retical Doxologies] I will beg his Pardon: Which was owned by her Majefty for a juft and equitable Propofal. Upon my Publication of this Letter of Thanks to the Bishop of London, happened Dr. Sacheverell's Attempt to exclude me ftom St. Andrew's, which was then my Parish Church; at which Time I published my Account of Dr. Sacheverell's Proceedirgs, in order to exclude me from St. Andrew's Church in Holborn: Which is added to the Collection of my fmall Pamphlets. N. B. I was at this Time defired by a Lawyer, that did not love Dr. Sacheverell, to give him Leave to profecute him, for this Infult upon me in a Church; promifing it fhould cost me nothing. To which Propofal I utterly refused to give my Confent; and told him, " If I fhould give my "If "Confent, I fhould fhew myfelf to be as foolish "and paffionate as the Doctor himself." The fame Year, 1719, I published a Second Letter to the Lord Bishop of London, concerning the Primitive Doxologies; wherein the Seafonable Review of my Account of them is confidered, 8va. Price 6 d., In the fame Year 1719, I published An Account of a jurprizing Meteor, feen in the Air March 19, 1718 at Night: Containing, I. A Description of this Meteor, from the ori- ! II. Some Historical Accounts of the like Me- III. A Demonftration that fuch 'Meteors are not IV. That fuch Meteors are not a Concourse of V. That they are prodigious Blafts of Thun- VI. Obfervations from the whole. In the fecond Edition was added, A Vindication of this Account, from the different Account given of this Meteor by Dr. Halley, in the Philofophical Tranfactions, No 363. 8vo. Price of both mine together 6 d. In the fame Year 1719, I published a Commen-¡ tary on the Three Catholick Epiftles of St. John; in Agreement with the ancientest Records now extant, 8vo. Price 25. In the fame Year 1719, Ì published a Letter to the Earl of Nottingham, concerning the Eternity of the Son of God, and his holy Spirit. In the fecond and following Editions, I prefixed a Reply to the Lord Nottingham's Anfwer, (which was published 1721) in a large Preface: And thereto I added Athanafian Confeffions, that the Antenicene Writers were against the Athanafian, and for the Eufebian Doctrine, 8vo. Price together 2 s. N. B. My Lord of Nottingham was highly complemented by the Addreffes of the two Universities, U 2 and and of the London Clergy, upon his Answer to this Pamphlet of mine. Yet when upon my Reply the Earl could anfwer no more, neither did any Member of either Univerfity, nor any of the Clergy of London, nor even Dr. Waterland himself, pretend to vindicate him afterward. But what I myself thought of the Earl's Performance, the Reader has found in my long Letter to Archbishop Wake, already fet down, Page 260, 261, 262, prius. About this Time, 1720, I printed and gave away, to fome of my mathematical Friends, a few Copies of a small imperfect Essay on a Discovery of the Longitude by the Dipping Needle. But because I afterward made many and great Improvements in that Matter, and published the whole in a much larger Treatife, a Year or two afterward, upon that Subject; of which prefently; I drop this first Essay intirely. In the fame Year, 1720, I published a Pamphlet, intituled, The true Origin of the Sabellian and Athanafian Doctrines of the Trinity: Or, a Demonstration that they were firft broach'd by the Followers of Simon Magus, in the first Century, and reviv'd by the Montanifts in the fecond; drawn from all the original Accounts now extant, and humbly recommended to the Confideration of Dr. Waterland, 8vo. Price 1 s. On or about the fame Year, 1720, I take it to have been, that I was refufed to be admitted a Member of the Royal Society, by Sir Ifaac Newton: The Cafe was this; Sir Hanfe Sloan, and Dr. Edmund Edmund Halley, and myfelf were once together at Child's Hoffee-houfe, in St. Paul's Church-yard, and Dr. Halley asked me, Why I was not a Member of that Society? I answered, Because they durft not choose an Heretick. Upon which Dr. Halley faid to Sir Hanfe Sloan, that if he would propofe me, he would fecond it: Which was done accordingly. When Sir Ifaac Newton, the Prefident, heard this, he was greatly concern'd; and, by what I then learn'd, clofeted fome of the Members, in order to get clear of me; and told them, that if I was chofen a Member, he would not be Prefident. Whereupon, by a Pretence of Deficiency in the Form of proceeding, the Propofal was dropp'd, I not infifting upon it. Nay, as foon as I was informed of Sir Ifaac's Uneafinefs, I told his bofom Friend, Dr. Clarke, that had I known his Mind, I would have done nothing that might bring that great Man's grey Hairs with Sorrow to the Grave: Nor has that Society ever refufed to let me come, and ley any of my Papers or Inftruments before them, whenever I defired it; without my being an actual Member: Which, confidering my fmall Ability to pay the ufual Sums for Admiffion, and annual Dues, was almoft as agreeable to me, as being a conftant Member. Now if the Reader defire to know the Reafon of Sir Isaac Newton's Unwillingness to have me a Member, he muft take Notice, that as his making me firft his Deputy, and giving me the full Profits of the Place, brought me to be a Candidate, as his Recommendation of me to the Heads of Colleges in Cambridge, made me his Succeffor; fo did I enjoy a large Portion of his Favour for twenty Years together. But he then perceiving that I could not do as his other darling Friends did,. that is, learn of him, without contradicting him, when I differed in Opinion from him, he could not, in his old Age, bear fuch Contradiction; and fo he was afraid of me the last thirteen Years of his Life. See my Authentick Records, Page 1070, 1071. He was of the most fearful, cautious, and fufpicious Temper, that I ever knew: And had he been alive when I wrote against his Chronology, and fo throughly confuted it, that no-body has ever ventured to vindicate it, that I know of, fince my Confutation was published, I fhould not have thought proper to publifh it during his Life Time; because I knew his Temper fo well, that I should have expected it would have killed him. As Dr. Bentley, Bp. Stillingfleet's Chaplain told me, that he believ'd Mr. Lock's through Confutation of the Bishop's Metaphyficks about the Trinity, haftened his End also. About the Year 1720 it was, that I walked to Burntwood in Effex, where I found my excellent and pious Friend, and fellow Sufferer for Religion, Mr. Martin Tomkins, who had been lately expell'd by his Diffenting Congregation at Newington, on Sufpicion of the Arian Herefy, as I had been from Cambridge long before. He was the Author of that remarkable and good natur'd Appeal to a Turk or an Indian, about the Athanafian Doctrine of the Trinity; which greatly moved good Dr. Watts, who had before written for it; and the late Edi 1 |