the Rev. W. Turner , Jun. , MA., Lives of the eminent Unitarians

[149] name, ‘An Essay on the Creation and Fall of Man.’ After referring to tile various modes which have been proposed of interpreting this difficult narrative, he proceeds to comment upon it as a true history to be understood in its literal sense, but apparently without pledging himself to any positive conclusion. On the argument for the Trinity, derived from the expression ‘Let us make man,’ he gives no decided opinion of his own, but contents himself with stating that of ‘many learned Christians,’ who suppose that the style common to princes and great men, who often speak in the plural number, is here ascribed to God. It is rather remarkable that he does not advert to the singular circumstance of there being two distinct accounts of the creation of man, differing materially from each other, and evidently, from the difference of style and other circumstances, not written by the same person. He then proceeds to the account of the fall, as he styles it, in conformity with the received usage; a usage, however, unauthorized by scripture, which nowhere employs the expression, and, in fact, contains no statement in any part of it from which we can fairly infer any degradation, either physical or moral, of Adam's posterity in consequence of his transgression. In speaking of the introduction of the serpent as an agent and speaker in the transaction, he says, ‘it is generally understood that here was the contrivance and agency of Satan.’ But he does not say that he himself either allows or questions this, and goes on, in commenting on the rest of the story, to speak of the serpent only. In his ‘general inferences,’ he expresses himself somewhat more decidedly in