From Rev. Theophilus Lindsey to Mr, (afterwards Dr.) W. Harris. [See Three Letters from the Same to the Same, pp. 157--159.]

I

DEAR SIR,

Catterick, near Bedal, March 5, 1765. HOPE my last was received in its due time from its date, though far from being so from the date of yours, which it came to acknowledge. Since the writing of that, many things, well noticed by you and by every friend to liberty, have happened. Mr. Churchill's death, which was a public loss; the Letter of Inquiry into Libels, &c., and the attempt upon the printer; Mrs. Macaulay's noble and valuable history, and particularly her finished history-piece of the tyrant triumvirate Charles and his priest or Mufti or Pope and his prime-minister. Mr. Blackburne, by the bye, in reading this last book, desired I would bid you observe the high character of Archbishop Abbot; and, indeed, though he might be over peevish against Grotius, and in some other cases where Arminianism was concerned, yet he will be cleared much of blame, if it be considered, how connected Popery and Arminianism and civil tyranny were, in our own country, at that time; and particularly, how Grotius himself, with his reconciling high-church principles, did afterwards more than meet the Papists half way.

But there is a loss, which I declare myself to have felt for, and so I am sure did you, more than any other lately, and that was, of your valuable friend, and that truly honest and able Englishman, and most edifying aud entertaining friend and companion, Mr. Munckley. You will miss him sorely in his annual visits, at his return from and to London; and ill, likewise, could the public spare such a man in these days. Our common great friend in Pall-Mall will regret him, for I have heard him mention him in terms of very high esteem. I cannot mention this latter friend, without telling you of an instance of his wonted generosity and public spirit, in presenting Mr. Archd. B. and your humble servant lately each of us with copies of Wallis's Grammar, and the noble Let

ters on Toleration. I hope he was well, if you heard from him lately.

I do not know whether you are acquainted with the learned and valuable Mr. Brekell, a Dissenting clergyman at Liverpool. I had a letter from him lately, requesting a subscription to a volume of sermons he has put to the press,-the first time he ever published that way, but which he is obliged to, by the losses which he has sustained by most of his publications. The price,-five or six shillings: no money to be paid but on the delivery of his book. If you think proper to testify your regards to such a worthy man, you might, perhaps, procure some other friends' concurrence, and signify your names to him, which he desires. Excuse a liberty which, I trust, you would without scruple take with me.

You will have seen advertised, " An Historical View of the intermediate State between Death and the Resurrection:"--from the same motives as the above, I wish you would buy it; and I do not doubt but, when you have read it, you will recommend it to your friends at Exeter and Honiton. This breathes in it a spirit of liberty and free inquiry, supported by so much real learning and good sense, as cannot fail of winuing the unprejudiced reader to the doctrine represented therein and supported, and which I believe, from the word of God, the only source of satisfaction on the point, to be the true doctrine. It is not to be told, how frantic and railing our high-church, and particularly the Papists are about it. Indeed, it throws Dagon down, and dashes him to pieces without mercy. I hope you are free from any severe returns of the gout, and Mrs. Harris also, and your niece and friends from any great afflictions of that or any other sort. Mrs. Lindsey and I have occasion to be thankful for our lot in this respect; myself in particular, who have been confined a little, indeed, by one or two colds, but never once laid up, or confined to a bed, as I used to be once or twice a year. I hope, with many others, that your Biographical History is in forwardness, to appear in public early

lamented your want of health, has, in a letter lately received, said nothing to the contrary. What a man is he; and what might not ten such men in this nation effect! But no more: he loves not to be talked of: he loves and endeavours to help each man to act his part, as he does bis own.

I congratulate you, and us all, on the repeal of the Stamp and Cyder Act, and condemnation of general warrants. May I congratulate you ten years hence on a continuation of such public-spirited useful measures! But that is said not to be likely to come to pass; for, that the man behind the curtain still continues his sway, and may, probably, dismiss the present

disposition in letter-writing, concur to make me a bad correspondent; but none can make me forget or drop the most affectionate regards I have for you, and the high esteem I must ever bear to the author of "The Life of Charles II." for his bold and honest testimony to the truth, in the most dangerous times. For a present of this noble work, I was highly obliged to you some time ago, and should have thanked the donor sooner, had not the book been, as it were, seized from me by the importunity of a friend or two, before I could look it calmly through myself. Some of these think it preferable to any other of your works: I own, I am partial to Oliver Cromwell's History, which seems to me more finished, and to have a greater variety in it; but your Cromwell is not so instructive nor so bold. One wonders how you could have picked up so much excellent and noble reasoning and sense from authors that one has never heard of. I hope Bishop Burnet's History will now have more credit with many, for the good support you have lent it. One public attestation of the value and truth of your History, has appeared in the barking against it of those great scoundrels, the Critical Reviewers: a good word from them would have made one look at it again, to see if there was not something very inauspicious to freedom in it. Give me leave now to express my hope that your health is better established. I will hope so, because a common friend, who much

Dr. Syndercombe, a clergyman.

beck and direction. It is said, that a great inmate of his, the Lord Chr, has, by his roughness and blunt freedoms in speaking, won much upon the K-g, so as to have become a great favourite; otherwise he must have gone out, and Ch-s Y-ke have come in in his place, who is all in all with the D. of Newcastle, and is said never to have offended the Court in any of the late struggles of his party for freedom against the last Ministry. Some men will always, in all changes, light on their feet; but the dirt sticks to them the more for it, and will ever stick.

The Archdeacon, our friend, and my wife's father in-law, is often speaking of you, and always desiring to be remembered to you. Our great friend presented him with a copy of your work, which he read with great pleasure and satisfaction, and has given it a place amongst his worthies and benefactors of mankind. It is in vain to wish to see you, but we are often wishing it. Perhaps this may find you by the sea-side at Lyme, in your summer retreat at that place, where we once passed an evening. Wherever you go, you are careful, I know, to spread the principles of truth and integrity, and I wish you success, particularly amongst us of the Church of England, with many of whom the spirit of Popery is increasing, and which lends a fatal and dangerous support to actual Ponery, that has gained so many converts from us for some years past. We think we sometimes see the signature of our friend's hand, of Honiton, in the public prints, against the common adversary, as he

not seldom sees the Archd.'s. But of such things, one is cautious how one speaks. A blow from an invisible hand strikes deeper, and hath more effect, than when you see whence it comes. Never was a parliamentary inquiry into the progress of Popery, and the means to stop it, more needful; and it is to be hoped the common danger may awake our governors in state: the church, for a nameless good reason, will not stir. You will have observed, that your own good chiefpastor is gone with his Grace of Canterbury his rounds, to learn the art of Confirmation. How improved must he return to you! Is it not time to have done with such trinkets? What concern, then, to find them rise in

their value with many; and worst of all, some of your Dissenting friends aping them; for such I look upon our neighbour Lothian, of Newcastle, putting forward a subscription for an organ in their place of worship, aud introducing a stated form of prayer. The case and emoluments of an opulent, dignified and dignifying great National Church, are too powerful temptations for the integrity of many. Farewell! my wife joins in all good wishes and respects to yourself, Mrs. Harris, your niece and Miss Hawker, and I am always, dear Sir, Your most truly obliged, Humble servant,

THEO. LINDSEY.

Limborch, 1685-1704.

(Continued from p. 357.)

No. 21.

John Locke to Philip à Limborch.

A

Oates, November 28, 1692.
MY MOST WORTHY FRIEND,

S soon as I knew of the arrival of your book, I hastened to London, that I might personally attend to your desires respecting it. I immediately waited on the Archbis shop, [Tillotson,] who expressed himself greatly obliged to you. The work so pleased him that, although much occupied at this time, he could not abstain from reading it, but had run over a great part of it with peculiar pleasure. But with what disposition he received, perused and praised it, you will best understand from his letter, which he designs to write at his first leisure.

The Bishop of Salisbury [Burnet] expressed himself to me in the same terms, and is so occupied, and indeed

* Historia Inquisitionis. Fol. Amst. 1692. This work, in 1731, was 66 translated into English by Samuel Chandler, in 2 vols. 4to." with "a large Introduction concerning the rise and progress of Persecution, and the real and pretended causes of it."

You may well be surprised that I, who owe you thanks not less in my own name than in the names of these persons, should be so tardy where expedition were most becoming, that, neglecting the most convenient place, I should retire into the country before I wrote to you. But the fact is, I go to the city in health, but am so affected by the shortest stay there that I can scarcely breathe. The malady continually increases upon me, till I am quickly driven away; being obliged to fly from London, though to the inconvenience of neglecting all my affairs there.

I have brought down your book with me, that by your kindness Lady Cudworth [Masham] and I may this winter enjoy Attic evenings, which could only be enhanced by the presence of the author, and the Attic salt which he always brings with him. I returned hither on Saturday. To-day we began to read your work, with what pleasing expectation you may easily judge, but be assured, that our gratitude to you was not less than our own delight.

By your letter, dated 10th October, I first understood how many copies you had sent hither, and for whom. I contrived with my host and book

"I expect every day several books concerning the Inquisition, writ by Mr. Limborch. Amongst the rest there is one for the Bishop of Bath and Wells, with a letter to him. I have ordered Mr. Pawling to put what is for that worthy bishop into your hands, to be delivered him by you in my stead, and with my service, Pray excuse my not having waited upon him, as I have a long time desired, and hope ere long I shall have the opportunity to do, though it be one of the inconveniencies ĺ suffer from my ill lungs, that they usually drive me out of town when most of my friends and those whom I wish to be near are in it." Mr. Locke in a letter to Mr. Clarke, 11th Nov. 1692. MS. Brit. Mus. See p. 356.

seller, Smith, that all these should be delivered before a single copy could be sold here. This has been punctually performed; nor in that part has any attention been neglected, of which such an excellent and seasonable work is worthy. But what at last is to be done with the MS. copy in your hand-writing, which I recommended to be deposited in some place of safety among our archives, that it might for ever impudent adversaries. * But I shall readily inquire what place will be the most secure. I rejoice that the Life of Episcopius is to be stamped with immortality by your pen; but in what language? As it is, I apprehend, to be prefixed to his Sermons, in Dutch, now publishing, I fear lest his Life should also appear in a tongue with which I am little acquainted. Yet I congratulate the learned world on this intended memorial of a man so excellent and learned, all whose works are well worthy of preservation.

There has been lately published here, John Malela, † of Antioch, whose work my friend Toinard has long and anxiously desired to see. Pray request Wetstein, as soon as he receives any copies of that book, (which I know will be sooner than I could send one to Amsterdam,) to convey a copy immediately to Toinard, and to charge me with the expense, which I will readily repay. Malela is an author of no great name or credit. But on some dubious point of chronology, Toinard hoped to receive light from him, and I wish very much to assist his design. Therefore attend,