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LETTER XXXI.

TO AMBROSE SERLE, Efq.

Broad-Hembury, Nov. 23, 1773

HEN favours, received, diftance all power of equal return, the receiver can but barely acknowledge his receipt of them, and confefs his incompetency to repay them. Your inftances of friendship, to me, are of the above kind, both as to number and value. My returns, to you, are, and must ever be, as laft defcribed.

Allow me, dear fir, fo far to revive our late amicable conteft, as to intreat you not to fupprefs the publication of your Thoughts De Origine Anima. Were they to appear, they might open a way for other learned and ingenious perfons to ventilate the fubject which is one reafon why I take the liberty to urge the requeft.-If I have detained your valuable manufcript, too long, you may draw on me, for it, whenever you pleafe; though, the longer I am indulged with it, the more your debtor I fhall be. -Pray, have you feen Mr. Charles Crawford's Remarks on Plato's Phædon? I am told, that performance is not deftitute of fire and genius, though very excentric from the point of orthodoxy. Poffibly, the perufal of it might give you occafion to enlarge your papers, on the fubject we have debated, fhould you be prevailed with to give them to the public in which cafe, the random fhots of the fanguine and romantic Weft Indian may be of fervice to the Church of God, by being turned into a contrary direction. Do think of this, feriously.

I reckon myself so interested in whatever relates to you, that I cannot help intimating a wifh, which dwells much upon my mind, concerning the trea

tife, you have in hand, on the proper divinity of our adorable High Prieft and Saviour. My with iş, that you would take occafion, in the courfe of that work, to vindicate and eftablish the perfonality and divinity of the Holy Spirit: points, which were never more neceffary to be afferted and elucidated, than at prefent; when the poifon of fabellianifm begins to pour in, as a flood, even among fome fpiritual profeffors themselves.

Let me teaze you, with yet another request. It is, that I may be indulged with a fight of thofe compofitions, which you mentioned on our way between Broad-Hembury and Honiton. You fee, I am already fo deeply in your debt for obligations received, that, like a profeffed bankrupt, I care not how many fresh debts I incur. Nay, I wish to fink, deeper and deeper.

God give us to fink deeper into his love, and to rife, higher and higher, into the image of his holinefs! Thoroughly perfuaded I am, that, the more we are enabled to love and refemble him, the more active we fhall be, to promote his glory and to extend his caufe, with our lips, our pens, our lives, our all. Be this our bufinefs, and our blifs, on earth. In heaven, we shall have nothing to do, but to fee him as he is, to participate his glory, and to fing his praife; in delightful, in never-ending concert with angels, with faints who are got home before us, and with thofe of the elect whom we knew and loved below. I would hardly give fix-pence for a friendship, which time and death are able to quench. Our friendship is not of that evanid fpecies. I can, therefore, fubfcribe myself,

ever and forever your's,

Auguflus Toplady.

LETTER

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LETTER XXXII.

TO AMBROSE SERLE, Efq.

Broad-Hembury, Dec. 8, 1773.

Cannot but fmile, at the ease and readiness, with which we cut out work for each other. My dear friend's politenefs, in fo condefcendingly hearkening to my folicitations for the public appearance of his masterly thoughts, fhould induce me, by every tie of respectful gratitude, to meet his wishes, with equal facility. But I am really unqualified for the department affigned me by his partiality of esteem. My acquaintance with the fathers is too flender, and my general compafs of reading far too contracted, for the undertaking you recommend.

I fhould be

mafter of at leaft, Irenæus, Epiphanius, and Auftin, to write, in a manner tolerably fatisfactory, on fo complicated a fubject, as a review of heretics and herefies. I have, it is true, many fubfidiary helps; but I ever with, where the nature of the cafe will poffibly admit, to derive my informations, not at fecond hand, but from the fountain's head. me, dear fir, to recommend the propofal, to the propofer himself. The work would be as compleat, as any human performance can be, if you was to oblige and improve the world with the projected looking glafs for heretics.

Allow

Glad I am, to be informed, that your defence of the Meffiab's divinity is almoft finished. My admiration is fure to be excited, by every thing you write: nor fhall my moft facred withes be wanting, that God would ftamp general ufefulnefs on all your attempts for the glory of his name.

Your defign, of honouring and gratifying me with the first perufal of your treatife, calls for more acknowledgement than I am able to exprefs. Next

to

to your converfation, I can receive no higher intellectual feaft, than that which refults from a perufal of your writings. Though felf intereft, therefore, operates, in this matter, too ftrongly on my mind, to admit of my declining fo decifive a proof of your affectionate friendship; yet, that I may not be too greatly indulged at the public expence, I cannot help intimating a defire, that my enjoyment of the first fruits may not prejudice the harvest: I mean, that the advanced parts of your work may be tranfmitted hither, fo feafonably, as not to delay the publication of the whole.

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Accept my thanks, likewife, for the promised fight of what you are pleased to ftile the Verfus inertes. If they give me the head-ach," I will let you know it: and, by the fame rule, if they charm me into admiration, your delicacy muft difpenfe with my telling you fo.

The fubject of ordination, revives my wifh, that you would fubmit to the impofition of hands. The Church would then (a very uncommon thing in this age) be a gainer at the expence of the ftate.

LA

LETTER XXXIII.

To Mrs. MACAULAY.

Broad-Hembury, Jan. 11, 1774.

AST Saturday, I returned from a fhort excurfion to Dorsetshire. Though you can be no ftranger to the lofs, which the public have fuftained, in the decease of Mr. Hollis; yet, it is poffible, you may not have been apprifed of the particulars, by an authentic hand.

That

That friend of the British empire and of mankind was, early in the afternoon of New Year's Day, in a field, at fome diftance from his place of refidence at Corfcombe, attended by only one workman, who was receiving his directions, concerning a tree, which had been lately felled. On a fudden, he put one of his fingers to his forehead; faying, "Richard, I believe the weather is going to change: I am extremely giddy." Thefe words were fcarce off his lips, when he dropped. He fell on his left fide: and, being near an hedge, his head was received by the fubjacent ditch. The man (I know not, whether a carpenter, or a common labourer) fprung to his affiftance; and, raifing him from that fad fituation, administered what little relief he could. The expiring patriot was ftill fufficiently himself, to say, Lord, have mercy on me; Lord, have mercy on me; receive my foul :" which were the last words he was able to pronounce. His lips moved, afterwards; but no found was formed. In a few seconds more, his fpirit was dif-imprifoned.

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The frighted affiftant loft no time. Leaving the corpfe on the grafs, he haftened away, for fuperior help. But in vain. The lancet, when applied, was without effect.

It seems, Mr. Hollis always wifhed, that his death might be fudden. Providence was pleafed to grant his requeft.-Was I qualified to chufe for myself, and were it lawful to make it a fubject of prayer, I would wish for the fame indulgence, whenever my appointed change may come. It is,

I think, the moft defirable mode of departure, where the perfon is in a ftate of grace. How happy, to be furprised into heaven! And, to furviving friends, it is but a fingle fhock, once for all.

At the time of his deceafe, Mr. Hollis was ready booted; intending to ride that day to Lyme Regis. When I was there, it was my melancholy lot to occupy the chamber in which he always flept, during

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