who called themselves Deifts, and who in the modefty of free-thinking, which then prevailed, had, or affected to have, a respect for the natural doctrine of a future ftate; that the omiffion of this doctrine in the Mofaic Creed, was a clear decifive proof of its importance; as no inftitute of religion, coming from God, could be without that principle. The author of the Alliance faw the omiffion in another light; and was fo far from admitting the Deift's conclufion, that he thought himself able to prove, in the clearest manner, and with the evidence of what is called moral demonstration, the divinity of the Mofaic Law from the very circumstance. Such then was the fubject and scope of Mr. Warburton's capital work, "The Divine Legation of Mofes demonftrated on the Principles of a Religious Deift." But in the conduct of this new and paradoxical argument, fo many prejudices and objections, both of believers and unbelievers, were to be removed, and fo many collaterial lights to be let in upon it, that the discourse extended itself far and wide, and took in all that was moft curious in Gentile, Jewish, and Christian antiquity. The first volume of this work appeared in the beginning of 1738, and drew all eyes upon it. And well it might excite general attention, for there is displayed in it so much ingenuity of thought, fo great a fund of learning, and fuch an extenfive acquaintance with literature, that it contains more proofs of each than we might be led to think was within the grafp of one intellect. The Alliance had now made the author much talked of at court, and the Bishop of Chichefter*, on whom that work had impreffed the highest ideas of his merit, was willing to take that favourable opportunity of introducing him to the Queen. Her majesty took a pleasure in the difcourse of men of learning and genius: and chancing one day to afk the bishop, if he could recommend a perfon of that defcription to be about her, and to entertain her fometimes with his converfation, the bishop faid he could, and mentioned the author of the Alliance between Church and State.— The recommendation was graciously received, and the matter put in fo good train, that the bifhop expected every day the conclufion of it, when the queen was feized with fudden illness, which put an end to her life, the 20th of November, 1737. In 1739, he drew up and published a fhort Defence of Mr. Pope's Effay on Man, against M. de Croufaz, who had written a book to shew, that it was conftructed on the principles of Spinofa, and contained a dangerous fyftem of irreligion. He faw, with concern, the ill ufe which fome were ready to make of the fuppofed fatalism of Mr. Pope, and how hurtful it was to religion to have it imagined, that fo great a genius was inclined to it. Thefe Letters were much read, and gave a new luftre to Mr. Warburton's reputation. Mr. Pope was fupremely ftruck with them†, and might now exult, as his predeceffor Boileau had done, when he cried out, in the face of his enemies, "Arnauld, le grand Arnauld, fait mon apologie." Towards the end of this year (1739), he published a new and improved edition of the first volume of the Divine Legation, and fent it to his friend Bishop Hare, who, in a kind letter of Dec. 1ft, returns his thanks for it, and adds,-"I hope not only posterity, but the prefent age, will do juťtice to fo much merit, and do affure you, it fhall not be my fault if it do See his Letter in his Works, April 11, 1739. *Hare. Z 2 not. not." Bishop Hare died on the 6th of April, 1740. Speaking of the Bishop's death, Mr. Warburton fays," He has not left his fellow behind him for the love and encouragement of learning. I have had a great lofs in his death he honoured me with his esteem and friendship: this I efteemed a great obligation. I never fought to increase it by any other dependance upon him; and by the terms on which we kept up a correfpondence, he did me the justice to believe I expected no other." In May, 1741, was published the fecond volume of the DIVINE LEGATION, which completed the argument, although not the entire plan of that work. A work, in all views, of the moft tranfcendant merit, whether we confider the invention or execution of it. A plain fimple argument, yet perfectly new, proving the divinity of the Mofaic Law, and laying a fure foundation for the fupport of Christianity, is there drawn out at length by a chain of reafoning, fo elegantly connected, that the reader is carried along it with ease and pleasure; while the matter prefented to him is fo ftriking for its own importance, fo embellifhed by a lively fancy, and fo well illuftrated from all quarters by exquifite learning, and the most ingenious difquifition, that, in the whole compafs of modern or ancient theology, there is nothing equal or fimilar to this extraordinary performance. (To be continued.) ADDITION TO THE CATALOGUE OF BISHOPS TO THE Being a Character and History of the Bishops during the Reigns of Queen OF Eely I have not much to say, yet in a little I may be thought by fome too much; which I will adventure, rather than your Highneffe fhall blame me for faying nothing. I was among others at Bishop Cox his funerall, being then either Batcheler, or a very young Master of Arts; but fome yeeres after we thought it would have proved the funeral of the bishoprick, as well as of the bifhop. Something there was that had dif tafted the queen concerning Bifhop Cox, in his life time; either his much retiredness, or small hofpitality, or the fpoyl he was faid to make of woods and parks, feeding his family with powdred venifon; all which, I know not how truly was fuggefted to her against him, in his life time, and remembred after his death. For our opinion of him in Cambridge, we held him a good fcholler, and a better poet then Doctor Hadden, who called him Mafter; whether as having been his fcholler or fervant, I know not; but among his poems, is extant a Diftick written to B. Cox. Vix Caput attollens electo fcribere carmen Qui velit is voluit, fcribere plura, vale. which verfe being but even a fick verfe, he answered ex tempore, as they tell, with this, Te magis optarem falvum fine carmine fili, As As for his church of Eely, it feemed he had no great love there, to have his monument defaced within twenty yeeres (as this author writes) fo as remembring his good beginning, one may fay of him, cœpifti melius quam definis. But to let him reft, I must confeffe that it was held for one of the blemishes of Queen Elizabeth's virgin raigne. Firft, to keep this fea of Eely vacant fo long after Bishop Coxe's death, and after to take away fo large a portion from it, as is generally spoken; yet that I may both peak my confcience, and fhew my charity as well to my deceased foveraigne, as to the reverend bishop yet living, I will fay this: Firft, I could wifh it had not been fo, and that the occafion of fuch a scandall between the Crown and Miter had been taken away. Secondly, I doe fay for the queen, the did no new thing; and it is held a principle of ftate, that whatfoever there is a prefident for, is lawfull for a prince. I confider further, that Eely was a bishoprick of none of the firft erections, but many yeeres after the conqueft; fo as England ftood chriftned without a bishoprick of Eely from Augustine the monk above five hundred yeeres. It was a place also, that the crown had been jealous of for the strength of it, having sometime held out the Conquerour, as our writers affirm; and King Henry the Third, / a wife and fortunate prince, faid it was not fit for a Cloyfter man, and of. late yeeres Mooreton undertook to hold it against Richard the Third, for Henry the Seventh. Adde hereunto, that though it was vacant in name, yet the profits thereof may seem to have been perhaps more charitably and honourably imployed then before, to relieve the poore diftreffed King of Portugall, whow as call'd by fome fchollers Bifhop of Eely, which is leffe fcandalous than for Jeffrey Plantagenet to hold the bishoprick of Lincoln for seven yeeres, without confecration, the fea being kept voyd seventeen yeeres; and for Ethelmare to hold Winchester in like manner nine yeeres in Henry the Third's time; to omit how Stygand in the Conqueror's time, and Woolfey in Henry the Eighth his time, both held Winchester in commendam. As for changing or abating the poffeffions of it, the laws then in force allowed it (though a most godly law fince reftrained the like) and I would all the bishopricks in England were but fo well left. Now to come to Doctor Heaton, he was compelled in a fort so to take it (for potentes cum rogant jubent) and as long as there was not quid dabis, but hæc auferam, the more publique it was, and by authority then lawfull may be thought the more free from blame. But were Eely as good as ever it was, that could not finde the mouthes bread that finde fault with his taking it in that order. he Before his Majefties comming to Oxford, I was in Oxford library, and fome of good quality of both the Universities; and one of their chiefe Doctors faid merrily to a Cambridge man, that Oxford had formerly had a good library, till fuch time (faid he) as a Cambridge man became our chancellour, and fo cancell'd or catalog'd and fcatter'd our books (he meant Bishop Cox in King Edward's time), as from that time to this we could never recover them. The other ftraight replied, then are you even with us, for one of your Oxford men hath fcal'd fo many good deeds of our good bishoprick in Cambridgeshire, that, till they be cancell'd, it will never be fo good as it fhould be. By his chriften name allo many take occafion to allude to this matter, which, whether for brevity fake he writ Mar or Mart, or at full length Martin, alwaies by adding Eely unto it, it it founds to the like fence, that either he did Mar it, or Mart it, or Martin it. But he is too wife to be troubled with these. Sapientis eft nil præftare præter culpam. If any fare the worft for this now, it is himself. And as for his learning, and other good parts belonging to a bishop, he is inferior to few of his ranke, as your Highneffe can tell, that have heard him preach before the King's Majefty, who faid of him, that fat men were wont to make lean fermons; but his were not leane, but larded with much good learning. And so much of the Bishoprick and Bishop of Eely. NUMBER V.-LINCOLN. DOCTOR CHATERTON. FOLLOWING my author's method, I am next to speak of Lincoln, a very large dioceffe, yet not fo great a bishoprick as it hath been, which I fufpect by the oft removes from it, as Bullingham, Cooper, and Wickham, in Queen Elizabeth's time; and White in Queen Maries time. I note alfo, that one of these removed to Worcester, namely Bullingham, of which I can imagine no reafon, except the largeneffe of the dioceffe make it more painfull, as indeed it would, if the decree made in a fynod held by Saint Cuthbert in England were duely obferved. Of which the third, as Mr. Fox hath it is, that every bifhop once every yeere fhould goe over all the parithes of his dioceife; with which decree, by what authority men dispence, I know not, but fure few doe keep it. This Dr. William Chaterton, now bishop of Lincoln, and before of Chefter, I may remember in Cambridge a learned and grave doctor; though for his gravity he could lay it aside when it pleafed him, even in the pulpit; it will not be forgotten in Cambridge, while he is remember'd, how preaching one day in his younger yeeres, a wedding fermon, (which indeed fhould be feftivall) as the Marchant Royal was at my Lord Hay's marriage (with which being now in print many a good husband doth endeavour to edifie his wife). I fay, Mr. Chaterton is reported to have made this pretty comparison, and to have given this friendly caveat: That the choice of a wife is full of hazard, not unlike as if one in a barrell full of ferpents fhould grope for one fifh; if (faith he) he fcape harm of the fnakes, and light on a fish, he may be thought fortunate, yet let him not boaft, for perhaps it may be but an eele, &c. Howbeit he married afterwards himselfe, and I doubt not fped better then his comparison. He was beloved among the fchollers, and the rather for that he did not affect any foure and auftere fashion, either in teaching or government, as fome use to doe; but well tempered both with courage and courtefie. Being made bishop of Chefter, he was a very great friend to the house of Darby. Preaching the funerall fermon of Henry Earl of Darby, for fome paffages whereof he was like to be called in queftion, though perhaps himfelfe knew not fo much; I was prefent when one told a great Lord that loved not Ferdinando the laft Earle, how this bifhop having firft magnified the dead earle for his fidelity, juftice, wifdome, and fuch vertues, as made him the best beloved man of his ranke (which praife was not altogether undeferved) he after ufed this apoftrophe to the earle prefent; and you (faith he) noble earle, that not onely inherit, but exceed your father's vertues, learne to keepe the love of your countrey, as your father did; you give, faith he, in your arms, three legs; know you what they fig nificè nifie? I tell you, they fignify three fhires, Chefhire, Darbifhire, and Lancashire; ftand you faft on these three legs, and you fhall need feare none of their armes. At which this earle a little moved, faid in fome heat, not without an oath: This priest, I believe, hopes one day to make him three courtefies. But the two earles I trust are friends now, both being fince departed this world, (though neither as I could with them) the one dying of a Yex, the other of an Axe. The bishop was removed to Lincoln, where he now remains in very good state, having one onely daughter married to a knight of good worthip, though now they living afunder, he may be thought to have had no great comfort of that matrimony, yet to her daughter he means to leave a great patrimony; fo as one might not unfitly apply that epigram written of Pope Paulus and his daughter to this bifhop and his grandchild. Cum fit filia Paule, cum tibi aurum, Which I thus tranflated, when I thought not thus to apply it: Thou haft a daughter, Paulus, I am told, But if the bishop fhould fortune to hear that I apply this verfe fo faucily, and should be offended with it, I would be glad in full fatisfaction of this wrong, to give him my fonne for his daughter, which is a manifef token that I am in perfect charity with him. NUMBER VI. -COVENTRY and LICHFIELD. DOCTOR WILLIAM OVERTON, NOW LIVING. Of this bishoprick may be observed, that which hapned (I think) to no other in all Queen Elizabeth's raine, that from the first yeere of her entrance (what time the made them all new) fhe never after gave this bifhoprick, but once, and that was to Doctor William Overton, the one-andtwentieth yeere of her reigne, he being then of good yeeres; fo as one may probably conjecture. that he honoured his parents well, because he had the bleffing promifed to fuch, viz. that his daies have been long in the land. I can make no speciall relation concerning him, but he general speech as I have heard travelling through the countrey, which is not to be contemned; for, Vox populi, vox dei eft. Two fpeciall things are commended in him, which very few bishops are praised for in this ageone, that he keepeth good hofpitality to the poor; the other, that he keepeth his house in good reparation. Both which I have feldome heard a married bishop commended for; and I will be bold to adde this further, that if they would doe both thefe, I think no man would take exceptions either for their marriage or bigamy. The churches alfo are very well kept; and for those of Coventry, they are (of parish churches) the faireft I have feen, (as I partly noted before) they have had fometimes; another kind of fuperintendency, for the bishops keepe most at Lichfield. The pavement of Coventry church is almost all tombstones, and fome very |