described to me by a Gentleman of your communion, Mr. J. C―ne, who is well acquainted with us both. Having mentioned this, I need only add, that I write to you in the name of a society of serious and worthy Christians of different persuasions, to which society I myself belong, all of whom are as desirous as I am, to receive satisfaction from you on certain doubts, which your late work in answer to Dr. Sturges has suggested to us (1).

However, in making this request of our Society to you, it seems proper, Rev. Sir, that I should bring you acquainted with the nature of it; by way of convincing you, that it is not unworthy of the attention which I am desirous you should pay to it. We consist then of above twenty persons, including the Ladies, who, living at some distance from any considerable town, meet together once a week, generally at my habitation of New Cottage; not so much for our amusement and refection, as for the improvement of our minds, by reading the best publications of the day which I can procure from my London Bookseller, and sometimes an original essay written by one of the company.

I have signified that many of us are of different religious persuasions: this will be seen more distinctly from the following account of our members. Among these I must mention, in the first place, our learned and worthy Rector, Dr. Carey. He is, of course, of the Church of England; but like most others of his learned and dignified brethren, in these times, he

(1) Letters to a Prebendary, in answer to Reflections on Popery, by the Rev. Dr. Sturges, Prebendary and Chancellor of Winchester.

is of that free, and, as it is called, liberal turn of mind, as to explain away the mysteries and a great many of its other articles, which, in my younger days, were considered essential to it. Mr. and Mrs. Topham are Methodists of the Predestinarian and Antinomian class, while Mr. and Mrs. Askew are mitigated Arminian Methodists of Wesley's connection. Mr. and Mrs. Rankin are honest Quakers. Mr. Barker and his children term themselves Rational Dissenters, being of the old Presbyterian lineage, which is now almost universally gone into Socinianism. I, for my part, glory in being a staunch member of our happy establishment, which has kept the golden mean among the contending sects, and which, I am fully persuaded, approaches nearer to the purity of the Apostolic Church, than any other which has existed since the age of it, Mrs. Brown professes an equal attachment to the Church; yet, being of an inquisitive and ardent mind, she cannot refrain from frequenting the meetings, and even supporting the missions of those self-created apostles, who are undermining this Church on every side, and who are no where more active than in our sequestered valley.

With these differences among us, on the most interesting of all subjects, we cannot help having frequent religious controversies: but reason and charity enable us to manage these without any breach either of good manners, or good will to each other. Indeed, I believe that we are, one and all, possessed of an unfeigned respect and cordial love for Christians of every description, one only excepted. Must I name it on the present occasion ?—Yes, I must, in order to fulfil my commission in a proper manner.

It is then the Church that you, Rev. Sir, belong to: which, if any credit is due to the eminent divines, whose works we are in the habit of reading, and more particularly to the illustrious Bishop Porteus in his celebrated and standing work, called A BRIEF CONFUTATION OF THE ERRORS OF THE CHURCH OF ROME, extracted from Archbishop Secker's V. SERMONS AGAINST POPERY (1), is such a mass of absurdity, bigotry, superstition, idolatry, and immorality, that to say we respect and love those who obstinately adhere to it, as we do other Christians, would seem a compromise of reason, scripture, and virtuous feeling.

And yet even of this Church we have formed a less revolting idea, in some particulars, than we did formerly. This has happened from our having just read over your controversial work against Dr. Sturges, called LETTERS TO A PREBENDARY, to which our attention was directed by the notice taken of it in the Houses of Parliament, and particularly by the very unexpected compliment paid to it by that ornament of our Church, Bishop Horsley. We admit then (at least I, for my part, admit) that you have refuted the most odious of the charges brought against your religion, namely, that it is necessarily, and upon principle, intolerant and sanguinary, requiring its members to persecute with fire and sword all persons of a different creed from their own, when this is in their power. You have also proved

(1) The Norrisian Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge, Dr. Hey, speaking of this work, says: The Refutation of the Popish errors is now reduced into a small compass by Archbishop Secker and Bishop Porteus.'—Lectures in Divinity, Vol. IV. p. 71.

that Papists may be good subjects to a Protestant Sovereign; and you have shown, by an interesting historical detail, that the Roman Catholics of this kingdom have been conspicuous for their loyalty from the time of Elizabeth down to the present time. Still most of the absurd and anti-scriptural doctrines and practices alluded to above, relating to the worship of Saints and Images, to Transubstantiation and the half Communion, to Purgatory, and shutting up the Bible, with others of the same nature, you have, not, to my recollection, so much as attempted to defend. In a word, I write to you, Rev. Sir, on the present occasion, in the name of our respectable Society, to ask you whether you fairly give up these doctrines

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and practices of Popery, as untenable; or otherwise, whether you will condescend to interchange a few letters with me on the subject of them, for the satisfaction of me and my friends, and with the sole view of mutually discovering and communicating religious truths. We remark that you say in your first Letter to Dr. Sturges; Should I have occasion to make another reply to you, I will try if it be not possible to put the whole question at issue between us into such a shape as shall remove the danger of irritation on both sides, and still enable us, if we are mutually so disposed, to agree together in the acknowledgment of the same religious truths.'If you still think that this is possible, for God's sake and your neighbour's sake, delay not to undertake it. The plan embraces every advantage we wish for, and excludes every evil we deprecate. You shall manage the discussion in your own way, and we will give you as little interruption as possible.-Two of the essays above alluded to, with which our worthy

Rector lately furnished us, I will, with your permission, enclose, to convince you that genius and sacred literature are cultivated round the Wrekin, and on the banks of the Severn.

I remain, Rev. Sir, with great respect,
Your faithful and obedient servant,

JAMES BROWN.

ESSAY I.

ON THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, AND OF NATURAL RELIGION,

By the Rev. SAMUEL CAREY, L.L.D.

FORESEEING that my health will not permit me, for a considerable time, to meet my respected friends at New Cottage, I comply with the request, which several of them have made me, in sending them in writing, my ideas on the two noblest subjects which can occupy the mind of man: the existence of God, and the Truth of Christianity. In doing this, I profess not to make new discoveries, but barely to state certain arguments, which I collected, in my youth, from the learned Hugo Grotius, our own judicious Clark, and other advocates of Natural and Revealed Religion. I offer no apology for adopting the words of Scripture, in arguing with persons, who are supposed not to admit its authority, when these express my meaning as fully as any others can do.

The first argument for the existence of God is thus expressed by the Royal Prophet: Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, an