‘I do solemnly charge you, in the name of the God of Truth, and of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life, and before whose judgment-seat you must in no long time appear, 1. That in all your studies and inquiries of a religious nature, present or future, you do constantly, carefully, impartially, and conscientiously attend to evidence as it lies in the holy scriptures, or in the nature of things and the dictates of reason; cautiously guarding against the sallies of imagination, and the fallacy of ill-grounded conjecture. 2. That you admit, embrace, or assent to no principle or sentiment by me taught or advanced, but only so far as it shall appear to you to be supported and justified by proper evidence from revelation or the reason of things. 3. That if at any time hereafter any principle or sentiment by me taught or advanced, or by you admitted and embraced, shall, upon impartial and faithful examination, appear to you to be dubious or false, you either suspect or totally reject such principle or sentiment. 4. That you keep your mind always open to evidence; that you labour to banish from your breast all prejudice, prepossession, and party zeal; that you study to live in peace and love with all your fellow Christians, and that you steadily assert for yourself, and freely allow to others, the unalienable rights of judgment and conscience.’ ‘It seems impossible,’ the Editor observes, ‘to adjust the terms between a tutor and his pupils more equitably.’
To the edition of the ‘Scripture Divinity,’
