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to protect the citizen and the fubject. Mr. Graffet has the care of my library. I have feen Mr. Leverche (you mean Laroche) with one Mr. May, an exile, whom I have vifited fome time fince his difgrace, and who paffed the latter part of his time with this minifter.

• If either of them have put my name to their letters, and made people believe that we are more intimate than we really are, I fhall certainly, when I fee them, refent it as an injury done to me, which from too great a friendship for me you seem to have exaggerated.

If wishes had any power, I would add one to the blessings you enjoy. I would with you that tranquility which flies be fore genius, which perhaps is not of fo great value when confidered with relation to fociety, but of infinitely more with regard to ourselves; the most celebrated man in Europe would then be alfo the moft happy. I am, Sir,

Your perfect admirer, &c.' It only remains for us to obferve, that the Tranflator has expreffed the fenfe of his original with fidelity and elegance.

** This volume is advertifed as the 37th of the English tranflation of Voltaire's Works in 12mo.

ART. IX. Sermons on feveral Subjects. By Thomas Secker, LL. D. late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury. Published from the Original Manufcripts, by Beilby Porteus, D. D. and George Stinton. D. D. his Grace's Chaplains. To which is prefixed, a Review of his Grace's Life and Charac

ter.

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8vo. 4 Vols. 11. bound. Rivington, &c. 1770. Character fo exalted, and, in many refpects, fo amiable, as that of the late Archbishop of Canterbury, having the juttett claim to celebrity, cannot be overlooked in the memoirs of the literature of those times in which this learned prelate lived and died. We fhall, therefore, offer the public an abridgment of the very ample account here given of Dr. Secker's life:-to which we are ftill further induced, as the particulars are conveyed to us on the most unquestionable authority.

His Grace was born in 1693, at a village called Sibthorp, in the vale of Belvoir, Nottinghamshire. His father was a Proteftant Diffenter, a pious, virtuous, and fenfible man; who having a final paternal fortune, followed no profeffion. His mother was the daughter of Mr. George Brough, a fubftantial gentleman farmer, of Shelton, in the fame county. He received his education at feveral private fchools and academies in the country, being obliged, by various accidents, to change his mafters frequently.

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Notwithstanding this difadvantage, he had, at the age of nineteen, not only made a confiderable progrefs in Greek and Latin, and read the beft writers in both languages, but had acquired a knowledge of French, Hebrew, Chaldee, and Syriac, had learned Geography, Logic, Algebra, Geometry, Conic Sections, and gone through a courie of lectures on Jewish Antiquities, and other points, preparatory to the critical study of the bible.-He had been deftined by his father for orders among the Diffenters. With this view, during the later years of his education, his ftudies were chiefly turned toward divinity; in which he made fuch quick advances, that, by the time he was 23, he had carefully read over a great part of the fcriptures, particularly the N. T. in the original, and the best comments upon it; Eufebius's Ecclefiaftical Hiftory, The Apoftolical Fathers, Whifton's Primitive Chriftianity, and the principal writers for and against Miniflerial and Lay Conformity.—But though the refult of thefe enquiries was a well-grounded belief of the Chriftian Revelation, yet not being at that time able to decide on fome abftrufe fpeculative doctrines, nor to determine abfolutely what communion he fhould embrace; he refolved, like a wife and honest man, to pursue some profeffion, which fhould leave him at liberty to weigh thofe things more maturely in his thoughts, and not oblige him to declare or teach publicly, opinions which were not yet thoroughly fettled in his own mind.

In 1716, therefore, he applied himself to the ftudy of phyfic; and after gaining all the medical knowledge he could, by reading the ufual preparatory books, and attending the best lectures during that and the following winter in London,-in order to improve himself further, in Jan. 1718-19, he went to Paris. There he lodged in the fame houfe with the famous anatomist Mr. Winflow, whofe lectures he attended, as he did thofe of the materia medica, chymiftry, and botany, at the king's gardens. The operations of furgery he faw at the Hôtel Dieu, and attended alfo for fome time, M. Gregoire, the Accoucheur, but without any defign of ever practicing that or any other branch of furgery. Here he became acquainted with Mr. Martin Benfon, afterward Bishop of Gloucester, one of the most agreeable and virtuous men of his time; with whom he quickly became much connected, and not many years after was united to him by the ftricteft bonds of affinity as well as affection.

During the whole of Mr. Secker's continuance at Paris, he kept up a conftant correspondence with Mr. Jofeph Butler, afterwards Bishop of Durham, with whom he became acquainted at the academy of one Mr. Jones, kept first at Gloucester, and afterward at Tewkesbury. Mr, Butler having been appointed preacher at the Rolls, on the recommendation of Dr, Clarke

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and Mr. Edward Talbot, fon to Bishop Talbot, he now took occafion to mention his friend, Mr. Secker, without Secker's knowledge, to Mr. Talbot; who promifed, in cafe he chose to take orders in the Church of England, to engage the Bishop, his father, to provide for him. This was communicated to Mr. Secker, in a letter from Mr. Butler, about the beginning of May, 1720. He had not, at that time, come to any refolution of quitting the ftudy of phyfic; but he began to forefce many obftacles to his pursuing that profeffion; and having never dif continued his application to Theology, his former difficulties, both with regard to conformity and fome other doubtful points, had gradually leflened, as his judgment became ftronger, and his reading and knowledge more extenfive. It appears alfo, from two of his letters ftill in being, written from Paris to a friend in England, (both of them prior to the date of Mr. Butler's above-mentioned) that he was greatly diffatisfied with the divifions and difturbances which at that particular period prevailed among the Diffenters.

In this ftate of mind, Mr. Butler's unexpected propofal found him; which he was therefore very well difposed to take into confideration; and after deliberating on the fubject of fuch a change for upwards of two months, he refolved, at length, to embrace the offer, and for that purpofe quitted France about the beginning of August, 1720.

On his arrival in Engiand, he was introduced to Mr. Talbot, with whom he cultivated a clofe acquaintance; but it was unfortunately of very fhort duration: for, in the month of December, that gentleman died of the final pox. This was a great fhock to all his friends, who had juftly conceived the higheft expectations of him; but especially to an amiable lady whom he had lately married, and who was very near finking under fo fudden and grievous a ftroke. Mr. Secker, befide haring largely in the common grief, had peculiar reafon to lament an accident that feemed to put an end to all his hopes; but he had taken his refolution, and he determined to perfevere. It was fome encouragement to him to find that Mr. Talbot had, on his death-bed, recommended him, together with Mr. Benfon and Mr. Butler, to his father's notice. Thus did that excellent young man, for he was but 29 when he died, by his nice difcernment of characters, and his confiderate good nature, provide most effectually, in a few folemn moments, for the welfare of that church from which he himself was fo prematurely fnatched away; and, at the fame time, raifed up, when he leaft thought of it, the trueft friend and prorector to his wife and unborn daughter; who afterward found in Mr. Secker all that tender care and affiftance which they could have hoped for from the nearest relation.

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It being judged neceffary, by Mr. Secker's friends, that he Thould have a degree at Oxford; and he having been informed that if he should previously take the degree of Doctor in Phyfic at Leyden, it would probably help him in obtaining the other, he went over and took his degree there in March 1721: and, as part of his exercife for it, he compofed and printed a Diflertion de Medicina Staticâ, which is ftill extant, and is thought, by the gentlemen of that profeffion, to be a fenfible and learned performance.

In April, the fame year, he entered himself a gentlemancommoner of Exeter College, Oxford; after which he obtained the degree of Batchelor of Arts, in confequence of the chancellor's recommendatory letter to the convocation.

He now spent a confiderable part of his time in London, where he quickly gained the esteem of fome of the most learned and ingenious men of thofe days, particularly of Dr. Clarke, rector of St. James's, and the celebrated dean Berkeley, afterwards bishop of Cloyne, with whom he every day became more delighted, and more closely connected. He paid frequent vifits of gratitude and friendship to Mrs. Talbot, widow of Mr. Edward Talbot, by whom she had a daughter five months after his decease. With her lived Mrs. Cath. Benfon, fifter to bishop Benfon, whom, in many respects, the greatly refembled. She had been for several years Mrs. Talbot's infeparable companion, and was of unspeakable fervice to her at the time of her hufband's death, by exerting all her courage, activity, and good fenfe (of which the poffeffed a large fhare) to fupport her friend under fo great an affliction, and by afterwards attending her fickly infant with the utmost care and tenderness, to which, under Providence, was owing the prefervation of a very vaJuable life.

Bishop Talbot being, in 1721, appointed to the fee of Darham, Mr. Secker was, in 1722, ordained deacon by him in St. James's church, and priest not long after in the fame place, where he preached his firft fermon, March 28, 1723. The bishop's domeftic chaplain at that time was Dr. Rundle, a man of warm fancy and very brilliant conversation, but apt sometimes to be carried by the vivacity of his wit into indifcreet and ludicrous expreffions, which created him enemies, and, on one occafion, produced difagreeable confequences. With him Mr. Secker was foon after aflociated in the bifhop's family, and both taken down by his lordship to Durham, in July 1723.

In the following year the bifhop gave Mr. Socker the rectory of Houghton-le-Spring. This preferment putting it in his power to fix himself in the world, in a manner agreeable to his inclinations, be foon after made a propofal of marriage to Mrs. Benfon; which being accepted, they were married by bishop

Talbot

Talbot in 1725. At the earnest requeft of both, Mrs. Talbot and her daughter confented to live with them, and the two families from that time became one.

About this time bishop Talbot alfo gave preferments to Mr. Butler and Mr. Benfon, whofe rife and progrefs in the church is here interwoven with the hiftory of Mr. Secker. In the winter of 1725-6, Mr. Butler first published his incomparable fermons; on which, our Authors inform us, Mr. Secker took pains to render the ftyle more familiar, and the author's meaning more obvious: yet they were. at laft by many called obfcure. Mr. Secker gave his friend the fame affiftance in that noble work The Analogy of Religion, &c.

He now gave up all the time he poffibly could to his refidence at Houghton, applying himself with alacrity to all the duties of a country clergyman, and fupporting that ufeful and refpectable character throughout with the ftricteft propriety. He omitted nothing which he thought would be of use to the fouls and bodies of the people entrusted to his care. He brought down his conversation and his fermons to the level of their understandings; he vifited them in private, he catechized the young and ignorant, he received his country neighbours and tenants kindly and hofpitably, and was of great fervice to the poorer fort of them by his fkill in phyfic, which was the only use he ever made of it. Though this place was in a very remote part of the world*, yet the folitude of it perfectly fuited his ftudious difpofition, and the income arifing from it bounded his ambition. Here he would have been content to live and die; here, as he has often been heard to declare, he fpent fome of the happiest hours of his life; and it was no thought or choice of his own that removed him to an higher and more public fphere; but Mrs. Secker's health, which now began to be very bad, and was thought to be injured by the dampnefs of the fituation, obliged him to think of exchanging it for a more healthy one. Accordingly an exchange was made, through the friendly interpofition of Mr. Benfon (who generously facrificed his own intereft on this occafion, by relinquishing a prebend of his own to ferve his friend) with Dr. Finney, prebendary of Durham, and rector of Ryton; and Mr. Secker was' inftituted to Ryton and the prebend, June 3, 1727. For the two following years he lived chiefly at Durham, going every week to officiate at Ryton, and fpending there two or three months together in the fummer.

Our Authors have not pointed out what part of the kingdom Houghton-le-Spring lies in; but, we take it for granted, it is in the bishopric of Durham.

REV. June 1770.

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