the World, that we are fenfible Your LORDSHIP has acted the Part of a Good and Faithful Magiftrate, but that we also know Your LORDSHIP will be in the Senate as vigilant an Oppofer of all Those who fhall attempt to infringe our Rights and Privileges, as You have been at the Head of this Honourable City, in expoftulating to the Prefent Parliament the Great Inconveniences of the late Excife-Scheme; whose Overthrow, without the leaft Flattery, may be attributed to Your LORDSHIP's Great Prudence, Wisdom and Conduct.

May Your LORDSHIP long live a Patron of this Great City, and hav ing attained thofe Perfections contained in the Gospel, may Your LORDSHIP, when Your Diffolution cometh, be admitted into the Manfions of Blifs.

This is the hearty Prayer of

T

Your LORDSHIP's moft Obedient

and moft Humble Servant,

JACOB ILIVE.

Dr. R.G. Adams 10-7-1929

THE

PREFACE.

T

HE following Difcourfe from John xiv. 2. was wrote in the Year 1719. with no Defign of being spoke, read or printed, but to employ fome leifure Time I had Which I then (and often fince) read to my Mother, who approving the Hypothefis contained in it, ordered by her Will the Publick Reading of it. The Words are:

before me.

April 20. 1733. "That my Son and Executor Jacob "Ilive fhall read the Discourse which he "has made from John xiv. 2. publickly in

a Hall (Stationers-Hall if poffible) or "other convenient Place, within Fourteen "Days or other fit Time, after my De"cease, to as many of my Acquaintance "and others as fhall be minded seriously "to hear the fame.

Jane Ilive.

In

In pursuance whereof I interceeded for the Ufe of Stationers-hall, but my Request was not granted. I procured Brewers-hall, where I read it publickly, Monday, Sept. 10. and at the Defire of my Friends I repeated it at Joyners-hall, Sept. 24.

The Subject of it is intirely new, not calculated with a Defign to ferve any particular Party, but endeavours to introduce more worthy Ideas and Apprehenfions of God, than has hitherto obtained in the Chriftian Church, by fetting before the Reader an Hypothefis every way agreeable to the Nature and Effence of the Divine Being. If herein I am mistaken, I fhall be very willing to retract my Error, and I hope, as there are thofe among the Reverend Clergy of our Church, whofe Skill in Theology far exceeds mine, would be fo kind as to remark upon my Performance, and reprove me in the Spirit of Meekness.

2

As for thofe Expreffions wherein I have a little too feverely cenfured Priests, as fome may judge, the best way to invalidate them will be to fhew that neither the Heathen, Jewish nor Chriftian Priefts (of Fourteen Centuries after Chrift) have impofed upon the People, for it is allowed, that the prefent Clergy of the Church of England have no Hand in Impofition!

:I

The

The next Thing that will give Offence I fear is the Judgment I have pass'd both in my Qration and Notes on Mofes and Aaron. As to Mofes, I conceive, he was a Man of great Courage and Policy. How far thefe are necessary to establish a new System of fuch Rites and Ceremonies, as he inftituted, I leave to those who after they have read my Notes, can think them of Divine Appointment. And here I declare, that I do not not look upon Mofes as a Lawgiver of the Jews to be an Impoftor, but commend him for attempting to make his Brethren a great People, by feparating them from the Nations. And fo far as He did eftablish the Law of Natural Religi on, though burthened with grievous Rites and Ceremonies, fo far his Laws was of God, or (if you please) of Divine Appointment, and no farther. What I have faid of Aaron in relation to the Golden Calf being fact, needs no Apology, for it is certain good Men (and as fuch why not good. Priests) may fall into Error. However, if it should be thought. that I have any way mifreprefented either the Character of Mofes or Aaron, I fall herein fubmit to better Judgments.

I am very fenfible of the particular Happiness and Bleffing, we of this Kingdom enjoy, of free. Debate, which is not only our Privilege as Proteftants, but as Subjects to the Beft of PRINCES: This is the Happy Confe

quence

quence of the Establishment of the Throne of thefe Realms in the Illuftrious and Aufpicious Houfe of Hanover. And I hope, that fo long as the World fhall endure, there will not be wanting a Prince of the Present Royal Family, of fuch Glorious Principles with His Sacred MAJESTY to weild the Sword of this British Empire.

I shall now only beg this Favour of all thofe into whofe Hands this Oration hall fall, not to be too hafty in cenfuring the Hypothefis or its Author, before he has duly confidered it; for though the Doctrine contained in it is co-eval to the Creation of this Place, and to itsFormation out of Chaos, yet it is now fo far loft, that it feems novel. Therefore it will be convenient for every Man to confider its Reasonableness, which if he should do, without Prejudice either to the Oration or to its Author, I am perfuaded, he will, from bimfelf, and his own Obfervations, find fome Arguments to fupport my Hypothefis.

But if I fhould fail berein, I here declare, that I do not publifh my Oration with any other Defign, than to prevent false Represen tations that may have been made hereof, without the leaft Intention of giving Offence to any Perfon or Body of Men whatsoever.

II.