locutor to the lower House of Convocation. This distinguished mark of the attachment of the clerical body, however, he was induced to decline, probably from his sedentary disposition and declining health, shra,

From this period, his biographer observes, but few particulars occur in his history requiring especial notice: his pursaits, however, in each branch of his profession were still carried on to the benefit of the Church with undiminished ardour; and several of his most esteemed works were produced.

"But," observes the biographer, we shall not form an adequate conception of our obligations to Dr. Waterland, if we limit them to those productions, however numerous and important, which he himself submitted to the public eye. The extent of his literary aid to others is known to have been very considerable. Dr. William Berriman, Dr. Felton, Dr. Trapp, Mr. Wheatley, and Mr. John Berriman, acknowledge great obligations to him in their discourses for the Lady Moyer's Lectures."

A number of instances are then brought forward (which we cannot now particularize) in which the extent and liberality of his assistance and advice are shewn in a manner the most creditable, both to his abilities and his benevolence.

The extensive good which Dr. Waterland was thus doing to the cause of true religion, both by his own labours, and his assistance to those of others, neither could, nor did pass unnoticed by those who had the disposal of the highest stations in the church. It appears undoubtedly to have been the intention to elevate him to the Episcopal bench. Mr. Seed says, "he might have been advanced much higher by the recommendation and interest of that very excellent prelate, who, in the opinion of every true friend to the Church, deservedly fills the highest station in it (Archbishop Potter.)" This is explained in the Biographia Britannica, to have been the actual offer of the bishopric of Llandaff, which, however, he declined accepting. The date of this offer is not mentioned; but, from collateral evidence, it must have been either in 1733 or 1740. His reasons for this ** Nolo Episcopi," do not clearly appear. His health was certainly in a delicate state; and probably be contemplated such an elevation in the church, if not with apprehension of its difficulties and dangers, yet with a disinclination to relinquish the comparatively easy and tranquil enjoyments of literary labour; and perhaps, as his biographer observes,

"With that diffidence of his own powers which none but himself would have allowed to be well founded. Be that as it may, the

determination, however wise and prudent with regard to himself, could not but be felt by the real friends of the Church as a matter of deep regret. The accession of such a man to the episcopal bench, would, at any time, have been highly valuable; and more especially so, when many, even of the clergy of our Church, seemed disposed to halt between the different opinions which the spirit of controversy had spread among them; his advancement to the mitre at such a crisis might have done much to fix the wavering, to fortify the irresolute, and to uphold those who were disposed to adhere to their profession with a well regulated zeal."

We cannot omit quoting a brief note which occurs at the foot of the page from which the above extract is made, especially at a time when the subject of church revenues is so much canvassed :-it is as follows, speaking of his refusal of a bishoprick.

"Possibly also (if we may judge from a witticism related of him, respecting the scanty revenues of the see of Llandaff) prudential motives of another kind might have had their influence upon his decision."

His important labours, however, were not much longer to be continued to the church. From a letter of his from Cambridge, in July, 1740, he appears to have been quietly stationary there in the enjoyment of rational society and literary occupations: and particularly alludes to the death of a distinguished individual, Mr. Baker, upon which event he expresses himself in terms of condolence. From the cheerful tenor of this letter, his biographer observes, it could little be expected how soon the latter part of it would become applicable to himself. In the same month a complaint, which he had too long neglected, (a nail growing into the foot,) obliged him to call in the assistance of a Cambridge surgeon, from whom obtaining no relief, he removed to London, and placed himself under the care of Mr. Cheselden: but it seems to have been now too late: a bad habit of body, contracted by too intense application, rendered a recovery impossible and after undergoing several painful operations, to which he submitted with the greatest fortitude and patience, a mortification came on, and he expired with truly Christian composure on the 23d of December in the same year, and consequently in the 57th of his age.

This great and good man was not without enemies, whom his zealous attachment to, and defence of, the cause of the Church, would naturally call forth. Among these none were more bitter than those of the Warburtonian school. Of the characteristic bitterness and animosity of that party, a strong

instance is afforded in a pitiful attempt to circulate an anecdote connected with the latter period of his life, which, whether true or false, would be altogether unworthy of notice, had nots such men as Pope, Warburton, and Middleton, thought fit to magnify it into a matter of serious animadversion. The story is related with unfeeling levity, and in the coarsest terms, in one of Middleton's letters to Warburton only a fortnight after Waterland's death.

"The Church," says he, " has received a great loss by the death of Dr. Wd. I cannot say an irreparable one whilst Can lives, to whom he has left some unfinished papers on infant communion, and wisely ordered all the rest to be burnt. He has bequeathed to the college such of his printed books as they find scribbled by his own hand, for such I hear is his own description of them. By the silence of the public papers upon the fall of so great a luminary, we are to expect, I imagine, in a proper time, some laboured panegyric from a masterly hand. Though the great Hooker seems to have exhausted himself in an effort of the last week, to do justice to the character of the excellent Eusebius*, who is preparing to give the coup de grace to that subtle and ingenious but infamous writer, the Moral Philosopher. But as to Wd, whenever they think fit to oblige the public with his life, they will not forget one story, I hope, which is truly worthy of him, shews the real spirit of the man, and which I can venture to tell you on good authority.

Then follows the story, which, divested of its grossness and a few embellishments, is simply this, that on his way to London, with Dr. Plumptre his physician, and Mr. Cheselden, Dr. W. found it necessary to send for an apothecary in a town through which he passed, for some medical assistance: the apothecary mistaking the name of Waterland, for Warburton, was overpowed with the supposed honour conferred upon him; and assured Dr. W's friends, that he was not a stranger to the merit and character of the Dr., but had read with much pleasure his ingenious book, the Divine Legation of Moses-upon this blunder being communicated to Waterland, he was provoked by it to a violent passion, called the poor man ill names, and notwithstanding Dr. P's. endeavours to mitigate his displeasure, would not suffer him to administer the necessary aid. Middleton then adds, "with such wretched passions and prejudices did this poor man march to the grave; which might deserve to be langhed at rather than lamented, if we did not see what pernicious influence they had in the church, to defame and

These were assumed names of periodical writers.

depress men of sense and virtue, who have had the courage to despise them." This anecdote appears to have been highly relished by Warburton and Pope. The latter of whom, thanks the former, for communicating" that very entertaining, and I think, instructive story of Dr. W., who was in this the image of who never admit of any remedy from the hand they dislike. But, I am sorry, he had so much of the modern Christian rancour; as I believe he may be convinced by this time, that the kingdom of heaven is not for such."

This story is, itself, too trifling to deserve serious examination: whether true or false, it can prove nothing from a few expressions, which, in a moment of pain and irritation, escaped the lips of a man, in every instance remarkable for mildness and benevolence. And that these were pre-eminently displayed as characteristic of his disposition, appears not only from the tenor of his life, but from the testimony of several persons whose intimacy with him gave them the best opportunity of judging. There are several extracts to this effect in the concluding part of the narrative; particularly one from Mr. Seed, who attended him constantly during his last illness. He was buried in St. George's Chapel at Windsor.

"

The Biographer terminates his history with a brief review of the various important affairs in which Dr. W. more or less took part. Some account is given of the distinguished individuals with whom he was intimate, and from the cha. racter and celebrity of these associates, the Bishop justly remarks: we might have inferred the excellence and attain ments of Dr. W., the maxim “noscitur a sociis,” never could · have been more honourably applied. And not only from the character of his friends, but from that of his opponents may a man be known, and his value and. importance duly estimated. The antagonists with whom Dr. W. had to contend, were all men of the most brilliant talents, but who were a more or less, opposed to some leading doctrines of the thodox faith, or to some point of church discipline. He was, however, both by friends and enemies, acknowledged as a man of no ordinary powers, and his fame was neither limited to the praises of one party or of his own country — his reputation was as great among the Protestant divines of the Continent, as at home: this is shown by many very flattering testimonials extracted from various foreign publications.

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Amidst the various admirable observations which the Bishop of Llandaff makes in the volume before us, both on

the genius of Waterland's writings, and the subjects on which he wrote, there is one passage which has particularly struck us as worthy of the particular notice of our readers, as it bears a reference to that question so much agitated. and so much misunderstood in the present day-the authority to be given to reason in matters of revelation; and with this extract we shall close our remarks,

a severe test.

In his controversy with the Arians, these qualifications were put to instr The perplexities to be unravelled were many and intricate; and his opponents were admirably skilled in rendering them more so. Though the appeal on their part, for determining the points in dispute, was professedly made to Scripture only, and the authority of the Fathers and of other Scripture interpreters, was treated as of little worth; yet difficulties purely of a metaphysical kind were continually suffered to prevail, to the rejection of the most simple and obvious meaning of Scripture no less than to the perversion of its primitive expositors. Through these labyrinths, Waterland guided himself with admirable caution. That he was no inconsiderable adept in metaphysical science is manifest. But he forebore to apply it, either in proof or in eluci dation of the mysteries of revealed religion, farther than might shew its insufficiency to invalidate the truths of Holy Writ, He betrayed no fondness for abstract hypothesis or theories, to accommodate such doctrines to philosophical views; but laid their foundation deep in the authority of revelation only, and grounded them upon faith as their main support. To discard metaphysics altogether from such subjects, is perhaps impossible; but to attempt either to establish or to defend purely divine truth upon principles of human science, is to forget that our knowledge of the truths themselves originates in another source, and that they can neither be proved nor disproved from any intrinsic information that can be brought to bear upon them. Yet upon such grounds rest most of the subtleties of Arian writers. Metaphysical definis tions of unity person substance are assumed as postulates to establish one hypothesis, or to refute, another; as if it were de monstrable that the mode of of existence perceptible to our faculties in the visible world, must necessarily be the he same with that which belongs to the world invisible; or that which we discern by the testimony of sense and experience, can be an adequate criterion, of that which is capable of no such testimony. Troddion 26 mat eid bos 21300 18mbios

We must here terminate our examination of this valuable and highly interesting production, Earnestly recommending it to the careful perusal of every one who feels an interest in the welfare of the Established Church; and in the maintes nance of its pure and scriptural doctrines. In a more espe cial manner, will it be valuable to the theological student conu'votǝd amulo z 14- nt.