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press contradiction to all this, the ingredients of his antidote, which is to preclude all future controversies, to determine the question for ever on the Arian side, and (as its very name implies) to expel the poison of orthodoxy, are nothing more than a quotation from Justin Martyr*, and another from the Gentleman's Religion+; the former a very obscure metaphysical comment, the latter a groundless and unsupported assertion. If we had not ocular demonstration for this, it would seem altogether incredible, that the same author who has rejected all human comments, and set at nought all the councils in Christendom, should think himself secure under the shelter of that very authority, nay, under a small and insignificant portion of it, the whole of which he has made it his business to vilify and contemn. Had he been more consistent with himself, and proposed his quotation from Justin Martyr with the sobriety that might have been expected, I should then have attempted to shew, that it contains the indivisible union of the Son with the substance of the Father; though blended, as I freely confess, with some perplexed and metaphysical reasonings, more reconcileable to the principles of Plato, than to those of the Holy Scripture. However, as he has introduced it in such a manner as to render it repugnant to his own principles, and therefore incapable of doing his cause the least service (be the doctrine of it this or that) I shall not try to give the reader any edification or amusement by a critical discussion of a very long passage, unlikely to afford either.

But I must not throw his book aside, without giving some short account of his language; I mean, of his candour, humility, and charity; which virtues are as much disregarded in the Defence, (if that be possible) as they are recommended in the Essay.

The gentlemen who have advised the Reverend author of the Essay to resign his preferment; that is, in effect, to appease his conscience, retract his subscription, and cease to disturb the peace of the church with his own private scruples; he upbraids with a spirit of persecution and ignorance§: which is not more unkind than it is untrue and injudicious. For,

*Page 54 to 78. † Page 79 to 82. ↑ Page 29.

§ Page 52.

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on the contrary, those restless and discontented men, who have railed against the doctrines and authority of the church as an intolerable burden, and have undertaken to supplant its truth by a surreptitious introduction of their own errors, (whatever specious appearances of candour and moderation they might at first assume in proposing them) have in fact, when affairs have taken an unhappy turn, themselves proved the most lawless persecutors and merciless oppressors of all civil and religious liberty and I leave it to be considered, whether the spirit which has discovered itself in this Defence, were it permitted to have its full play, would not treat all its opponents with as little mercy as they did. Besides, how inconsistent is it, first to tell us that our doctrines and subscriptions are such as must drive all men of sense and honesty (such as the author is) out of the church* ;" and then, when we ground a slight admonition upon his own principle, to turn short upon us with the stale pretences of popery! persecution! St. Dominic! Bishop Bonner! fire! faggot, &c.t!

Dean Swift he calls a Goliath of Gath, sent out (by the republication of his sermon in Ireland) to defy the armies of the living God; and thinks he has flung a few round pebbles of arguments so directly in his face, as to make him lie prostrate upon the ground. Which unnatural application of the Scripture-history gives us a taste of his vanity; and shews, that in his opinion the Arians are the elect people of God, the true Israelites, whilst all the opposers of their doctrine (which I hope includes every good christian in the nation) are uncircumcised Philistines, infidels, idolaters, and in professed rebellion against the living God.

The orthodox Clergy in general, he reviles as a set of cloudy, bigotted, indolent men, who, if they can but preserve their subscriptions and good livings, care not what becomes of Christianity §; because they have not wrote an answer (or had not at least when his book was published) to the late Lord Bolingbroke's objections; and unless he has written one himself, it is unfair to make this a pretence for insulting them.

* Page 52. + Ibid.

Page 21 and 53. § Page 52, 53.

The learned gentlemen that have appeared in print against the Essay, he calls, collectors of cavils*, orthodox gentry, men that neither understand the dispute, nor any thing elset, their own trumpeters §, minor scribblers ||, animals ¶, buzzing insects**, hard heads++, &c. &c. charges the grave and learned Dr. Stebbing with wilful nonsense, the whole church with blasphemy‡‡ then wipes his mouth, and humbly desires that if any body should undertake to answer the Essay on Spirit, they will do it with-Christian candour and moderation §§ !

From this view of things, we cannot but conceive a proper opinion both of the talents and the spirit of this author; whom, in truth, it has given me much less pleasure to expose, than concern that there was occasion for it. And now, if this Defence was written by the author of the Essay, what an amazing change of character is here! In the Essay it is-Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto .-That principle which directs us to use all men well, can never vindicateus in using any man ill¶¶.-And again-were it not that experience convinces us of the matter of fact, it would be HARD TO BELIEVE that men's passions could carry them to that degree of animosity against each other, on account of opinions BARELY SPECULATIVE (such as the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity is supposed to be, and upon which the dispute has turned in this Defence) which we find practised in all countries, and almost in all ages***. There the ruling principle is an universal love and affection, making charitable allowances for every sect of men in the world; extending even to Heretics, Infidels, Jews, and Mahometans; and lavishly dispensing, as from the papal chair, its indulgences to every error under heaven. But here (in the Defence) a very different passion is predominant; so far from making allowances in favour of error, that it cannot bear even the least degree of opposition from the sincere advocates of the truth; but vents itself in wilful forgeries, contempt, calumny, and all the overflowings of an enraged malevolence. The Essay and the Defence of it

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being generally allowed to have come from the same hand, the indecent heat and obloquy of this latter piece will oblige us to understand all the candid expressions in the former work as things uttered under a mask, and against the course of nature. Where the mind is misled, the spirit is very apt to be embittered and true charity is the fruit only of true religion. Whence it comes to pass, that if gentleness and moderation are affected by the disturbers of our peace to serve a turn, they are pretty sure to appear in their proper character as soon as they are contradicted. When the wolf assumes the person of the sheep, the likeness is found only in the skin; the voice, and the teeth, and the claws, are just as different as they were before; and if the animal is suspected, and forced upon a scuffle in his own defence, the cloathing is of no farther service.

However this may be, it plainly appears, that the favourers of Arianism are not always candid and charitable: therefore I must beg leave to observe, that if any learned gentleman, who is of their opinion, should think so inconsiderable a writer as I am worth his notice, and fairly propose his objections to any part of the following work with sense and argument, I shall be ready, with God's leave, to give him satisfaction to the best of my abilities, and with seriousness and moderation. But if any writer should unfortunately fix upon the same plan with the author of this Defence, and persuade himself that he can invalidate my arguments by setting me down for an animal, a buzzing insect, or an hard head, I can easily forgive him, but must be excused from making any reply.

When the first edition of this answer was published, it was heavily threatened, and I was assured that some sufficient hand would undertake to write against it; but nothing appeared, except some flourishes of the Bear-garden in a Monthly Review, the production of a set of writers, with whose principles, designs, and calumnies, the public is now so well acquainted, that they will never think the worse of any Christian, because he is reviled and outraged in their publications.

If some may have been prevented either from reading

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or approving this work, or any other I have published, by the illiberal railings of Reviews and News Papers, the time may come when they will be undeceived: and if not, I have met with so much friendship and favour from men of genius, men of the best learning, and highest station, that I am already more than recompensed for all the detractions of infidelity, envy, ignorance, or uncharitableness.

The Defence of the Essay on Spirit, of which I have now been giving an account, is so empty of wit and argument, and withal so domineering in its manner and expression, that the reader may perhaps be discouraged from going through the following sheets, and think it scarcely worth his while to see the book itself confuted. Therefore I beg leave to assure him, that many articles of great importance are brought into consideration, to which I endeavoured to do as much justice as I was able; and there is among the rest a subject of great curiosity, the Trinity of the Heathens, which I have here opened as to its meaning, and illustrated it from prophane authors in a manner not to be met with in any other publication that I know of.

This answer was written at a time when I could not possibly have gone through it, under the disadvantage of my situation upon a country curacy, unless I had been favoured with the use of a well furnished library, belonging to my principal, Sir John Dolben, to whom the first edition was dedicated; a gentleman, whose memory I shall always regard with honour and gratitude, for the benevolence of his nature, his learning, and accomplishments, and above the rest, his piety and charity: all of which were once so well known, and are now so well remembered, that it is not necessary for me to enlarge upon them in this place.

When a man ventures to become an author early in life, it is very possible that his zeal, on some occasions, should be greater than his experience: and this consideration will, I hope, be of some weight with those who are friends to the church, and are more than pretenders to learning, not to be extreme in remarking the imperfections of the following treatise; some of which this latter impression has given me an opportunity of removing.

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