I want to know how Mr. Dodson goes on with his translation of the prophets. I stick close to my part, and hope to have finished all that is essential before you come, at the end of the next month, or the middle of it. I do a certain quantity per day. We must make a point of dispatching the whole this year. I shall see Mr. Belsham, and talk to him about his part; I shall also write to Mr. Frend. My method is to paste paper to the margin of a quarto Bible, and make the alterations there. This I think better, on every account, than to write the whole, and, especially, much easier to those who examine it. Can you borrow for me Houbigant, on Proverbs and Ecclesiastes? I mean his version.* TO THE SAME. DEAR FRIEND, Birmingham, July 2, 1790. YOUR remark on my sermon is very just, and if it were to print, I would alter it. However, though Mr. Robinson did not preach against the Trinity openly in his own pulpit, he managed in such a manner as to make the greatest part of his congregation Unitarians,† and the change in his sentiments was so well known as to have a great effect upon many at a distance. He ought, certainly, to have made a public recantation of his book; and, in time, I hope he would have done it. But to this he was, no doubt, too reluctant. You have seen Mr. Toulmin's sermon, to which is annexed a fuller history of him. Dr. Rees's is also expected to be printed. We wonder much that we do not receive Mr. Belsham's sermon. He is to meet me at Warwick on Monday se'nnight, and therefore will be here before you; but I hope we shall be together, part, at least, of your time. Mr. Tayleur expresses much satisfaction in the thought of seeing us. I greatly admire Bruce's Travels, which Mr. Galton has made me a present of. He well illustrates many passages of scripture. To-day I hope to finish the rough copy of my Orig. MS. This was, certainly, a misapprehension. See W. XV. 417, note t. Mem. of Lindsey, p. 194. translation of the Psalms. I find much help in Green. Have you any thing on Ecclesiastes ?* TO THE SAME. DEAR FRIEND, Birmingham, July 6, 1790. I HAVE received yours of yesterday. The virulence with which the orthodox pursue their enemies is, indeed, extraordinary. You and I have had our share; but every thing turns out favourably to truth in the end. It is much to be regretted that Dr. M'Gillt was not more firm, especially if the General Assembly would have supported him.§ However, if this be understood, it may serve to make others more courageous. I am sorry to hear of the death of Mr. Palmer, and the paralytic affection of Mr. Jones. He was a valuable man, and an Unitarian. I saw him first at Cambridge,¶ when I lived in Suffolk. He must be about seventy. I shall be happy to have Mr. Belsham with us at Birmingham. On Monday next I meet him at Warwick. I go on Sunday to preach a Sunday-school sermon. I have just received Mr. Hamilton's book ;** but have barely looked into it. It is impossible that he can find any evidence * Orig. MS. "One of the ministers of Ayr," who had published at Edinburgh, 1786, "A Practical Essay on the Death of Jesus Christ, containing, 1. The History; 2. The Doctrine of his Death." He appears to have recanted, before his ecclesiastical superiors, "grudgingly," or, perhaps, as res angustæ domi might influence, rather than “with a ready mind," some positions in his Essay, which impugned the established faith of his church, especially on the atonement. § Mr. Lindsey to Mr. Turner, Newcastle, "May 12, 1791," says, “I have had a few lines from Mr. Wardrop, of Glasgow, who tells me that the second storm, which threatened good Dr. M'Gill, is happily blown over." Orig. MS || Aged 60, with whom, in 1779 and 1780, Dr. Priestley had discussed the subject of Philosophical Necessity. See W. IV. 167–223. ¶ Where he was minister, afterwards at Peckham. **"Strictures upon Primitive Christianity, by the Rev. Dr. Knowles, Prebendary of Ely,' as also upon the Theological and Polemical Writings of the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of St. David's, the Rev. Dr. Priestley, and the late Rev. Mr. Badcock. By Edward Hamilton, Esq. Part i. 1790.” Analyt. Rev. VIII. 79. for his strange assertions. I hope the book will not be much noticed. But Whiston's oddities did no material harm.t DEAR FRIEND, TO THE SAME. Warwick, July 13, 1790. YESTERDAY I preached a Sunday-school sermon in this place, to a very crowded audience, among whom was Dr. Parr. To-day he is to attend the ordination service of Mr. Field. I preach, and Mr. Belsham, who has not yet arrived, gives the charge. He then dines with us; and to-morrow I and Mr. Russell, with some others, are to dine with him in our way home. We called upon him in our way hither. He was not at home; but Mrs. Parr, seemingly a very sensible woman, received us in his library, which consists of, she said, six thousand volumes. It is, indeed, an immense collection for a private clergyman, and cost, she said, more than two thousand pounds, exclusive of many presents. He seems to have made out who Junius was, a Mr. Lloyd, whose natural son he had the care of. He is since dead; but a brother of his, a canon of Norwich, (I think,) a particular acquaintance of Dr. Parr, is living. He was a man in public office, devoted to Mr. Grenville, who was supplanted by the Duke of Grafton. I am eager to ask Mr. Belsham what he has done with Job. I have finished the Psalms, and am engaged with the Proverbs; I mean the first rough copy, to determine the general sense. * This writer is "a believer in Jesus, who denies that he was the Messiah, an Ebionite, who is no Christian, an advocate for the divine mission of Moses and Jesus, who pronounces ninety parts in a hundred of the Bible useless, and asserts as his great discovery that Christianity itself is only a sophistication of the religion of Jesus.' He not only undertakes to criticise the works of Dr. Priestley and his antagonists, but to decide upon the authenticity of the Christian Fathers, and to pronounce spurious the writings of Justin Martyr, and of all who preceded Tertullian, not excepting the evangelists themselves, and at the same time confesses that he has not read the Fathers, and scarcely knows them, except through the moderns." Ibid. pp. 81, 82. See supra, p. 29. + Orig. MS. This word is written very imperfectly. It could scarcely be ten. But I have made many marks of absolute uncertainty, as Dr. Heberden advised, when such passages occur, and, indeed, they are very many. I have begun to reprint my Familiar Letters, which I find every day to have been more and more read in the neighbourhood, and not without effect.* DEAR FRIEND, To THE SAME. Birmingham, July 16, 1790. DR. PARR seemed to be very much pleased with Mr. Belsham, whose charge he heard. He dined with us; and the next day we dined with him, at his own house. Mr. Belsham, who stayed after us, had much conversation with him, and was much entertained.† He has just breakfasted here on his way to Cirencester, and he will return while you are here, and it will suit him, he says, much better than to come sooner, as was first intended. Dr. Parr was studiously civil, and very open. He has now, certainly, no measures to keep with the high-church party though he did not directly declare himself an Unitarian. I much fear that Mr. Toulmin's work will not sell to any great extent. The orthodox have a zeal in these matters that we have not. I heartily wish well to it, and shall do all I can to promote it. I had much, rather Mr. Wesley's Life had been written by the elder, than the younger Mr. Hampson.§ The latter is in the Church, and therefore cannot write some parts as we should wish them to be written. I shall be glad to see Dr. Edwards's sermon, and the other things you talk of bringing with you. I hope to have finished my part of the translation before you come. I hardly expected peace. I hope some great good is coming forward, and this is seldom effected without great preceding calamity.¶ * Orig. MS. Mr. Field, in his Life of Dr. Parr, very agreeably describes these interviews. "The History of the Town of Taunton, 1791." § To this " Life," Dr. Priestley had contributed. See supra, p. 67. See W. X. 669. See W. XXV. 329. Orig. MS. TO THE SAME. DEAR FRIEND, Birmingham, July 22, 1790. I REJOICE exceedingly in the near prospect of seeing your and Mrs. Lindsey here. I have no greater satisfaction in this life than in my interviews with you. The time of your coming will, every way, suit us. If you see Mr. Dodson, tell him it will by no means do to reprint either Blayney* or Bishop Newcome,† as we must keep much nearer to the phraseology of the present version than they do. We must content ourselves with departing from it, only for the sake of some real improvement. You will think me extravagant, but I wish you would buy for me, from Gardner's Catalogue, Niebuhr's Travels. I expect material service from them in this translation, as I have found from Bruce. They were sent with a view to the illustration of scripture, and I once read a good part of the work. I must beg copies of your Apology, Sequel, and single sermons, to replace my volume that I lost by lending. I hope it will do good wherever it falls.‡ DEAR SIR, To REV. J. P. ESTLIN.§ Birmingham, Aug. 6, 1790. I LEAVE it entirely to you, who are the best judge, when to put Harry to learn French; and if you think him sufficiently perfect in the Greek Grammar, you may do it immediately. My object, you know, is to make a good classical scholar as the necessary foundation of every thing else; but whatever is not inconsistent with that, let him do whatever you think proper. Mr. Lindsey is still here, and desires his best respects. His last publication¶ I think most excellent, clearly proving that His Jeremiah. 1 Orig. MS. + Ezekiel and the Minor Prophets. || See I. 208. ¶ "A Second Address to the Students of Oxford and Cambridge, relating to Jesus Christ, and the Origin of the great Errors concerning him; with a List of the False Readings of the Scriptures, and the Mistranslations of the English Bible, which contribute to support those Errors. 1790." Mr. Lindsey to Mr. Bretland, "London, July 26, 1790," says, "I am |