in a tract that he printed in 1835, and it had circulated extensively in that form amongst the Brethren for nearly twelve years without challenge.[1] Moreover, as for the “two tracts,” Bellett, who was not merely one of the best, but also one of the ablest men in the whole community, “acknowledged that he saw nothing wrong in them till it was pointed out to him”; and “subsequently, when the Letter on Subjects Connected with the Lord’s Humanity appeared… he expressed his approbation of it, and wrote a letter signifying his satisfaction with it”. Nor was Bellett alone in “his slowness in this respect”.[2] Indeed Darby must have had a share in this slowness, for Newton had evidently taught the worst of his doctrines with no thought of disguise; and yet freely (and, it must be added, malevolently) as all Newton’s doings and sayings had long been canvassed, heterodoxy in fundamental points was never attributed to him until an unauthorised, and apparently highly exaggerated report of one of his lectures came into Harris’s hands. Nor had Darby’s own expressions been felicitous, to say the least. One of Newton’s adherents, who, under the pseudonym of Vindex, wrote a vigorous and caustic pamphlet against Darby and his party, mentions a curious misunderstanding that arose out of a footnote in the earlier of the “two tracts”. Newton had quoted
- ↑ An effort was made to dispute this fact, which however was fully established in the end. Darby had apparently not met with the tract.
- ↑ The quotations are from The Basis of Peace, issued in 1871 by a Brother (Mr. Bewley) styling himself Philadelphos. The tract is an Irenicum addressed by an “Open” Brother, who had once been “Exclusive,” to his former associates. He had passed through the great crisis of 1848, and had written against “Bethesda” on the occasion of the disruption recorded in my next chapter. After changing his party he made diligent efforts to extenuate the differences between the two. He was thus a particularly well-informed writer.
