but will own they deserved the regard of the public. No crabbedness of style, no want of method, no dogmatical affertions could be there complained of;--but the author's defign laid out in fo clear, fo regular a manner, and recommended to the confideration of those whom it might concern, with fo much modefty and fubmiffion, as well merited their attention. They received, indeed, the praise of being well-wrote pieces, but no further notice was taken of them: While Mr. C's fermon has been the common but of our obfervators, examiners, and differtators, from the late Mr. A. B. to the ingenious author of the two differtations now under confideration. What reafon can be affigned for the different treatment of these pieces, written upon the fame fubject, and in the fame fpirit of ingenuity and candor, temper and fobriety, but the motive I have mentioned above? My last reafon for thinking as I do, is, this acknowledgment of Mr. C's being particularly carped at in Mr. B's anfwer; and Mr. C. execrated, by fome of his brethren, for making it. And this fufpicion is yet further favoured by Dr. Sharp having a fling in his preface, p. 14, and differt. 1. p. p. 79, 80, 81. at the paffage of his fermon, where Mr. H. is hinted at, as having proved beyond contradiction, the true fenfe of Berith. And to which Mr. C. refers in his P. S. where he makes his acknowledgment to Mr. H. by name. And the Doctor owns, that it is this manner of recommending Mr. H. and his writings, which gives the òffence, and has provoked him to take up his pen against him. But be this as it may: Upon the publication of the fermon, à fcurrilous pamphlet called, Obfervations upon Mr. C's Sermon, comes out against it. So very fcurrilous was it, that the author thought fit to recall it in a short time. This met with a proper reply in an anonymous piece, entitled, Remarks upon the Obfervations, &c. with a continuation of the Evidence, till the Predictions were compleat, printed in the year 1737. This is now known to be Mr. H's, but was then wrote in an affumed character,: and is printed in the laft edition of his works. In this fame year Mr. H. died, and Mr. C. published his Anfwer to the Obfervations, in which, in a very modest and clear clear mannner he replied to the objections, and more fully explained the Hebrew words cited in his fermon. Then comes out, The Examination of the Remarks upon, and Mr. Catcot's answer to the Obfervations upon his Sermon, by the Author of the Obfervations, &c. The late Revd. Mr. Arthur Bedford was fupposed to be the author of these two tracts, the Obfervations, and Examination, &c. This latter, tho' little lefs abufive, yet had, more of argument in it than the former, which was chiefly made up of low drollery, quirks and quibbles. And this is the grand magazine from which the opponents have ever fince drawn their artillery; the Revd. and learned Dr. Sharp not excepted. This received two anfwers: The one in an anonymous piece, entitled, The Examiner examined, or the Examination of the Remarks upon, and Mr. Catcot's answer to the Observations upon bis Sermon, confidered. With fome Obfervations upon the Hebrew Grammar. Published 1739, and now owned by the Revd. Mr. Julius Bate. The other, by the Revd. Mr. Daniel Gittins, entitled, An Answer to Mr. Bedford's Examination, &c. And these were judged to be full and fufficient anfwers to every thing to which Mr. B. had objected. Mr. C. published also a little piece, called, The State of the Cafe between Mr. Bedford and Mr. Catcot, in anfwer to Mr. Bedford's Examination, &c. Mr. Bedford made no reply. But in fome fermons preached, at lady Moyer's lecture, in the years 1739, 1740, which he printed in one volume octavo, 1741, he served up the fame rabbinical arguments which had been confuted by Mr. Bate, in the Examiner examined. His volume of fermons was published under this title, A Defence of the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity, and the Incarnation of the Son of God, from the Teftimony of the most ancient Jews, in eight Sermons. -- In these discourses, though he gives into fome of Mr. H's interpretations of S. S. (in contradiction to himself in former tracts) C yet yet he ftill perfifted in his rabbinism, which he now vended under the Teflimony of the moft antient Jews, with many bitter reflections upon Mr. C. Mr. H. and his followers. This occafioned Mr. Gittins to animadvert upon him in a piece, called, Obfervations on fome Sermons preached at lady Moyer's lecture at St. Paul's 1739 and 1740. By Arthur Bedford, M. A. And published 1741. And there the controversy rested till the year 1747; when the propofals for reprinting Mr. H's works by fubfcription, came out. And the B's and D. D's began to beftir themselves not a little; and to hinder, as much as in them lay, the subfcription; by infinuating they had, in petto, objections which would totally overthrow his whole plan. And as Dr. Sharp informs us in his dedication, that he drew up his differtations three years ago, viz. in the year 1747, and fhewed them to one of the editors of Mr. H's works, in the winter of that year; it is not improbable, by the time tallying fo exactly, that they had their eye upon them. This, however, caufed the editors, in the beginning of next year, to throw out an advertisement, in which, they |