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V. An extract out of Jofephus's exhortation to the Greeks, concerning Hades, and the resurrection of the dead.

VI. Proofs that this exhortation is genuine.

VII. A demonftration that Tacitus the Roman hiftorian, took his hiftory of the Jews out of Jofephus.

VIII. A differtation of Cellarius's against Harduin, in vindication of Jofephus's history of the family of Herod, from coins:

With an account of the Jewish coins, weights, and measures, folio.

In the fame year, 1737, I published An Account of the Doeminiacks, and of the Power of cafting out Damons, both in the New Teftament, and in the four firft Centuries; occafioned by a late pamphlet of Dr. Sykes's, intituled, An Enquiry into the Meaning of Dæmoniacks in the New Teftament. To which is added an Appendix, concerning the Tythes and Oblations paid by the Chriftians, during the fame four centuries, 8vo. Price 1 s. 6d.

The End of the FIRST PART.

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N the year 1738 I fent the following letter to Mr. John Depee, at Norwich. He was a ftranger to me, but one that was to communicate the letter to fome worthy Unitarians at Norwich, who had defired my opinion and advice in fome points of great confequence.

U

April

April 20, 1738.

For Mr. John Depee, near Coflany Bridge,

I

SIR,
Received

Norwich.

of the 8th inftant, by the yours perfon you intrusted it with; and by Mr. Killingworth, an eminent Baptift,, and a very good writer, on their fide,, and return you this fhort answer to your queries.

(1.) That the word God, when it is made the fubject of a propofition, means always the most High God, which you fay Dr. Clarke and others grant, I do not know. That it ufually does fo is very plain, and confeffed by all. However, the text your Athanafian has pitched upon, 1 Tim. iii. 16. is unluckily chofen for a Determination of fuch a controverfy; fince it is so very doubtful whether the true old reading had the word God or not. I have now by me a differtation of Sir Ifaac Newton's, to difprove that reading. And upon its perufal, I cannot fay, whether the word written by St. Paul, were sos, or Abyos, or Xpiròs, or which laft all the Latin copies fuppofe, and implies the context to have been, Great is the mystery of godliness, which was manifefted in the flesh, &c. Thus do the Athanafians take it alfo for granted, that our Saviour is called, Rom. ix. 5. in warlar Osos or, The God over all, against the conftant language of Chriftians in the two first centuries, I which appropriated that character to the Father cordingly it appears by no fmall evidence, that the word was inferted by the Montanifts; and from them derived to their offspring the Athanafians. See Athanafian forgeries, p. 6---12.

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As to your hypothefis-maker's famous discovery of a fuperangelical Spirit united to the Ayos, whether taken from Dr. Knight, or Dr. Bennet, it deferves no anfwer, till we have fome proof, that it was the doctrine of the Apoftolical Age; to which I am fully fatisfied it was an intire ftranger. The notion then being conftant, that the Aoyos himself was no other than fuch a fuperangelical spirit, begotten or created by the Father before the world began. Thefe hypothefis-makers are the great corrupters of true religion. For myfelf, I dare make none in fuch a cafe. But having most frequently and carefully perufed all the books of the New Teftament, received from the Church of Rome, and ftanding in our common Bible, and all the reft unjustly rejected by the Athanafians, and by that Church, and even by us from them, and commonly ftiled Apoftolical Fathers only; I atteft to the world what doctrines, worship, and discipline I find therein contained; and this without any imaginary fuppofals whatsoever. See Athanafian forgeries, pag.

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(2.) Nor do I much deal in fupporting by reafon what I find in the fame facred books, I now mean thofe of the Old, as well as New Teftament, as understood in the very next ages alfo, viz. That the Divine Person that fo often appeared to the Patriarchs was not the moft High God, but the Λόγος, having the Name of God in him; Ex. xxiii. 21. and the name Jehovah communicated to him; and speaking and acting always in the name of the Moft High God, and by his authority, as his minifter, and vicegerent among mankind. This is almost the conftant voice of Chriftian antiquity; Philo the Jew is alfo full of it; and Jofephus had the fame notion, as also I suppose, had all the Prophets. But whether the vulgar carnal Jews did

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not imagine that Divine Being, which fo often appeared to their fore-fathers to have been the Moft High God himself, I cannot certainly tell; however I have treated fo fully of this in my IVth volume, article XIII. that I fhall add no more in this place.

(3.) As to my great friend Mr. Emlyn's Previous Question about Baptifm, it was written [long ago, before I was acquainted with him, or had difcovered the mistake about infant baptifm, and that upon the principles of Doctor Wall's history of infant baptifm, or] with acuteness ad bominem, as we fay, but feems to me deftitute of all real foundation. The authority of the Talmud, and the modern Rabbins no way deferving any regard, when they not only are unfupported but contradicted by all other genuine evidence. Nor do I believe any fuch baptifm of profelytes, till John the Baptift. I have fent you my old paper of baptifm, which includes the teftimonies of two centuries relating to that matter, wherein, page 25, you have this apoftolical injunction, let no one eat of the Eucharift that is not initiated; but those only who have been baptized unto the death of the Lord; and in page 34. the exprefs teftimony of Justin Martyr, one that might be ten years old when St. John died, it is not lawful for any to partake of the Eucharift, but fuch as believe the things we teach, and have received that washing which is for the remiffion of their fins, and regeneration; fo that you must then confine the Eucharift to profelytes alfo. By infants and little children the conftitutions and other ancient writings mean only fuch with relation to baptifm as were catechifed before baptifm, as their whole current implies; and as the paper about infant baptifin will abundantly prove; the difcovery of which fecret

made

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