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not then believe him; but upon my going home, I foon light upon the Pamphlet itself, and found it was as Dr. Rundle faid. Whereupon I went again to Mr. Venn, and told him, that fince this Sufpicion of mine about Mr. Chubb, proved groundless, I, who had known Dr. Rundle fo many Years, knew no Reason for any fuch Sufpicion upon him; " Which I also went and told my old and faithful Advocate Dr. Paul; and affured him that there feem'd to be no fufficient Reafon for Mr. Venn's Accufation, or for Dr. Rundle's Rejection upon that Account.

And now having given fome Account of feveral of our present Bishops, and almost all of them political Bishops also, who spend so much of their Time, not in their own Diocefes, where they ought both to live and die, but in the capital City, and in Parliament: It may be worth our while to take fome Notice how little Good they do there, either to Learning, Morality, or Religion; they being too well known to be little better than Tools of the Court, to merit better Bishopricks by voting as they are directed; which they feldom fail to do. Yet has there lately been two Cafes, when the Business they were to do was fo prodigiously Grofs, one of which was the laft Gin Bill, (which Gin is, by one of the beft Judges, eftimated to kill no fewer than 100,000 poor People in Europe every Year, and by fome Examples that I have known, I deem that Eftimation not very extravagant) that not one fingle Bishop could be prevailed on to vote for it: Nay, fome of them were fo unusually

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unusually bold, as to fpeak againft it. Now what was the Confequence of this unanimous Oppofition? Why the Bill went through the House of Lords notwithstanding; and ftands as an Act of Parliament, affented to by the Lords Spiritual, as well as Temporal, at this Day. Which Thing puts me in mind of an Answer the Lord Carteret made fometime fince to Bishop Hare, who when he complained of the hard Words that Lord had given fome of the Bishops in a Speech in the House of Lords, put him in mind, that his Lordship might one Day be a Minister of State himself, and might then want the Bishop's Votes. This Lord replied, "If I want you, I know how to have you." The Meaning of which Words are easily understood, without a Comment. In fhort, I cannot but efteem Bifhops in the Houfe of Lords, to be the very' greatest Grievance of Christianity now in thefe Kingdoms, and utterly contrary to the Laws of the Gofpel, See my Chriftian Difcipline, Page 62.

I now come to Mr. Chubb of Sarum, already mentioned, who from one of the most judicious' Chriftians, without a learned Education, that I had then met with, when he published, or rather I publifhed for him, his Eight Arguments on the Supremacy of the Father, A.D. 1714. feems to have degenerated into the directly oppofite Character of one of the most foolish and injudicious of our modern Unbelievers, as a Comparison of his first and laft Books will demonstrate: And fince I was the Perfon who introduc'd him into our Society for Promoting Primitive Christianity, and took Care of the Correcting

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the forementioned firft and beft Book that ever he wrote; and befides introduced him into the Favour and Family of Sir Joseph Jekyl, who allow'd him an annual Salary; and when I thought myself obliged to inform Sir Joseph afterward, that he was become a Sceptick, and to caution him against procuring himself a Blot, by openly fupporting him; (tho' I never defired him to diminish his Affistance to him in pivate:) He was not willing to believe my Representation; which yet Time has too certainly verified. Since I say this is the Cafe, I think myfelf greatly obliged to give fome Account of him, for the Satisfaction of the Publick, and of Pofterity, who may light upon his Pamphlets, which are become very common. Now it happened that fome Years after the Publication of his Eight Arguments, about 1717, or 1718, I was informed that Mr. Chubb was becoming a Socinian, at the fame Time that he owned that the New Teftament favoured those called Arians, which indeed he had fully demonftrated in his first Book. Upon this I wrote him a friendly Letter, which I cannot find any Copy of; it contain'd a Caution, and a Prediction, that he would turn a Sceptick; which his Answer did by no Means clear; and which his later Writings too fully justify.

It was not, I think, very long after thefe Letters, that I was informed, that what I foreboded proved true; and that Mr. Chubb was become a great Sceptick, not only in Revealed, but in Natural Religion alfo; and had written against Mens Obligations to Pray to God, as what could not be

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Juftified by Reason; tho' he did not then difown the Obligation to Thanksgiving for Mercies received; tho' I imagine a very little Alteration in a Train of Thoughts, might as well have determined for Prayer, and against Thanksgiving. I never faw this Pamphlet of Mr. Chubb's myself, that I can remember, for I think it was never printed; but had this Account from Mr. Thomas Emlyn, who faw it. About this Time also it was, I suppose, that he wrote his Previous Queftion, against the Morality of that most eminent Act of Obedience in Abraham, when he went to offer his Son Isaac as a Sacrifice to God. This Pamphlet gave me the Occafion of writing a short Treatise, Concerning God's Command to Abraham to offer up Ifaac his Son for a Sacrifice: Which I afterward made the third Differtation prefixed to my English Jofephus, and which I found gave great Satisfaction to the Inquifitive; for it was chiefly Mr. Chubb that I had in View, when I faid near its Beginning, that "This "Command is become a Stone of Stumbling, and a "Rock of Offence among us; and that fometimes. "to Perfons of otherwise good Senfe, and of a reli"gious Difpofition of Mind also." But as to Mr. Chubb's later Writings, I perceive they are fo wild and extravagant, that I fhall fay nothing more, about them, but put Men rather in mind of the Words of a wifer Man than either he, or any of his Followers, which I recommended to him before, in the forementioned Differtation; I mean Solomon: Trust in the Lord with all thine Heart, and lean not to thine own Understanding. In all thy Ways

Ways acknowledge bim, and he shall direct thy Paths. Be not wife in thine own Eyes. Prov. iii. 5, 6, 7. Nor are the late wild Writings of Dr. Morgan, and Mr. Elwall confiderable enough to deferve a Place in this Account, nor was I fo deeply concerned about them myfelf, as to require me to purfue this Digreffion any farther on their Account; only fo far, that I think those who preach or write operously against such as those do them a great deal too much Honour. If they can fully prove any of the Prophecies or Miracles, by which the Jewish and Chriftian Religion are fupported to be false, they ought to be heard; but while that is not pretended to, Nicodemus's Words to Jefus of Nazareth, are lo perfectly agreeable to common Senfe, and the Light of Nature, that all Pretences to the Contrary are abfurd and unreasonable, in the highest Degree, Rabbi, We know that thou art a Teacher come from God; for no one can do the Miracles which thou doft except God be with him. John iii. 2.

N. B. It deferves greatly to be observed, that abating the present Mischief our modern Writers against the Chriftian Religion do to the weak and wicked Part of this foolish Age wherein we live, they at the Upfhot have mightily tended to ftrengthen and fupport it, by affording Occafion for the truly Learned to examine its Foundation deeper than they had formerly done. Thus Mr. Chubb's Pamphlet against Abraham's offering up Ifaac, gave me, as I have already faid, Occafion of fully clearing that Matter, in my Differtation thereto

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