nothing more than Dr. Priestley has recom

mended to you, before

you blindly fubfcribe to them, and folemnly declare them to be true and agreeable to the fcriptures.

one of

Whether Dr. Horne acted a fair part towards you, in affuming a character as being your own clafs, which might give him a plaufible colour and fanétion for hiding fuch neceffary information upon the fubject from you, belongs to you to confider.

Of Dr. Priestley's character, as a philofopher, and theologian.

THE prefident of Magdalen, at the end of the letter, in his character of undergraduate, to Dr. Priestley, paffes a fhort compliment (m)

upon

(m) "With great refpect for your character as a man " of science, and equal diflike to your principles, as a

upon him, as a philofopher, though far from having raised in you, in the preceding parts, one favourable idea of him in any respect, so as to make you defirous to fee any of his productions; and at the fame time profeffes, what indeed he has not been backward to discover, a very great dislike to him as a divine.

As the ground of this dislike, which he ftrives to infuse into you, relates to fubjects, fome of them of the very highest importance, I think you interested in and request your attention to the fairer representation, which I shall endeavour to give, of the opinions of one fo obnoxious to him: and making allowance for prejudice, from which few are exempt, though my earliest habits and prepoffeffions leaned another way; and professing obligations more than I can express, to the writings, example, and friendship of this eminent perfon, nevertheless, I trust you will not find my account of things far from the truth.

With all honour due, and juftly due, to those learned men, whofe lectures you attend, I will beg leave to say, that you may

alfo

1

alfo take along with you the writings of Dr. Priestley in moft branches of science, and read them to advantage.

It is no fmall thing in his favour, to recommend him, that he is already become, may I fay it, the preceptor of nations. For not only his philofophical and metaphyfical, but his theological works, are fought after with avidity, and highly approved by foreigners, and feveral of them tranflated into different languages on our continent. And writings. in defence of chriftianity, coming from fuch a hand, cannot fail of raising curiosity, and of contributing to remove the common prefumption among unbelievers, and frequent ground of their unbelief, viz, that the gofpel is that fystem of doctrines which is publicly established in each catholic and protestant state; whereas it is almost universally quite another thing, in refpect both of faith, and worthip.

Dr. Priestley's aim in his writings, to which all his ftudies tend, is to promote the glory of God, beft feen and manifefted in the happiness of his creatures; to discover

and

and make known his wifdom and boundless goodnefs, as they are exhibited to us in his revealed word, or in his glorious works abroad for all nature is but the revelation its great creator.

of HIM,

It was to these most laudable ends, that Locke and Newton confecrated their talents, and immenfe labours. Though it is to be lamented, that the noble family by whom the manufcript-papers of the latter have been inherited, have hitherto declined to give them to the public. Imperfect hints from a mind fo penetrating might be of fervice. And Sir Ifaac Newton is known to have applied himself in a very extraordinary manner to the study of the facred writings, and of all ancient writers that might illuftrate them. Nor are we without evidence of his having been a ftrict unitarian, holding God to be one perfon, one eternal mind, and Jefus, the creature, and fervant of that God.

Our author walks in the fame path with these two eminent lights, who would not have difdained to have taken him by the hand; but happily, coming after them, he devoted

devoted himself at an earlier hour, and with a much more fearless spirit than they, to study and illuftrate the facred volume, and to wipe off that polytheism and irrational fuperftition, which they alfo faw, and which for ages had disfigured it.

But you will judge better of the principles by which he has been influenced, from hearing him speak himself. In the preface to his history of Electricity, where he himfelf adds to the common stock of knowlege on the subject he treats of, whilft he describes what others had done before him; he thus paints the views of a true philosopher, which he has uniformly aimed to make his own, p. xvi. xvii.

A philofopher ought to be fomething greater, and better than another man. • The contemplation of the works of God should give a fublimity to his virtue, • should expand his benevolence, extinguish every thing mean, bafe, and selfish in his ⚫ nature, give a dignity to all his fentiments, ⚫ and teach him to afpire to the moral per•fections of the great author of all things. 'What great and exalted beings would

philofophers