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of my hearers, preach free and finished falvation as ftrongly as you will. May you be enabled to reach their hearts.

With affectionate refpects to dear Mrs. Rontaine, I fubfcribe myself, ex animo (as all my fubfcriptions are) ever your's,

Auguftus Toplady.

LETTER XXVI.

TO AMBROSE SERLE, Efq.

MY

Broad-Hembury, Oct. 1, 1773.

Y having spent part of the week at Exeter, will account for this late acknowledgement of dear Mr. S's favours, which I found at my return.

You have my particular thanks, ever valued fir, for the tranfmiffion of your learned and ingenious manuscript concerning the Origin of the Human Soul*. I waited, with fome degree of impatience, for this completion of your kind promife, made when we were travelling together from Honiton to Exeter and I muft own, that, though I am not profelyted, I am confiderably ftaggered, by the arguments you bring. The strongest of which, in my idea, is, that, drawn from the eternal generation of God the Son. This, certainly, if any thing, bids fairest for turning the fcale in favour of the hypothefis, you fo heartily adopt, and fo ingeniously de

The manufcript, here alluded to, has fince been publifhed in a feries of fome of the first numbers of the Theological Mifcellany, by the ingenious and refpectable gentleman unto whom this letter is addreffed; who is held in high eftimation for his integrity, piety, and benevolence, but particularly for his profound and critical refearches evinced in his exhibition of divine truth. EDITOR.

fend.

fend. Nor can I anfwer to the inference you deduce from that topic.

I must, however, with all the refpect and tendernefs fo juftly due to my excellent friend, fufpend my judgment concerning the whole matter: as I have, hitherto, been always forced to do; and as no lefs a man, than St. Auftin, did, to the end of his life. Yet, though not determined to either fide of the question (non noftrum eft tantas componere lites) I own myfelf inclinable to believe that fouls are of God's own immediate creation and infufion. Difficulties, both many and great, do, without doubt, clog the wheels of this opinion. But thofe, which embarrass the exofona, feem, at prefent, to me, both more and greater. I know not, for inftance, how to reconcile it to fuch Scriptures as Eccles. xii. 7. Zech. xii. 1. Heb. xii. 9. Nor can I conceive how foul can generate foul, without fuppofing the foul to have partes extra partes: and if we once grant its divifibility, what becomes of its abfolute immateriality, together with its effential incorruptibility, and its intrinfic immortality? Neither can my dear friend afcertain, from which of the two parental fouls a third is educed: whether from the father's only, or from the mother's only, or by a decifione utriufque.

As little can it be explained, how one, or two fouls, can produce many. The ufual fimile, of "candle being lighted by candle," will here give us no light at all. One candle, it is true, is able to light up an hundred others: but not fine intercifione materie proprie. It actually communicates fome of its own luminous particles to the candle or candles which it enflaines. But can we fay this of the foul, and at the fame time maintain its fpirituality? Thefe, my dear fir, are a fpecimen of the difficulties which will not allow me to adopt the 4yona; and which induce me to confider the xes as the lefs exceptionable scheme of the two. VOL. VI. (31.)

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After all, it may, perhaps, be best, for us, as humble Chriftians, not to launch too far into the immenfe ocean of too curious fpeculation. God's word is the believer's chart. God's fpirit is the believer's pilot. Where the former ceafes to defcribe our path, and the latter to fhape our courfe, it will moft conduce to the fimplicity and joy of faith, to limit our enquiries, to leave with God the fecret things which belong to him, to keep within fight of land, and wait for all unneceffary ecclairciffements until our dif-imprifoned fouls fhall afcend on angels' wings to the prefence of him whofe are all the treafures of wisdom and knowledge.

And yet, I wish to fee your modeft and elegant difquifition in print. I hope you will give it to the public: for, whether the hypothefis it afferts be intrinfically right or wrong, you treat the argument with fuch purity of diction, with fuch refinement of reafon, and with fuch tranfparent piety, that it must please the philofophic, and cannot poffibly offend the Chriftian reader.-Permit me to detain it from you a week or two longer: as I am very defirous of giving it feveral perufals more.

After putting your patience to fo long a trial, I muft not aggravate my prolixity, by apologizing for it. Nor can I conclude, without reminding you, that you are ftill my debtor, by promife, for a fight of thofe compofitions in verfe, in which (by the few famples you have formerly indulged me with) I know you to poffefs fo refined a tafte. Lay me, foon, under this obligation alfo: though no obligations, which even you are able to confer, can make ine, more than I already am,

your affectionate and devoted,

Augufius Toplady.

LETTER

LETTER XXVII.

To Mr. M. POLLARD.

DEAR SIR,

Broad-Hembury, Oct. 1, 1773.

FEAR you have, long ago, fet me down for little lefs than a monfter of incivility, on account of my permitting your letter to lie fo long unacknowledged. I am really afhamed to review its date. You wrote it, Oa. 1, 1772. I am anfwering it, Oct. 1, 1773. Such a feeming failure, in common decency, needs much candour, in you, to excufe it; and requires a very fufficient apology, from me, to extenuate it.

The truth is, your favour was, by fome means or other, miflaid: and was not retrieved, until a few days ago, when I was hunting among my papers. I often recollected, with pain and regret, that I was your epiftolary debtor: but was forced to continue fo, until, by recovering your address, I could know, with certainty, how to direct my answer.

I read that rancorous and paltry libel on the Church of England, compiled by Cornifh, of Culliton, which you was fo obliging as to fend me: a performance, raked together from a variety of antient and modern dunghills; and exhibiting such a jumble of fcurrility, as was never, I believe, before, crowded into fo fmall a compafs.

The

I cannot agree with you, that it deferves a public animadverfion. It is, moreover, by this time, dead and buried, in great meafure. It was pity to recall it into life. Let it fink, and be forgotten. Church has nothing to fear, from the efforts of fuch an indecent fcribbler, who has started nothing new; but deals in ftale, borrowed cavils, which have been refuted, again and again, times without number. Befides:

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Befides an answer would only conduce to render both the man and his pamphlet confpicuous. It would fet the former, on a pedeítal; and diffuse the latter into a greater number of hands.

Mr. Addison fomewhere obferves, there are infects, fo exceedingly minute, that we cannot examine them, without magnifying them: and compares perfons, who enter the lifts with contemptible writers, to the traveller, in the fable; who, being incommoded with the noife of grafshoppers, "alighted from his horfe, in great wrath, to kill them all. Which was troubling himself, to no purpose: for, had he purfued his journey, without taking notice of them, they would have died, of themfelves, in a very few weeks."

This is my chief reafon for declining the task you wish me to undertake. To which I muft add, that my business, for several years paft, has lain in another department. My call from Providence feems to be, not the affailing of those who honeftly feparate from a Church which (unhappily) they do not approve; but to expofe the treachery, and to obviate the interested fophiftry, of too many among us, who, for caufes fufficiently notorious, pretend to revere the Church, and actually live by her breafts, while they hate her doctrines in their hearts, and labour, with all their might, to ftab her under the fifth rib.

With affectionate wishes for your welfare both here, and ever, I remain,

Sir, your obedient fervant,

Auguflus Toplady.

LETTER

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