APPENDIX "A."
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The Doctrinal Errors of B. W. Newton.
As there appears to be some misapprehension as to the errors in B. W. Newton's teaching, and even attempts at palliation, it seems advisable to give a summary of these false doctrines. Mr. Darby summed up these errors in the following words:-
"Mr. Newton has taught that Christ was, from the position He was in by birth as a man and an Israelite, under the curse of the exiled family, not vicariously on the cross, but in His own relation to God; that He was under the doom of death, under the curse of the law, and had to work His way up to a point where God could meet Him; that He had the experiences which an unconverted elect man, if he felt rightly would have. These are not deductions, but the statements of Mr. Newton himself " (Col. Writings. Vol. 15. Page 182).
Mr. J. E. Batten, who was for a time associated with Mr. Newton at Plymouth, and therefore well acquainted with his views, has also summed them up in the following statement:-
1. That the Lord Jesus at His birth, and because born of a woman, partook of certain consequences of the fall, mortality being one, and, because of this association by nature, He became an heir of death, born under death as a penalty.
2. That the Lord Jesus at His birth stood in such relation to Adam as federal head, that guilt was imputed to Him, and that He was exposed to certain consequences of such imputation — as stated in Romans 5.
3. That the Lord Jesus was also born as a Jew under the broken law, and was regarded by God as standing in that relation to Him: and that God pressed upon His soul the terrors of Sinai as due to one in that relation.
4 That the Lord Jesus took the place of distance from God, which such a person so born and so related must take, and that He had to find His way back to God by some path in which God might at last own and meet Him.
5. That so fearful was the distance. and so real were these relationships by birth and so actual were their attendant penalties of death, wrath. and the curse, that until His deliverance God is said to have rebuked Him, to have chastened Him, and this in anger and hot displeasure.
6. That because of these dealings from God, and Christ's sufferings under them, the language of Lamentations 3 and Psalm 6, Psalm 38, and Psalm 88, etc has been stated to be the utterance of the Lord Jesus while under this heavy pressure from God's hand.
7. That the Lord Jesus extricated Himself from these inflictions by keeping the law; and that at John's baptism the consequent difference in Christ's feelings and experience was so great as to have been illustrated by a comparison of the difference between Mount Sinai and Mount Sion or between law and grace. 8. That beside all these relations which Christ took by birth and their attendant penalties and inflictions, and His sufferings under the heavy hand of God, it has been further stated that He had the experience of an unconverted though elect Jew.
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