to write an elaborate letter to Bossuet on ‘The True Notion of the Catholic Church’ (dated 26 Sept. 1703) printed in 1705 in ‘Several Letters which passed between Dr. George Hickes and a Popish Priest’ [see Hickes, George]. A speech of Burnet in opposition to the bill against occasional conformity drew from him an ironical pamphlet entitled ‘The Bishop of Salisbury's proper Defence,’ London, 1704, 4to. In support of the bill he wrote ‘The Wolf stript of his Shepherd's Cloathing, in answer to a late celebrated Book intituled “Moderation a Vertue” [see Owen, James, 1654–1706], wherein the Designs of the Dissenters against the Church are laid open. With the case of Occasional Conformity considered,’ &c., London, 1704, 4to. He returned to the charge in the following year in ‘The Principles of the Dissenters concerning Toleration and Occasional Conformity,’ London, 4to.
Meanwhile, in August 1704, he had started, in opposition to Tutchin's ‘Observator’ and Defoe's ‘Review,’ a periodical entitled ‘The Rehearsal.’ It was published at first weekly, on Saturdays, afterwards on Wednesday also, beginning with 10 April 1706. The title was borrowed from the well-known play by the Duke of Buckingham. In form ‘The Rehearsal’ was a lively dialogue between Rehearser and Observator or Countryman, and, though largely occupied with matters of merely ephemeral interest, afforded Leslie scope for a familiar exposition of his views on serious matters. His criticism of Locke's ‘Treatises of Government,’ in which he exposes the unhistorical character of their fundamental assumptions, may still be read with interest. His own political philosophy, however, which is developed at great length, is merely a modification of the patriarchal theory of Sir Robert Filmer [q. v.] Tindal's ‘Rights of the Church’ and the peculiar views of Asgill, Coward, and Dodwell on death and immortality are also discussed in detail. The last number appeared on 26 March 1709, and the entire series was then republished under the pseudonym ‘Philalethes’ and the title ‘Rehearsal. A View of the Times, their Principles and Practices,’ London, 1708–9, 4 vols. fol. It was an open secret that Leslie was the author. While still occupied with ‘The Rehearsal’ Leslie published in ‘The Socinian Controversy discuss'd in six Dialogues,’ London, 1708, 4to, a reply to Biddle's ‘Brief History of the Unitarians,’ and recent works of a like tendency. It is a formal defence of Athanasian Trinitarianism, founded principally on the utter incomprehensibility of the divine nature. To strictures by Thomas Emlyn [q. v.] Leslie rejoined in an ‘Answer,’ which elicited from Emlyn a ‘Vindication.’ To an ‘Examination’ by Emlyn of his views on the atonement, and to an accusation of tritheism brought against him in John Clendon's ‘Tractatus Philosophico-Theologicus de Persona; or, A Treatise of the Word Person,’ Leslie published a joint answer in 1710. Meanwhile he carried on his ecclesiastico-political warfare with hardly abated energy. Benjamin Hoadly's attack on Bishop Blackall's accession-day sermon (8 March 1708–9) ‘On the Divine Institution of Government’ elicited from him an animated counter-attack entitled ‘The Best Answer ever was made. Addressed in a Letter to the said Mr. Hoadly himself. By a Student of the Temple,’ London, 1709, 8vo. Hoadly replied in a ‘Postscript’ to his ‘Reply’ to Blackall's ‘Answer’ (Hoadly, Works, 1773, ii. 180). Leslie rejoined in ‘Best of All. Being the Student's Thanks to Mr. Hoadly,’ London, 1709, 8vo. To Higden, on the publication of his ‘View of the English Constitution,’ he addressed a controversial letter, in which he attempted to wrest the facts of history to the support of the theory that ‘God made kings and kings made parliaments.’ This he entitled ‘The Constitution, Laws, and Government of England vindicated,’ London, 1709, 8vo. Incensed by some pointed references to himself in Burnet's speech on the impeachment of Sacheverell (16 March 1710) and his sermon in Salisbury Cathedral on 27 May following, he affected, as on a former occasion, to treat as spurious both speech and sermon while caustically dissecting them, and published ‘The Good Old Cause, or Lying in Truth,’ London, 1710, 4to. The pamphlet appeared under the pseudonym ‘Misodolos,’ but its authorship was at once detected by Hoadly, who in ‘The Jacobites Hopes Revived,’ &c., charged Leslie with maintaining that the queen was a usurper. Leslie replied, somewhat faintly, in ‘Beaucoup de Bruit pour une Aumelette; or, Much Ado about Nothing,’ London, 1710, 8vo.
A warrant was soon afterwards (July 1710) issued for his apprehension. He found an asylum in a house belonging to Francis Cherry [q. v.] at White Waltham, Berkshire. Here he gave to Higden and Hoadly what he reckoned ‘The Finishing Stroke. Being a Vindication of the Patriarchal Scheme of Government in Defence of the Rehearsals, Best Answer, and Best of All. Wherein Mr. Hoadly's Examination of this Scheme in his late Book of the Original and Institution of Civil Government is fully Consider'd. To which are added Remarks on Dr. Higden's late Defence in a Dialogue between three H.'s,’ London, 1711, 8vo. This is probably the
