In 1734 he succeeded his old antagonist Hoadly in the see of Salisbury; and on the death of Archbishop Potter, in 1747, he was offered the primacy, but declined it on account of the ill state of his health In 1749, however, he allowed himself to be translated to the see of London. In the same year he published that edition of his discourses on prophecy, which was attacked by Dr Middleton with so much fury, that Warburton, in a letter to Hurd, under date 11th July, 1750, says of Middleton's tract: "I think it the weakest as well as warmest pamphlet the Dr ever wrote. But I agree with you, there is no harm done. It may be of use to make people understand themselves." 6

In 1750 the bishop of London published A Pastoral Letter to the Clergy and Inhabitants of London and Westminster, on occasion of the late Earthquakes.' The cause and design of this letter will be better understood from the following extract from Smollett's history of that year :-" The month of January and the beginning of February were distinguished, the first day by a very remarkable Aurora Borealis appearing at night to the north-east, of a deep and dusky red colour, like the reflection of some great fire, for which it was by many people mistaken; and the coruscations, unlike those that are generally observed, did not meet in the zenith, but in a point some degrees to the southward. February was ushered in by terrible peals of thunder, flashes of lightning, and such a tempest of wind, hail, and rain, as overwhelmed with fear and consternation the inhabitants of Bristol, where it chiefly raged. On the eighth day of the same month, between twelve and one in the afternoon, the people of London were still more dreadfully alarmed by the shock of an earthquake, which shook all the houses with such violence, that the furniture rocked on the floors, the pewter and porcelain rattled on the shelves, the chamber-bells rang, and the whole of this commotion was attended with a clap or noise resembling that produced by the fall of some heavy piece of furniture. The shock extended through the cities of London and Westminster, and was felt on both sides the river Thames, from Greenwich to the westward of London; but not perceptible at a considerable distance. On the very same day of the next month, between five and six o'clock in the morning, the inhabitants of the metropolis were again affrighted by a second shock, more violent than the first, and abundantly more alarming, as it waked the greater part of the people from their repose. It was preceded by a succession of thick low flashes of lightning, and a rumbling noise, like that of a heavy carriage rolling over a hollow pavement. The shock itself consisted of repeated vibrations, which lasted some seconds, and violently shook every house from top to bottom. Again the chairs rocked, the shelves clattered, the small bells rang, and in some places public clocks were heard to strike. Many persons, roused by this terrible visitation, started naked from their beds, and ran to their doors and windows in distraction; yet no life was lost, and no house overthrown by this concussion, though it was so dreadful as to threaten an immediate dissolution of the globe. The circumstance, however, did not fail to make a deep impression upon ignorant, weak, and superstitious minds, which were the more affected by the consideration that the two shocks were periodical; that the second, which happened exactly

See our notice of Middleton.

one month after the first, had been the more violent; and that the next, increasing in proportion, might be attended with the most dismal consequences. This general notion was confirmed, and indeed propagated, among all ranks of people, by the admonitions of a fanatic soldier, who publicly preached up repentance, and boldly prophesied that the next shock would happen on the same day of April, and totally destroy the cities of London and Westminster. Considering the infectious nature of fear and superstition, and the emphatic manner in which the imagination had been prepared and prepossessed, it was no wonder that the prediction of this illiterate enthusiast should have contributed, in a great measure, to augment the general terror. The churches were crowded with penitent sinners; the sons of riot and profligacy were overawed into sobriety and decorum. The streets no longer resounded with execrations, or the noise of brutal licentiousness; and the hand of charity was liberally opened. Those whom fortune had enabled to retire from the devoted city, fled to the country with hurry and precipitation, insomuch that the highways were encumbered with horses and carriages. Many who had, in the beginning, combated these groundless fears with the weapons of reason and ridicule, began insensibly to imbibe the contagion, and felt their hearts fail in proportion as the hour of probation approached; even science and philosophy were not proof against the unaccountable effects of this communication. In after ages it will hardly be believed, that on the evening of the eighth day of April, the open fields that skirt the metropolis were filled with an incredible number of people assembled in chairs, in chaises, and coaches, as well as on foot, who waited in the most fearful suspense until morning and the return of day disproved the truth of the dreaded prophecy. Then their fears vanished; they returned to their respective habitations in a transport of joy, and were soon reconciled to their abandoned vices, which they seemed to resume with redoubled affection, and once more bade defiance to the vengeance of heaven." In this excited state of publie feeling, the bishop's pamphlet was bought up and read with such avidity, that more than 100,000 copies were sold within a month. In 1759 Sherlock published an excellent charge to his clergy, in which, greatly to his honour, he expatiates very forcibly on the evils of non-residence. This great man died at the advanced age of 84, on the 18th of July, 1761. He died worth £120,000, which Dr King asserts he had principally amassed out of the revenues of his metropolitan see, but which was certainly in great part the produce of his own private resources.

William Law.

BORN A. D. 1686.-DIED A. D. 1761.

THIS popular divine was born at Kingscliffe, in Northamptonshire, in 1686. He was educated at Cambridge, where he took his degree of M. A. in 1712.

He refused to take the oaths after the accession of Geor Arge I., and, in consequence, lost his fellowship, and was considered ever afterwards as a non-juror; yet it appears that he for some time officiated as a curate in the metropolis. Soon after his resignation of his fellowship

he went to reside at Putney, where he was tutor to Edward Gibbon, the father of the great historian. From Putney he removed to Kingscliffe, where he resided as chaplain to two widow-ladies of eminent piety, who, being of congenial sentiments, united their households, and placed them under the charge of this good man. He died in this situa

tion in 1761.

His works are rather numerous. They consist of A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life;' A Practical Treatise on Christian Perfection;' Remarks on the Fable of the Bees; The absolute Unlawfulness of Stage Entertainments;' The Case of Reason, or Natural Religion fully and fairly stated;'An Answer to Dr Trapp's Discourse on the Folly of Sin, and being righteous over-much;'The Grounds and Reasons of Christian Regeneration;' The Spirit of Prayer;' The Spirit of Love; The Way to Divine Knowledge;' An Appeal to all that doubt or disbelieve the Truths of the Gospel;' An Answer to Hoadly on the Eucharist;' A Confutation of Warburton's Projected Defence;' with various other theological and controversial pieces, including some translations from Behmen, all of which have been collected and published in nine volumes octavo.

can

The historian of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' has borne a very ample and interesting testimony to the singular worth of his father's tutor. "In our family," says he, "he left the reputation of a worthy and pious man, who believed all that he professed, and practised all that he enjoined. The character of a non-juror, which he maintained to the last, is a sufficient evidence of his principles in church and state; and the sacrifice of interest to conscience will be always respectable. His theological writings-which our domestic connexion has tempted me to peruse-preserve an imperfect sort of life, and I pronounce with more confidence and knowledge on the merits of the author. His last compositions are darkly tinctured by the incomprehensible visions of Jacob Behmen; and his discourse on the absolute unlawfulness of stage entertainments is sometimes quoted for a ridiculous intemperance of sentiment and language. But these sallies of religious phrenzy must not extinguish the praise which is due to Mr William Law as a wit and a scholar. His argument on topics of less absurdity is specious and acute; his manner is lively,-his style forcible and clear,—and, had not his vigorous mind been clouded by enthusiasm, he might be ranked with the most agreeable and ingenious writers of the times. While the Bangorian controversy was a fashionable theme, he entered the lists on the subject of Christ's kingdom, and the authority of the priesthood; against the 'Plain Account of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper' he resumed the combat with Bishop Hoadly, the object of whig idolatry and tory abhorrence; and, at every weapon of attack and defence, the non-juror, on the ground which is common to both, approves himself at least equal to the prelate. On the appearance of 'The Fable of the Bees,' he drew his pen against the licentious doctrine that private vices are public benefits, and morality as well as religion must join in his applause. Law's master-work, the 'Serious Call,' is still read as a popular and powerful book of devotion. His precepts are rigid, but they are founded on the Gospel; his satire is sharp, but it is

1 See Bishop Horne's Cautions to the Readers of Mr Law.'

drawn from the knowledge of human life; and many of his portraits are not unworthy of the pen of La Bruyere. If he finds a spark of piety in his reader's mind, he will soon kindle it to a flame; and a philosopher must allow that he exposes with equal severity and truth the strange contradiction between the faith and practice of the Christian world."2 A still higher testimony to Law's powers is furnished by Dr Johnson: "When at Oxford," says he, "I took up Law's 'Serious Call to a Holy Life,' expecting to find it a dull book, (as such books generally are,) and perhaps to laugh at it. But I found Law quite an over-match for me; and this was the first occasion of my thinking in earnest of religion, after I became capable of rational inquiry." The same work, it is stated, produced such an effect on John Wesley, that no sooner had he perused it, than he resolved on devoting himself wholly to the service of God.

Bishop Lavington.

BORN A. D. 1683.-DIED A. D. 1762.

THE memory of this prelate is chiefly preserved by a more violent than judicious attack made by him upon what he was pleased to call the enthusiasm of the Methodists. He was born at Mildenhall, in Wiltshire, of which place his grandfather was rector; and was educated on Wykeham's foundation near Winchester. After a number of interme

diate appointments, he was elevated to the see of Exeter, on the death of Bishop Claggett. He died in 1762. Warburton says that his work on the Methodists is only a bad copy of Stillingfleet's 'Fanaticism of the Church of Rome.'

John Mason.

BORN A. D. 1705.-DIED A. D. 1763.

6

JOHN MASON, the son of a dissenting minister, was born at Dunmow in 1705, and educated principally by Mr Jennings of Kibworth. In 1728 he was chosen pastor of a congregation at Dorking, whence he removed, in 1746, to Cheshunt. Here, in addition to his ministerial labours, he superintended the education of several young men who afterwards became eminent preachers. Mason distinguished himself inore as a writer than as a divine. His first work, A Plain and Modest Plea for Christianity,' was published anonymously; the name of its author, however, soon became known, and the university of Edinburgh conferred upon him the degree of M. A. by diploma. He subsequently published a valuable Treatise on Self-Knowledge; Essays on Christian Morals;' 'Student and Pastor;' Essays on Elocution;' and fifty-two sermons on important subjects in divinity, under the title of 'Lord's Day Evening Entertainment.' His Treatise on Self-Knowledge' is, perhaps, one of the most popular books of its class extant. His death took place in October, 1763.

2 Gibbon's Miscellaneous Pieces.

John Leland.

BORN A. D. 1691.-DIED A. D. 1766.

THIS eminent writer

in defence of Christianity was born at Wigan, in Lancashire, in 1691. He accompanied his father, in early life, to Ireland, where the family settled, and where he became a dissenting minister. The publication of Tindal's attack on the doctrines of revelation first drew him out as an author. His answer to Tindal appeared in 1733, and was very highly esteemed. In 1737 he replied to Morgan's 'Moral Philosopher.' These publications introduced him to the favourable notice of many eminent men, and he was honoured with the diploma of D.D. from the university of Aberdeen.

In 1742 he published an answer to a pamphlet, entitled 'Christianity not founded on argument;' and in 1753, Reflections on Lord Bolingbroke's Letters on the Study and Use of History.' Next year appeared his 'View of the principal Deistical writers,' in the form of a series of letters to a friend. This friend was Dr Thomas Wilson, rector of St Stephen's, Walbrook. Popular as the 'View' soon became, no bookseller would give more than £50 for the manuscript, whereupon Dr Wilson printed a large edition at his own risk, and the subsequent editions sold with great rapidity and profit. His last work was on the Advantage and Necessity of the Christian Revelation,' which he published when upwards of seventy years old. He died in January, 1766.

Leland is a calm, clear, and dispassionate writer.

Nathaniel Lardner, D.D.

BORN A. D. 1684.-DIED A. D. 1768.

THIS very learned and meritorious divine was born at Hawkhurst, in Kent, on the 6th of June, 1684. After a grammatical education, to which great attention must have been given, and in which a no less rapid progress must have been made, he was sent first to a dissenting academy in London, then under the care of the Rev. Dr Joshua Oldfield, and thence, in his sixteenth year, to prosecute his studies at Utrecht under the celebrated professors D'Uries, Grævius, and Burman. He remained at Utrecht for more than three years, and then removed for a short space to Leyden. In 1703 he returned to England, and employed himself for some further time in close and diligent preparation for the profession of the ministry. In 1709 he preached his first sermon from Romans i. 16,-" a text," his biographer Kippis remarks, "than which there could not have been a more proper one for a man who was destined, in the order of Divine Providence, to be one of the ablest advocates for the authenticity and truth of the Christian revelation that ever existed."

A few years after this, Lardner was received into Lady Treby's family, widow of the lord-chief-justice of the common pleas, as her