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ith&Ifc | tfi » pp ; 9 / &c ., that , to counted nance and support the tnie religion , and toH&ke care that the people be instructed in it , and that none be permitted to debauch and seduae men from it , properly belongs to the civil magistrate •/ but then proceeds to his
exceptions against some of the subsequent passages in the sermon . And the D « an himself thought proper to review it , and to publish a new edition of it the same year , though without taking notice in the title-page that it was a second edition ; in which he made an alteration or two in the
passages excepted to ; particularly in that , where in the former edition he spake of religion ' s being the strongest band of human societyy and God so necessary to the welfare and happiness of mankind , as he could not have been
more , &c , he changed the word he into it ; and in p . 12 , after the word permission , he added , for connivance , ] of the magistrate . These alterations were preserved in all the subsequent editions : and in the first in 8 vo ., in the third volume of his sermons in
1686 , Sermon IX . he added a paragraph of near a page after the words permission or connivance of the magistrate , beginning * thus : * Not but that every « nan hath a right / &c . and ending with the word sufferings . ¦ " The Animadversions above
mentioned came to his hands while he was in residence lat Canterbury , in July 1680 ; but they did not seem to him very considerable , as he wrote on the
27 th of that month to his friend Robert Nelson , Esq . * However , ' added he , 'I am sorry that any thing of mine should occasion so much talk and noise . *
Letter I . * ' June 2 d % 1650 . < € Reverend Sir , 4 - . t ( I received your letter and the pa * - ppra enclosed , which having- perused
1 flO . now return . And I cannot think jnyeelf to be realjy much concerned m tbemj t > e
i > i .:. \ ; . ¦' : j' 1 ii i , ? Life of Tillotson , 2 fl ed . 1753 , pp 59 ^ -67 . ; < < - > ™
cess ; and this principle is the true ground and bottom of my assertion : so that unless upon the same principle contrary conclusions can be built , there must be some mistake in the reasoning of one side . But whether I
be really concerned ia it or not , I have great reason to think that it will generally be believed that this discourse ia particularly designed against me ; and that the same malice which raised so
groundless a clamour against my late sermon will be very g lad tp find me struck at in the odious company of Spinosa and Mr . Hobbs , as of the same Atheistical principles with them ;
a blow which I least expected , tind for that reason should be very much surprised to receive from your hand . I could be glad to meet with th ' at kindness and candour which I have
ever used towards other's ; but if that may not be , I must content myself with the conscience of having endea * vdured to deserve well of all men , and of the Truth itself . " I am , Sir , with great , sincerity , as I have always been , " Your affectionate friend and servant , " JOHN TILLOTSON . "
The second of these letters was addressed to Mr . Sylvester , the friend ai ^ d biographer of Baxter , and was sent b y post with the superscription that will be found at the end : The signature is only TV , but the handwriting is Tillotson ' s , and the contents are such as TiUotson would , have
written upon the occasion , which was ah answer to an application from Sylvester for information concerning Baxter , whom the Archbishop had known intimately for > a great many years . Tillotson's newly-acquired e ^ eiesiasti cpl dignity in the see of Canterbury might cause him to feel the
expediency of not subscribing his name at length to such a l ^ tte ^ r , buf it is truly { ileasing to see his Christian affection or the veteran Nonicottforxnist , lately deceased , , his patholic spirit towards the Nonconformiats ip general , ; and Jm anxiety J ^ t ^ fc ©/ porpj ^ j ^ work should be honourable to the subject of itand iissfolto the cauiarrof truth
, andidreedr ai ^ " ' - % < i * -
KB Original Letters of Richard Ttawter , PPittlam T * enn and