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made master of Trinity College. His mind was most comprehenfive, his induftry indefatigable; and no ftronger proof can be adduced of his various powers, than the fact of his having filled with reputation the mathematical chairs both at Grefham college and Cambridge, and alfo the Greek profefforfhip at the latter place. Before the end of his life he refigned the mathematical chair at Cambridge to the juftly celebrated Newton, and there is a tradition in the univerfity, that he did it on confcientious motives; and that he was no fooner acquainted with Newton's merits (who was then a very young man) than, with a modefty which is rarely to be found, he pronounced himself unworthy any longer to prefide in that department of fcience. This excellent and extraordinary man died at the early age of forty-feven.

Though he excelled in fo many branches of learning, yet theology and ethics were the favourite fciences with Barrow, Yet, he has left but few entire treatifes on thefe fubjects, unless we confider his treatife on the pope's fupremacy, an unanfwerable work, as belonging to this department, though it is rather to be claffed under that of ecclefiaftical hiftory. His fermons on the articles of the Chriftian faith may however be confidered as a complete treatife, or rather a body of divinity; and indeed, according to the remark of Le Clerc, every fermon is a treatife or differtation, complete in all its parts, rather than an oration. Charles II. who was more deficient in principle than in talents, remarked of Barrow, "that he was an unfair preacher, because he exhausted every subject, and left no room for others to come after him." His fermons were in fact not lefs remarkable for their length than for their excellence. He was once requested by the dean of Westminster to preach at the abbey. He divided his fermon into two parts, and at the entreaty of the dean consented to preach only half of it, but after having proceeded a full hour, the populace, who waited without to fee the tombs, became impatient, and ftruck up the full organ to filence him. He preached once for three hours and a half before the lord-mayor and aldermen, and when asked if he was not tied, he replied, "I began to be a little weary with standing."

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The ftyle of Barrow is clear, uniform, and chafte. never rifes to what may be termed the fublime, and his productions are not orations, but effays or differtations, as has been already remarked. They are a treasure of religious and moral learning, nor are there any productions in the language, which may be read with more profit by students in theology

The pious and excellent bifhop Fell is better known as the publisher of the Whole Duty of Man, and fome other short and practical treatifes by the fame author, than by any works which bear his own name. There are perhaps few phænomena in our literary annals more extraordinary than the mystery in which the name of the author of these treatifes is involved; the ftyle is not that of bishop Fell, nor is there any good reafon to be affigned why he fhould be ftudious of concealment. The most probable conjecture is, that thefe works were the production of fome pious and modest layman, perhaps of fuperior rank, who might conceive that if he were known as the writer, his own life and conduct might be drawn into a comparison with his precepts, or that their utility might be leffened by fome circumftance connected with the author. Ken, bishop of Bath and Wells, was more of a poet than a divine, though moft of his compofitions were in a religious ftrain, fome of which are still popular. This prelate attended affiduoufly the dying moments of Charles II. but his exhortations had but little effect on the dying profligate, who ordered the room to be cleared of the proteftant prelates, and took refuge finally in the delufions of the church of Rome.

"It was in the licentious reign of Charles II. (fays Mrs. Macaulay) that writings were firft publicly broached, which called in question the divine authority of Chrift's mission, and all thofe glorious promifes of the gospel,, which, if firmly believed, must in a great meafure prevail over human vice and infirmity. It was in this licentious age that thofe baneful fyftems of philofophy were revived, which, by calling in queftion the future exiftence of man, ftrip the deity of the attributes

attributes of juftice and goodness; deftroy every benevolent end in the creation, render it the fplendid work of an inge nious and all powerful artift, devoid of every principle of true wisdom and greatnefs; fet loofe the vicious and inordinate affections of the artful and the powerful to prey on the weak, the fimple, and the injudicious; and by adding the infupportable horrors of defpair to the afflictions of the unfortunate, increase the evils of human exiftence beyond the poffibility of human bearing: hence proceed the numerous fuicides, and all thofe acts of violence and defperation, which help to fadden the annals of English hiftory." Against these infamous productions, the wit and acutenefs of South, the labour of Bramhall, and the unmeasureable erudition and unanswerable argument of Cudworth were directed, and not in vain for not an objection was left unanswered, not a cavil unexpofed. Unfortunately, fpeculative wickedness has ever a powerful ally in the natural depravity of the human heart, and men will commonly attend to what flatters their paffions in preference to a fyftem which reftrains them. If there were no wicked men there would be no unbelievers.; and, as bishop Atterbury fomewhere remarks-It is not a freedom of thinking for which thefe men contend, but a freedom of acting and living as they pleafe. To the young and unlearned, for it is only the unlearned, or the half-learned, that can be affailed by the miferable fophiftry of modern infidels, we may recommend the serious perufal of bishop Burnett's account of the life and death of the witty and profligate earl of Rochetter, a man of great talents, whom a perverted education, vicious affociates, and ungovernable paffions, had made an unbeliever; but who was no fooner made acquainted with the proofs of Chriftianity than he yielded to them his entire conviction, and found, in those truths which he had before rejected, the only confolation during his expiring moments.

The truths of religion were not only defended ably and with fuccefs by the divines of the established church at this period, but by fome of the non-conformist minifters, who were not inferior to their brethren of the establishment either

in erudition or ability. Among the first of these we may confider the venerable Richard Baxter, whofe "Unreafonableness of Infidelity," and "Catholic Theology," may be ftill read with infinite advantage. Of this able and laborious writer, the faying of Dr. Barrow is, on the whole, a juft character-"That his practical writings were never mended, his controverfial feldom confuted;" and the candid and liberal Burnett remarks of him, he "was a man of great piety;. and if he had not meddled in too many things, would have been esteemed one of the most learned men of the age. He wrote near 200 books, of thefe three are large folios. He had a very moving and pathetical way of writing, and was his whole life a man of great zeal and much fimplicity; but was most unhappily fubtle and metaphyfical in every thing." Mr. Baxter was one of the most unhappy examples of the black ingratitude of the British Tiberius. On the reftoration, for his zeal and loyalty he was made chaplain to the king; and the difcerning Clarendon laboured hard to remove. his fcruples, and reconcile him to the church. After the difgrace of that minifter his whole life was a continued scene of perfecution, and he was an inhabitant fucceflively of moft of the prifons in the metropolis. Towards the end of his life he had the misfortune to be tried for a libel before the execrable Jefferies, who wrefted fome paffages in his annotations on the New Teftament from their legitimate meaning into a cenfure on epifcopacy in general, and a compliant and daf tardly jury found him guilty. The trial is upon record, in which the greatnefs of mind difplayed by the accufed forms a fingular contraft to the low and vulgar abuse of the illiterate Jefferies; and he appears a. Socrates before a contemptible tribunal. He however lived to fee the downfall of his perfe cutors, and to partake of the bleffings of liberty which were the effects of the glorious revolution of 1688; an æra now equally abused by the extravagant democrats, and by the wretched and mifguided tories, but which will ever be held in juft eftimation by every man who poffeffes the genuine fenti, ments that become an Englishman.

Of the celebrated Edmund Calamy we had occafion to

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speak in our laft volume: his writings are more controverfial than thofe of Baxter. Dr. William Bates, the friend and coadjutor of Mr. Baxter in the Savoy conference, was alfo a man of confiderable erudition. "He is universally understood (fays the late editor of the Biographia Britannica) to have been the politeft writer among the non-conformifts of the last century." To these we may add the names of Howe, Jacombe, and Wilde, all of them eminent as preachers, and useful as writers. The former of thefe divines is characterised by Anthony Wood, who is not very favourable to the prefbyterian party, as " a perfon of neat and polite parts, and not of that four and unpleasant converfe, as moft of his perfuafion were; fo moderate alfo and calm in those smaller matters under debate between the church and 'his party, that he had not fo much as once intercfted himself in quarrels of this kind, but hath applied himself to more beneficial and ufeful difcoveries on practical fubjects."

Of the theological writings of the other fectaries but few are at present held in much efteem; but Barclay's Apology for the Quakers will be read as long as found learning, acute reasoning, and animation and correctness of ftyle continue to be admired. The preface, addreffed to Charles II. is a model of true eloquence, and the fcriptural arguments of the author against war will never be refuted.

After this hafty sketch of the state of learning and science in the theological department during this period, we find ourfelves reluctantly obliged to break off with fome abruptnefs. In the other fciences a wide field lies ftill before us, and the political occurrences of this eventful year are fo many, and fo important, that to extend this differtation further, would either abridge the reader of what is more immediately interefting, or extend the volume to an unmanageable size *.

*Burnett, Macaulay, Hume, - Anthony Wood, Biographia Britannica, Biographical Dictionary, &c. &c.

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