vi PREEACGCE.

whoſe judgment and friendſhip I have a great re- gard, were of opinion, that to complete the deſign vnich was propoſed in publiſhing the Vieav f tbe Deiſiical Mriters, it was neceſſary to take a di- ſtinét notice of the writings of Mr. Hume and Lord Bolingbroke: and that in that caſe it might be of uſe to make more large and particular obſerva- tions upon them, than could properly be done where a number of writers came under conſidera- tion. This produced a ſeoond volume, which, though it had the ſame title witlr the former, viz. A Viev of tbe Deiftical II' riters, yet differed from it in this, that it did not contain ſtrictures and obſervations upon a variety of authors, but a large and particular conſideration of the only two there examined, viz. Mr. Hume and the late Lord Bolingbroke, eſpeci- ally the latter. And this was judged neceffary, conſidering his Lordſhip's high reputation as a wri- ter; and that there is ſcarce any of the objections againſt Chriſtianity which he hath not repeated and urged in one part or other of his works, and that with a peculiar confidence, and with. all the ſtrength of reaſon and vivacity of imagination he was maſter of. And as Ithen thought Ihad finiſh- ed the deſign, that volume ended with an Addreſa to Deiſis and profeſſed Cbriſtians, which appeared

to me to be a proper concluſion of the whole. But after the ſecond volume was publiſhed, ſome letters were ſent me relating both to that and the former volume, which put me upon reconſidering ſome things in them, and making farther addi- tions and illuſtrations, which I thought might be of advantage to the main deſign. Theſe were thrown into a Suphplement, which made up a third volume,

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