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that refpect. Thus every ground of hope being withdrawn, even the hope of a fure guide to heaven, and all intercourfe cut off between God and man, they naturally difbelieve all vifitations of fupernatural grace, all influences of the Spirit of God upon the foul, and therefore deny the Father, Son, and Spirit, in every fense in which they could be profited by them, having, in fact, neither God, nor Saviour, nor Comforter.

16. It being, therefore, manifeftly neceffary, that we should believe Chrift to be Immanuel, God with us, God manifeft in the flesh, omniprefent, and omnifcient, I have the more willingly fuffered mylelf to be prevailed upon to revise the following Sheets, and make fuch additions to them, as may afford fufficient proof of that important point of Chriftian doctrine. I wifh the difficult task had been committed to an abler hand. But Mrs. Fletcher and her friends having affigned it to me, I have endeavoured to do the beft, that the work might not be entirely unworthy of the publick eye. As I have made it my care fairly to reprefent Mr. Fletcher's fentiments on the weighty fubject under confideration, fo I have in general retained his language; rather chufing to let fome expreffions pafs, (which probably had he lived to put the finishing hand to this work, he would have corrected himself) than to alter what he might defign to ftand. Mr. Fletcher's friends, I knew, would prefer what was his to any thing I could fubftitute in the place of it: and, as I fhould have thought it a crime to mifreprefent his fentiments, fo I did not think I could mend his ftyle, which, in general, is moft pure and excellent. I have not, indeed, thought myself under an obligation to publifh all the papers he hath left on this part of the fubject, fome of them being loofe and unconnected paragraphs,

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and not capable of being introduced here; bat what I have been able to bring into any proper connexion with the reft, and what feemed calcu lated to prove or illuftrate the doctrine under confideration, I have published; and the public may be fure they are not miftaken in receiving, as Mr. Fletcher's, what is presented to them as his.

Hull, Nov. 15, 1788.

J. BENSON.

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INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION.

1. THE HE Catholic Church is openly attacked in our day, by enemies fo much the more dangerous as they are friends to fome of her doctrines, and as to many things highly commendable in their moral conduct, putting to the blufh the loofe livers who acknowledge a Trinity. Thus they perfuade the world, that their inceffant attacks upon the diftinguifhing doctrines of Chrif tianity, are directed by Virtue itself.

2. Those who cordially believe in the Father, in the Son, and in the Holy Ghost, are publicly treated as grofs Idolaters, because at the name of Jefus they bow the knee, and call for falvation upon the only name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be faved, Phil. ii. 10. and Acts iv. 12.

We are even invited to come out of the Church of England, as if the were myftic Babylon, because fhe directs us to call upon the Son, as we do on the Father; an act of worship, which the enemies of our Lord's Divinity confider as idolizing Chrift, if we may judge of them by their learned Champion, who fays in his Appeal to the Profeffors of Chriftianity, "If the Trinitarians think it a point of conscience not to go to Mafs in Popish Churches, because in their opinion it is idolizing a piece of bread, you ought to make a point of confcience not to worship with them, because in your opinion, it is idolizing a man, who is just as improper an object of worship, as a piece of bread." Thus the Lord of glory is put on a level with a piece of bread, and doing the chief work of a Chriftian, calling upon the Lord Jefus for falvation, is compared to the worshipping of an idol, which hath not so much life and fenfe as a dog.

3. So incefant have these onsets been of late, that we might fear for the Catholic Church, if

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INTRODUCTION.

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the Lord had not promifed that the gates of hell· Shall not prevail against her, and that all things fhall work together for good to them that love Him. But, comforted and encouraged by these promises, we may be confident, that even the repeated attacks of Dr. Priestley against our Lord's divinity, will fhew the ftrength of the rock of ages: as the billows, which inceffantly beat upon a rock that breaks them all, fhew their own weakness, and the folidity of the Rock against which they foam, and dash themselves.

4. In the mean time, new modes of attack will render new methods of defence neceffary; for God forbid that Chrift's worshippers fhould be lefs ready to confefs him as their Lord and their God, than the defpifers of his Divinity are to degrade him into a mere man !The learned Archdeacon of St. Albans, the Monthly Reviewers, the Rev. Meff. Ryland and Shepard, &c... have already stood forth in defence of the Catholic Faith and, in the Author's judgment, they have done it fo effectually, that when he faw their publications, he laid these papers afide as needlefs and if he now refumes them at the defire of some friends, it is merely upon confidering, that Dr. Horfley and his judicious Allies having chiefly written for the learned, fome farther remarks, fuited to perfons of all ranks and capacities, might have their use also.

5. The Lord needs no man's pen to support his Divinity, which fupports the pillars of earth and heaven nevertheless, as he once used the voice of an afs to check a Prophet's madnefs, and that of a cock to stop an Apoftle's imprecations, he may, (if he condescend to bless these fheets) foften, by them, the prejudices of a Philofopher. But the principal end, which the Author propofes, by fending them to the prefs, is to confirm his own faith, and that of the unprejudiced Reader, by fcattering the mifts of fome growing errors, and by collecting the beams of Christ's divine glory, which lie facred in the pages.

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6. It is humbly hoped, that the friends of the pure gofpel, will not (under pretence that they hate controverfy) be afraid to increase their light, and to warm their devotion, at a fire made up of coals taken from the altar of Sacred Truth. No man's time was ever loft, no believer's love was ever injured, by reading St. John's Gospel or his Epiftles, where our Lord himfelf, and his loving difciple, carry on against the Scribes and the Pharifees, against the Jews and the Gnofticks, the very fame controverfy, which we now maintain against the Unitarians and the Philofophers of the prefent age.

7. In the mean time, let no one be furprised that men noted for their learning and virtue, fhould be permitted to enforce their errors fo publickly, and with fuch apparent fincerity: Providence has its wife ends. There must be. herefies among us, that they who are approved may be made manifeft.-Light and darkness, truth and error, the tree of life, and the tree of knowledge, must be fet before us, that we may ftretch out our hand according to our choice, and be judged according to the works of our faith, or thefe of our unbelief. Add to this, that, by God's over-ruling providence, error often whets the edge of truth, manifefts its folidity, and makes its fparkling glories break forth with greater advantage: thus, in a picture, the fhades heighten the furprizing effect of the lights; and truth never appears fo tranfcendently bright, as when the blacknefs of error, like a foil, fets it off in our fight. What is chaff to the wheat, before the winnowing fan? and what are thorns to the fire ?

8. Truth is a devouring fame, and will one day confume all the bulwarks of wood, hay, and ftubble, which are raised to stop its progrefs. Dr. Priestley pictures out this power of truth, in the fine frontispiece of his difquifitions. There he fets before us wooden scaffolds all on fire, while a temple of marble, adorned with pillars of filver, gold and precious stones, stands the conflagration.

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