which no private person is authorized to give. This would not be to discourage and quash truth by human authority, but to censure most flagrant heresy, propagated with rage and rudeness, by those who have their power from above. He is, I think, the properer object of the authority here intended, because (in page 24.) he sounds the trumpet to his brethren “ to unite, in order to abolish and destroy “ all ecclesiastical authority, usurping dominion over 6 their faith and consciences:" threatening language, and betraying more of a spirit of faction and sedition, than of Christian liberty or modesty. Rode, caper, vitem, tamen hinc cum stabis ad aras, In tua quod fundi cornua possit, erit. However, this concerns not Dr. Waterland at all, who pleads for no human authority; but merely for an act of obedience to God, viz. “ renouncing com“ munion with heretics.” This is maintaining the truth, discharging an upright conscience, and instructing true and faithful Christians what to think, and how to behave in a very important point of conduct. Whether our author will at last sit down in shame and silence, (though he seems to me to think them the same thing,) I am not at all solicitous to know. In all appearance, the symptoms of the cacoethes are so strong upon him, that he will still persist to expose his credit and his cause. He has indeed this felicity above most men, that he has very near done his worst towards both, and has almost obtained the privilege of saying what he will, without any danger of injuring either. And upon this account, as I take it, he has no reason to be angry with the author of these observations, who is very probably the last person who will be idle enough to pay him the civility of a public answer. Having thus made my court to him, by reminding him of this small obligation, I have, in conclusion, a small favour to beg of him, which it will be po trouble to him to grant : and that is, that if he determines to proceed in the same argument, he would prosecute it by the same means, and continue to write in the same manner;—with the same violence and blindness of passion, the same virulence of language, the same utter disregard of decency and truth. Go on, great genius, thus to write for your cause, till you have wrote it down ;-till your reputation as an author, which (since you have been left unsupported) you have been so generous as to shew you had no right to, be entirely lost ;-till you have neither friend nor adversary left; the one being ashamed to own your acquaintance, and the other despising you as below notice. POSTSCRIPT. IN turning over our author's pages, I omitted to take notice of his misrepresentation of Dr. Waterland, (p. 17,) with respect to 2 Cor. i. 24. Not for that we have dominion over your faith, &c. Here - he tells us that the doctor says, “ the text is of ob “ scure meaning; and pretends as if he knew not « what to make of it.” The doctor says, (p. 200. of the Importance,) that “the phrase of having do“ minion over one's faith, though a scripture phrase, “ is of obscure meaning.” Where is the hurt of this? numberless scripture phrases are very obscure; else, the labours of numberless learned men have been very ill employed. But this writer will say, the hurt of it is, that it is false; “ for the sense of the “ text,” says he, “ is plain enough.” That the sense of the text is not so very plain, but rather very ob. scure, I shall now shew him, by giving the various interpretations of some of the best commentators upon the place; which it will be hard to account for, without allowing the phrase to be of obscure meaning. I will begin with Erasmus : “ Vide num “ hic sensus accipi possit, Dominamur vobis propter “ fidem, vel fidei gratia, ut more Græcorum sub“ audiatur, éveka. Græca sic habent, Oix őrt Kypseuduer “ ýpão tñs niotews. Atque ut ita sentiam, facit arti“culus post úpõv positus; alioqui magis conveniebat s6 tñs yuõv nioTeWs. Licet Chrysostomus nihil offenda“ tur articulo. Hæc autem dicit, quod ante dixerat VOL. II. HORBERY. Dd re “ parcens, velut alioqui sæviturus. Non est autem “ dominium, nisi cum peccatum est alicubi : sed in “ fide nondum peccarant, qua firmi stabant ; libi“ dine, contentione, dissidiisque peccarant: id igitur “ verbi mitigat hac ratione. In hanc sententiam “ Chrysostomus. Theophylactus, in cæteris mecum “ faciens, de transposito articulo nullum movet scru“ pulum : quanquam et alter sensus probe habet, “ Fides libera est, dominium necessitatis est, ut in“ terpretatur Ambrosius. Hæc animadvertenda no« bis, qui fidei ac religionis titulo ad tyrannidem “ abutimur. Nec alio fortassis studio quidam cupi“ mus orbem redigi ad professionem Christi, quam “ ut ipsi latius regnemus. Qui subigunt Turcas, ne “ spectent dominium aut prædam .—Quod si ad “ vos non veni, non certo promiseram, et non veni“ endi justa causa fuit. Id enim feci, ut vobis parce“ rem. Nam si venissem, cum virga venissem; (ut in “ priore epistola minatus sum;) hoc est, vos gravius “ propter illud incesti flagitium castigassem. Dicet “ quis : Ergone nos tam parvæ fiduciæ et constantiæ “ esse putas, ut tuam præsentis castigationem ferre “ nequeamus? Ego vero non puto. Scio enim, vos in “ fiducia constantes esse : nec eam vobis derogo, sed “ gaudü vestri rationem habeo. Nam si vos præsens “ castigassem, ea res vobis (ut de me taceam) dolo“ rem fecisset, qui dolor nunc aberit. Kupreveu au“ tem, quod derogare vertimus, est non solum domi“ num esse, sed etiam dominum fieri et potiri : sicut « ante de βασιλεύειν scripsimus : ut sit κυριεύειν της “ nistews, dominum se facere fiduciæ alterius : hoc “ est, alteri fiduciam et robur detrahere, et esse ne“ gare.” Castellio :-“ Ostendisset Paulus se velle a Critici Sacri in loc. “ dominari Corinthiis fidei nomine, si suo jure exe- b Critici Sacri in loc. |