44 4 My dear Lord, Piccadilly, March 15. 1798.

44 4 It will appear extraordinary, and perhaps to many incre-4 dible, that, considering the intimate friendship in which I am4 so fortunate as to live with Your Lordship, I should have4 printed any thing without your having previously seen it in any4 way.

44 4 It is not meant for publication, but chiefly for the inspection4 of my own family, and likewise for my own justification. When I4 put it into your hands, I am sensible that you cannot agree with4 or approve most of the essential parts of it, though you will4 tolerate every person who, in the sincerity of his heaVi, ventures4 to make use of private judgment in a conscientious search after4 truth.

44 4 I ever remain, my dear Lord,

44 4 Your Lordship’s most faithful friend and servant,

44 4 Grafton.

44 4 An 8vo pamphlet of eighty-two pages, entitled 44 The4 serious Reflections of a rational Christian, written down at dif-4 ferent times from 1788 to 1797,” accompanied this letter.

4 If it should ever be published, Christians of every denomination4 will admire, and, I hope, adopt in their own practice, the sin-4 cerity, humility, and piety of the author of it, apparent in the4 following extract from the 11th page: — 44 If I am in any error,

4 and under any mistake in these sentiments, I earnestly beg4 of Almighty God that I may be convinced of it, and that he4 will pardon in me my ignorance, and that he will enlighten4 my understanding by his Holy Spirit, and lead me into the