364 Original Letters. 
had you faid their divinity, it would 
have been, in my hunible opinion, more 
proper. Neverthelefs, I am, with great 
efteem, your’s, &c. 
Hoxton Squares 
Feb ta; 877%. 
= ae 
OrictnaL LeTrer from the celebrated 
Dr. LARDNER to the Rew. CALEB 
CALEB FEEMING. 
FLEMING, afterwards Dr: FLEMING. . 
DEAR SIRy 
I SEND to know how you do: I have 
tt not been out to-day. “¢ Dr. Fortin’s 
Life of Erafinus’ is well writ. He has 
fpoke as freely before, but here is a great 
deal of the like fort. J think it fhould 
have been dedicated to the prefent arch- 
bifhop; and, perhaps, it will be fo when 
the whole comes out. Jortin extols Her- 
ring; but to me Herring appears much 
inferior to the archbifhop, who was the 
friend of Erafmus. 
There has been an unhappy rencounter 
near Drefden. Prince Francis of Brunf- 
wick and marfftal Keith killed. We mutt 
hope we are under the care of Providence. 
But to me it feems, that the rod is lifted 
up, and hangs over us. Andinmy own 
private judgment, I might be apt tothink 
and fay, better had it been, if the king 
of Pruffia had been fhot. I fuppofe, he 
will have no peace. If not, I think he 
will go on fighting, till he has ruined 
himfelf and all his friends. ‘To me it 
feems, thatCount Daun is too hard for him. 
They never approach each other, but the 
king is over-reached by the count. For- 
give thefe remarks of your affe€tionate 
friend, and humble fervant, 
Thur fday evening. N. LARDNER. 
{There is no other date, but the letter ap- 
to have been written in the year 

LETTER of the AUTHOR of the LIFE of 
Joun Buncre, £/q. 
SIR, 
QYA/ BEN I firit formed the defion of 
YY drawing up the Memoirs of 
Fauitus Socinus, as i found’ that the 
learned author of the Life of John Buncle 
had exprefled a fimilar intention, I took 
the liberty of addrefling a line to him ; 
to alk whether he meant to execute that 
purpofe; and, if he did not, to requeft 
the iavour of being referred to fuch ireth 
authorities, as would affitt the protecution 
ef my defign. TI was, prefently, favoured 
with an anfwer: a copy of which, as a 
literary morceau, 1 effer for a place in 
Dr. Larduer...i.Author of Fobn Buncle. 
your learned and entertaining Milcellany, 
I am, Sir, your conftant reader, 
<f JosHua TouLMIN, 
Taunton, 14th April, 1798. 
SIR, 
SO greatly do I revere the memory of 
Fau‘tus Socinus, whofe life you tell me you 
are writing, that I wifh it wasin my power to 
furnifh you with memoirs relating to that 
great and good man, whofe learning and vir- 
tues were more extraordinary, than Bayle and 
the new biographical writers allow. ‘There 
is a partiality in their criticifm, which is 
blind to folid merit, but juftice and praife 
wiil overtake it at lat. They will not hear 
the arguments of thig admirable writer. They 
will make a Ged of the feed of Abraham and 
the fon of David; they will have more per= 
fons than one in the Deity ; and becaufe So-< 
cinus proves God has no partner, they pro-= 
nounce the loudeft aad the rudeft cenfures. 
Such is, and ever will be opinion: averfe 
to conviction, and never ready to refign upon 
knowledge, or good reafon. 
Illa folo fixos oculos averfa tenebat 5 
Nec magis incepto vultum fermone movetur; 
Quam fi dura filex, aut ftet Marpefia cautes *. 
Even the pious Bifhop Smallbrook could 
not {peak of him without fhewing himfelf a 
bitter f{quabbler. In his charge to his clergy, 
in Auguft 1782, is the following pafiages 
«¢ And more efpecialty by the valuable per- 
formance of the writer, otherwife juffly of ill 
fame; 1 mean Fauftus Socinus’s book de 
Juthoritate S. Scripturet.” Here was an open 
infult offered. My lotd of St. David’s ap- 
pears wedded to an opinion—an hypothefis— 
produced by blending falfe netions in philo- 
fophy and ungrounded notioas in fcripture to- 
gether; and becaufe it has received the ftamp 
of cuftom and authority, the forward critic 
declaims ia fpightful, undelicate language. In 
favour of -the idol he fatls down to and wor- 
fhips, he foolifhly and malicioufly abufes So 
cinus, that bleffed fervant of God, for des 
fending the gefpel, that plain, fimple, ra-= 
tional and divine fyfem 5 which the clergy 
have difgraced and rendered ufelefs; and 
proving that Chriit, in the writings of the 
apoftles, fignifies no more than the man Jefus 
ot Nazareth, whom God anointed with his 
in{piration and power. 
- Ithink, then, Sir, your defign an excels 
fent one, and that you cannot better employ 
what time you have to fpare thaa in finithing 
the work. It is a thing much wasted, as’ 
the life fixed tothe “* Fratres Poloni,” is fax 
from being full enough, and to the purpofe. 


Lon @) 
jis 
* Virgil. /Eatid.-vi. 
+ The praife beftowed on this little piece 
of Socinus, by the bifhop, was, however, a 
principal inducement with a clergyman of the 
church of England, Mr. Edward Combe, to 
give to the public a tranflation of it in 1791, 
and to prefix to it a fbort account of the lite 
of Socinus. ee 
