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divine? Of the two, I think Stebbing the more tolerable, who labours to support other people's nonsense rather than his own."

SHIPLEY, (JONATHAN, Bishop of St. Asaph.) was born in 1714, and after having received a liberal education, was sent to Christchurch, Oxford, where he graduated about the year 1735, and proceeded to the degree of M. A. in 1738. While at the university, he wrote a monody on the death of Queen Caroline,

which was inserted in the Oxford col

lection. He became a prebendary of Winchester, in 1743; and, two years afterwards, chaplain to the Duke of Cumberland, whom he accompanied to the continent. On his return to England, in 1748, he took the degrees of B. D. and D. D., and obtained, successively, a canonry of Christchurch, Oxford, the deanery of Winchester, the livings of Silchester and Chinbolton, (which he held by dispensation,) and the bishopric of St. Asaph. He died on the 9th of December, 1788, leaving a son (the celebrated Dean Shipley) and two daughters, one of whom was married to Sir William Jones. He distinguished himself chiefly by his hostility to the American war, which, it is supposed, precluded him from further preferment. In 1774, he printed A Speech intended to have been spoken on the Bill for Altering the Charters of the Colony of Massachusett's Bay; and his collective works, comprising sermons, charges, and parliamentary orations, edited by Mainwaring, were published in 1792. In the sixth volume of Nichols's Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, there is a curious letter from Bishop Shipley to Warton, on the discovery of the coffin containing the remains of Henry de Blois, brother to King Stephen.

TOWNSON, (THOMAS, Archdeacon of Richmond,) was born in 1715, and completed his education at the uni versity of Oxford, where he was first entered at Christchurch, but afterwards became a demy at Magdalen. After having graduated as B. A., he obtained a fellowship, and, in 1739, proceeded to the degree of M. A. About the year 1742, he made a tour on the continent with Messieurs Drake and Holdsworth; and on his return, in 1745, became a

tutor of his college. He subsequently served the office of senior proctor; took the degrees of B. D. and D. D.; and procured, in succession, the livings of Hatfield, Peverel, Blithfield, and Malpas, and the archdeaconry of Richmond, with a prebend of Chester. He published some treatises relative to the Confessional; A Dissertation on the Claims of the Roman Catholics; and Discourses on the Gospels. In addition to these, he wrote some other pieces, which were printed in a posthumous edition of his works, with a memoir of his life, by Archdeacon Churton. He enjoyed the reputation of possessing great biblical learning; and he might, in 1783, it is said, had he thought fit, have obtained the divinity chair at Oxford; which, however, on account of his age, he declined accepting. He died on the 15th of April, 1792.

BALGUY, (THOMAS, Archdeacon of Winchester,) was born on the 27th of September, 1716, and educated at St. John's college, Cambridge, where he obtained a fellowship, and proceeded to the high degree of S. T. P. He became, successively, rector of North Stoke, vicar of Alton, a prebendary of Winchester, archdeacon of Salisbury, and archdeacon of Winchester. On the death of Warburton, in 1781, he was offered the bishopric of Gloucester, which, however, being aged, nearly blind, and in bad health, he thought proper to decline. Among his publications are the following:-A Sermon on Church Government, which produced an answer from Priestley; A Charge to the Clergy of his Archdeaconry, on the propriety of demanding subscription to articles of faith, which was censured by Palmer, and other dissenting writers; A Sermon on the respective Duties of Ministers and People, preached at the consecration of Bishops Hurd and More; an edition of the Sermons of Dr. Powell; a reprint of his father's Essay on Redemption; and Divine Benevolence Asserted and Vindicated from the Reflections of Ancient and Modern Sceptics. His death took place on the 19th of January, 1795. He appears to have been an exemplary Christian, an able divine, and, to adopt the words of Bishop Hurd, "a person of extraordinary parts and extensive

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OGDEN, (SAMUEL,) was born at Manchester, in 1716, and educated at the free-school of his native place, at King's college, Cambridge, and at St. John's college, in the same university, to which he migrated in 1736. He graduated as B. A. in the following year, and, eventually, proceeded to the degree of S. T. P. In 1739, he became a fellow of his college; in 1744, master of the free grammar-school at Halifax; about 1753, vicar of Damerham, in Wiltshire; in 1764, Woodwardian professor at Cambridge; in 1765, an unsuccessful candidate for the mastership of his college; and, in 1766, rector of Lawford, in Essex, and of Stansfield, in Suffolk. He also held the cure of St. Sepulchre's, at Cambridge, where he obtained considerable notoriety as a preacher. "His person, manner, and character of composition," says Wakefield, "were exactly suited to each other. He exhibited a large, black, scowling, grisly figure; a ponderous body, with a lowering visage, embrowned by the horrors of a sable perriwig. His voice was growling and morose, and his sentences desultory, tart, and snappish." His uncivilized appearance, and bluntness of demeanour, were, according to the same author, the grand obstacles to his elevation in the church. The Duke of Newcastle, to whom he was indebted for his first preferment, would, it is said, have taken him to court, with a view to his obtaining promotion, if he had been what his grace termed, "a producible man." Bishop Halifax observes that, notwithstanding the sternness, and even ferocity, which he would sometimes throw into his countenance, he was one of the most humane and tender-hearted men ever known; and Cole, the Cambridge antiquary, describes him as having been particularly affectionate to his aged parents, who, for a long period, were almost entirely

dependent on his bounty for support. The same writer states, that Dr. Ogden was an epicure; that he loved a cheerful glass, had a great turn for sneer and ridicule, and used to sit in company in his night-gown and slippers. His literary productions consist of three volumes of sermons, which, it has been said, if allowed to be elegant, are of slight texture, and rather hortatory than instructive or doctrinal. An edition of them appeared in 1780, with a memoir of his life, prefixed by Bishop Halifax, who zealously, but, in the opinion of many, without success, attempted to vindicate the author's style, against some severe remarks which had been made upon it by Mainwaring. Dr. Ogden died on the 23rd of March, 1778.

POWELL, (WILLIAM SAMUEL, Archdeacon of Colchester,) was born on the 27th of September, 1717, and compieted his education at St. John's college, Cambridge, where he obtained a fellowship, became head tutor, and proceeded to the high degree of S. T. P. He obtained his first preferment, the living of Colkirk, in Norfolk, (which was subsequently consolidated with that of Stibbard,) from Viscount Townshend, whose second son, Charles, afterwards chancellor of the exchequer, had been his pupil. In 1759, a considerable estate in Essex was devised to him by one of his maternal relatives; and he forthwith quitted Cambridge, but did not abandon his fellowship until 1763. On the 25th of January, 1765, he was unanimously chosen master of his college; and, in the following month of November, he was elected vice-chancellor of the university for the ensuing year. In 1766, he obtained the archdeaconry of Colchester; and, two years afterwards, the rectory of Freshwater, in the Isle of Wight. In 1772, he reprinted a sermon, which he had preached and published some years before, in defence of subscription to the Thirtynine Articles. On its first appearance, it had been severely attacked, by Dr. Jebb's wife, in the newspapers, under the signature of Priscilla; and, in allusion to the circumstance, Paley is said to have observed, "that the Lord had sold Sisera into the hands of a woman." Soon after its republication, a letter,

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signed Camillus, bitterly satirizing the archdeacon's doctrines, appeared in the London Chronicle, which was, by many, confidently attributed to Jebb himself, whose expulsion from the university is said to have been chiefly owing to the hostility of Powell. addition to his sermon in defence of subscription, the learned divine published Observations on Miscellanea Analytica, by Dr. Waring; A Discourse on the Vices incident to an Academical Life; and some other pieces. A posthumous volume of his Sermons, on various subjects, with a memoir of his life, by Dr. Thomas Balguy, appeared about a year after his death, which took place on the 19th of January, 1775. "He was," says Cole, rather little, thin man; florid and red; with staring eyes, as if almost choaked, or as if the collar of his shirt was too high about his neck. He was a man of a rugged and severe discipline; but virtuous, learned, and by no means beloved his manners were too rigid and unbending for the age he lived in. As he was a strict disciplinarian, so he was by nature positive and obstinate, and never to be beat out of what he had once got into his head; yet, he was generous in his temper; and when it was proposed improving the college and walks, at an expense of £800, he called the fellows together, recommended a subscription among its former members of note, and set it a-going by putting down £500." He bequeathed a similar sum towards facing the college with stone; and, to his sister, with whom he had never been able to agree, he left £150 per annum; to twenty of his friends £100 each; and to his niece, Miss Jolland, £20,000. He hated Baker, the Cambridge antiquary, whose book he termed "a collection of lies," and refused to allow a transcript to be made of it for publication, because it had been written, he said, "under the influence of partiality and resentment." He was once permitted to preach for a country clergyman, whom he was visiting, with an express understanding that he should adapt his language to the capacities of the congregation. At the conclusion of the service, his friend remarked to him, that, notwithstanding his promise, he had used many terms which were beyond the comprehension

of his auditory,-particularly noticing the word felicity, for which, he said, happiness should have been substituted. Dr. Powell, however, contended, that his language must have been perfectly clear to the meanest capacity; and, for his justification, appealed to one of his friend's flock, whether every man in the parish did not understand the meaning of felicity. The rustic confidently replied in the affirmative; and stated, in other words, on being required to explain it, that although he could not tell exactly where it lay, he knew well enough that it was "summut inside of a pig."

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NEWTON, (JOHN,) a native of London, and son of a shipmaster, was born in 1725. He received no regular education, having passed the chief part of his boyhood and youth at sea. the age of fifteen, he obtained some commercial situation at Alicant, where, as he states, he might have done well, had he behaved well. In 1742, he declined the offer of an eligible employment at Jamaica, being averse, it is said, to living at such a distance from a young lady, of whom he was enamoured, and who, eventually, became his wife. He soon afterwards made a voyage to Venice, as a common sailor, and indulged, to an excess, in some depraved habits, which he had previously contracted. His sufferings were, however, fully equal to his turpitude; aud he is said to have "almost drained the cup of human misery to the dregs," when his father, in 1747, procured him employment on board a vessel engaged in the African slave trade. Even when most wretched and abandoned, he had cherished a taste for learning, and acquired some knowledge of the mathematics; and he now began to improve his previous scanty knowledge of Latin. In 1750, his nautical skill and general good conduct had raised him to the post of commander; but he soon afterwards became weary of a sea-faring life, and obtained the post of tide-waiter, at Liverpool; where, by dint of severe application, he rapidly acquired a considerable knowledge of Greek and Hebrew. He now made some attempts to obtain the appointment of pastor to some dissenting congregation; but these proving abortive,

he procured a title for holy orders, and presented himself to the Archbishop of York for ordination; which, however, that prelate refused him, on the ground that he had been preaching, without authority, among the dissenters. Some years afterwards, he obtained, through the interest of Lord Dartmouth, the curacy of Olney, to which, the Bishop of Lincoln thought proper to ordain him, in the month of April, 1764. At Olney, where he resided for sixteen years, he formed a close intimacy with Cowper, the poet, and the benevolent Thornton. The latter, for a long period, allowed him £200 per annum, in order that he might be enabled to keep open house for such as were worthy of entertainment, and to assist the needy members of his congregation. In 1779, he was promoted to the rectory of St. Mary Woolnoth, and St. Mary Woolchurch Haw, Lombard-street, where he officiated during the remainder of his life. He died on the 31st of December, 1807; having survived his wife, a Miss Mary Catlet, of Chatham, in Kent, by whom he had no issue, about seventeen years. He was the author of Cardiphonia; A Review of Ecclesiastical History; Messiah, A Series of Discourses; a narrative of his own life; several sermons; and, in conjunction with Cowper, of A Collection of Hymns. Two editions of his works have been printed, one in six volumes, octavo; and the other in twelve volumes, duodecimo. He was a popular preacher; an original thinker; a warm patron of meritorious young men, who were desirous of entering the church; and liberal, to the utmost extent of his means, in relieving distress. His principles being decidedly Calvinistic, much of that religious melancholy which embittered the existence of Cowper, has been attributed to his influence, but, apparently, without foundation; for Newton's disposition is stated to have been the reverse of gloomy; and he is said to have been particularly successful in consoling those who were distressed by religious doubts or alarms.

JONES, (WILLIAM,) was born at Lowick, in Northamptonshire, in 1726; and proceeded, on a charter-house exhibition, to University college, Oxford,

about 1744. After having graduated in arts, and obtained ordination, he became curate of Finedon; where he produced, in 1753, A Full Answer to Bishop Clayton's Essay on Spirit. In the following year he married, and gave up his curacy for that of Wadenhoe; where, by the advice of his friends, he soon began to take pupils. In 1757, appeared his Catholic Doctrine of the Trinity, which soon ran through several editions; and, in 1762, he published An Essay on the First Principles of Natural Philosophy. This work afforded so much satisfaction to Lord Bute, that the author received an order to obtain whatever instruments he might want, for the further prosecution of his inquiries, from the celebrated Adams, at his lordship's expense. In 1764, Archbishop Secker presented him to the vicarage of Bethersden; and, in the following year, to the rectory of Pluckley, both in the county of Kent. In 1769, he published A Letter to a Young Gentleman at Oxford intended for Holy Orders; in 1770, Some Remarks on the Principles and Spirit of the Confessional, annexed to a new edition of his Answer to the Essay on Spirit; in 1772, Zoologica Ethica, and Three Dissertations on Life and Death; in 1773, A Volume of Disquisitions on Scriptural subjects; and, in 1776, Reflections on the Growth of Heathenism amongst the Christians. He now took up his residence at Nayland, in Suffolk, of which he held the perpetual curacy; exchanged his rectory of Pluckley for that of Paston, in Northamptonshire; and, having become a member of Sidney college, Cambridge, proceeded to the degree of M. A. In 1781, he printed his Phisiological Disquisitions; in 1788, Lectures on the Figurative Language of the Holy Scriptures; in 1790, Two Volumes of Sermons, including some Discourses on Natural History; and, in 1792, A Letter from Thomas Bull to his Brother John. also produced a collection of tracts by Leslie, Horne, and others, entitled, The Scholar Armed against the Errors of the Times; Memoirs of the Life, Studies, and Writings of Bishop Horne, to a second edition of which, he prefixed an exposition of the Hutchinsonian theological and philosophical opinions; A Discourse on the Use and Intention

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of some remarkable Passages of the Scriptures, not commonly understood; and some minor pieces. The infirmities of age having, at length, compelled him to decline taking pupils, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in order that his income might suffer no diminution, presented him to the sinecure rectory of Hollingbourne, in Kent. He was soon afterwards deprived of the use of one side, by a paralytic stroke, and died on the 6th of February, 1800. His disposition was benevolent, his knowledge extensive, and his ability great. He practised medicine for the benefit of his parishioners; and being a proficient, it is said, in music, composed a morning and evening cathedral service, ten church pieces, and four anthems. As an author, he principally distinguished himself by his zealous support of the Hutchinsonian doctrines; to which, it is asserted, he made a convert of his friend, Bishop Horne.

EDWARDS, (THOMAS,) a native of Coventry, and the son of a clergyman, was born in 1729. After having taken his degrees in arts, and obtained a fellowship at Clare hall, Cambridge, he produced an English metrical translation of the Psalms, on the plan of Bishop Hare. In 1758, he was nominated master of the free grammar-school, and rector of St. John, in his native city. In the following year, he printed his Doctrine of Irresistible Grace proved to have no Foundation in the New Testament. He subsequently proceeded to the degree of D. D.; and, in 1770, was presented by the crown to the vicarage of Nuneaton, in Warwickshire, where he died in 1785. His productions, not already mentioned, consist of two dissertations, the one against bigotry and persecution, the other on the qualifications necessary for a correct interpretation of the New Testament; two others, in Latin, on various readings in Scripture, and the doctrine of predestination; Selecta quædam Theocriti Idyllia; and some controversial pieces, in Latin, against Lowth, relative to Hare's system of Hebrew metre. Although defeated on this subject, he enjoyed a high reputation for learning and talent; and, according to Nichols, "such were his assiduity and ability in the instruction of youth, and

so conscientious his discharge of his parochial duties, that no praise could exceed his merits."

HINCHCLIFFE, (JOHN, Bishop of Peterborough,) the son of a liverystable-keeper, was born in Swallowstreet, Westminster, in 1731. After having obtained the degree of B. A., in 1754, at Trinity-college, Cambridge, he became usher of Westminster school, where he had been educated, and for some time officiated as morning preacher, at South Audley-street chapel. He proceeded to the degree of M. A. in 1757; and, three years afterwards, made the tour of Europe with Mr. Crewe, who, on their return to England, made him his chaplain, and gave him an annuity of £300 per annum. In 1764, the Duke of Grafton procured for him the head-mastership of Westminster school; which, however, on account of the state of his health, he was soon compelled to resign. He then became tutor to the young Duke of Devonshire, with whom he subsequently resided in the capacity of chaplain. In 1766, he was presented to the vicarage of Greenwich; and about the same period, married Elizabeth, the sister of his friend, Mr. Crewe. This lady had, as it appears, been courted by an officer of the guards, whose attentions, however, being offensive to her brother, the latter had requested Hinchcliffe to dissuade her from receiving his visits. The divine was so successful, that she soon transferred her affections from her military suitor to himself; and Crewe so entirely approved of their union, that on receiving the surrender of the annuity, which he had previously given to Hinchcliffe, he added the sum of £10,000 to his sister's fortune. It is asserted that Hinchcliffe

was offered the appointment of tutor to the young Prince of Wales, and that he declined it on account of his Whig principles. Through the interest of his patron, the Duke of Grafton, he obtained, in 1768, the mastership of Trinity college; in 1769, the see of Peterborough; and, subsequently, the deanery of Durham. That he procured no further promotion, is attributed to his uniformly acting with that party which opposed the American war. He was the author of several discourses; three of which, on public occasions, appeared

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