of that town. strained every nerve to give him an academical education, preparatory to his entrance into that profession in which exerted industry and abilities will, in general, secure to their possessor distinction and emolument In this instance, however, that unfortu nately happened not to be the case; for being of a convivial turn, and surrounded by those who admired his talents for wit and ridicule, he never made any progress in the legal profession. A dispute that took place between him and some Irish students in the Temple caused him to be suspended, and was an additional cause of his want of success at the bar. He then left the Temple, and retired upon a small hereditary patrimony,which he enjoyed, and which it is feared he lived nearly to consume, with little prospect of any comfortable provision for advancing age. But by the kindness of Providence he was snatched suddenly from a world of misery, in his sixty-third year. He knew and felt the superior abilities with which he was endowed; and tho' self-confidence in company sometimes made him appear assuming and dictatorial, he was not naturally haughty or overbearing. He was a man of unshaken loyalty to his prince, and ever forward to to combat the enemies of the religion and constitution of his coun try. He had an inexhaustible fund of humour; and from having a most retentive memory, he abounded in anecdote, and pos sessed a vast range of historical information. He was not only a good classical scholar, but many of the modern languages of Europe were familiar to him. For the last twenty years of his life, he was engaged in a literary work of great arduousness, and depth of research, of which, probably, the public may hear more when his papers have been properly examined and arranged. With all these good qualities and enviable attainments were undoubtedly blended many errors and irregularities; which may fairly be imputed in a principal measure to his original failure at his first setting out in life. TO CORRESPONDENTS. We have been favoured with an original memoir of the late Rev. Dr. Comber, the correspondent of Warburton, which shall appear in our next Number.S. C. on the plan of a “new Professorship," shall certainly be inserted in our next. The verses to the Memory of Lord Nelson, with those entitled "A Summer Morning's Contemplation," are too inaccurate for our Miscellany. The particulars communicated by Methodiastimoreumenos, cannot be printed in their present form. THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S MAGAZINE AND REVIEW, FOR MAY 1806. No Church can be found upon earth, that professeth the true Religion with more purity of Doctrine than the Church of England doth, nor where the Government and Discipline are jointly more beautified and free from Superstition, than as they are here established by Law. KING CHARLES THE FIRST. BIOGRAPHY. MEMOIRS OF THOMAS COMBER, LL.D. H E was the son of Thomas Comber, of East Newton in the North Riding of the County of York, Esq. and the grandson of Thomas Comber, D. D. sometime Dean of Durham, memoirs of whose life and writings were published by his great-grandson, the Rev. Thomas Comber, A. B. in the year 1799. The subject of this article was born June 16th, 1722; and was baptized in the church of Stonegrave, in which parish his father's family mansion was situated, July 17th, 1722. Of the first years of his life no authentic documents are existing, but when we consider the truly pious and exemplary character of his grandfather, as well as that of his father, which was in no respect inferior, we may be tolerably certain that the principles of true morality and sound religion were instilled into his tender mind the moment it was capable of receiving them. On completing his ninth year, in 1731, he was placed under the tuition of the Rev. Mr. Pranse, who kept a public school at Easingwold, not far from his father's house. With this gentleman he remained between five and six years, and until Mr. P.'s death; and in that interval he was at tacked by a very dangerous fever, which put his life in the greatest hazard, and caused the utmost anxiety in the Vol. X. Churchm. Mag. for May 1806. Tt breasts breasts of his afflicted parents. By the blessing of Providence, however, he was restored to health, though the effects of this illness seem to have been felt for a considerable time, for he was not sufficiently recovered to be put to another school until 1738; when he was placed under the Rev. Mr. Midgley, master of the grammar-school at Coxwold. It was not till after he had completed his nineteenth year, that he went to the university; for he entered his name on the books in Jesus College, Cambridge, July 31, 1741; Mr. Caryl (afterwards Master of the College,) and Mr. Oakley being then tutors. In 1744 he took the degree of A. B. being very high among the wranglers, and distinguishing himself greatly in his college for his classical abilities. In the same year in which he took his first degree at Cambridge he entered into holy orders, being ordained deacon, by the Archbishop of York, at Kensington church, on a title given him by Mr. Denton, rector of Stonegrave. He now resided at his father's, and applied himself very closely to those studies more immediately connected with the duties of his profession, for which he had the peculiar advantage of referring to the excellent and well chosen library of his grandfather the dean of Durham, and he seems to have enjoyed the correspondence and friendship of many learned men in the neighbourhood. He did not hide his talent in a napkin, but soon gave to the world the result of his studies. So early as the year 1748, a third edition was published of a work by him, intituled, "An Attempt to shew the Evidence of Christian-ity equal to a strict metaphysical Demonstration: wherein proper Regard is had to the Sentiments of those excellent Writers Mr. Chillingworth, Dr. Robertson, &c. on this important Subject." In one volume octavo. This is a learned and judicious work, and does great honour to the talents of the author. Having by this performance convinced the world of the soundness of his own faith, he next turned his thoughts to the confutation of what particular infidels and gainsayers had urged against our holy religion. There are three traets still existing amongst his MSS. with the following titles: "A Letter to the Worshipful and Reverend Dr. Sterne, containing an Examination of Lord Bolingbroke as a Critic." This piece is dated December 10th, 1754. The second pamphlet is intituled, "A Letter to Thomas Duncombe, Esq. in which Lord Bolingbroke is con→ sidered as an Hypothesis-Maker." This is dated December 17th, 1754. The third is "A second Letter to Thomas Duncombe, Esq. containing an Examination of Lord Bolingbroke, as an Opposer of the Doctrine of a Future State?" This is dated December 18th, 1754. Besides these pieces, he wrote some others against Lord Bolingbroke, and the philosophy of Pope founded on his system, and published to the world in the "Essay on Man," which he exposes in its true colours. Some of these last-named tracts are not in so perfect a state as could be wished but what is remaining leaves a high opinion of the author's learning, and of his unwearied zeal in support of the true and excellent principles of the Church of England. On other occasions Mr. Comber attacked with considerable effect the peculiar opinions of David Hume. As opportunities offered, our author availed himself of them to defend the doctrines of the established church, of which he was so worthy a minister. This is particularly observable in two Visitation Sermons, wherein he takes occasion to display with great force the machinations and plots both of the Papists and of the Protestant Dissenters against the Church of England. But he chiefly set himself to combat the errors of the Church of Rome, and he exerted himself greatly to expose them in their true colours. With the view of giving a particular and striking instance of the intolerant spirit of Popery, he wrote a minute account of the "Parisian Massacre," in which he investigated the springs and causes of that sanguinary event. To display the spirit of this religion on a more enlarged scale, he compiled the "History of the Reign of Philip II. &c." which is a long and elaborate work, and is executed with the hand and spirit of a master *. The attempts of the Dissenters to procure an alteration of the Articles and Liturgy were strenuously opposed by our Author: and he put together a little pamphlet on the subject, which is intituled, "A true and brief State of the Question concerning the designed Petition to Parliament for an Alteration of the Liturgy and Articles of the Church of England, &c." There is also extant amongst his papers, *Why has it not been published?-EDITOR. a MS. intituled," Remarks on a Petition for Abolition of Subscription to the xxxix Articles of the Church of England, &c." In which he exposes the hypocritical pretences of the petitioners, and the various modes they had adopted to accomplish the end they had in view. Thus he endeavoured to guard his fellow-christians of the established religion against the dangers by which they were surrounded, and to apprize them of the means which were used to subvert and undermine the same. There was a considerable intimacy between Mr. Comber and the celebrated author of The Alliance between Church and State," both before Dr. Warburton's exaltation to the episcopal bench, and afterwards. Several of the Letters which passed between them have already appeared in the pages of the Orthodox Churchman's Magazine, and they excited such an interest in the Editor of that Miscellany as to induce him to request some account of Dr. Comber to be inserted in the biographical department. Our author was a supporter of the Bishop's work, "The Alliance, &c." which favour was always most gratefully acknowledged by him, both in writing and in words as long as the Bishop lived, Our author, like his grandfather the dean of Durham, soon after entering into holy orders, began the practice of extemporary preaching, and very generally practised this method to the end of his life. We have indeed two or three regular and fairly written discourses of his delivered at Visitations, Charities, &c. but in general his sermons are comprised in a very small compass, on slips. of paper not larger than what contains the direction of apost-letter, and were often put together whilst his tea was cooling, or whilst the church bells were tolling, on a Sunday morning. Unlike however the generality of extemporary preachers, he was not in the smallest degree tainted with enthusiasm, which, whenever an opportunity presented, he always most strenuously combated. He even entertained an idea of putting together a treatise to recommend this practice to "men of liberal education;" and this" from the examples of the greatest divines, particularly of the Church of England;" but nothing more appears amongst his writings on this subject, than a collection of extracts, without order or method, from various authors. To men of his abilities this practice may per haps |