A Summary View of Professor Simson's Errors; Prov'd against him in the Double Process before the General Assembly; with some Thoughts upon the Whole: In a Letter to a Friend. To which is added, an Answer to the said Letter.

Bookseller Notes

A tract against John Simson (1667-1740), the Scottish 'New Licht' theologian and alleged heretic who was suspended from his post as Professor of Divinity at the University of Glasgow. The cases against him 'formed a watershed in the development of the Church of Scotland in the eighteenth century.' (ODNB).In 1698 Simson had travelled to the Netherlands to receive instruction from Johannes Marck, professor of divinity at Leiden University. 'Enlightened in outlook and familiar with reformed theology on the continent, Simson introduced into the Glasgow divinity school the work of Marck, along with that of the contemporary Genevan theologian Benedict Pictet. He expounded the Westminster confession, noting its differences from other reformed systems and its superiority to them. His students were allowed considerable latitude of argument in making presentations, refuting Christian writers from various denominations, and having group discussions on difficult scriptural passages... Simson's efforts to make such a God conform to late seventeenth-century Scottish Presbyterian orthodoxy led to confrontation with devout zealots shortly after his arrival in Glasgow. The ensuing debates produced a wealth of polemic writing and became entangled with political rivalries' (ODNB). The present work is part of the polemical output which accompanied the cases against Simson. He was never convicted of heresy, which only compounded the vitriol against him.