to ;

fuch conduct, would have been deservedly cenfured by the world; not only, as unfair and ungenerous as an opponent, but unbecoming the gentleman, and the fcholar. Yet fuch has been the treatment of Mr. H. and those who have efpoufed his notions, for upward of these twenty years. So long have our fuperiors in the church paused to confider, whether our author's interpretations of scripture are to be rejected, or admitted, without coming to any resolution.

The Revd. Mr. Arch-Deacon Sharp is, now, I prefume, commiffioned to give us their fentiments. A man, whofe reputation for learning, parts, and piety, will add so much weight to his fcale, as nothing but truth, which we hope we have on our fide, can counterballance.

A perfon of this character, I hoped, would have purfued a different method from fuch minute criticks as the late Mr. Arthur Bedford, and the anonimous modest apologist.-Would have perused the author himself, with that candidness and critical acumen, for which he is fo remarkably distinguished. And, then, as the one would have fuffered him to omit nothing,

to

to which any material objection could be made; fo the other, would have prevented his offering any little, low, fhuffling evafions to what he could not fairly anfwer; or his throwing duft in his reader's eyes, when our author's arguments fhone in too glaring a light. But how am I disappointed to find him treading in the very footsteps of those who have gone before him ;-not enquiring after proofs, but objections; vamping up their ftale ones in a new drefs, and polling them over and over again, as candidates, at a pinch, do their voters. We have got no further yet, than the words explained fifteen years ago in Mr. Catcot's affize fermon.-Weighty words, I apprehend, that require fo long a time for digestion.

But Mr. H. is a crabbed author, hard to be understood; and Mr. Catcot feems to the Doctor, to understand him the best, and exprefs his meaning the clearest of any he has met with, and therefore thinks-" he could

be more fure of Mr. H's meaning from "Mr. C's way of expreffing it, than if he "had gueffed at it himself, from Mr. H's "less perfpicuous manner of writing." But the

a See Preface, p. 17.

the truth is, had the Doctor confeffed he had read Mr. H. and understood him, he must have taken upon himself the weight of all Mr. H's various proofs, evidences, and arguments, for the words he explains throughout his writings; which, I own, are easier shuffiled off, than anfwered. And he must have dropped thofe fhrewd queries, with which his piece is so nicely interlarded." Whether "Aleim be derived at all "."" Or if it be

derived, what is the true and genuine root "of it. Whether the Hebrew be the origi"nal language, or only a plank of the ship"wreck at Babel, &c. &c." And have kept back that load of Rabbinifm and Arabic, which my good lord of and Dr. have made him the inftrument to discharge upon us, and his readers. And then, more than two thirds of his pamphlet would have been gone; with the further advantage of faving a great effufion of ink on both fides. But the Doctor knew he had nothing to do, but to tell his tale plaufibly; and he is fo great a master of style, that he can give an efficacy to arguments; which, had they been nakedly propofed, without this rhetorical dress,

Diff. 1ft, p. 71.

as

as Mr. H's and those of his Followers are, might not have looked fo fpecious. This, I fay, is all the Doctor had to do, and he was fure of a party ready ante victoriam canere triumphum, and to give their verdict in his favour, without examining the evidence on the other fide of the queftion. But, we hope, the publick, to whom we appeal, will have no respect to perfons, nor fuffer their eyes to be dazzled by the glare of characters ;-but will impartially examine, and seriously weigh the merits of the cause, and give their affent to truth, on which fide foever it fhall appear to be. And as the Doctor's ftation and character, with that of the two learned perfons hinted at in his preface, (p. 20) to whom his differtations owe their prefent dress and polish, may poffibly engage the world to interest itself a little in the debate ;-it may not be amifs to give a brief account of the state of the controverfy, from Mr. H's first publication, to the present time.

In the year 1724, Mr. H. published the first volume of his writings; which he continued volume after volume till his death. And as he was aware that opinions and conftructions contrary to thofe received, how

true foever they may be in themselves, cannot fail of meeting with oppofition; and being defirous of having the patronage of the fuperior clergy, if he could happily gain it, -he laid his books before perfons the most eminent in the esteem of the world for Hebrew learning, viz. the late Revd. Dr. Knight, the late Archbishop Potter then Bishop of Oxford, the late Bishop of London Dr. Gibfon, and others; with whom he had frequent conferences: Yet could he never extort from them, tho' often preffed, any pofitive opinion of his writings. So that they talked about without meeting with any examination, approbation or confutation, as the letter to a Bishop in the year 1732 juftly observed.

So far was Mr. H. from being that very obftinate man, or so stiff in opinion, as he has been by fome reprefented, that at the request of Dr. Knight, he made

and

the dual number, contrary to his own. judgment; in hopes, by humouring a little the rabinnical taste of that great man, to draw him from thofe blind guides the Rabbis, to

the

c Vide the first edition of Mofes's Principia, part 1. p. 8. and 15. and Mofes's Principia, part 2. p. 51. and Mof-fine Prin. p. 189. Edit. Hodges.