are mean Things in Comparison of Him. O Sun in the Firmament; Thou too art all Blackness, before that sun of Righteousness.

Think so, my dear, grow in such Thoughts; And Lose the sight of all things but Him.

I mightily wish, That you may Love nothing that is Mine. My wishes are, That I may be so Happy as to exhibit unto you some Reflections of His Image. If you can discover any thing of [illegible] in the meannest of men, tis well. Every thing else, Dislike it. And the more will you be Lik'd and Lov'd by

One who Loves you Inexpressibly (and placilla1 most affectionately and compassionately.

REVEREND AND VERY DEAR, SIR,- The generous Friendship wherewith you have treated me, is like to bring an unknown Trouble

upon you.

There is an Opus Ecclesiæ præpared, which is waiting to be at some Time or other published; whereof the enclosed, New offer to the Lovers of Religion and Learning will give some Advertisement.

I know very much of your Love to do good, and of the ready Mind wherewith you embrace Opportunities to serve the Ch: of God in its most valuable Interests.

And I know something of the unmerited Respect which you bear to the Person who now addresses you.

This has emboldened me, to committ unto you, and unto two more, the Direction, and the Management, of this important Affair.

But who those other two shall be, I have left unto your Determination; because I might ignorantly have putt in such, as you might have less approved of. I have therefore left Blanks, entreating you to fill them up with such Names, as you think most suitable; which you may do, with what Reservation you please; for your Satisfaction will be entirely my own.

My Request is, that you three, will condescend unto the Care, which is now betrusted with you; and this, not only as from the Author, but also as from the Churches and Pastors in all these Colonies, which you have no little Value for: and among whom, Syr, the Reprinting of your excellent Book of Mrs. Terry and Mrs. Clissold, by my means, has made you to be particularly considered.

1 The Ms. is clear, but the word has not been identified.

2 Written in the spring of 1715, as the reply of Dr. Reynolds follows.

I should be glad, that your Bookseller, Mr. John Lawrence, may be one of mine.

I make no doubt, that many of our Brethren, with you, may have a very mean opinion of every ones capacity here, to do any service that may be worthy of your Notice. And I do not expect that my own having, near two hundred and forty times, entertained my Friends with publishing by the way of the Press, Treatises and Composures on various Arguments, and in various (living as well as dead) Languages, will obtain for me with some, the Favour of being thought capable of any valuable Performance. However, I am willing that you who have perhaps more favourable Sentiments of me, than some others have, should make some Trial on my Behalf, whether my New offer may not meet with some Subscriptions and Encouragements.

And, I will now keep looking up to the glorious Lord, for such an Answer from you, as may shew me, what I may have to do, about sending the Manuscripts of the Biblia Americana, over the Atlantic. In Him, I am, Sir, Your Brother and Servt.

WITH MY REVEREND, AND MOST HONOURED BROTHER,
MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL, IN THE CITY OF London.

MY MOST HONOURED BRETHREN, It is a Consolation of God, which cannot be small with you, that you have American Colonies, who have an Ambition to be acknowledged as your United Brethren; are ambitious to be bound up with you in one Bundle, of Life and of Love. We beleeve, we enjoy the Benefit of your Prayers for us; and are sure, our Prayers for you, our sollicitous Concern for your Prosperity, and our sympathizing Distress in all your Adversity, are such as well become our declared Brotherhood. And if any Service for the Church of God, worthy of any Notice, be performed by His Grace granted unto any Person here, it recommends itself unto you, under that Consideration; Tis done by One of you; Tis One of your own Performances.

Behold, now laid before you, A New offer to the Lovers of Religion and Learning, made by one of yours, at a Thousand Leagues distant from you, which will, no doubt, sufficiently explain itself in the Perusal.

That the Things promised in this offer are indeed prepared, I suppose, will be unquestionable, unto such as may think the Author

could not otherwise be so senseless as to make a Tender of them; For, I can assure you, there will be found rather more than what the Bill of Fare has mentioned.

It has not been any Disadvantage unto your particular Profession of Dissent from the Irregularities in the Worship imposed on the Nation, or unto the Cause of pure and undefiled Religion in general, which is your Cause more than any Peoples, that so many of our Way, have had their Pens used by the glorious Head of the Church, to do things that have proved advantageous and acceptable to the reasonable Part of the World. And more particularly, what has been done by such Men, as our Pool,1 and some others, in their Annotations on the Sacred Scriptures, will be a living and a lasting Testimony for you, in the Consciences of them who pay any Respect unto the heavenly oracles; It will testify, that you are not such a People, as deserve to be hated and cast out from among those, who would say, lett the Lord be glorified.

Such diligent Servants, as you have at this Day among you; your Williams's, your Calamies, your Henries, and others, whose Works ought to be their Praise in the Gates, (the Place where a true and just Judgment of Things is pretended to;) These doubtless find their Labours encouraged, as well as their Persons had in due Estimation, among all those of your People, who understand the best Interest, and their own. He that now waits upon you, is not so vain as to expect a place in that superiour Class; but yett he hopes, that your favourable Aspect upon his poor Essayes to do some good, may do no hurt unto that which you reckon your common Interest.

When Diodati had prepared his useful Works, Annotations on the Bible, the Prejudices which many of the Reformed Churches in France had unaccountably conceived against that Work, obliged him, to address the National Synod of Alanson, that he might be more equally treated with them. And the plea for himself, which he began withal, was; "That it was a Labour of pure, innocent, confessed Orthodoxy, done by a Man who never ministred the least occasion to have the Sincerity of his Faith quæstioned, and who for many Years hath given to the Public, an Essay of his small Talent in this kind of Work.'

That your American Servant may obtain some Share in the candid Sentiments of the Churches pursuing the Reformation, in London, and wherever you may see Cause to commend the Essay which he now tenders you, he might plead, that as far as the publishing a Variety of some lesser some larger Treatises and Composures, on various 1 Matthew Poole or Pole (1624-1679).

Arguments and in various Languages, may secure him, the Reputation (if not of having Talents rendering him in some Degree capable of his undertaking, yett,) of his pure, innocent, confessed Orthodoxy, you may depend upon it, that no Disservice will be done to the Kingdome of God, by your Encouraging of what you find thus undertaken.

Some eminent Persons in the Church to the Rites whereof we are Non conformists, have given me such a Prospect of Encouragement from them, for our, Biblia Americana, that if you should wholly cast it off, it may happen by their Means to make its way into the World. But, I think my Duty to you, obliges me to chuse, that it should rather be by yours.

If you, my dear Brethren, (and those who meet you, on the common Affaires to whom you may if you please, communicate these my Letters,) do judge it worth your while, to concern yourselves for the forwarding of this Work, I shall request, that you Three accept the Trouble of advising, directing, ordering what shall be done about it.

That you single out the Booksellers, whom you would have to go thorough with it.

That you give effectual Injunctions, for the Press-work to be well done; fairly, neatly, correctly, and according to the Directions I may in time give concerning it.

That you exert as full Power in agreeing upon Terms, for every Thing about the Work, as if it were your own.

Only, I would entreat that my dear and only Brother, Mr. Samuel Mather of Witney, may interpose his Sentiments with yours, if there may be occasion.

I delay sending over the Copy, till I have some Returns from you, to make my Way more plain before me. When you say, lett it come, we will do our best that it may be no longer detained here.

In this Countrey, my Friends begin to send me in such Indefinite Subscriptions for the Work, as the Proposals have spoken of; supposing, that the two Volumns will not cost much more than five Pounds of our Money, to the Subscribers. And your Booksellers may have a rational Expectation, of having Subscriptions for many more than one hundred setts of the Work; to be paid in upon their Arrival here; if they will run the Risque thereof.

I add no more, but with an Eye to our glorious LORD, for His continual Conduct and Blessing to be vouchsafed you, I take Leave, to subscribe myself, Much Honoured Sirs, Your Sincere Brother, and most humble Servt.

C. M.

TO JEREMIAH DUMMER.

MY DEAR AND MOST VALUED FRIEND,

A.A.S.

4 d. 3 m. [May.] 1715.

As you are sure when you

are opening my Letter, which by the hand in the Superscription, you know to be mine, that you shall find nothing to render you uneasy in it, so, I perceive my Task sometimes must be, to find you uneasy, and cure it.

First and foremost, it will be in vain for any evil Instruments or any trivial Occasions to break that generous Friendship, which has hitherto been cultivated between us. No body shall perswade me, that my Pamphilus [Dummer], is not a person of bright Accomplishments, and one of a singular Goodness in his Temper and ready forever to do good Offices, and a Lover of his Countrey and an Honour to it.

No body can perswade him, that his Usebius has not an high Esteem for him, and is not of those Principles, which will cause him to do him good and not hurt all the Dayes of his Life.

Whoever tells you, that I have ever spoken any Thing to do you the least mischief in the World, is a Talebearer, and wrongs me unaccountably.

If Adoni Avi [Increase Mather], should happen to express any Dissatisfaction at any thing, it is an Injustice to make me responsible for it.

The only Thing, that I have ever spoken, that can have the least Aspect of what you may dislike, is, that I have expressed, (and this but very privately,) a concern, lest the open Appearance of Irenæus Americus, to blanch the late Ministry, might prove some Disadvantage to him with the present. But, I know not that ever I have heard that matter spoken of, without my adding, I am sure, that his Countrey ought to love him for it; for it was nothing but a noble zeal to secure his Capacity of serving them that caused him to appear so far on that side; But I am not much afraid; He will have sense enough to make a good Retreat. And how often have I added; We are too much at a distance from Europe, to be competent Judges of a Friend's Conduct there.

And suppose, I should once take the Liberty, to express myself not mighty well satisfied in one Book of yours; Does not my dear Pamphilus, without the least offence to me, lett me know, concerning some Hundreds of mine, he likes not my writing of them!

I am not so Vain, as to say, that no man alive has contributed more, than the least of men, has done unto the good Esteem with