church of Rome, that mother of harlots and abomi nations, consider that the community of christians to which I belong is several removes further from her than yours, and is therefore less likely to be one of those harlots of which she is the mother.

On any consideration, therefore, I think that a style of greater modesty would have become you better. The time is approaching that will try every man's work, what it is; and if we learn the pure faith of the gospel, and our lives be conformable to it, it will not then be inquired whether we learned it in a church or a conventicle; in a church such as you have access to and from which I am excluded, or in such conventicles as the apostles were contented with.

As you strongly and repeatedly recommend the writings of Bishop Bull, with which, I own, I was but little acquainted, I have been induced to purchase them; and having looked pretty carefully through them, I find they have been the chief storehouse of weapons to yourself and others. Having found, therefore, where your great strength lies, I cannot help wishing that you would publish the whole of your great champion's works in English, and thus put forth all your strength at once. It would give me sincere pleasure to see you do this, and at the same time to avow yourself their defender.

As you rank yourself, p. 5, among "those whom the indulgence of providence has released from the more laborious offices of the priesthood *, to whom your more occupied brethren have a right to look up

* I find no trace of any christian priesthood in the New,Testament, except what belongs to all christians, who are figuratively styled kings and priests unto God.

for support and succour in the common cause," this may be one of the "services" to which " you stand peculiarly engaged," as well as to answer my History of the Corruptions of Christianity. "It is (you say) for them" (speaking of those among whom you rank yourself) "to stand forth the champions of the common faith, and the advocates of their order. It is for them to wipe off the aspersions injuriously cast upon the sons of the establishment, as uninformed in the true grounds of the doctrine which they teach, or insincere in their belief of it. To this duty they are indispensably obliged by their providential exemption from work of a harder kind. It is the proper business of the station which is allotted them in Christ's household. And deep will be their shame, and insupportable their punishment, if in the great day of reckoning it should appear that they have received the wages of a service which hath never been performed." I am glad, Sir, to find that you have so just a sense of the important duties of your elevated situation; and thinking the translation of Bishop Bull's works to be naturally comprised in your description of the duties incumbent upon you in it, I am ready to join with your weaker brethren, as you call them, (whose attainments you represent as very low,) in inviting you to undertake it; imagining, as I sincerely do, that the cause of truth will be promoted by it. And to some of those weaker brethren it may be more agreeable, as well as take up less time, to read Bishop Bull's works in English than in Latin. In my opinion, no writings are more easy to be refuted than those of this bishop. And though encumbered with what you call the laborious offices of the priesthood, as well as en

B

gaged in a variety of other pursuits, I shall not think it any great addition to my labours if I undertake to reply to you, thus ably as you may think yourself supported.

You have, I perceive, some advantages which I have not, especially in having access to scarce books. I, for instance, had not so much as heard of the work of Daniel Zuicker, from which you suppose I have borrowed most of my arguments; whereas you appear to be well acquainted with it, and all the writings of that author, or you could not have said as you do, p. 9, "Nor is a single argument to be found in the writings either of Zuicker or Episcopius, which is not unanswerably confuted by our learned Dr. George Bull, afterwards Lord Bishop of St. David's, in three celebrated treatises, which deserve the particular attention of every one who would take upon him to be either a teacher or an historian of the christian faith.”

You should not, however, have charged me with borrowing from a work which, though in your possession, you might have known was not very common. A learned friend, whom I desired to inquire for it, tells me that it is not to be found at any bookseller's in London, in the British Museum, or in the Bodleian or Sion libraries; and that at last he inquired of particular persons most likely to have it, but none of them could tell him where it was to be met with *. I shall endeavour, however, to make the most of such books

*I find in the General Biographical Dictionary, under the article Comenius, that Zuicker wrote three defences of his original work, entitled Irenicon Irenicorum, in answer to Comenius; and that Bishop Bull was accused by D. Crellius of not having read those pieces, for want of which he censured Zuicker for some things which he otherwise would not have objected to him.

as I have, and in time I may be able to procure

more.

But what is of more importance than any thing else in these studies, is a sincere love of truth, and a cool and patient investigation of it, which I shall endeavour to cultivate. I hope also to keep my mind always open to conviction, and that I shall not neglect to avail myself of any light that may be furnished me, from friend or from foe.

Hoping to hear from you as soon as your leisure will permit, and assuring you of the pleasure it will give me to continue this correspondence, till each of us shall have advanced what may occur to us on the subject, I am, dear Sir,

Your very humble servant,

BIRMINGHAM, November, 1783.

J. PRIESTLEY.

POSTSCRIPT.

In this Postscript, besides adding a few notes and ob servations relating to the subject of the preceding Letters, I shall insert a few larger articles, that respect the controversy in general.

I.

The original extracts from Origen's works referred to p. 30, 31, are the following:

The old Latin Version.

Et cum videris eos qui ex Judæis crediderunt in Jesum, aliquando quidem ex Maria et Joseph eum esse putantes ; aliquando

autem de sola Maria et spiritu sancto, videbis, &c. Tract. 13. Opera Latine, vol. ii. p. 88.

The Greek of Huetius's Edition.

In Matt.

Και επαν ίδης των απο Ιουδαίων πιστευοντων εις τον Ιησουν την περι του σωτήρος πιστιν, ότε μεν εκ Μαρίας και του Ιωσηφ οιομένων αυτον είναι, ότε δε εκ Μαριας μεν μονης και του θείου πνεύματος, ου μην και μετα της περί αυτού θεολογίας, οψει, &c. Comment. in Matt. ed. Huetii, vol. i. p. 427. E.

The passage referred to, p. 31.

Ζητω ει δύνασαι πολλους μεν ειπειν επιτιμώντας ένα σιωπηση των Εβιωναίῳ και πτωχευοντι περί την εις Ιησουν πίστιν, τους απο των εθνών, οἱ τινες παρ' ολίγους άπαντες πεπιστεύκασιν αυτόν εκ παρα θενου γεγενησθαι. Ibid. p. 428. C.

II.

Of Heresy in early Times.

P. 41. That Irenæus did not mean to pass a sentence of what we should now call damnation upon the Ebionites is, I think, evident from what he says concerning them in the twenty-first chapter of his third book, and which has the appearance of great harshness. "If they persist," he says, " in their error, not receiving the word of incorruption, they continue in mortal flesh, and are subject to death, not receiving the antidote of life*." The idea of this writer, and that of the fathers in general, was, that Christ recovered for man that immortality which Adam had lost; so that without his interference the whole race of mankind must have perished in the grave. This he represents as the punishment of the Ebionites. But he certainly could not mean that the Ebionites, as such,

* Non recipientes verbum incorruptionis perseverant in carne mortali, et sunt debitores mortis, antidotum vitæ non accipientes. Lib. 3. cap. xxi. p. 248.