Let. 2. Lord HERBERT f Cherbury. 23

BUR. This letter deſerves particular notice; and what I have to obſerve upon it may be properly inſerted here, immediately after the obfervations which have been made upon that noble writer in the preceding! etters. I readily agres with this gen- tleman, in acknowleging what, as he Obſepres, N Mr. Baxter owns in his animadverfions on Lord Herbert's tract de Veritate, that there are excellent things in that book, and that many of the rules there propoſed may be of great uſe. But I had no occa-

ſion to take vandulat notice of them, as I propoſed only to make ſome general obſervations on his Lordhip: 8 ſcheme, as far as the cauſe of Chriſtianity is concerned. I hope the writer of that letter, who appears to be a man of ſenſe, and a friend to Chriſtianity, as well as a great admirer of Lord Herbert, will find upon peruſing the foregoing reflections, that I have done his Lordſhip juſtice, and not puſhed the charge againſt him farther than there is juſt ground for it. WhatI hare there ſaid is perfectl y agrecable to what tis ingenious gentleman has ob- ſerved in this letter; where, after having faid, that Lord Her- bert is commonly reputed to have been the firſt ſtarter of Deiſm in the laft century; he adds,%Suppoſing the charge to be * true, as I greatly ſuſpect it is, yet I am convinced upon ſe- «ε veral good reaſous, that he was nevertheleſs a Deiſt of more 4½ honour, and of greater candour and decency, as he was of ** far greater parts and learning, than many that have appeared «« under that denomination fince.“ fe ſubjoins,“ Had he «« lived in theſe days, wherein the ſubject, then new, has been *thoroughly canvaſſed, and no ſtone left unturned to find out *«the truth, and bring it into fair light; Iown I have charity ¹c enough to ſuppoſe, and almoſt to belicve, that Lord Herberz αwould either have been an advocate for revelation, or at leaſt ¹c have forbore oppoſing it.“

This gentleman takes notice of a manuſcript which he had lately ſeen, containing the life of Lord Herbert of Cberbury, drawn up from memorials penn'd by himſelf, and which is now in the poſſeſſion of a gentleman of diſtinction whom he does not name. He mentions that Lord's good conduct when he was Ambaſſador at Parig, and ſome other things that do not come within the compaſs of my deſign, which is not to give an account of the lives and characters of the authors I mention, but only to confider their writings, and thoſe no farther than they relate to the controverſy between the Chriſtians and the Deiſts. But there is one thing in that manuſcript life of Lord Hens ert,

which the writer of the anonymous letter ca 3 C 4