Theophilus Lindsey, London, to Mary Scott, Milborne Port, [Tuesday] 4 November 1783.

Micah. v. 2. It is Almighty God who speaks, to whom all his works are known from the beginning; and he declares that the Messiah was to be born at Bethlehem, Jesus the son of Mary, whom he had destined for that office. Calvin saw no preexistence of Christ here, but interprets it of "The Goings forth of the Lord Jesus Christ having been decreed from the days of eternity".

I have always been satisfied with the following explanation by Dr Clarke of "John xii. 41. These things said Isaiah, when he saw his glory, and spake of him. The true meaning is, when Isaiah (ch. vi. 1) saw the glory of God the Father revealing to him the coming of Christ, he then saw the glory of him who was to come in the glory of his Father, Matth. xvi. 27.

"Isaiah, in beholding the glory of God, and in receiving from him a revelation of the coming of Christ, saw (that is, foresaw) the glory of Christ, just as Abraham, ch. viii. 56 saw (that is foresaw) his day and was glad".

  Dr Madam,

I shall be glad if the above[1] give any satisfaction with respect to your two queries, and shall always be happy to communicate the least degree of it to so fair and inquiring a mind. With respect to the comparative superior effects of the preachings of Calvinists and Methodists above those of rational Teachers of the gospel, I much question the fact. We are not judges of all the effects produced in both cases. Those may be more real and extensive which do not strike the imagination so much as the change made in a drunkard and vicious character. Our Saviour himself does not seem to have seen any great effect from his own preaching. We should not therefore be disturbed with any things of this sort, but be satisfied that all is as it should be when the truth is laid before people, whether the fruits be answerable to expectation or not. These must be left to the heavenly Father, the Lord of the harvest.

I hope it will please his kind providence to restore you to the enjoyment of perfect health: but shd the fatherly discipline be longer continued, you know the hand from which it comes, and how to improve it. Your good brother is most intent upon his medical pursuits, so that they leave him no vacant moments at all. I hope the application will not be prejudicial to him, and was glad to see him look so well the other day in the midst of it when he called upon us.

I am sorry to be constrained to be short at this time, your brother being to be here to morrow morning for this letter to you, and I not having found leisure to write it till a few minutes ago, since he told me of the opportunity of sending it to you. I hope and have no doubt but your happiness will continually increase in the friendship of such a brother, so seriously disposed, and bent upon the best things, and so diligent and industrious. 

At all times any little services of mine are at your command: for I am wh a sincere esteem

               very sincerely Your's,

                           T. Lindsey

  London. Novr. 4. 1783 

Text: Scott Collection, London. Address: For / Miss Scott / Milborne Port / Somerset.  See also Isabella Scott and Catherine Scott, ed. A Family Biography 1662 to 1908 (London: James Nesbet & Co., 1908),  pp. 79-80; and Timothy Whelan, ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, vol. 4, pp. 278-79. Reference above is to Dr. Samuel Clarke (1674-1729), Anglican clergyman and author of the controversial work, Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity (1712), in which he was accused of promoting Arianism.