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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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tJfytag the ' e ^ H' s ^ iri ^ bf * which tie infra £ iired kitn&lf to be 1 possessed , With ' the destruction of the swine , he would , without much difficulty , dr ive them off the precipice . If some few of them were put in motion , the whole herd would follow * Nor is it
unlikely that the other person , his companion in affliction , joined his assistance : for St . Matthew speaks of two . They invested the herd then on each side , and thus drove them before them J *
To this solution , which Dr . Sykes suggested / ' and for which " Dr . Lardner strenuously contended , " Mr . Farmer objects , { Demoniacs , 1805 , p . 170 , ) remarking , " that it was next to impossible that these two men should overcome all those who tended
the swine . " He proceeds to ask if , " under the influence of their disorder /* they had < c driven the swine into the sea , " why ** tfiey did not follow them there . ' * This , on Chubb ' s supposition , would have been the farthest from their intention .
The third letter I copied from the original MS . ( Ayscough , 4313 , 502 . ) The writer , Dr . Archibald Maclaine , v / ho died in 1804 , is chiefly known by his translation , in 1764 , of
Mosheirn ' s Ecclesiastical History , to which he annexed many valuable notes . He lias a long note on Dr . Clarke , and the controversies occasioned by the publication of the Scripture Doctrine , but there is no reference whatever to the subjects of this letter .
" Mr . Hooke , " mentioned in the extract from the Jesuit ' s book , was , I apprehend , the author of the wellknown Roman History , who died in 17 f ) 4 . He is described ( Gen . JBiog Diet . VII . 216 ) as " a mystic and Quietist , and tt warm di 3 ciple of
Fenelon , " and as having * " brought a Catholic priest to take Pope ' s confession upon bis death-bed / ' to the great annoyance of Lord Bolim > 'brokei Ifooke had been a protftgt , and indeed a literary agent , of the celebrated
Sarah , Duchess of Marlborouyh , and would be likely to become 011 c of the literati , in whose soeie . lv Queen Caroline sought relief from the inctuubrancc of royalty , which she seems to have possessed a mind able
to appreciate . " Boyle ' Lectures , " whose design Dr . Maclaine has correctly described
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were prefcfehed by * DfJ { 5 Hf * ltg » 4 ti \ y % and 1 / 05 , when tbW dteluif Vgt ^ ely declares that "he rebanted , solemnly his former opinions ; which ot > W not declared
mons were till 1712 , o » the first publication of The Scripture Doctrine . As to Abbadie and his obligations to Dr . Clarke , a supposed convert to Athanasianism , I wonder it had not occurred to Dr
Maclaine that the Traite de la Divi ^ nitk de ndtre Seigneur Jesus Christy was published at Rotterdam in 1689 * white Samuel Clarke was a
schoolboy , at the age of fourteen , in his native city of Norwich * " Father Berthier , " mentioned int Dr . Maclaine ' s note , conducted the Journal de Tr&vouxy with g-reat reputation , for seventeen years , from 174 S to 1762 . He died in 1782 , aged 7 $ . Among his works described in the Nonv . Diet . Hist ., ( 1789 . ) there is
no account of the Oracle de Nouveaua ? Philosophes . His strictures on Voltaire , appear there to hsive been confined to his Journal . Dr . Maclaine would find it no arduous task to vindicate the memory of Dr . Clarke from the anachronisms
and absurdities , the reproaches and encomiums , of a French Jesuit / ' It had been more difficult to defend him against his own vacillating conduct , as faithfully described by his intimate associate the proverbially honest Whiston , whose Historical Mejnoirs fonr >
the only biography of Dr . Clarke which I have met with , which discovers an undeviating regard to the just maxim , " Extenuate nothing , nor set down aught in malice / 3 The rest of his biographers " read him over with a lover ' s eye , "
Clarke , indeed , appears , in Whiston s account , as the prototype of Paley . He probably never declared in terms ., that he could not afford to keep a conscience , nor did he venture to write a " shuffling chapter on
subscription . " Yet to Whiston ' a " vehement admonitions" ( p . 50 ) " act sincerely , openly and boldly in the declaration of his true opinions—his general answer was hy this question , Who are those that act better than I
do ? " Ifc may be said , and perhaps truly , that Dr . Clarke sacrificed a prelate ' s wealth and dignity , if not the English primacy , to his principles . He might , indeed , be too hap-
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272 Letters ofArc % T > i * hop * ffl 6 U&ft * , ^ c . ifi ' ^ in Britbh Mmeu m .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1826, page 272, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2548/page/20/
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