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gize to you, that I use this Liberty of writing to you upon that Subject. It is the Part of Friends to deal freely with one another; and especially, when any thing is observed, that allays the pleasant Remembrance of former Conversation.

If I fhould urge you with the Circumstances which the unhappy Notions you have lately entertained are like to bring you into, I could not promise myself that it would have any great Influence upon you: For a generous Mind will not be swayed thereby, contrary to its own Apprehenfions. Leaving then the Confideration of worldly Emoluments, which, tho' they may excite us to Caution and Deliberation, yet ought not to rule us, let me mind you of what I always judged to be your great Aim and Defign, the doing Good in the World: Which, I conceive, will be much prejudiced thereby: And of this we on our Side have had a very melancholy Instance, in a Person of great Accomplishments for Service, but now by fuch Notions become wholly uselefs; [I fuppofe he meantmy great Friend Mr. Tho. Emlyn] And it really grieves me to think, how much People will be prejudiced against your other Writings, and particularly those on the Apocalypfe, by this Means. Bear with the Freedom of a Friend, who loves you as a Brother. It is really amazing to me, that you fhould ever fall in with the Unitarians; I fhould have thought you were most effectually secured against Danger from that Corner, by that one Notion, which you formerly entertained, and which I think Dr. Scot has well established, that the God of Ifrael, of whom so many and great Things are

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spoken in the Old Teftament, is no other than the Xoyos, who afterward became incarnate: I cannot apprehend how an Unitarian can hold this, and it is plain that thofe, who in thefe later Ages have oppofed the Deity of Chrift, have much infifted upon. our producing fuch great Things fpoken of Chrift, as are in the Old Teftament spoken of the God of Ifrael; wherein they have, in my Apprehenfions betrayed their own Weakness. But you, my dear Friend, that have been throughly convinced of that Truth, let me ask you, how have you got off it? Or, how can you make it confift with your prefent Scheme? I understand you lay great Strefs upon the Fathers of the two first Centuries; but why' fhould you leave the fure Rule for a fallible one? I own a Deference due to them; but it seems unreasonable to me, to form our Notions firft from them, and then to ftrain the Scriptures to speak their Senfe. Not that I think they favour your Caufe. I think it a plain End, that, as all the Christian Churches in the World do now, fo they did then worship the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I will mention two Places in Juftin Martyr's Apology, both to the fame Purpofe, but the one clearing the other from the Popish Glofs that would eftablish the worshipping of Angels. In the third Page of his fecond Apology we have thefe Words, as an Account of all Chriftians. 'AXX' xevov ἐκεῖνον [πα]έρα] καὶ τὸν παρ αὐὲ υἱον, ἐλθόντα και δι δάξαντα ἡιᾶς ταυ]α, καὶ τὸν τῶν ἄλλων ἐπομένων καὶ ἐξομοιωμένων ἀγαθῶν ἀγγέλων ςρατόν, πνεῦμα τὲ τὸ προφητικὸν σεβόμεθα καὶ προσκυνᾶμεν. TÈ TO

Which should be thus rendered; Illum (Patrem) ipfiufq; Filium venientem et nos et exercitum bonorum Angelorum fui fequacium et fimilium docentem, et Spiritum Propheticum adoramus et colimus. About two Pages after he exprefly says, they worshipped the Father in the first, the Son in the second, and the Spirit of Prophecy in the third Place. Now in my Apprehenfion, this Declaration of the Object of Worship has great Weight, and is of much greater Force than any Paffages which may feém rather to express the Author's peculiar Sentiment: For if this were the conftant and univerfal Praċtice of Christians, what could it be built upon, but fuch Principles as are held by the Defenders of this Blessed Trinity? I think I could easily produce a great deal more from the most ancient Writers but I have exceeded the Bounds of a Letter alrea dy: I fhall therefore break off, when I have added, that it is my moft earnest Defire that God would lead us and all his People into all Truth. I am,

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Your affectionate Friend and Servant,

J. PEIRCE.

Pardon my Surmize, that you did not first ground your Notions on the Holy Scriptures: I think it is not without Foundation; for while I liv'd near you, no Man ftudied the Scriptures more, and no Man freer from those Apprehenfions. This makes me judge that fomewhat else gave the firft Furn, which in my Judgment was not fufficient.

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But obferve that the fame Mr. Peirce had be fore fhewed himself to me as a like zealous Athanafian in the Year 1706. For when he perused my Effay on the Revelation in MS. and found that I had in general affirmed, that our Saviour did not know fome divine Myfteries, and particularly the Time for the Day of Judgment, till after his Death and Refurrection, in a plain Way, without the Addition of the ufual Words, in his Human Nature, he would have no nay, but I must add thofe Words: which I then did, by his over Perfuafion, against my own Judgment. But fince I have feen full Reafon to omit them, as he did himself afterward. Even fomewhat after this Time, he was fo ftanch an Athanafian, that when at my Recommendation he had read over that ancient and eminent Book, Novatian D. Trinitate, and acknowledged, it favoured the fame Eufebians of Unitarians, yet did he hold faft his Athanafian Doctrine ftill. However, -when the fame Mr. Peirce came to London, foon after I had published my four Volumes, which was in 1711; he met me accidentally at Mr. Bateman's, the Bookfeller's Shop, in Pater-nofter-Row. I asked him whether he was reading my Volumes ? He confeffed he was not; and began to make some Excuses why he was not bound to read them. Upon this I spoke with great Vehemence to him;. "That a Perfon of his Learning, and Acquaintance

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with me, while I had published Things of fuch "great Confequence, would never be able to an«fwer his Refufal to read them to God and his own "Confcience.' This moved him. He bought my Books

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Books immediately, and read them, and was convinced by them to become an Unitarian, or Eufebian as I was, and was Perfecuted for the fame by the Diffenters, as I was by the Church of England afterward.'

In the Year 1709, I Printed Sermons and Essays upon feveral Subjects.

(1.) On the Penitent Thief.

(2.) The peculiar Excellency of the Chriftian Religion.

(3.) The Antiquity of the Christian Covenant. [which two laft give, I think, more light to fome Difputes now on foot about Mofes's Law, and his Omiffion of the Sanctions of the Rewards and Punishments of the next World, in his Legiflation, than all that has been of late written on that Argument.]

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(4.) Against the Sleep of the Soul.

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(5.) Charity-Schools recommended. This is the fame Sermon that was Preached at TrinityChurch, January 25th 1703, but now reprinted with the Addition of a particular Account of our Charity-Schools in Cambridge, of which already.

(6.) Upon the feveral Afcenfions of Chrift. [re printed and enlarged.]

-(7.) Upon the Brethren and Sifters of Christ. (8.) Reason and Philosophy no Enemies to Faith. (9.) On the Restoration of the Jews.

(10.) Advice for the Study of Divinity: With Directions for the Choice of a fmall Theological Library.

N. B.

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