In 1738 he brought out another Oration, for which the venue was Trinity Hall, in Aldersgate Street, on 9 January 1738; it was directed against Henry Felton's True Discourses, on personal identity in the resurrection of the dead.
[1] On 20 June 1756 Ilive was sentenced to three years' imprisonment with hard labour in the House of Correction at Clerkenwell, for writing, printing, and publishing an anonymous pamphlet in 1754.
Aimed at Thomas Sherlock, it was entitled Some Remarks on the excellent Discourses lately published by a very worthy Prelate by a Searcher after Religious Truth.
It was declared to be "a most blasphemous book" denying the divinity of Jesus Christ as well as revealed religion.
[4] In what was a tolerant epoch of the Church of England, Ilive was in a select group, with Peter Annet and Thomas Woolston, of those against whom blasphemy charges were successfully brought.
[5] Sherlock, by legal action, sought to discourage Ilive from publishing other deist writers.
[3] In 1730 Ilive printed his major book, The Layman's Vindication of the Christian Religion, in 2 pts.