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PREFACE..

THE

HE Reader will eafily obferve that the following Letters, by the late Mr. Fletcher, are almolt all unfinished, and that they are here presented to the Public in a very imperfect State. It is much to be regretted, efpecially that the last of them is fo incomplete, as only two of the Epiftles of St. Paul have been confidered, and very many Paffages of great Importance upon this Subject, and fuch as afford incontestable Proof our Lord's Divinity, are to be found in those that remain untouched. It is true, many of these Paffages have been introduced in the former Part of this Work, publifhed laft Year, and haye been there improved, in fome measure, in Defence of that important Doctrine; yet ftill, as this was done by an inferiour Hand, and not by the mafterly Pen of Mr. Fletcher, and done too in the dry, didactic, Form of a Treatife, and not in the free, familiar, and more agreeable Method of epiftolary Writing,the Friends of our Lord's Divinity cannot but confider it as a Lofs to the Church of Chrift, and therefore as an afflictive Providence, that this able and pleafing Writer was not spared to go through with the Epiftles of the Great Apoffle of the Gentiles, and, by putting the A 2 finishing

finishing Hand to these interesting Letters, fully to refcue him as he has done the other Apoftlés out of the murderous Hands of those who fo miferably mangle his Writings, and ftab his Character.

St. Paul has for many Ages been looked up to with Refpect, as an Apoffle, as a Chriftian, as a Scholar, and as a man of Genius and Parts. But this new Socinian Doctrine, ftill more adventurous than the old, dares to ftrip him of his Honour in all thefe Refpects. It degrades him as an Apofte, for it denies that he wrote by Infpiration; as a Chriftian, for it makes him an Idolater, and an Encourager of Idolatry; as a Scholar, for it affirms he Reafons inconclufively; and as a Man of Genius and Parts, for if it is to be credited, he had not even Common Senje, or, at least did not write as if he had.

This laft particular, which, as far as I know, has not yet been touched upon in the prefent Controverfy between Dr. Prieflley and his Anta-gonifts, I have attempted to fet in a clear Point of View in fome Letters which I have annexed to thefe of Mr. Fletcher. I have thought, that in doing this, fhould, perhaps, render a more effential Service to the Caufe of Truth, than if, endeavouring to follow Mr. Fletcher's Plan, and profecute the Subject in his Method, I fhould make fuch Additions to his Letters as would be neceffary to render them in fome tolerable degree complete. Indeed I had two Reafons for declining this. The firft was, that the former Part, already published, being enlarged beyond what Mr. Fletcher had intended, had in fome Measure precluded the Neceflity of this fecond Part. For

inflead.

inftead of being, as he plainly meant it, merely a Rational Vindication of the Catholic Faith, refpecting the Trinity and the Divinity of our Lord, it now affumes another Form, and rather appears as a Scriptural Vindication of these Doctrines. The other was, I knew my Inability to treat the Subject in his masterly Manner, and that at beft it would feem a very heterogeneous Compofition. I concluded therefore to let these Letters go abroad in their unfinished State, as the imperfect and pofthumous Works of a great and good Man, who hardly ever dropt a Word from his Lips, or a Sentence from his Pen, but what was, one Way or other, calculated to do Good.

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What Dr. Prieflley will think of these un. finifhed Letters, fhould he condefcend to caft his Eye over them, is easy to see, after the Judgment he has paffed upon the deservedly celebrated Writings of Dr. Horfely, now Lord Bishop of St. David's. "We confider, (fays he, Page 1, of his laft Letters to his Lordship) your Publications in this Controversy, "contributing, in an eminent Manner, to the Propagation of that. great Truth, for which we think it glorious to contend, and which you oppofe." And again, P. 2, "Had I been permitted to chufe my own Antagonist, by expofing of whofe Arguments and Manner "of conducting the Controverfy, I might avail 66 myself the moft, I fhould certainly have made, " Choice of your Lordfhip. After feeing your "firft Set of Letters to me, I faid to feveral ་ of my Friends, that if I could have dictated "the Whole of your Performance myself, it "fhould

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"fhould have been just what I found it to be; your Arguments were fo extremely futile; "and your Manner of arging them giving me even more Advantage than I wanted or wifhed "for." If even the Arguments of Dr. Horfely,

the Force of which has been felt and acknowledged fo univerfally, have made no Impression upon the Mind of the Doctor, what can be expected from thefe confeffedly inferiour Publications? Surely, fhould he condescend to honour them with his Notice (a Favour, which however is not expected) in one Half-hour he might demonftrate their Futility, and were not the Antagonist of too little Note to afford the Doctor much Honour in the Conqueft, we might again hear him proclaiming his Victory in Terms fimilar to thofe he ufes when (P. 4) he affures his Lordfhip in great Triumph, that he (the "Bishop) has been completely foiled in all his "Attempts to discover any Error (in the Doctor's

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Writings) of the leaft Confequence to his "main Argument." And many, no Doubt, would take the Doctor's Word for it, and fave themselves the Expence of purchafing and Trouble of reading a Book, the Author of which had been fo "completely foiled," in the Whole of his Argumentation. It will remain a Truth, however, when Dr. Priestley and his Publications are no more, that not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth.

As to the Scriptures, Arguments drawn from that Source, can have but little Weight with the Doctor. "You think it extraordinary (fays

he to the Rev. James Barnard, P. 83) that I

"fhould.

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