do him the justice to fay, he was always of a very kind, generous, friendly difpofition, and afforded me in particular, confiderable affiftance in the last years of his life, and even near the very time of his death, when he wrote me a kind letter to fend for ten guineas; when he was hardly able to write; and therein defired ἀληθεύειν ἐν ἀγάπη to his laft moments) when, I fay, we came into a kind of friendship again, it happened that an unlucky imputation was laid upon him by Mr. Venn, minifter of St. Antholin's, one that I was well acquainted with, and had a good opinion of alfo; as if Dr. Rundle had spoken fceptically concerning Abraham's offering up his fon Ifaac. I never met with the words charged upon him, fo I cannot give them my reader; the difcourfe was in the company of Dr. Robert Cannon, when Mr. Venn was by: this was fo charged upon him by Mr. Venn, in a letter to the bishop of London, and the charge fo profecuted, that it was likely to be urged publickly and legally against him, when Dr. Rundle was to be confirmed by Dr. Paul. I being, as I have already faid, well acquainted with the accufer and the accufed, went to them both; and upon hearing what Mr. Venn teftified, and knowing that Mr. Chubb, of Sarum, with whom Dr. Rundle, as archdeacon there, was well acquainted, had taken particular offence at that part of the facred hiftory, and had published a pamphlet against it, which I had feen; and thence began to be very fceptical: I fufpected ftrongly that Dr. Rundle had been to blame, and had faid more than became a believer of the Bible to fay. Accordingly I went to him, and told him' of my fufpicion: Dr. Rundle, in his answer, utterly denied the charge: but ftill did not impute any wilful falfehood to Mr. Venn; but rather thought the words might belong to Dr. Cannon, and by a mistake of the speaker, be afcribed to him: which Dr. Can

Dr. Cannon, we all knew used to fay, that "If he had been a juftice of peace in the days of Abra"bam, and feen him about to offer up his fon for

a facrifice, he would have laid him by the heels." I charged Dr. Rundle farther, that there was reason to fufpect he had learned that profanenefs of Mr. Chubb's pamphlet, or his conversation upon it. He reply'd, that Mr. Chubb's pamphlet did not come out 'till a year or two after this converfation, whence arofe the prefent imputation. In this I did not then believe him; but, upon my going home, I foon light upon the pamphlet itself, and found it was as Dr. Rundle faid. Whereupon I went again to Mr. Venn, and told him, that fince this fufpicion of mine about Mr. Chubb proved groundless, I, who had known Dr. Rundle fo many years, knew no reason for any fuch fufpicion upon him which I also went and told my old and faithful advocate Dr. Paul; and affured him that there feem'd to be no fufficient reafon for Mr. Venn's accufation, or for Dr. Rundle's rejection upon that

account.

And now having given fome account of feveral of our present bifhops, and almoft all of them political bishops alfo, who spend fo much of their time, not in their own diocefes, where they ought both to live and die, but in the capital city, and in parliament: it may be worth our while to take fome notice how little good they do there, either to learning, morality, or religion; they being too well known to be little better than tools of the court, to merit better bishopricks, by voting as they are directed; which they feldom fail to do. Yet has there lately been two cafes, when the business they were to do was fo prodigiously grofs, one of which was the laft gin bill, (which gin is, by one of the best judges, eftimated to kill no fewer than 100,000 poor people in Europe

every year, and, by fome examples that I have known, I deem that eftimation not very extravagant) that not one fingle bishop could be prevailed on to vote for it: nay, fome of them were fo unufually bold, as to fpeak against it. Now what was the confequence of this unanimous oppofition? why the bill went through the house of lords notwithstanding; and ftands as an act of parliament, affented to by the lords fpiritual, as well as temporal, at this day. Which thing puts me in mind of an answer the lord Carteret made fometime fince to bifhop Hare, who, when he complained of the hard words that lord had given fome of the bishops in a speech in the house of lords, put him in mind, that his lordship might one day be a minifter of ftate himself, and might then want the bishops votes. This lord replied, "If I want you, I "know how to have you." The meaning of which words are eafily understood, without a comment. In fhort, I cannot but efteem bishops in the house of lords to be the very greatest grievance of christianity now in these kingdoms, and utterly contrary to the laws of the gospel. See my Chriftian Difcipline, page 62.

I now come to Mr. Chubb of Sarum, already mentioned, who, from one of the most judicious chriftians, without a learned education, that I had then met with, when he published, or rather I publifhed for him, his Eight Arguments on the Supremacy of the Father, A. D. 1714. feems to have degenerated into the directly opposite character of one of the most foolish and injudicious of our modern unbelievers, as a comparison of his first and last books will demonftrate: and fince 1 was the person who introduc'd him into our fociety for promoting primitive chriftianity, and took care of the correcting the forementioned firft and beft book that ever he wrote; and befides introduced him into the favour

and

and family of Sir Jofeph Jekyl, who allow'd him an annual falary; and when I thought myself obliged to inform Sir Joseph afterward, that he was become a fceptick, and to caution him against procuring himself a blot, by openly fupporting him; (tho' I never defired him to diminish his affiftance to him in private :) he was not willing to believe my representation; which yet time has too certainly verified. Since, I fay, this is the cafe, I think myfelf greatly obliged to give fome account of him, for the fatisfaction of the publick, and of pofterity, who may light upon his pamphlets, which are become very common. Now it happened that fome years after the publication of his Eight Arguments, about 1717, or 1718, I was informed that Mr. Chubb was becoming a Socinian, at the fame time that he owned that the New Teftament favoured thofe called Arians, which, indeed, he had fully demonftrated in his first book. Upon this, I wrote him a friendly letter, which I cannot find any copy of; it contain'd a caution, and a prediction, that he would turn a Sceptick; which his anfwer did by no means clear; and which his later writings too fully justify.

It was not, I think, very long after these letters, that I was informed, that what I foreboded, proved true; and that Mr. Chubb was become a great fceptick, not only in revealed, but in natuxal religion alfo; and had written against mens obligations to pray to God, as what could not be juftified by reafon; tho' he did not then difown the obligation to thanksgiving for mercies received; tho' I imagine a very little alteration in a train of thoughts, might as well have determined for prayer, and against thanksgiving. I never faw this pamphlet of Mr. Chubb's myself, that I can remember, for I think it was never printed; but had this account from Mr. Thomas Emlyn, who

faw

66

cr

faw it. About this time alfo it was, I fuppofe, that he wrote his Previous Question, against the morality of that most eminent act of obedience in Abraham, when he went to offer his fon Ifaac as a facrifice to God. This pamphlet gave me the occafion of writing a fhort treatife, Concerning God's Command to Abraham to offer up Ifaac bis Son for a Sacrifice: which I afterward made the third differtation prefixed to my English Jofephus, and which I found gave great fatisfaction to the inquifitive; for it was chiefly Mr. Chubb that I had in view, when I faid near its beginning, that " This "command is become a ftone of ftumbling, and a "rock of offence among us; and that fometimes to perfons of otherwise good fense, and of a religious difpofition of mind alfo." But as to Mr. Chubb's later writings, I perceive they are fo wild and extravagant, that I fhall fay nothing more about them; but put men rather in mind of the words of a wifer man than either he, or any of his followers, which I recommended to him before, in the forementioned differtation; I mean Solomon Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not to thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wife in thine own eyes. Prov. iii. 5, 6, 7. Nor are the late wild writings of Dr. Morgan, and Mr. Elwall, confiderable enough to deserve a place in this account; nor was I fo deeply concern, ed about them myfelf, as to require me to purfue this digreffion any farther on their account; only fo far, that I think thofe who preach or write operously against such as those, do them a great deal too much honour. If they can fully prove any of the prophecies or miracles, by which the Jewish and Chriftian religion are fupported to be falfe, they ought to be heard; but while that is not pretended to, Nicodemus's words to Jefus of Nazareth, are fo per

fectly