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was pleafed to give the following commendation of it: "I find there is no dealing with you, as with the generality of writers. The afore mentioned piece "is all quinteffence: fo that, inftead of extracting, I have been obliged to copy the greatest part of it, to do juftice to the article of Pfalmody, and "know not where to find any hints for the improvements of it "." But Mr Lowe dying quickly after, it does not appear that any ufe was made of his papers in the Supplement published; at least with respect to any extract from Mr GILL's writings.

In 1735, and in the three following years, Mr GILL published his Cause of God and Truth, in four volumes, octavo. In the first part of this work, those paffages of fcripture are confidered, which the Arminians make ufe of in favour of their fentiments concerning Election and Reprobation, Original Sin, Redemption, Free-will, and the Perfeverance of the Saints; and the true fenfe of fuch paffages is given, and they are vindicated from the falfe gloffes put upon them. In the fecond part, the paffages of fcripture, which are made ufe of by the Calvinists in fupport of their sense of the above doctrines, are explained, the true meaning of them defended, and the cavils of the Arminians answered. The contents of those two parts are extracts from fermons preached on those feveral texts, at the Wednesday Evening Lecture. The third part contains the arguments from reafon against thefe doctrines. And the fourth part gives the fense of the ancient fathers, before Auftin, concerning those points. This laft part was nibbled at, by one Heywood, a pert, worthlefs man, who tranflated Dr Whitby's treatise On Original Sin: in the introduction to which, he brings fome impertinent charges against Mr GILL, with refpect to his tranflation and fense of fome paffages in the ancients: to which Mr GILL replied, in a postscript to his answer to the fecond part of the Birmingham Dialogue writer, 1739; which will be taken notice of hereafter. Heywood, upon this, published a pamphlet, called, A Defence of his Introduction, &c. full of cavils, calumnies, and defamations: which was anfwered by Mr GILL, in a tract, intitled, AVindication of the Caufe of God and Truth, &c. part 4th. relating to the sense of the ancients about fome points in controverfy with the Arminians, in which more pains are taken, than fo paltry an opponent deferved. This was printed in 1740. In 1736, was published, by an anonymous writer, a pamphlet, called, Some Doctrines in the Supralapfarian Scheme examined, &c. the author of it, it seems, was one Job Burt, of Warwick: a man very ill qualified for polemical writing; being intirely ignorant of the fcheme he undertook to examine, as well as of most other things: however, as this was pointed chiefly at fome writings of Mr GILL'S, and at the doctrines of God's everlasting Love, eternal Union, Jufti

The chief defign of this letter to Mr GILL was, that he would fend him every thing he had publifhed, that he might make a like ufe of what he judged ferviceable to the above work.

Juftification, &c. he thought fit to give an answer to him, the fame year, in a tract called Truth Defended, &c. The ftupidity, infolence and impertinence of the man, fometimes provoked Mr GILL to use a little more acrimony and feverity than perhaps fome might think needful.

A new meeting-houfe being erected by the Baptifts, at Birmingham in Warwickshire; and their intereft a little reviving upon it, through the preaching of feveral minifters who came thither; excited the jealousy, it feems, of one Mr Samuel Bourne, a Prefbyterian minifter of the fame place: who, hereupon wrote A Dialogue between a Baptift and a Churchman, under the name of a Confiftent Christian, part I. in which he fet the Baptift minifters, that came to preach at Birmingham, in a moft ridiculous light, and fell foul on the doctrines of Christ's Divinity, Election, Original Sin, irrefiftible Grace in converfion, imputed Righteousness, Perseverance in grace, and adult Baptifm by immerfion. The Baptifts in thofe parts, thought it was proper that an anfwer fhould be returned: and, upon application, MrGILL undertook to refute it; and the refutation was published in 1737. The author of the dialogue then wrote a fecond part, on the fame subjects; taking very little notice of what Mr GILL had written, not so much as mentioning his name. To this also he returned an answer in 1739. But had no reply to either of his answers at that time, except some abusive paragraphs in a news-paper, the St James's Evening Post, December 31, 1737. in the first of these paragraphs, Mr Bourne complains of a falfe charge of Plagiarism brought against him, or of stealing what he had wrote on the article of election, from Dr Whitby: of which Mr GILL made proof, in a poftfcript to a fermon of his called the doctrine of Grace cleared from the charge of Licentiousness, preached Dec. 28, 1737. by placing Dr Whitby's words and this author's in parallel columns. In this year he wrote and published Remarks on Mr Samuel Chandler's Sermon preached to the focieties for the reformation of Manners, relating to the moral nature and fitness of things.

When Mr GILL first came to fettle in London, which was in the year 1719, he became intimately acquainted, as he had been in fome measure before, with that worthy minifter of the gofpel, Mr John Skepp, author of the Divine Energy: the fecond edition of which Book, in 1751, Mr, then Dr GILL, revised, and divided the work into chapters, with contents, for the more eafy reading and better understanding it; and prefixed a recommendatory preface to it, the memory of that excellent man being dear to him. This Gentleman, though he had not a liberal education, yet, after he came into the miniftry, through great diligence and induftry, acquired a large fhare of knowledge in the languages in which the Bible was originally written: and especially in the Hebrew language; in which he took immenfe pains, under the direction of a Jew teacher, and

even dipped into Rabbinical Hebrew and writings pretty deeply. As Mr GILL had taken great delight in the Hebrew language, as before obferved, his converfation with this worthy minister rekindled a flame of fervent desire to obtain a more extensive knowledge of it; and efpecially of Rabbinical learning, which he then had but fmall acquaintance with, and little notion of any usefulness from it, which he now began to perceive, and more fully afterwards. This Gentleman dying in a year or two after Mr GILL's fixing in London, he purchafed most of his Hebrew and Rabbinical Books; and now went to work with great eagerness, in reading them; and many others, which he afterwards obtained of a Jewish Rabbi he became acquainted with. He plainly faw, that as the New Testament was written by men who had all of them been Jews, and who, notwithstanding their being infpired, muft needs retain and use many of the idioms of their language, and allude to rites, ceremonies, and customs peculiar to that people; fo the writings of the Jews, especially the more ancient ones, who lived nearest the times of the apoftles, could not but be of use for the better understanding the phrafeology of the New Teftament, and the rites and cuftoms to which it frequently alludes. With this view, he fet about reading their Targums, the Mifnah, the Talmuds, the Rabbat, their antient commentaries, the book of Zobar, and whatever else, of this kind, he could meet with : and in a course of between 20 and 30 years acquaintance with those fort of writings, he collected together a large number of obfervations. Having alfo gone through, in this time, moft part of the New Teftament, in a way of Expofition, in the course of his miniftry; he put all together, and in the year 1745 proposed to publish an Expofition of the whole NEW TESTAMENT, in Three Volumes, Folio. And the work meeting with encouragement very quickly, it was put to the prefs the fame year, and was finished, the First Volume in 1746, the Second in 1747, and the Third in 1748.

Towards the close of this work, in 1748, Mr GILL received a Diploma from the Marifchal College and Univerfity at Aberdeen, creating him Doctor in Divinity, on account of his knowledge of the Scriptures, of the Oriental languages, and of Jewish antiquities, as expreffed in the Diploma: along with which, or quickly after, he received two Letters, one from Profeffor Oborn, Principal of the University, declaring to him, that on account of his learned defence of the true sense of the holy Scriptures against Deifts and Infidels, and the reputation his other works had procured him in the learned world, as foon as it was moved in their University to confer the degree of Doctor in Divinity on him, it was readily agreed unto: which motion was declared to be without the knowledge of Mr GILL; and that he [Dr Osborn] as Primarius Profeffor, made a prefent to him of what was due to him on fuch a promotion. The other Letter was from

Profeffor

Profeffor Pollock, Profeffor of Divinity in the fame Univerfity, and afterwards Principal of it in which he fignified to Mr GILL, that their Society of the Marifchal College had, with great chearfulness, created him Doctor in Divinity, on account of that fpirit of learning which appeared in his excellent Commentary on the New Testament; and congratulated him upon it.

In 1749, the Doctor wrote a treatise, called, The divine Right of InfantBaptifm examined and difproved; this was occafioned by a pamphlet, printed at Bofton in New England, in 1746, written by Mr Jonathan Dickinson, of Elizabeth Town in New Jersey, and afterwards Prefident of the College there, which was intitled, A brief Illustration and Confirmation of the divine Right of InfantBaptifm. What put this Gentleman on writing it, was, the increase of the Baptist interest in New England, and the parts adjacent. This pamphlet being boasted of, and multitudes of them being spread about, it being printed in feveral places in order to hinder the growth of the Baptift intereft; the Baptifts fent it over to Dr GILL, requesting him to write an answer to it: which he did, in the treatise before observed. To this, Peter Clark, M. A. pastor of a church in Salem, replied, in a book, called, A Defence of the divine Right of Infant-Baptifm; confifting of 450 pages, or more, stuffed with things impertinent to the controverfy, printed at Boston, 1752. To this alfo the Doctor returned an answer, in a Letter to a friend at Bofton; which was printed there in 1754, with a fourth edition of a Sermon of the Doctor's preached at Barbican, upon Baptifm, Nov. 2, 1750.

A pamphlet, boafted of as unanswerable, being published under the title of The Baptifm of Infants a reasonable Service, founded upon Scripture, and undoubted apoftolic Tradition. The Doctor published an anfwer to it, in 1751, intitled, The Argument from apoftolic Tradition in favour of Infant-Baptifm, with others, &c. confidered along with which was published an answer to a Welch Clergyman's Twenty arguments for Infant-Baptism; and to the whole were added, The Dif Jenters Reasons for Separating from the Church of England; written chiefly for the ufe of the Baptift churches in Wales; and were therefore tranflated into the Welch language, occafioned by reflections caft upon them by the faid ClergyOn account of the first tract, The Argument from apoftolic Tradition, &c. the Doctor received two Letters from a Francifcan Friar at Sevil in Spain, (who figned himself James Henery) dated in 1754, and in 1755. in the firft, he defired to be fent him, by a master of a veffel whom he named, The Differtation on the Tradition of the Church concerning Infant-Baptifm: (induced, as it should feem, by the title of the tract) declaring himself a lover of all learned men, of whatsoever profeffion. The pamphlet was accordingly fent to him. In his fecond Letter, he owns the receipt of it; fays, he had read it with a great deal

-man.

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of pleasure; and purposed to draw up a few obfervations upon it in a candid and friendly manner: believing, that Dr GILL would yield to inspired apoftolic tradition, if clearly made out or proved to him. He concludes with wishing for peaceable times, that he might have the pleasure of a correfpondence with him. But the Earthquake at Sevil, which was at the fame time with that at Lisbon, obliged him (as the Doctor understood by a master of a veffel) to go up further into the country: and he heard no more of him afterwards.

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In 1752 the Doctor wrote an answer to a pamphlet called Serious Thoughts upon the Perfeverance of the Saints; written, as it after appeared, by Mr John Wesley who, in another pamphlet, fhifted the controverfy, from Perfeverance, to Predeftination. Mr Wesley intitled his piece, Predeftination calmly confidered: in which he mostly contents himself with haranguing on Reprobation. To this the Doctor returned an answer the fame year, and to the exceptions Mr Wesley had made to part of his Treatife on Perfeverance, refpecting fome paffages of scripture brought into the controverfy: without attempting, however, to answer one argument advanced by the Doctor in vindication of that doctrine.

In 1753, a pamphlet being published, intitled, Pedobaptifm: or, a Defence of Infant-Baptism in point of antiquity, &c. by an anonymous writer; the Doctor replied to it, in a tract, called, Antipedobaptifm: or, Infant-sprinkling an innovation: to which the fame author made a rejoinder; but there being nothing new advanced, nor the antiquity of Pædo-baptifm cleared, but mere wrangle and cavil, the Doctor thought fit to take no notice of it.

In 1755 he republished Dr Crifp's works, in two volumes, octavo, with explanatory notes on fuch paffages as had been excepted to in them, or needed any explanation; with fome Memoirs of the Doctor's Life.

In 1756 he quitted his Wednesday-Evening Lecture, as before related, and published proposals for printing his Expofition of the prophets, both the larger and smaller, in two volumes, folio: and which were published in the two following years, 1757, 1758; with an Introduction to them on prophecy, and with a Differtation at the close of them concerning the Apocryphal writings.

In this year, March 15, the Dr had a very memorable escape from being killed in his Study. That morning, there was a violent hurricane of wind, by which much damage was done to many houfes both in London and Westminster. Soon after the Doctor had left his Study, to go to preach; a ftack of chimnies were blown down, which forced through the roof into his Study, breaking his writing-table to pieces, and must have killed him if it had happened a little fooner. Reflecting on which remarkable prefervation to a friend, who had fome time before mentioned a faying of DrHalley, the great Aftronomer, "That close study prolonged a man's life, by keeping him out of harm's way;" he faid, What becomes of Dr Halley's words now, fince a man may come to danger and harm in his closet, as well as on the highway, if not protected by the special care of God's providence?

VOL. I.

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