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IN A SERIES OF LETTERS TO MR. D. EATON.

BY THE REV. JOHN GRAHAM,

RECTOR OF ST. MARY, BISHOPHILL SEN. AND OF
ST. SAVIOUR, YORK;

AND CHAPLAIN TO THE RIGHT HON. EARL BATHURST.

Pork:

PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLANCHARD:

And fold by J. MATHEWS, No. 18, Strand, London;
W.TESSEYMAN, and the rest of the Bookfellers, in York; BINNS, Leeds;
EDWARDS, Halifax; WARE, Whitehaven;

And by the Bookfellers in Hull, Scarborough, &c.

Anno 1800.

1305. e. 1

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TO THE PUBLIC.

AFTER the many excellent Publications

which have been called forth, from time to time, in vindication of the peculiar Doctrines of Christianity, it will be necessary for me to state the principal reafons which induced me to fend the following fheets into the world.

1. I do not recollect to have seen any work of ordinary fize, and cheap price, which treats upon all* the fubjects here neceffary to be discussed, in a way calculated for popular use.

* Amidst the numerous convincing Tracts that have been written in defer.ce of detached Doctrines, I here take the opportunity of recommending to my Reader's perufal, two published a few years ago at Leeds; the one entitled "a fhort Defence of the Divinity of Chrift"; the other, "a short Defence of the Atonement of Chrift."

2. Many perfons, when any of these important Doctrines are affailed, do not know what Books to enquire for; they, therefore, either fit down with bad impreffions upon their minds, or elfe, more ufually, increase thofe impreffions, by being led to apprehend, after an unfuccessful fearch, that no fatisfaction is to be had,

3. Old books, especially if they be in any measure of a controverfial nature, are feldom read; because they are old, and because they are supposed to be fuited only to the occafion for which they were written.

4. Such being the restless perfeverance of the enemies of Orthodox principles, that without having offered fatisfactory arguments in reply to the able Defences which have been made for thefe principles, they perpetually bring forward their fentiments as if they had never been anfwered: The only method left us, of counteracting their pernicious attempts, feems to be, to follow up

each fucceffive Publication of any weight,

with an appropriate reply.

-Demo unum, demo etiam unum,

Dum cadat.

HOR.

upon

5. Although this little WORK has kept the NARRATIVE, to which it was intended to be a reply, closely in view; yet I have endeavoured fo to frame it, that it may, the whole, be perfectly intelligible to those who have not feen that publication. Moreover, fince the fubjects of it are the most important Doctrines of Religion; and fince, in replying to the Narrative, I have in fome measure, met the principal part of popular objections and reafonings which occur in other Socinian writers upon thefe fubjects; it may, in the abfence of fomething more excellent, be not without its ufe in the hands of serious orthodox Chriftians in general.

It must be confeffed that in thefe "perilous times," when the enemies of Truth and

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