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exprefs the author's peculiar fentiment for if this were the conftant and univerfal practice of chriftians, what could it be built upon, but such principles as are held by the defenders of this bleffed trinity? I think I could eafily, produce a great deal more from the most ancient writers; but I have exceeded the bounds of a letter already: I fhall therefore break off, when I have added, that it is my most earneft defire that God would lead us, and all his people, into all truth. I am,

Your affectionate Friend and Servant,

J. PEIRCE

Pardon my furmize, that you did not first ground your notions on the holy fcriptures: I think it is not without foundation; for while I liv'd near you, no man ftudied the fcriptures more, and no man freer from thofe apprehenfions. This makes me judge that fomewhat else gave the first、 turn, which, in my judgment, was not fufficient.

But obferve that the fame Mr. Peirce had before fhewed himself to me as a like zealous Athanafian in the year 1706. For when he perused my Efay 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 bis Human Nature, he would have no nay, but I must add those 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, No

vatian D. Trinitate, and acknowledged, it favoured the fame Eufebians or 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 per

fon of his learning, and acquaintance with me, "while I had published things of fuch great confe

quence, would never be able to answer his refufal "to read them to God and his own conscience." This moved him. He bought my 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 christian religion.

(3.) The antiquity of the chriftian covenant.
[ which two laft give, I think, more light to
fome difputes now on foot about Mofes's law,
and his omiffion of the fanctions of the rewards
and punishments of the next world, in his legif-
lation, than all that has been of late written upon
that argument.]

(4.) Against the fleep of the foul.
(5.) Charity-fchools recommended.

This is the

fame fermon that was preached at Trinity-Church,
January 25th, 1704-5, but now reprinted with the
addition of a particular account of our charity-
fchools in Cambridge, of which already.
(6.) Upon

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(6.) Upon the feveral afcenfions of Chrift. [Reprinted and enlarged.]

(7.) Upon the brethren and fifters of Chrift.
(8.) Reafon and philofophy no enemies to faith.
(9.) On the restoration of the Jews.

(10.) Advice for the ftudy of divinity: with directions for the choice of a fmall theological library.

N. B. When I firft wrote the 8th difcourfe here fet down, I paffed by Atherston, a market-town in Warwickshire, where I ftayed all night, with a very valuable friend of mine, Mr. Shaw, who was then a schoolmafter there; and whofe worthy fon was lately his fucceffor. I left the paper with him for his perufal, that we might difcourfe of it in the morning: when he came to me, with a good deal of furprize, that I therein had declared I did not believe the proper eternity of hell torments: which he said was a fubject he had written upon, for the fatisfaction of a neighbouring gentleman, who made the doctrine of their eternity an almoft infuperable argument against the chriftian religion. But my friend, faid I, you wrote for that doctrine, I believe, because you thought it was contained in the New Teftament; he confeffed it was fo; but Sir, faid I, fuppofe I can fhew you that this doctrine is not contained in the New Teftament, will not that alter the cafe? he confefs'd it would upon which we got Dr. Hammond's Difcourfe for that Eternity, with a Greek New Teftament, and the Septuagint for the Old Testament : when, in about two hours time, I demonftrated to him, that the words used about the duration of those torments in the New Teftament, all over the Septuagint, whence the language of the New Teftament was taken, did no where mean a proper eternity which he confeffed before I left him; and acknowledged that I had given him a freedom

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of thought in that matter, which he had not before. Of all which matters, fee my own larger pamphlet upon that fubject; of which hereafter. I alfo once talked with him about the Athanafian doctrine of the Trinity, and its abfurdity: he told me he had not ventured to think upon that fubject; and whether he afterward ventured to do it, I do not know. He was a very confiderable man; and had he not been depreffed by his confinement to the paftoral care, in two fmall neighbouring villages, Badgly and Baxterly, where I used fometimes to preach for him, together with the bufinefs of a fchool; I always thought him capable of being a confiderable man in the learned world.

N. B. When the 10th discourse, or Directions for the Study of Divinity, came to be perufed by Mr. Hallet, a diffenter, who kept an academy at Exeter, he was prodigiously pleased with them, and, with the highest compliments, defired fome farther directions in that matter; but he withal cautioned me not to direct my answer to himfelf; for, as he intimated to me, if it were known that he kept "correfpondence with me, he fhould be ruined." Such, it feems, was the zeal of our diffenting brethren at that time at Exeter: (of which my old friend Mr. Peirce partook plentifully afterward.) However, I having kept a copy of my Reply, I fhall give it the reader prefently, for his own inftruction, as it was then written; tho' fome few things might be ftill corrected and improved.

(11.) To thefe 10 was added at first Incerti Autoris de regula Veritatis, five Fidei: Vulgo Novatiani de Trinitate Liber. But fince my learned friend Mr. Jackson published, 1728, this excellent treatife, with very large and useful notes, while my edition had no notes at all; I defire this may be omitted in all future editions.

Camb.

SIR,

TH

Camb. May 1, 1710.

HO' I received your very kind letter fome time ago, yet have I not been at full leifure to answer it till now. I am very glad that any

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my books have given you, or any other honest chriftian, any light and fatisfaction in your facred enquiries. As I fully and thankfully own the goodness of God to me in bleffing my ftudies, fo far as any of his facred truths are illuftrated by them; fo do I heartily defire that all other well difpofed perfons, would themfelves go to the fame fountains that I have recommended, and correct any occafional errors and mistakes I may have fallen into in matters of fuch importance. The ancient chriftian doctrine is plainly the fame which the body of the chriftian church, even fo low as the fourth century, maintained against the Athanafian herefy; and which the Athanafians would needs call Arian: without any other juft occafion for fuch a title, but that he would not defert any chriftian truths, becaufe Arius and his particular followers afferted them; nor would fhe peremptorily condemn the Arians, strictly fo called, for fome novel expreffions, which yet fhe did not approve nor justify, because fhe was not fully fatisfy'd of their being falfe. As to the method of your ftudies, Varenius's Geography will be very proper to be read for the doctrine of the fphere, and other things, before you come to my Aftronomy. After which, bishop Beveridge's Chronology will be proper. After which, archbishop Uber's Chronology and Annals come in order, with my own Chronology of the Old Testament, and Harmony of the Evangelifts. For geography, get the best fcripture maps by you, particularly that in Lamy, and travel along the fame all the way; and then alone read the defcriptions, and fearch for the teftimonies,

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