Left imperfect by the AUTHOR, and now revised, and finished, By JOSEPH BENSON. "Unto what, then, were ye baptized?" Acts xix. 3. Printed and fold at the New-Chapel, City-Road; and at the Sacheld 9-1-43 48257 (3) PREFACE BY THE EDITOR. 1. IT feems neceffary, here, to acquaint the Reader, that, as Dr. Priestley had affered the doctrine of the Trinity to be irrational, and that of our Lord's divinity to have no foundation either in the Old Testament or the New; Mr. Fletcher, in opposition to these assertions, had intended this work to confift of three parts; the first containing a rational defence of the Catholic Faith, respecting the Trinity, and the Divinity of our Lord; and the two last, a Vindication of the Prophets and Apostles, "from the Anti-chriftian service (as Mr. Fletcher's phrafe is) to which the Doctor had pressed them." But being unexpectedly called to his reward, he left them all in a very imperfect state. Even of this first part, here published, (which indeed seems to have been begun after the others) he had only written the Introduction, the first Letter, and four Chapters; and, of these, the third and fourth seem not to have been quite finished. 2. I was in doubt, for some time, whether it would not be best, just to correct the Manufcripts, and give them to the publick in their unfinished state, especially as I could not learn, either from any hints left in writing, or from any thing he had faid to Mrs. Fletcher, or any one else, A 2 |