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pany one another in a College, then and only then do we intirely fecure the Ends of a collegiate Body, and take an effectual Caufe that the fame shall be fecur'd for the future Generations alfo. Το conclude, God grant that we may lead fuch pious and devout; fuch temperate and sober; fuch diligent and studious Lives, in that religious Society, inftituted by our generous and bountiful Benefactors, whom we are now to commemorate, that we may bring Glory to God, and fecure or own and others everlasting Salvation, in the great Day of the Lord Jefus, To whom, &c. But to go on now with

my other Materials. In the Year 1692, Dr. Bentley preached Mr. Boyle's Lectures; which, indeed, were the first that were preached; and, perhaps, are the most valuable of all that great Critick's Performances. Herein he demonstrated the Being and Providence of God from Sir Ifaac Newton's wonderful Difcoveries, to fuch a Degree of Satisfaction, as to the Scepticks or Infidels themselves, that he informed me himfelf, of a Club of fuch People, who had heard his Sermons, and were asked by a Friend of his, at his Defire, What they had to fay against them? They honestly owned, they did not know what to fay. But added withall, What is this to the Fable of Jefus Chrift? Which made him fay, that he doubted he had done Harm to Christianity by those Sermons; as occafioning thefe Scepticks or Infidels to divert from their Denial of a God and a Provi dence, from which they might be always driven with great Eafe, to the picking up Objections against

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the Bible in general; which would certainly afford them a much larger Field for Contradiction. But this has been already related in my Aftronomical Principles of Religion, page 243.

Very foon after the Preaching of these Sermons it was, that Dr. Bentley, as he informed me himfelf, went to Bishop Lloyd, of whom he had then the greatest Opinion, both as to his Skill in Chronology and the Scriptures, and particularly in the Scripture-Prophefies; and this in order to fee, whether it might not be fit for him to infert fome of his Predictions from those Prophefies into a Preface to thofe Sermons; that upon their Completion they might be of Service to Christianity; upon fome of which Prophefies he also himself preached Part of his fecond Years Sermons; as his Relation, who is now in Poffeffion of thofe Sermons, as well as another Friend of mine who heard fome of them, have informed me; though he never printed them; the reafon of which will appear by what follows. For, upon his Application to the Bishop, and the Bishop's frank and open Anfwers, he was fo far from being fatisfied, that he immediately began to fuppofe, that his Disappointment arofe from the facred Books of Daniel and the Revelation themfelves, and not only from his own, or the Bishop's misunderstanding them. He was offended that the Bishop understood a Day in the Prophefies to denote an rear in their Completion; as all Expofitors had done before him, and as the ancient Language of Prophecy plainly imply'd. [See Effay on the Revelation, 2d Edition, page 5-18.] Nay, fo

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greatly was he offended at this Interpretation, that he long afterward bluntly asked Sir Ifaac Newton himself (with whom I had brought him acquainted about A. D. 1696.) who thus expounded the Prophefies also, whether he could demonftrate the fame. Sir Ifaac Newton was fo greatly offended at this, as invidioutly alluding to his being a Mathematician; which Science was not concerned in this Matter; that he would not fee him as Dr. Bentley told me himself, for a Twelvemonth afterward. Nay fo far did he carry this Matter, as to perfuade the learned Mr. Daubuz, though in the Way of Banter only, but fuch a Banter as Mr. Daubuz did not perceive, that he ought to demonftrate this Expofition, not a pofteriori only, as did others; but a priori alfo; which he injudiciously attempted to do, in the Preface to his Expofition of the Apocalypfe; which Expofition yet, on Account of the great critical Sagacity of its Author therein fhewed, Dr. Bently had in high Efteem. He pretended also that there had never been a Version of Daniel, made by the Septuagint Interpreters: Which yet is notoriously known to have been several times quoted by the most ancient Fathers; altho' this was afterwards banished out of the Church, by Theodotion's Verfion. Nay when Dr. Bentley was courting his Lady, who was a most excellent Chriftian Woman, he had like to have loft her by starting to her an Objection against the Book of Daniel, as if its Author, in de fcribing Nebuchadnezzar's Image of Gold, Daniel vi. to be 60 Cubits high, and but 6 Cubits Broad, knew no better, than that Mens Height were 10

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Times their Breadth, whereas it is well known to be not more than 6 Times. Which made the good Lady weep. While the Statue, with a Pedestal, might easily be 10 Times High, even fuppofing it were a Figure of a Man: Which yet is not at all in the Text. It might be an Idol standing on the Top of a Pillar; as there is I remember one in old Perfepolis, as the Cuts of it in one of our latter Travellers demonftrates. He aimed also to pick a Quarrel with fome fmall Niceties in Daniel's Chronology; and fuppofed the Book to have been written after the Time of Onias, the High Prieft: And that this Onias was Daniel's Meffiah; and the Slaughter of this Onias at Antioch was the Cutting off the Meffiah. Dan. ix. 26. 2 Maccabees ii. 34, 35. In fhort he was very defirous to get clear of the Authority of the Book of Daniel. Yet when he was put in mind how our Bleffed Saviour exprefly quoted this Book, as written by Daniel the Prophet himself, Matt. xxiv. 9. Mar. xiii. 14. Luke xxi. 20. He told Dr. Clarke, from whom I had it, that at first this made his Hairs ftand an End: But that at last he pretended that was done only ad hominem, as we speak; or by way of condefcenfion to the Jewish Prejudices. He also tryed to run down the Apocalypfe, as not written by the Apostle John; tho' I told him it a greed to his own Character of St. John's Stile, which he had obferved to have much fewer Particles of Connection, fuch as v, de, yap n. T. λ. than the other Evangelifts. He alfo talked ludicrously of this Author's Heads and Horns. And he also tryed to find fome Perfons or Times to which the Author

might allude; as he had fancied of Onias for Daniel. However he confeffed that he had not then been able to do it, but hoped he fhould find it fome other Time. These accounts I had from his own Mouth. But what he said of Isaiah's naming Cyrus fo long before he was born, viz. that he supposed it Interpolation, I had at fecond-hand from a learned Bishop: But it fo exactly agrees with what I had from his own Mouth, concerning Daniel and the Apocalypfe, that I have no Doubt of the Truth of it. Nor need any one hereafter wonder at Dr. Bentley's Scepticism, as to both the Old and New Testament. But take notice, that I only fay Scepticism, not Infidelity. For I take the Evidence for the Truth of the Bible to be fo prodigiously strong, in all original Authors, that no Perfons, fo learned as Dr. Bentley and Dr. Hare can, I believe, by any Temptation, proceed further than Scepticism: How much farther foever comparatively ignorant and unlearned Writers, I mean fuch as Collins, Tindal, Toland, Morgan, and Chubb may have proceeded in their groffer Degrees of Infidelity.

As to Dr. Bentley's grand Difpute with Mr.' Boyle, and his learned Friends at Oxford, about the Epiftles of Phalaris, which was esteemed then fo important, that the great Bishop Lloyd was drawn into the chronological Part of it; and which then made a mighty Noife in the World; I cannot but wonder that any ferious Clergymen should fatisfy themselves to divert from their facred Employment, and enter into fuch useless and trifling Speculations.

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