Page images
PDF
EPUB

I heartily wifh, and with it I bid you farewell, hoping to be a sharer, with you, of the divine favour, in that peaceful and happy ftate which God hath prepared for the virtuous and faithful, in fome other future world. Again, I bid you farewel.

SARUM, February 1, 1746.

THO. CHUBB.

APPEN

APPENDIX.

PART I.

The following POSTSCRIPT, relating to the Author's four differtations lately published, and more particularly to that on the history of Melchizedec, was found among the Author's papers; and tho' poffibly it might not have received it's final review from him, yet, as it was left behind him, the Editor thinks himself obliged to prefent it to the publick.

AR

S the publication of my differtations has given great offence,efpecially to the clergy; and as it has

raised a clamour in the neighbourhood in which I live; fo it has been given forth that

I have loft all my friends thereby. What, lost all my friends? Hard fate indeed! When friendship is held upon fo precarious a tenure, as that by a man's boneft and free publication of his fentiments he forfeits his interest in it; then, furely, fuch friendship is scarce worth maintaining, nor fuch friends worth regarding. However, my readers may be fatisfied I have not loft all my friends; nor does the lofs I have fuftained prove to be any affliction to me. And tho' each of my differtations have been very difagreeable ; yet, I apprehend, that on the biftory of Melchizedec has met with the greatest oppofition; not as being of greater importance, but as more liable to exception. This being the cafe, I beg leave to make a few reflections, which may be relative thereto. And firft, as the following queftion has been often put, fince the publication of my differtations, (which makes it look as if that queftion was thought unanswerable, even tho' it was obviated in my Differtation) viz. what did Melchizedec give tithes of? So I answer, tho', perhaps, more fully, as before, namely, he gave tithes of the bread and wine, and fuch other good things as he brought with him from Salem, to entertain Abraham and

[ocr errors][ocr errors]

his company with, which was the only defign he had in bringing forth those good things; else what were they brought forth, or brought thither for ? And as Abraham was the principal perfon concerned in obtaining the victory over Chedorlaomer and his adherents, and thereby had obtained the greater merit, or to whom the people were more greatly obliged; fo Melchizedec, very properly, first made his compliment to him, and presented him with a tenth part, that is, with a large portion of the good things he had brought forth, or which he had brought with him from Salem for that purpose, in token of his greater or highest regard; like as Jofeph fent to his brother Benjamin a mess five * times as large as any of the meffes he sent to his other brethren, in token of that much greater affection and esteem he had for Benjamin, more than for them. This I call an answer to the aforefaid queftion, which answer I efteem to be proper and pertinent, however it may be run down; not but the aforefaid queftion is obviated in

my

By five times as large, furely, muft be meant, not an exact ftated proportion, as of five to one; but only that a much larger mefs was fent to Benjamin than to either of the others.

my differtation, as I have already observed; but then bow, from that or any thing else contained in my differtations, the Reverend Mr. Fleming (as he informs the world in his title page) has been able to discover that truth and modern deifm are at variance, is out of the reach of my difcernment. Whether it be affirmed or denied that Abraham, or that Melchizedec gave tithes ; or that Efau, or Jacob was the better man; or that Balaam was a good or a bad man; or that deftroying the Canaanites root and branch, and poffeffing their country was well or evil doing: I fay, whether either of these be affirmed or denied, it cannot poffibly set truth and deifm (whether antient or modern) at variance; becaufe deifm, which is the pure and uncorupted religion of reafon and nature, s truth itself, and which being the fame both in former and later times, it therefore

can never be at variance with itself. For tho'traditionary religion and fuperftition may shift and change, and be different at different times and in different places; yet that cannot be the cafe of deifm, which is perpetually and invariably the fame. Men, who stile

them

« PreviousContinue »