will ever find out a better rule of judging than this very plain one of our Saviour's, though it happens not to anfwer his purpose of condemning me. Besides, if I say the fame concerning any saying of our Saviour's, viz. that it is not to be understood universally, or in it's plain and literal fenfe, I am inftantly accused of denying his authority, and of setting up my own reafon against that of God; fo ready are men to fee a mote in a brother's eye, when they cannot fee a beam in their own.

I fhall, however, foon quit this fubject of Mr. Burn, fubmitting what I have observed to your reflections, and his; and defiring him to perufe with more care what I have written on the fubject of infpiration in general, and other articles of chriftian doctrine at which he has taken so much offence, and which he has endeavoured to exhihit in fo frightful a light; and in time he may be better qualified to write about them than he appears to be at prefent. As yet he has much to learn even from those whofe writings he treats, or affects to treat, with contempt. But in order to prepare himself for acquiring more knowledge, he must first get a more candid and teachable mind. For there are persons whom the plainest instructions ferve only to irritate, and not to enlighten.

If we had not facts of this kind to appeal to, the New Testament history would appear incredible. But there are at this very day minds as obdurate as those of the scribes and pharifees in our Saviour's time; and there is reafoning fo plain and convincing, that if men can so shut their eyes as not to be impreffed by it, they would not be at a lofs to find means of evading the force even of miracles themfelves, if they were equally averfe to the object of them. In my opinion, the man who can seriously say that to acknowledge three divine perfons, none of them greater or less than the other, is not to acknowledge three Gods, is capable of evading the force of any evidence whatever. Mr. Burn, however, fays p. 54, he "rejects with indignation the opinion which by any mode of fair construction is chargeable with the con"fequence

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sequence of worshipping more gods than one," without seeing that his avowed opinion most directly implies it.

Be upon your guard, my good friends, against such strong prejudices, and fuch egregious felf deception as this, and dread any fituation in which a man fhall be expofed to them. Mr. Burn will fay that the fcriptures teach the doctrine of three perfons in one God, and, ftrange as it appears to me, I have no doubt but that he really thinks fo. But the Catholic, with equal honefty, fays that, according to the clear doctrine of the fcriptures, and the plain obvious fenfe. of them, the bread and wine in the Lord's fupper are the real body and blood of Christ, and they both fay that reafon must give way to chriftian faith. Be very cautious, however, how you admit any doctrines which require this facrifice of reason, the great principle which God has given us, as our only guard against the groffeft delufion and impofition. By this principle only can we judge both of the truth of any revelation from God to man, and of the sense in which any revealed truths are to be understood.

In order to ferve us in these important respects, reason cannot, furely, be that weak and contemptible thing that Mr. Burn, and fuch preachers as he is, are continually representing it to be. It is the gift of God, and, no doubt, as perfect in its kind, as our hands, eyes, or any other part. of our conftitution, and has fuffered no more by the fall of Adam, whatever that was, than our hands, eyes, or any other of our members.

You must now be fenfible that, in thefe laft Letters, Mr. Burn has by no means exculpated himself from the charge of grofs calumny, which he incurred by his firft. He perfifts in charging me with rejecting the apoftolic testimony concerning the person of Chrift, when it appears from all my writings, that I pay the fame implicit respect to it that he himself does, that I conftantly appeal to it, and am as ready to abide by it. He also continues to charge my principles with the worst moral tendency, without being able to prove any part of his heinous accufation; and now he is so far

from

from repenting of his foul detraction, and abufe, that he adds to it, by taxing me with infincerity, and much artful mifreprefentation, on purpose to hide the truth, to conceal the bad tendency of my principles, and to ward off the deteftation with which they would otherwise be regarded. You, who have attended to us both, I am confident, have seen. no evidence whatever of the truth of this accusation, and therefore you must confider him as aggravating his former offences, by the addition of a new one.

I do not notice every thing that is contained in Mr. Burn's Letters, because I think that what I advanced before is quite fufficient; and with respect to many things I am content that he should have the last word, whatever use he may make of the circumftance. Befides, he fays, p. 70, "the sense of the fcriptures makes no part of the present tr question between us ;" and I have abundantly replied to every thing of a different kind.

Many of you to whom I am now addreffing myself are Mr. Burn's hearers; and as I fuppofe he does not confine himself to the teaching of orthodoxy in doctrine, but fometimes, at leaft, exhorts you to good moral conduct, and among other things tells you not to revile, but to do to others as you would have them do to you (precepts which you fee he has fhamefully violated) join your exhortation to mine, in order to bring him to repentance. It is the duty of all christians, and not of minifters only, to reprove, rebuke, and exhort, and not to fuffer fin in a brother. If he pay no regard to your friendly admonition, then you must content yourselves with doing as he fays, but not as he does; for, like the fcribes and pharifees of old, he faith and deeth

not.

If the bishops took any proper care of the morals of their clergy, Mr. Burn would be cenfured by them, and if he did not repent, and make his repentance as public as his fault, he would be fufpended from his ministry. But in this degenerate age, and relaxed state of difcipline, nothing of this wholesome feverity, I fear, is to be expected.

On the contrary, it is even faid that he has received the thanks of two bishops, if not more, for his abuse of me; and it is farther reported, that he has even threatened to put me into the spiritual court, for charging him with advancing a falsehood. But I fhould think that if this take place, he should accompany me, for advancing that falfehood; and then, being confined together, we might have an opportunity of difcourfing over, and fettling, the matter in dispute between us. I hope, however, that, without the interference of law, civil or ecclefiaftical, he will learn by what has already paffed, to deal no more in fcandal, and then there will be no more occafion for you, or me, to reprove him for it.

I am, &c.

LETTER XIX.

A Short History of the Dissenters, and an Account of their General Principles.

My Townfinen and Neighbours,

AS it is very poffible that many of you may know little

more of Churchmen and Diffenters, than their names, and fome external circumftances relating to them; as that Churchmen frequent the parish churches on Sundays, and Diffenters other places of public worship, commonly called meeting-houses, you will not, I hope, take it amiss if I endeavour to give you fome farther information on the subject. For it can do you no harm to know your neighbours and yourselves a little better than fome of you now do; and this I hope will tend to prevent the bad impreffions that your preachers are frequently endeavouring to make

upon

upon your minds with respect to us, especially in fuch Sermons as they commonly deliver on the 30th of January, the anniversary of the martyrdom, as they call it, of their favourite prince Charles I. I fhall therefore give you the following short and plain history, the truth of which I wish you to inquire into; for I do not defire you should take this, or any thing else on my bare word.

From the time that christianity was preached to our Saxon ancestors, about A. D. 597, till the time of Henry VIII. they continued attached to the Roman fee, and fome articles of reformation being urged by Wickliffe and others, the bishops perfecuted their followers, putting many of them to cruel deaths. For it was then a fixed maxim, that herefy was not to be tolerated.

Henry VIII. wishing to be divorced from one wife, and to marry another, quarrelled with the pope, who delayed to grant him the neceffary dispensation, and made himself the fupreme head of the English church, inftead of the pope; but he retained all the effential doctrines of popery, and actually put to death several perfons who denied them.

After his death Edward VI. promoted a farther reformation; but it was all undone, as far as power could undo it, by queen Mary. In her reign many protestants were burned alive, and others fled, especially to Geneva and Frankfort. There they differed about the best method of church-government, fome thinking it better that the government of each congregation fhould be within itself, while others preferred such a diocesan epifcopacy, as they had been used to in the time of popery. They also wished to retain the use of fome popifh habits and ceremonies. Queen Elizabeth, who was a great lover of pomp and power, taking part with the latter, discouraged and perfecuted the former, during the whole of her long reign.

James I. and Charles I. were still more fond of bishops than queen Elizabeth, finding in them an addition to their own power, such as our kings experience to this day. In the reign of these kings, notwithstanding a very fevere perfecution, in which many died in prison, and many fled

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