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just , It is not my letter but your own book which exposeth your character ; but if , as you represent them , they are unjust and unkind , the author of them exposeth himself , not you . That my brethren to whom I granted copies , have been industrious to propagate them , I dare not readily believe * because I know their character ; yet when the fact is well attested to
me , as you say it has been to you , I ought not to deny my assent . But it is possible the larger number of copies may have arisen , and the industry you complain of been employed , from another quarter . Suppose Dr . D- ge has communicated my letter *
ought he no $ to share in the guilt of exposing his own charac- * ter ? And suppose , which upon good evidence I believe is fact , that copies of my letter to the Doctor have been taken at Northampton from that very letter , and spread thence , perhaps with some industry , will not this either take off the edge of the Doctor ' s severe expostulations , or divert them to other objects
who may have a better title to them ? While , Sir , in sect . 4 , you do me the justice to suppose t have really an ill opinion of you , you do me , if not yourself , great injustice , in regard I haye on many accounts a very good opinion of you , and often express it ; but I have an ill , a very ill opinion of corrupting the word of God , of imposing upon
the understanding of men m important doctrines or religion , and of prevaricating in solemn professions of faith . Nowi £ you , or any good man , are in any of these respects guilty ,, I must own this ought so far to abate my good opinion , though not change it into an ill opinion ; and in this case a word behind a man may be very seasonable , when he is turned aside to
the right hand or to the left . Though I am far from judging any man a fool , for not thinking as I do , or a knave for not declaring he does go * yet if he be of nay opinion , and make a profession of his faith which
naturally Jeads his readers and hearers to believe he is of a very different opinion , though I will not call the man a knave , yet I cannot acquit the action of insincerity and double-dealing : and though even by such methods a man may intend the glory of God , and the edification of souls ( as I hope Peter did when
he dissembled his sentiments , Gal . ii . 11 . ) , yet , you know , these holy intentions will not excuse , much l ^ ss consecrate , unholy actioas . Moreover , as I apprehend no man is fully qualified to preach and expound the Gospel of Christ , who has not honesty and
courage to deliver plainly what he judges the true sense of it ; and that there is no gospel-truth any Christian or minister of Christ need be afraid or ashamed to pcofess ; so I cannot but
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JSev . * Sl Bourne and Dr . Do&dridge . 409
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VOL . I . 3 G
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1806, page 409, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1727/page/17/
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