degrees in arts, and remained till 1686, when he was ordained deacon by the bishop of Kildare.

Towards the close of that year he came over to England, having accepted of a curacy in the parish of Winwick in Lancashire, under his maternal uncle, Dr Sherlock. The income of this curacy was only £30; but the young incumbent managed to devote a considerable part of it to charitable purposes. In 1689 he obtained priest's orders; and in 1692 became domestic chaplain to the earl of Derby, and preceptor to that nobleman's son, Lord Strange.

In 1697 he was, to use his own words, "forced into the bishopric of the isle of Man." He would have declined the dignity; but the archbishop of Canterbury would not listen to his representations of unfitness and dread of responsibility. Although his episcopal revenues did not exceed £300 per annum, yet he contrived not only to support the dignity of his station, but to rebuild the palace at an expense of £1,400,-to erect a chapel at Castleton,-to establish parochial libraries,-to improve the agriculture of the island,-and to relieve many of the distressed among its inhabitants. Shortly after his appointment to the bishopric, he was offered by his patron, the earl of Derby, a rich living in Yorkshire, which he might have held in commendam with his see; but, being hostile to pluralities and non-residence, he declined to accept it.

In 1699 Bishop Wilson published a small tract, in Manx and English, entitled, The Principles and Duties of Christianity for the use of the Island.' This was the first work ever printed in the vernacular dialect of the isle of Man. Some years afterwards he had the churchcatechism printed for popular use in the same manner. Meanwhile, the diligence with which he applied himself to the discharge of his episcopal functions was most exemplary. Both by exhortation and example he laboured to animate his clergy to the regular and faithful discharge of their pastoral duties; with this view, he had them frequently assembled in convocation at his palace, to consult with them as to the state of their respective charges, and the best means of rendering their ministry efficient and operative upon the rude and ignorant islanders. Soon after his arrival on the island, he drew up a set of ecclesiastical constitutions for the regulation of his diocese, with which Lord-chancellor Kinghimself a zealous student of ecclesiastical antiquities, and a zealous advocate for the restoration of primitive discipline--was so highly gratified, that he declared, that "if the ancient discipline of the church were lost, it might be found again, in pretty nearly its original purity, in the isle of Man."

We lose sight of the good bishop for several years, until we find him, in January, 1721, adopting very decided measures against the introduction of 'The Independent Whig' into his diocese. He denounced it as a dangerous and immoral publication, and even caused several copies of it to be seized. His zeal in this affair certainly exceeded the bounds of prudence, and placed him in hostility to the civil governor of the island. A copy of The Independent Whig' had been sent as a present to the public library. The bishop ordered the keeper to put it aside, and not allow it to appear in the library. Complaint was made against the keeper to the governor, who took up the case warmly, and committed the keeper to prison. The bishop remonstrated, and

urged that he had the king's commands to suppress every thing of an irreligious tendency throughout his diocese. The governor replied, that in this matter the bishop was stepping beyond his jurisdiction, and reminded him that he had omitted to use the form of prayer composed in the time of the rebellion of 1715, though that was a duty equally enjoined upon him by his majesty's commands. The issue of this affair was, that the book was produced, and the keeper set at liberty. Soon after this a more serious altercation betwixt these two high dignitaries took place. The governor's wife had been found guilty of defamation, but declining to make an apology to the parties, was pronounced contumacious, and interdicted by the bishop from church privileges. His archdeacon, however, who was also chaplain to the governor, admitted the lady to the communion-table, whereupon the bishop suspended him. The governor now thought himself entitled to interfere, and, irritated at the affront offered his wife, fined the bishop and his two vicars-general for neglect of duty; and, upon their refusing to pay the fines, sent all the three to prison. The islanders, who loved their bishop, it would appear, more than their governor, now rose en masse and threatened some acts of violence, from which they were only dissuaded by the exhortations of the bishop himself, addressed to them from the grated window of his prison. The case was heard before the lords-justices in July, 1723, when the proceedings of the governor were declared illegal, and his sentences reversed. The king promised to defray the bishop's expenses out of the privy purse; but the promise was never fulfilled, and the bishop was left to defray the greater part of them himself. He was indeed offered the bishopric of Exeter as a solatium, but he could not be prevailed upon to leave his beloved islanders; and he rejected several very flattering offers with equal constancy. This af fair with the governor kept the bishop in London for above a year and a half, during which time he won golden opinions from all ranks, and was honoured with many marks of royal favour.

On the death of the earl of Derby, without issue, in 1739, the lordship of Man, as a barony in fee, became the property of the duke of Athol, who threatened to deprive the clergy of their livings by claiming the whole impropriations. This measure was, however, defeated by the bishop, who, after a most laborious search, succeeded in bringing to light the deeds of conveyance by a former earl of Derby to Bishop Barrow, who had purchased a third of the impropriations for the support of the clergy.

Bishop Wilson attained his ninety-third year, in the possession of all his mental faculties. He died, in consequence of the effects of a cold, in March, 1755; leaving it to his successor to complete the translation and publication of the Scriptures in the Manx language, which he had begun, but of which he had only accomplished the translation of the four gospels, and the publication of Matthew's gospel.

Bishop Wilson was one of the most nearly apostolic men that ever wore a mitre. His life was entirely devoted to the promoting of the spiritual interests, and the overlooking the temporal welfare also of the Manx population. His manners were simple and unaffected, and his benevolence unbounded. It is believed that he gave away the greater part of his very moderate revenues in charity,

Bishop Conybeare.

BORN A. D. 1691.-DIED A. D. 1755.

THIS prelate was born at the vicarage of Pinhoe, near Exeter, on the 30th of January, 1691. His father was the incumbent of that place. He entered Exeter college, Oxford, in 1707, and was admitted a probationary fellow, upon Sir William Petre's foundation, in 1710. In June, 1714, he was chosen prelector, or moderator, in philosophy.

This

Having taken orders, he entered upon the curacy of Fetcham in Surrey, but was obliged to resign that charge in a short time on account of delicate health. He now returned to his university, and became a tutor in his own college. In 1722 he published a discourse on 'The Nature, Possibility, and Certainty of Miracles,' which was very favourably received. In 1724 he published another discourse with this title, The Mysteries of the Christian Religion credible.' piece was also very highly thought of, and recommended him to the attention of Bishop Gibson, who obtained for him the appointment of Whitehall-preacher. Soon afterwards the lord-chancellor presented him with the rectory of St Clements, Oxford. In 1725 he published a visitation-sermon, preached before the bishop of Oxford. It was entitled, The Case of subscription to Articles of religion considered,' and was frequently referred to during the pending debate on that subject, in which some of the keenest controversialists of the day were engaged. Conybeare's position in this discourse is, that "every one who subscribes articles of religion does thereby engage, not only not to dispute or contradict them, but his subscription amounts to an approba tion of, and assent to, the truth of the doctrines therein contained, in the very sense in which the compilers are supposed to have understood them."

6

Dr Conybeare succeeded Dr Hole, in the headship of Exeter college, in 1730. In 1732 he published his famous 'Defence of Revealed Religion,' in answer to Tindal's work. Warburton thought very highly of this performance; and it is perhaps the best of the four best answers which Tindal received.'

On the death of Dr Bradshaw, bishop of Bristol, and dean of Christ church, Oxford, Dr Conybeare was appointed to succeed him in the latter dignity; but it was not till the latter end of 1750 that he attained the mitre. On the translation of Dr Butler to the see of Durham, Dr Conybeare was appointed to the bishopric of Bristol. He did not, however, long enjoy his new dignity, dying on the 13th of July, 1755.

1 The other three were:- Forster's Usefulness, Truth, and Excellency, of the Christian Revelation;' Leland's Answer to a late book, entitled, Christianity as old as the Creation; and Simon Browne's 'Defence of the Religion of Nature, and the Christian Revelation.'

Arthur Sykes.

BORN A. D. 1684.-DIED A. D. 1756.

ARTHUR ASHLEY SYKES, a celebrated polemical divine of the church of England, was born in London about the year 1684, and educated at St Paul's school by Mr Postlethway. He was admitted of Corpus Christi college, Cambridge, on the 15th of April, 1701, under the tutorship of Dr Kidman, the first who introduced into that university Locke's great essay as a text-book. He took the degree of B. A. in 1704, and proceeded to that of M. A. in 1708. His first employment after leaving college was as an assistant in St Paul's school. From this situation he was preferred, on the presentation of the duchess of Bedford, to the vicarage of Godmersham in Kent, to which he was collated by Dr Tennison.

In the year 1712, Dr Thomas Brett published a sermon, with a preface addressed to dissenters, entitled, "The Extent of Christ's Commission to Baptize,' in which he laboured to prove that dissenting teachers could not, on the authority of the laws of Christ's kingdom, administer Christian baptism, or either of the sacraments of the Christian church; and that none but such as had received episcopal ordination can be regarded as lawfully called to the work of the ministry. Mr Sykes replied to Dr Brett in a short 'Letter,' in which he admits the expediency of episcopal ordination, and that episcopacy has the warrant of scripture; but denies that the want of such ordination can affect the validity of the ordinances or offices performed by others. In 1714 Mr Sykes was instituted to the rectory of Dry-Drayton in Cambridgeshire.

In 1715 he published a tract, entitled 'The Innocency of Error asserted and vindicated.' The doctrines asserted in this piece are, that no errors, if involuntary, are or can be punishable; and that no heresy is so destructive of religion as a wicked life; no schism so damnable as a course of sin. The first argument adduced is, that in all perceptions the mind itself is passive; and the perceptions of things being, in numberless instances, quite different from what things are really in themselves, unless we are capable of bringing together and comparing a great many intermediate ideas to rectify these mistakes, we must necessarily fall into many errors. Secondly, that error, always consisting in a mistake of the judgment, must be in its own nature involuntary. Thirdly, that involuntary error cannot be punishable by God; for that would be an impeachment of his justice as well as mercy. Among the first to oppose Sykes's views of the moral quality of error was Thomas Sherwell, and Potter, then bishop of Oxford. Sykes replied in a ‘Vindication,' in which he avowed himself the author of the treatise animadverted on by the bishop. Sykes's tract passed through a third edition in 1729, and a fourth in 1742.

To counteract the efforts of the high churchmen and Jacobites, Sykes published, in 1715, a tract, entitled "The Safety of the Church under the present ministry considered,' in which he endeavours to show that the ecclesiastical establishment of the country was as likely to thrive

under the care and protection of George I., and the dukes of Marlborough and Devonshire, and Lords Townshend and Cowper, as under Queen Anne, the duke of Ormond, and Lords Bolingbroke and Harcourt. His next pamphlet was intended as a persuasive to moderation in religious disputes. He maintains in it that subscription is by no means to be regarded as implying uniformity of opinion: the sense, he says, which such as require subscriptions accept and tolerate is the rule of subscription; and, as the church accepts and tolerates contrary opinions, she evidently does not conceive identity of opinion necessary to her tranquillity. This doctrine was very ably replied to by the author of The Confessional.'

In 1716 Mr Sykes produced two political pamphlets, one of them, a plea for the suspension of the triennial bill, and the other entitled, 'The Thanks of an honest clergyman for Mr Paul's speech at Tyburne.' William Paul was a non-juring clergyman, who retained his living of Orton, in Leicestershire, until the breaking out of the rebellion in 1715, when he joined the earl of Mar's forces. He was at the battle of Preston, but behaved with great pusillanimity. He was taken, pled guilty, and was condemned. Immediately after his execution, his letters written to the archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Townshend, and his petition to the king, all abject productions in the extreme, were published; and to these were added his speech at Tyburne, in which he 'contradicted all that he had so solemnly professed a few days before, while suing for mercy. In the same year, he also published An Answer to the Non-juror's charge of Schism upon the Church of England.'

On the publication of the bishop of Bangor's Preservative against the Principles and Practices of the Non-jurors,' and his sermon on the nature of Christ's kingdom, Sykes descended into the polemical arena as an auxiliary of Hoadly's. He selected Dean Sherlock for his antagonist, and proved a very formidable assailant.

In the latter end of 1718, Mr Sykes was instituted to the rectory of Rayleigh in Essex, and soon afterwards was appointed to the afternoon preachership at St James's chapel. We now find him involving himself in Dr Bentley's famous quarrels with his university. On this occasion Middleton and Sykes assailed each other with very harsh terms. Sykes wrote 'The case of Dr Bentley truly stated,' and Middleton in Some Remarks' upon this pamphlet, 66 I was led to exceed all the bounds of

decorum."

After a brief controversy with Mr Rogers on church power, in answer to his discourse on the visible and invisible church of Christ, Mr Sykes got engaged with a very formidable antagonist, Dr Waterland, on the case of Arian subscription; and, when yet defending himself against Waterland, he undertook the cause of the quakers, while a bill was depending in parliament for relieving them from oaths. The London clergy petitioned against the passing of this bill, alleging that it would endanger the legal maintenance of the clergy by tithes, that it would endanger the administration of justice, and that it was uncalled for, as instances were rare in which any quaker had refused the solemn affirmation prescribed in the 7th and 8th of William III. The house of lords rejected the petition, but it was countenanced by a protest, signed by twenty lords, among whom were Sir William Dawes, archbishop of