian body; and that he was, and still is, wholly ignorant that a severance between Inspiration and Infallibility had ever been attempted by those writers, or by any others of their school. Had he known them to have made such a distinction, he would most frankly have pointed it out, and have owned that, on the Doctrine of Inspiration, as undoubtedly on some other subjects, the Unitarians are entitled to the credit of having been leaders of enquiry in modern Christendom.

The author will always remember with heartfelt satisfaction the manner in which he has been assisted and encouraged, since the appearance of the first edition, by many of his friends, as well as by not a few of the clergy and laity, previously unknown to him, whose courageous sympathy has been awakened by his candid avowal of opinions, and by the obloquy with which that candid avowal has been assailed. He is far, indeed, from wishing to pledge any one to an entire assent and consent to all things contained in this volume; but it is to him a source of unfeigned gratification to know that he has the general approbation of many who are the chief hope of reasonable religion and intelligent theology within the communion of the Established Church; and, among them, of such men as the

Reverend Professor Jowett, the Reverend Professor Baden Powell, the Reverend Rowland Williams, Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and the Reverend Henry Bristow Wilson, late Fellow and Tutor of St. John's College, Oxford.

The sympathy of men like these, and the testimony of a good conscience, may well enable the author to endure the opposition of the impatient, the prejudiced, and the illinformed. It only remains for him, in these few prefatory remarks, to tender his best thanks to the public for the readiness with which the whole of the first edition has been bought up in less than six months. Perhaps, his best mode of showing that he appreciates this favour is that which he has adopted, in carefully revising and correcting the work, so as to make it more worthy of popular estimation; and in publishing it in a type no less legible than before, while the form of the volume has been so far changed as to admit of its being sold at a greatly reduced price. is hoped that the book will thus be placed within the reach of a much larger circle of readers, and that its opinions will be proportionably disseminated.

EVERTON, October 8, 1856.

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