parish Whitefield visited; and, in a letter which he wrote from that place, he expresses such views of the articles and constitution of the church of Scotland as may serve to explain, both why he was employed by ministers of that church, and how he was so acceptable to persons of that communion. Again leaving Scotland, he proceeded to London, and resumed his duties at the Tabernacle; but in the course of the following spring, summer, and autumn, he itinerated in England. In March he attended the assizes, in a case of prosecution for the maltreatment of certain Methodists. He gained his cause, and the prosecution is said to have had a good effect. In the following year, however, he was attacked, when in bed, by a man who had been admitted to his chamber. He was advised to prosecute; "but being better employed," says he, "I went on my intended journey, was greatly blessed in preaching the gospel, and upon my return was well-paid for what I had suffered; curiosity having led perhaps two thousand persons more than ordinary to see and hear a man that had like to have been murdered in his bed."

In August, 1744, he again embarked for America. He was ill during the voyage, and, on his arrival, appeared to be at the point of death. In this state, however, he preached a sermon which had been advertised; "and such effects," says he, "followed the word, that I thought it was worth dying for a thousand times." Gradually recovering from his illness, he went about preaching; but being annoyed with pain in the side, and advised to visit Bermudas, he landed there in March, 1748. He was kindly received, and preached both to whites and negroes. The effect of a farewell discourse he thus describes :-" Attention sat on every face; and when I came to take my leave, oh! what a sweet unaffected weeping was there to be seen every where! I believe there were few dry eyes. The negroes likewise without doors I heard wept plentifully. My own heart was affected, and though I have parted with friends so often, yet I find every fresh parting almost unmans me, and very much affects my heart." From this he set sail for England. and in the month of July arrived in London. On his arrival he visited Lady Huntingdon, and thereafter he preached, at her residence, in presence of several distinguished persons, including Lords Chesterfield and Bolingbroke. In September he paid another visit to Scotland, where he was followed by multitudes, and preached, as usual, with powerful effect. Returning to England he itinerated there, as, in 1751, he also did in Wales and Ireland. After again visiting Scotland, he re-embarked for America, where he arrived about the end of October. At the end of April he again proceeded to London, and after his arrival he itinerated in England and Scotland. "Fain," says he, in the course of these active labours, "Fain would I die preaching." After again travelling in America, he reached England in May, 1755. In the following year he opened a new place of worship in Tottenham-court road, and in 1758, alms-houses were begun for the benefit of poor widows. "If this be effected," says he, in reference to the latter scheme, " many godly widows will be provided for, and a standing monument left, that the Methodists are not against good works. During this visit he travelled, not only in England, but also in Scotland and Ireland, and large sums were collected, when he preached, for charitable purposes. During the latter part of his residence in this country,

bad health interfered with his exertions; but in June, 1763, he embarked for America, and in December, 1764, reached Savannah. A scheme of building a college in Georgia, however, called him again to England, where he arrived in 1765. During this visit he lost his wife, and his own health proved broken. But in 1769 he again embarked for America, and, after visiting the orphan-house, set out on an itineracy. He reached Newbury-port, in the course of his tour, September 29th, 1770. He was to preach on the succeeding day; but during the night he was distressed with asthma, and in the morning, at six o'clock, he expired. His life bears witness to the eloquence of his preaching, the worth of his character, and the influence he exerted both in this country and in America.

John Jortin, D. D.

BORN A. D. 1698.-died a. d. 1770.

THIS very learned and excellent divine was born in London on the 23d of October, 1698. His father, Renatus Jortin, was a native of Bretagne in France; he came over to England about the year 1687, when the protestants were obliged to quit France in consequence of the revocation of the edict of Nantes, and was made a gentleman of the privy chamber in 1691; he afterwards became secretary to Lord Orford, Sir George Rooke, and Sir Cloudesley Shovel; and was cast away with the last, on the 22d of October, 1707. His mother was Martha Rogers, of an ancient and respectable family in Bucks, distinguished by their abilities and learning. He was trained at the Charter-house school,

where he made a good proficiency in Greek and Latin.

In May 1715, he was admitted of Jesus college, Cambridge; and, about two years after, was recommended by his tutor, Dr Thirlby, who was then fond of him, and always retained a friendship for him, to make extracts from Eustathius for the use of Pope's Homer. In an account of this transaction, written by Jortin himself, are the following passages: "I cannot recollect what Mr Pope allowed for each book of Homer, but I have a notion that it was three or four guineas."—"I was in some hopes in those days-for I was young-that Mr Pope would make inquiry about his coadjutor, and take some civil notice of him. But he did not; and I had no notion of obtruding myself upon him. I never saw his face."

Jortin took his bachelor of arts degree in January, 1718-19, and masters in 1722; he had been chosen fellow of his college soon after the taking of his first degree. This year he distinguished himself by the publication of a few Latin poems, entitled 'Lusus Poetici,' which were well-received. In September, 1723, he entered into deacon's orders, and into priest's the June following. In January, 1726, he was presented by his college to Swavesey, near Cambridge; but marrying a daughter of Mr Chibnall, of Newport-Pagnell, Bucks, in 1728, he resigned that living, and soon after settled himself in London. In this town he spent the next two and thirty years of his life; for, though the earl of Winchelsea gave him the living of Eastwell in Kent, where he resided a little time; yet he very soon quitted it, and returned to Lon

don. Here for many years he had employment as a preacher in several chapels with the emoluments of which, and a decent competency of his own, he supported himself and his family in a respectable though private manner, dividing his leisure hours between his books and his friends.

In 1730 he published Four Sermons on the Truth of the Christian Religion,' the substance of which was afterwards incorporated in a work of his, entitled 'Discourses concerning the Truth of the Christian Religion,' printed in 1746, in octavo. This is a very valuable work, and contains much good sense and erudition, and many excellent observations.

In 1731 he published Miscellaneous Observations upon Authors, Ancient and Modern,' in two volumes octavo. This is a collection of critical remarks,-of which, however, he was not the sole, though principal author; Pearce, Mason, and others, were contributors to it. In 1751 Archbishop Herring gave him, unasked, the living of St Dunstan in the East, London. This prelate, with whom he had been long acquainted, had entertained a high and affectionate regard for him, and endeavoured aforetime to serve him in many instances, with others; and afterwards, in 1755, conferred upon him the degree of doctor of divinity. This same year, 1751, came out his first volume of Remarks apon Ecclesiastical History.' This work was inscribed to the earl of Burlington, by whom, as trustee for the Boylean lecture, he had, through the application of Herring and Sherlock, been appointed in 1749 to preach that lecture. The Remarks' were continued in four succeeding volumes, down to the year 1517, when Luther began the work of Reformation; two published by himself in 1752 and 1754; and two after his death in 1773.

In 1755 he published 'Six Dissertations upon different Subjects,' in

octavo. The sixth dissertation is on the state of the dead as described by Homer and Virgil; the remarks in this, tending to establish the great antiquity of the doctrine of a future state, interfered with Dr Warburton in his Divine Legation of Moses.' This gave rise to a piece,

which was published against him, under the title of A Dissertation on the Delicacy of Friendship.' This was a very artful, but a very illiberal attack on Dr Jortin, because he had too much dignity and independence of mind to compliment Warburton in the indiscriminate and absurd manner that was then become fashionable among his admirers. Jortin made no reply; but in his' Adversaria' the following memorandum is found, which shows that he did not oppose the notions of other men from any spirit of envy or opposition, but from a full persuasion that the real matter of fact was as he had represented it. "I have examined," says he, "the state of the dead as described by Homer and Virgil, and upon that dissertation I am willing to stake all the little credit that I have as a critic and a philologer. I have there observed, that Homer was not the inventor of the fabulous history of the gods; he had those stories, and also the doctrine of a future state, from old traditions. Many notions of the Pagans, which came from tradition, are considered by Barrow, Sermon viii. vol. ii. in which sermon the existence of God is proved from universal consent. See also Bibl. Chois. i. 356. and Bibl. Univ. iv. 433."

In 1758 came out his 'Life of Erasmus,' in one volume quarto; and

in 1760 another volume quarto, containing Remarks upon the Works of Erasmus,' and an Appendix of Extracts from Erasmus and other writers.' In the preface to the former volume, he says, that "Le Clerc, while he published the works of Erasmus at Leyden, drew up his life in French, collected principally from his letters, and inserted into the 'Bibliotheque Choisée;' that as this life was favourably received by the public, he had taken it as a ground-work to build upon; and had translated it, not superstitiously and closely, but with much freedom, and with more attention to things than to words; but that he had made continual additions, not only with relation to the history of those days, but to the life of Erasmus; especially where Le Clerc grew more remiss. either wearied with the task, or called off from these to other labours." Dr Hayter, bishop of London, with whom Jortin had always been upon intimate terms, dying in 1762; and Dr Osbaldeston, who was also his friend, succeeding to that see; he was made domestic chaplain to this bishop in March, admitted a prebend of St Paul's the same month, and in October presented to the living of Kensington, whither he went to reside soon after.

In 1764 he was appointed archdeacon of London, and might have had the rectory of St James's, Westminster; but chose rather to continue at Kensington, that being a situation he much liked, and better adapted to his then advanced age. Here he lived, occupied-when his pastoral functions permitted-amongst his books, and enjoying himself with his usual serenity, till the 27th of August, 1770, when, being seized with a disorder in his breast and lungs, he grew continually worse, notwithstanding all assistance; and, without undergoing much pain in the course of his illness, or losing his understanding in the least, died the 5th of September, in the 72d year of his age. He was buried in the new churchyard at Kensington.

Besides his principal works, which have already been mentioned, and his sermons and charges, there are some things of a smaller kind; as, 'Remarks upon Spencer's Poems,' 1734, octavo, at the end of which are some Remarks upon Milton; 'Remarks on L. Annæus Seneca,' printed in The Present State of the Republic of Letters, for August, 1734; A Sermon preached at the Consecration of Pearce, Bishop of Bangor, in 1747;' A few Remarks on Tillotson's Sermons,' given to his friend Dr Birch, and printed in the Appendix to Birch's Life of that prelate, in 1752; Letter to Avison, concerning the Music of the Ancients; subjoined to a second edition of Avison's Essay on Musical Expression, in 1753; and 'A few Remarks on Phillips' Life of Cardinal Pole;' printed in an Appendix to Neve's Animadversions upon that History, 1766.

·

This learned and excellent person was of a very pleasant and facetious turn, as his writings abundantly show. He had nevertheless great sensibility, and could express himself with warmth, and even some degree of indignation, when he thought the occasion warranted him so to do.

In 1772 seven volumes of Dr Jortin's sermons, which are extremely valuable, were published in 8vo. At the end of the seventh volume are four excellent charges, which were delivered to the clergy of the archdeaconry of London. In 1790 were published, in two volumes 8vo, Tracts Philological, Critical, and Miscellaneous, by the late Rev.

John Jortin, D. D., Archdeacon of London, Rector of St Dunstan in the East, and Vicar of Kensington.' This collection, which was pub lished by his son, Rogers Jortin, consists of pieces, some of which had been before published separately, and others which were then first printed from the author's manuscript. In this collection, in which are pieces of considerable merit, are some strictures on the Articles, Subscriptions, Tests, &c. Among these is the following passage: "There are propositions contained in the Liturgy and Articles which no man of common sense among us believes. No one believes that all the members of the Greek church are damned, because they admit not the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son: yet the Athanasian creed, according to the usual and obvious sense of the words, teacheth this."

The following character of Dr Jortin has been given by Knox :"A review of the life of the late Dr Jortin cannot but suggest the most pleasing reflections. As a poet, a divine, a philosopher, and a man, he served the cause of religion, learning, and morality. There are, indeed, many writers whose reputation is more diffused among the vulgar and illiterate; but few will be found whose names stand higher than Dr Jortin's in the esteem of the judicious. His Latin poetry is classically elegant, his discourses and dissertations, sensible, ingenious, and argumentative, his 'Remarks on Ecclesiastical History,' interesting and impartial, his sermons, replete with sound sense and rational morality, expressed in a style, simple, pure, and attic. Simplicity of style is a grace, which, though it may not captivate at first sight, is sure in the end to give permanent satisfaction. It does not excite admiration, but it raises esteem. It does not warm to rapture, but it soothes to complacency. Unskilful writers seldom aim at this excellence. They imagine that what is natural and common cannot be beautiful. Every thing in their compositions must be strained, every thing affected: but Dr Jortin had studied the ancients, and perhaps formed himself on the model of Xenophon. He wrote on subjects of morality; and morality is founded on reason; and reason is always cool and dispassionate. A florid declamation, embellished with rhetorical figures, and animated with pathetic description, may indeed amuse the fancy, and raise a transient emotion in the heart; but rational discourse alone can convince the understanding and reform the conduct.

"The first efforts of genius have commonly been in poetry. Unrestrained by the frigidity of argument and the confinement of rules, the young mind gladly indulges the flights of imagination. Cicero, as well as many other ancient philosophers, orators, and historians, are known to have sacrificed to the Muses in their earlier productions. Dr Jortin adds to the number of those who confirm the observation. In his 'Lusus Poetici,' one of the first of his works, are united classical language, beautiful sentiment, and harmonious verse. Among the modern Latin poets there are few who do not yield to Dr Jortin. His Sapphics, on the story of Bacchus and Ariadne, are easy, elegant, and poetical. The little ode, in which the calm life of the philosopher is compared to the gentle stream gliding through a silent grove, is highly pleasing to the mind, and is perfectly elegant in the composition. The lyrics are indeed all excellent. The poem on the immortality of the soul is ingenious, poetical, and an exact imitation of the style of Lucretius.