vantage; as I receive from him the best information of every thing relating to the affairs of America. It will give me great pleasure to hear by him, from time to time, of your welfare: and that you may enjoy all health and happiness, is the hearty prayer of, Reverend Sir, Your most obedient humble servant, R. OXFORD. P. S. Since the above was written, I have procured four copies of Dr. KENNICOTT's Account for the year 1766, which I have added to the others, the rather, as it contains a curious account of the oldest editions of the printed Hebrew Bible. Be pleased to observe, that what Dr. K. has undertaken is to collate all the manuscripts of the He brew Bible that are in England; and to procure collations of the best. MSS. from other parts of Europe, as far as his subscription shall enable him. REV. SIR, London, May 15, 1770. I take the liberty of troubling my good friend, your son, with the conveyance of a packet to you, containing six copies of Dr. KENNICOTT's publication for this year, which you will receive with the greater satisfaction, as it contains a complete account of the whole undertaking of the collation of the Hebrew MSS. of the Old Testament; collecting together the several accounts before published, with the account for the last year; with which the collation is closed. It remains now to digest and methodize the variations collected, for an edition of the Hebrew Bible, with all the variations, which are exceedingly numerous, at the bottom of each page; in which important and laborious work, I trust, he will not want proper encouragement and support. As I am particularly obliged to Dr. SMITH, Provost of Philadelphia college, for a present of his late Sermon; and to Dr. CHANDLER, for his Appeal Defended; and, some time ago, to the author of a Vindication of the Bishop of Landaff's Sermon, whom I have lately found to be Mr. INGLIS, for his judicious, well-written pamphlet; I beg you would be so good as to send to each of those gentlemen, with my compliments, a copy of Dr. KENNICOTT's Account. I suppose Dr. INGLIS is settled in North-America, but I do not know. I am, with the greatest regard and esteem, Reverend Sir, Your most obedient humble servant, R. OXFORD. P. S. To Dr. KENNICOTT's Account I have added six copies of his Proposals, just come from the press; by which you will see in what train that great undertaking is at present. REV. SIR, London, May 16, 1771. Though I have nothing at present in the literary way to communicate to you, yet I cannot omit acknowledging your kind letter of December last. Dr. KENNICOTT goes on upon the plan which he published last year. His Majesty, in consequence of the general recommendation of the Bishops, has been pleased to give him a good establishment; and has placed him in a situation the most proper for the carrying on of his great work, in a canonry of Christ Church, Oxford. I wish it were as much in my power as, were there an opportunity, it would certainly be in my inclination, to promote your useful proposal of establishing a Hebrew Professorship in North-America. We must leave to God's good providence this and many other improvements in that country, and I doubt not of their being in due time accomplished. With sincerest wishes for your health and happiness, and with the truest regard, I am, Rev. Sir, Your most obedient humble servant, R. OXFORD. Letter from Bishop LoWTH to Dr. CHANDLER. REV. SIR, I hope you will have the goodness to excuse my suffering the letter with which you favoured me a year ago, to lie by me so long unacknowledged. The real occasion of my neglect was the illness by which I was laid up almost the whole of last summer. I intended to have written to you before I left London; but I was taken ill here, and by imprudently attempting a journey to Oxfordshire, in order to be ready to attend my duty there, I became much worse. I thank God I have perfectly recovered from this very dangerous illness, so as not to be at all sensible of any remains, or bad consequences of it. T I had not the pleasure, which you were so kind as to de sign for me, of seeing Mr. MOORE. I suppose he did not arrive here till after I was gone into the country. I do not know whether he went to Oxford or not; but there I was not able to see any one for many months. I am in a long arrear of thanks to you for many agreeable and valuable literary presents, both ecclesiastical and political. In the first place, for your excellent Vindication of the Memory of Archbishop SECKER, the greatest, the best, and the most unexceptionable character that our ecclesiastical annals have to boast of. What you say in regard to me in p. 47, is perfectly true. If I had been consulted in order to give information, I should have added, that as soon as I received the pamphlet, I went immediately to the author, and expressed to him, in strong terms, my disapprobation of the thing itself, and in particular of his addressing it to ine, whose great veneration for Archbishop SECKER's memory he well knew. But, in truth, it was a most injudicious, impotent, and contemptible attack; and for the very little time in which it was taken notice of, it only exposed the author. The pamphlet which you have answered, was receiv ed here with much the same contempt, but with somewhat more indignation; but had very little effect in answering the author's purpose. It was disregarded, and suffered to pass without animadversion, and I think rightly. The case with you was very different; your neighbours were not so well informed, and you have done very good service by effectually refuting it. But the nation in general is highly obliged to you for your three political pamphlets; which, I am sure, if plain reason and good sense, strongly and forcibly urged, and placed in the clearest light, can meet with any attention, must have had a great effect, as indeed I hear they have; and I hope so essential a service will not be forgotten. And now, Sir, what shall I say to you upon this great and important subject? I need not enter into it very largely, for I can give you my opinion in a very few words. Mr. VARDILL did me the favour, very lately, of communicating to me a letter of yours to him, dated in March. My sentiments in regard to what was then doing, and what was fit to be done, coincide most exactly with yours. I will add what appears to me here, and at this time: The Ministry, you will see, are very much in earnest, and the nation is as much in earnest as they are; for the parliamentary supremacy is not merely the ministerial, but the national cause, and I think will never be given up while the nation has ability and strength to support it. At the same time, there is a strong desire of reconciliation, and a perfect readiness to grant the colonies easy, liberal, and generous terms, in properly limiting and circumscribing the power and exercise of taxation. If it shall please God that these unhappy tumults be quieted, and peace and order restored (which event I am sanguine enough to think is not far distant), we may reasonably hope that our governors will be taught, by experience, to have some regard to the Church of England in America. * * But it will be time enough to consider what ought to be done when so blessed an opportunity shall offer itself. I beg your acceptance of a new edition of my Lectures, and a Sermon, if they should come to your hands; for I do not know but that they may be contraband goods, and non-importable. However, I shall with this consign them |