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occafioned by a fuggeftion from the queen; to whom I had complained, that altho' fhe was queen, that creed was not yet laid afide :) whereupon Mr. Fortin left off the fame creed for fome time. Mr. Jortin has alfo lately published a very good book for the chriftian religion: which I fuppofe he believes, as do the reft of his brethren, but hardly in earnest, fo as to fuffer any thing for it. Which believing in earnest, it is next to impoffible for one of his abilities to do, while he has not publickly repented of his having fo often formerly curfed the Eufebians, or primitive christians. In which cafe I believe the primitive church, even after the repentance of the offending clergy, would have only admitted them to lay.communion.

In the year 1736, I published Athanafian Forgeries, Impofitions, and Interpolations, under the title of, A Lover of Truth, and of true Religion, 8vo. But I confefs I was myself the author of that pamphlet, as well as of its Appendix; being An Appeal to thirty primitive Councils against the Athanafian Herefy: Of which presently, 8vo. Price 1 s. 6d.

The fame year, 1736, I published, The Primitive Eucharift Revived: or, An Account of the two first Centuries concerning the Celebration of the Lord's Supper; occafioned by a late Treatife of Bishop Hoadley's, intituled, A plain Account of the Nature and End of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, 8vo. Price 1 s. 6d.

N. B. The Appendix to my New Theory, tho' written 1718, was not printed and added to the New Theory itself, till its fifth edition, this year, 1736.

I published the next year 1737, The Aftronomical Year: or, An Account of the many remarkable cæleftial Phenomena of the great Year 1736.

Particularly of the comet which was foretold by Sir Ifaac Newton, and came accordingly. 8vo. Price 6d.

On this year alfo, 1736, the late archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Potter, was removed from Oxford to Lambeth. I have some reason to speak my mind freely of him, and of the most unhappy change this great exaltation made in him, because the late queen, when confultation was had who fhould be made archbishop, asked me about his character, and the book he had written against the Eraftians, or for the ecclefiaftical authority, as diftinct from the ftate. For his character at that time was with me as one of great Piety, Learning, and Moderation; and an excellent paftor of a parish, as I heard afterward, without any marks of pride or vanity; whom I accordingly recommended to her majefty, as one proper to be archbishop; which I then fincerely wifhed he might be. As to his book, I faid it was a very good one; and that he proved his points very well; only that he had taken one thing for granted at last, which he could not prove; namely, "That Conftantine the Great did well in giving "temporal power to the clergy." I then little dreamed that this Dr. Potter, by going to Lambeth, would take high and pontifical ftate upon him; that he could bear the kneeling of even bishops before him, when, at a folemn meeting of the members of the fociety for propagating the gofpel in foreign parts, he gave the bleffing, which I myself faw that he would procure half a dozen footmen to walk bare-headed by him, when he was in his coach, three of a fide; befides his trainbearer, at fuch his appearances; that he would give up the poor remains of chriftian difcipline, as his predeceffor had done, and fometimes ordain fuch ignoramus's as the great bifhop Lloyd, of whom I

know

;

know he had the greatest opinion, would, upon examination, have hardly thought worthy any holy orders at all; that he would not only bear the groffeft flattery to his face, in Dr. Pierce's Concio ad Clerum, but declare his approbation of it, by advancing or confirming the advancement of the preacher, to a place of great dignity immediately; and that in confequence of his pomp, while alive, his executors caused him to lie in ftate when he was dead: that he would fet his learned chaplain, Dr. Chapman, to preach against the christians, falfely called Arians, at the lady Moyer's lecture that he would fend abroad fuch mean forms of prayer and praife, upon days of humiliation and thanksgiving, to flatter the court; fuch indeed as are fometimes hardly true, and frequently fuch as are wholly inconfiftent with that profound veneration, that kings and princes themfelves, as well as their fubjects, owe to their Almighty Creator; from whom is derived all the wisdom and courage, and victory of their greatest generals. To fay nothing of that horrid curfing of the christians in the Athanafian creed, which he ftill fupported in his own chapel at Lambeth, and every where else. And I am forry, very forry, to say it, that archbishop Potter feemed to me almoft as unwilling to open his eyes, to fee the grievous errors of Athanafianifm, which are now fo fully detected, as to be finking out of the learned world, as any of the papifts were to fee the other grofs errors of popery, at the proteftant reformation.

N. B. I will add one obfervation here of the inactivity or ignorance of the generality of those that have of late been preferred by the court to be bifhops and deans; nay, or by the bishops themfelves to be archdeacons alfo, that they know one clergyman, of no preferment at all, that hath

written

As

written more books of learning, and most of them for the propagation of truth, and the true chriftian religion, and for the confutation of fcepticks and infidels, than all of them, above an hundred in number, put together, have done. To fo little advantage does the prefent difpofal of preferments turn; and fo little benefit does either church or ftate receive from the poffeffors of them. I here except archbishop Potter's learned edition of Clemens Alexandrinus, tho' it was published before he was made either bifhop or archbishop. alfo I might except the late bishop of London's Codex, two large volumes, published after he was bishop. But thofe are fo far from doing any fervice to chriftianity, that they are rather the fad remains of antichriftianifm and popery among us. I conclude this my address to archbishop Potter, and our other bishops, with a very remarkable paffage, which I have lalely met with in a fermon preached at a lord archbishop's triennial and ordinary vifitation; I fuppofe in the days of queen Elizabeth, upon Ecclef. xii. 10. The preacher did feek out pleasant words. The account is in these words: "There is a ftory how a "learned friar in Italy, famous for his learning "and preaching, was commanded to preach before "the pope at a year of jubilee and to be the "better furnished, he repaired thither a good "while before to Rome, to fee the fashion of the

conclave, to accommodate his fermon the bet66 ter. When the day came he was to preach, "having ended his prayer, he looking a long "time about, at laft he cried with a loud voice "three times, St. Peter was a fool, St. Peter "was a fool, St. Peter was a fool. Which words "ended, he came out of the pulpit. Being after "convened before the pope, and afked, why he "fo carried himself; he answered, furely, holy

"father,

"father, if a prieft may go to heaven abounding " in wealth, honour, and preferment, and live at "eafe, never or feldom to preach, then furely "St. Peter was a fool, who took fuch a hard way in travelling, in fafting, in preaching, to go thither."

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I cannot therefore but, with great grief, look on the lord chancellor King, archbishop Wake, and archbishop Potter, as three excellent men utterly ruined by their preferments at court, and proper to teach all other good men this old leffon, Exeat aula, qui volet esse pius.

In the fame year, 1737, I published, The genuine Works of Flavius Jofephus, the Jewish Hiftorian, in English. Tranflated from the original Greek, according to Havercamp's accurate edition. Containing XX books of Jewish antiquities; with the Appendix, or Life of Jofephus, written by himself. VII books of the Jewish War, and II books against Apion. Illuftrated with new plans, and defcriptions of Solomon's, Zorobabel's, Herod's, and Ezekiel's temples; and with correct maps of Judea and Jerufalem. Together with proper notes, obfervations, contents, parallel texts of fcripture, five compleat indexes, and the true chronology of the feveral histories adjusted in the margin. To which are prefixed VIII differtations, viz.

I. The teftimonies of Jofephus vindicated.

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II. The copy of the Old Testament made ufe of by Jofephus, proved to be that which was collected by Nehemiah.

III. Concerning God's command to Abraham, to offer up his fon Ifaac for a facrifice.

IV. A large enquiry into the true chronology of Jofepbus.

V. An

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