то THE

ARCHDEACON OF ST. ALBANS.

LETTER I

REV. SIR,

AT

The Introduction.

T length you have condefcended to gratify my wishes, and have favoured me with a series of letters, in anfwer to mine. But as they are written with a degree of infolence, which nothing in your fituation or mine can justify, and indicate a temper that appears to me to be very far from being the most proper for the difcuffion of historical truth; I fhall confider myfelf, in this anfwer, as writing not fo much to you, as to the candid part of the public, to whom our correfpondence is open; and I have no doubt but that I fhall be able to fatisfy all who are qualified to judge between us, that your ignorance of the fubject which you have undertaken to difcufs, is equal to your infolence; and therefore, that there is no great reafon to regret that you have formed a refolution to appear no more in this controversy, "Whatever, more," you fay, p. 9. 66 you

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you may find to fay upon the fubject, in me you "will have no antagonist."

I made the propofal to difcufs the queftion of the state of opinions concerning Chrift in the early ages, in a perfectly amicable, and as I thought, the most advantageous manner, and my address to you, was uniformly respectful. It has not been my fault that this propofal was not accepted. You fay, p. 166. "I held it my duty to ufe pretty freely that high "feafoning of controverfy which may interest the " readers attention." What that high seasoning is, is fufficiently apparent through the whole of your performance, viz. a violation of all decency, and perpetual imputations of the groffeft, but of the most improbable kind. This, from refpect to the public, and to myself, I fhall not return; but I shall certainly think myfelf authorized by it to treat you with a little lefs ceremony in the prefent publication, in which I fhall take occafion from your grofs mistakes, and mifreprefentations, to throw fome farther light on the fubject of this difcuffion.

The reader muft have been particularly ftruck with the frequent boafting of your victory, as if the controverfy had come to a regular termination, and the public had decided in your favour. "My victory," you fay, p. 7. " is already fo compleat, "that I might well decline any farther conteft." In p. 160. you fay, "it would have heightened the "pride of my victory if I could have found a fair "occafion to be the herald' of my adverfary's

"praife."

mature.

praife." P. 10. you call me a foiled polemic, and p. 8. a proftrate enemy. What marks of proftration you may have perceived in me, I cannot tell. I do not know that I have yet laid myself at your feet, and I prefume, this kind of language is rather preIt will be time enough for you to say with Entellus, Hic caftus artemque repono, when the victory, of which you boaft, fhall be as clear as his, and fhall be declared to be fo by the proper judges. You ought alfo to have remembered the advice of Solomon, Prov. xxvii. 2. Let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth, a stranger and not thine own lips.

On the contrary, I cautioned my reader (preface, p. 19) not to conclude too hastily in my favour, but to wait till you had made your reply. You have now done it, and I hope they will do me the juftice to hear me again in return, especially as this will probably be the last time that I fhall trouble them in this way.

Though this controverfy has not come to what I think its proper and defirable termination, I rejoice that it has proceeded thus far; and upon the whole I derive great fatisfaction from the oppofition that my Hiftory of the Corruptions of Christianity has met with; both because a more general attention has been excited to the fubject; and also because, having, by this means, been led to attend to it more than I fhould otherwife have done, I have difcovered a variety of additional

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ditional evidence in fupport of what I had advanced, and fuch an abundant confirmation of the evidence before produced, as gives even myself a greater degree of confidence in it than I could otherwife have had. And when my readers in general fhall fee, as they cannot but fee, with what extreme eager nefs the most infignificant overfights have been catched at, and magnified, and the readinefs with which I have acknowledged fuch overfights, notwithstanding the grofs infults with which this candour has been treated, and alfo that every objection has brought out new evidence in my favour, it cannot but beget a perfuafion, that the most fharpfighted adverfary will not be able to detect any miftake of real confequence; and from this will be derived a degree of credit to my work that nothing else could have given it. Your object, you say, p. 8. was to demolish the credit of my narrative; but I am much mistaken if, instead of that, your weak, though violent oppofition, has not greatly contributed to strengthen it.

You will perhaps be truck with the change in the style of my address to you, when you observe me beginning with Rev. Sir, instead of the Dear Sir of my former letters, an appellation to which our perfonal acquaintance gave a propriety, and which you have returned; but when I confider how ill it correfponds to the spirit of your letters, and the stress you lay on your Archidiaconal dignity, which appears not only in the title-page of your work, but at the head of many of your letters,

and

and which you intimate, p. 158. that I had not fufficiently attended to, I thought the flyle of Rev. Sir, and occafionally that of Mr. Archdeacon both more proper, and alfo more pleafing to yourself, and therefore I have adopted it. And if, by any accident, I fhould wound your feelings, p. 159. you will find the proper balm in my running title.

While perfons who have fome personal acquaintance treat each other with decent refpect, and are uniform in doing it, as I have been to you, the ufual style of Dear Sir is natural, and proper; but when you charge me with numerous inftances of the groffeft artifice, and impofition on the Public, you in fact give me the lie; and therefore ought yourself to have dropped all terms expreffive of affection and regard. I renounce all particular refpect for the man who has treated me in this manner; and in the outfet of this fecond part of our correfpondence, I fubfcribe myself, merely becaufe cuftom authorizes the form,

Rev. Sir,

Your very humble fervant,

J. PRIESTLEY.

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LETTER