lity. Its value is far beyond that of a merely polemical treatise; and it may be read with almost equal benefit by persons conversant, or not, with the several controversial writings of that period. Its principles and its reasonings are, indeed, just as applicable to many party-writers of the present day, as they were to Episcopius, to Whitby, to Daillé, Le Clerc, or Barbeyrac. Accordingly, this is one of the very few of our author's performances which has hitherto been reprinted in modern times. A new edition of it issued from the Cambridge University press, in the year 1800. In the year 1815, a new edition of his Sermons at the Lady Moyer's Lecture was printed at the Clarendon press at Oxford. These two vo, lumes, together with Dr. Glocester Ridley's Sermons at Lady Moyer's Lectures on the Divinity and Offices of the Holy Ghost, (also reprinted at Oxford in 1802,) may be recommended to all Divinity Students, as forming together a compendium of all that is necessary to establish them in the truth of that fundamental article of our faith, the doctrine of the Trinity. To these the Critical History of the Athanasian Creed may be considered as a valuable supplement. And for such as are desirous of going further into the discussion of these subjects, the three Vindications of our Lord's Divinity will supply irrefragable arguments upon almost every point that has hitherto been contested.

SECTION IV.

INCIDENTAL CONTROVERSIES ARISING OUT OF THE PRE

CEDING.

THAT the account given, in the foregoing section of Dr. W.'s larger works in vindication of the doctrine of the Trinity, might proceed without interruption, no notice has yet been taken of some of his minor productions connected with that subject, which, in point of time, preceded several of the treatises already mentioned. His reputation was, indeed, chiefly established by successfully encountering such opponents as Clarke, Whitby, Sykes, and Jackson; whose united powers were exerted to the utmost, to put him to silence. The inferior antagonists, who occasionally called him forth, are now almost unknown by name or reputation; and are no otherwise deserving of attention, than from the notice our author deemed it expedient to take of their endeavours to disseminate opinions which he had laboured to counteract. Probably, he perceived that some danger was to be apprehended even from the weakest of these attempts, when the public mind had been already so much agitated by persons eminent in station and in learning; and that even if they gained no very extensive circulation, they might locally and individually produce considerable mischief. His short intervals of leisure from weightier undertakings were therefore not unfrequently employed in providing for the less instructed some convenient antidotes against works of this description.

2

Accordingly, in the year 1721, soon after he had published his Case of Arian Subscription, our author committed to the press a short tract, consisting only of a few pages, and entitled, An Answer to some Queries printed at Exon, relating to the Arian Controversy. As there is no prefatory introduction to this short piece, nor any thing in the body of the tract which gives the slightest intimation of its history, some information respecting the circumstances which probably gave rise to it may not be unacceptable.

It is not undeserving of notice, that when controversies of considerable moment have at any time agitated our Established Church, the impulse has frequently extended to the leaders of those who separate from our communion. Thus when Bishop Bull was engaged in dispute with Dr. Tullie, Dr. Barlow, and other eminent Divines, on the subject of justification by faith, similar dissensions took place among the Separatists of that time. In like manner the numerous writings occasioned by Dr. Clarke's Scripture-Doctrine of the Trinity, being circulated among the Dissenters of that period, were debated between them with at least equal asperity. The city of Exeter, in particular, was distinguished by busy and zealous partisans of Arianism, who were encountered by opponents no less zealous in maintaining the Catholic faith. Two eminent Dissenting Teachers in that place, Mr. Joseph Hallet and Mr. James Peirce, with some others of inferior note, gave great offence to their respective congregations, by espousing, first covertly, and then openly, the tenets of the Arians. These tenets soon spread so rapidly, as to give alarm

to the majority of the Dissenting Ministers in that neighbourhood; and created much dissatisfaction and uneasiness. In consequence of these divisions, several Ministers in and near Exeter deemed it expedient to draw up a statement of what had occurred, and to transmit it to some leading Dissenting Teachers in the metropolis, requesting them to confer upon it, and to give their advice as to the best course to be pursued, previous to an assembly being held upon the subject among those at Exeter. The result of these deliberations was, that at a general meeting of the Dissenting Ministers in the western parts of England, at Exeter, in September 1718, the matter was fully discussed; and, after much debate, "it was "agreed to make a declaration of faith, every one "in his own words, viva voce. Several delivered "their confessions entirely in Scripture-terms, with"out declaring their sense and constructions of them. "Others, and those the most, freely declared their "sentiments in their own terms. After which it "was moved, that the general sense of the confessions "there made appeared to amount to this article ;– "That there is but One living and true God, and "that the Father, Word, and Holy Ghost, are "that One God. This, after much struggle, was put "to the vote again, and was carried to be the col"lected sense of a great majority, and accordingly "was entered as a minute i."

In these local dissensions, it is not to be supposed that Dr. Waterland felt any personal interest. But

1 In the Bodleian library at Oxford, there is a large collection of tracts relating to the controversies respecting Arianism at Exeter. Among them are two, which contain a clear and succinct ac

since they had excited much fermentation elsewhere, as well as at Exeter; and means had been used, by the Arian party, to give the greatest possible publicity to their proceedings; it became a matter of importance to counteract the intended mischief. Dr. Waterland, however, took no further part in the dispute, than by publishing the above-mentioned tract, called, An Answer to some Queries printed at Exon. The Dissenters had, indeed, many learned, pious, and able Divines, well qualified to guard their congregations against these innovators, and who proved themselves faithful to their charge. Dr. Edmund Calamy particularly distinguished himself by the publication of an excellent volume of Sermons concerning the Doctrine of the Trinity, preached at Salters' Hall, 1722; in the Preface to which is given a perspicuous account of the opposition made to this doctrine, and of the unhappy differences which had lately arisen among his brethren with reference to the Arian controversy. It is a work of great learning and ability, as well as of candour and moderation; and the author bears hand

count of what had passed: one entitled, A plain and faithful Narrative of the Differences among the Dissenters at Exeter, relating to the Doctrine of the ever-blessed Trinity, so far as gave concern to some London Ministers. Lond. 1719: the other, An Account of the Reasons why many Citizens of Exon have withdrawn from the Ministry of Mr. Joseph Hallet and Mr. James Peirce, being an Answer to Mr. Peirce's State of the Case. Published by or der of the Committee. Lond. 1719. Written by Mr. Josiah Eveleigh, There is also another work which throws considerable light upon these disputes among the Dissenters, entitled, The Grounds of the present Differences among the London Ministers. By John Cumming, M. A. Minister of the Scots-Church in London. 1720.