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diced, with a judgment so clear and distinct, he could scarcely fail of forming right apprehensions concerning most of the subjects which the course of his studies enabled him to investigate. The candour and moderation with which Dr Lardner maintained his own sentiments constituted a prominent feature in his character. Those he differed from in opinion he always treated with gentleness and respect; and in the controversies he carried on with them there is no severity of censure, no harshness of language. This circumstance is the more worthy to be mentioned and applauded, as it is so different from what we often meet with in the present day. Many of our writers seem to be reverting to that abuse of each other which was common among scholars some time after the revival of literature. They are not satisfied without casting illiberal reflections on the persons of the men whose tenets they oppose, and arraigning the motives of their conduct. What renders this disposition the more ridiculous is, that it is frequently exerted on the most trivial occasions. Apprehended mistakes in philology, or diversities of judgment in matters of mere taste, are treated with as great bitterness as if they were crimes of the deepest dye. How much more beautiful, and more worthy of imitation, was the manner of conducting disputable questions which was pursued by Dr Lardner! Such a method will be found, in the end, more favourable to the diffusion of truth, and more conducive to a lasting reputation. Circumstances, indeed, may arise, in which a sharpness of chastisement may appear to be justifiable. Uncommon insolence and uncommon bigotry may deserve to be strongly exposed: and yet, even here, a manly neglect and contempt of unmerited censure, may be the most honourable and the most useful mode of behaviour.

"Benevolence, as well as piety, entered deeply into Dr Lardner's character. Though his retired life prevented him from taking a very active part in public designs, he was ready to promote every good work. To persons in distress he was ever willing to contribute to the highest degree which his fortune would admit. On some occasions he exerted himself with great vigour and success. When a gentleman came to London, in 1756, to solicit contributions towards building a church for the protestants of Thorn in Poland, our author was particularly serviceable to him, both by his advice and recommendation. He, in a great measure, took upon himself the management of the affair; on which account he afterwards received the thanks of the president and fellows of the college of Thorn, in an elegant Latin letter. Near the time of his decease he was engaged in assisting and recommending the Rev. Mr Finman, minister of the reformed congregation at Rutzon, in the duchy of Mecklenberg Schwerin, who had come once to England for a like purpose. Upon this occasion, a letter was written to Dr Lardner by Dr Secker, archbishop of Canterbury, which was the conclusion of a very long correspondence between two eminent persons, who were now, each of them, on the verge of dissolution. In his private deportment," proceeds Dr Kippis, "Dr Lardner was very amiable. His manners were polite, gentle, and obliging, and he was attentive in every respect to the laws of decorum. On the learning of Dr Lardner it is not necessary to enlarge, since his character in this respect is known to all the world. With regard to that species of literature which was cultivated by him, he was accurate and profound in the greatest degree.

Some branches of knowledge there were to which he did not apply his attention; for who is adequate to every object? But as a divine, and especially with relation to his acquaintance with the New Testament and with Christian antiquity, perhaps he never had his equal."

Archbishop Secker.

BORN A. D. 1693.-DIED A. D. 1768.

THIS eminent prelate was born in 1693, at the village of Sibthorpe in Nottinghamshire. His father was a protestant dissenter, a pious and well-informed man. Young Secker was early designed for the dissenting ministry, and with this view applied himself with great diligence and success to the preparatory studies, and, at the age of nineteen, was placed under the charge of Mr Jones of Tewkesbury. Here he became acquainted with Joseph Butler, afterwards bishop of Durham, who was the chief means of prevailing upon him to take orders in the church of England, after he had spent some years in the study of medicine. It appears that he had long entertained doubts on different points both of doctrine and discipline, and that, while his mind was in this unsettled state, he abandoned his original intentions with regard to the ministry, and went to Paris for the purpose of studying medicine. But on his friend Butler, now in the church, and preacher at the Rolls, writing him upon the subject, he resolved to take orders in the church of Engand. With this view, in April, 1721, he entered himself of Exeter college, Oxford, and in 1722 was ordained deacon and priest by Bishop Talbot.

In 1724 Bishop Talbot presented him with the rectory of Houghtonle-Spring. Here he gave himself up entirely to the duties of a country pastor; until the state of his wife's health rendered it necessary for him to remove to a more salubrious situation. On this account he exchanged his rectory for a prebend of Durham, where he resided until appointed chaplain to the king, and instituted to the rectory of St James's, in May, 1733.

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His elevation to the mitre took place in 1735, when he was consecrated Bishop of Bristol. In two years afterwards he was translated to Oxford. Hitherto he had stood well at court, and especially high in favour of the queen; but he allowed himself to get involved in the disputes betwixt the king and the heir-apparent, and for a time held rather a dubious situation betwixt St James's and Norfolk house. 1750 he was made dean of St Paul's; and at length, on the death of Archbishop Hutton, he was elevated to the archiepiscopal see of Canterbury. At this time Secker's character for moderation, and his attachment to the house of Hanover, were fairly established by his conduct in the different political struggles in which he, in common with all public men, had been engaged during the reign of George II. His chief political connexions were with the duke of Newcastle and the earl of Hardwicke, and his elevation to the primacy was due to that party; but he seems to have kept pretty clear, upon the whole, of the toils of faction, and to have conciliated men of all parties. Unlike some, who like him have exchanged the dissenting for the established church, he

continued to cultivate the friendship of many of his earlier friends, long after he had risen to a prominent station within the pale of the establishment; and the fact that he maintained an intercourse of friendship with such men as Watts, and Doddridge, and Leland, and Lardner, is as creditable to his grace's memory as to theirs.

He died in 1768.

volumes octavo.

His works were edited by Dr Porteous, in six

George Whitefield.

BORN A. D. 1714.-DIED A. d. 1770.

THIS pious and eloquent man was born at Gloucester, in December, 1714. His father was an innkeeper in that city. George was the youngest of several sons, and on the death of his father in 1716 was still very young. His mother tended him with great care, and he early became the subject of religious feeling,—but he himself describes his youthful days as vicious and degraded. At school, however, he made considerable progress in classical studies, and also distinguished himself by displays of eloquence. But at the age of fifteen, we find the youthful orator acting as his mother's assistant in the inn. In these circumstances, however, he indicated a different bent of mind, by composing sermons; and in the course of a year or two from his entrance on this situation, his mind assumed a religious tone, and both in public and in private he testified a regard for sacred things. At the age of eighteen, he entered the university of Oxford. Here he associated with a body of young men, including John and Charles Wesley, devoted to religious and charitable pursuits. Agreeably to the habits of this society, who received the appellation of Methodists, he took the sacrament weekly, and visited the gaol. In his self-denial he seems to have rivalled, if not exceeded, the strictest of his comrades. Bodily illness ensued. On his recovery, joy had taken the place of a depression under which he previously laboured. Proceeding to Gloucester for confirmation of his health, he there visited the poor, and held religious conversation with the young. Being now about twenty-one years of age, he was offered ordination by Dr Benson, bishop of Gloucester, and accordingly, in agreement with the solicitation of his friends, he prepared for orders, and, after prayer and self-examination, was ordained on Sunday, 20th June, 1736. On the following Sunday he preached at Gloucester. "As I proceeded," says he, speaking of that occasion, "I perceived the fire kindled, till, at last, though so young, and amidst a crowd of those who knew me in my childish days, I trust I was enabled to speak with some degree of gospel authority. Some few mocked; but most for the present seemed struck; and I have since heard that a complaint had been made to the bishop that I drove fifteen mad, the first sermon. The worthy prelate, as I am informed, wished that the madness might not be forgotten before next Sunday." He now proceeded to Oxford; but being soon called to London, to perform service in the Tower, he officiated there for two months. In November he was again summoned from Oxford, and entered on a short course of ministrations at Dummer, Hants. At this time he declined a good London curacy; and in January, 1737-in prospect of leaving his na

tive country for Georgia, whither his friends John and Charles Wesley had gone he went to visit his friends at Gloucester and Bristol. It was not until several months thereafter that he preached his farewell sermons in these cities. But, in the meantime, his services there and also in London and Bath were attended by numerous audiences.

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At length, in December, 1737, he embarked for America. He persevered, and ultimately succeeded, in his attempts to establish religious services on board, and to introduce a moral improvement among his fellow-travellers. In regard to his own personal experience during the voyage, he thus expresses himself at a later period of his life:-"The remembrance of the happy hours I enjoyed in religious exercises on the deck is refreshing to my soul." In the colony he was well-received, and tokens of usefulness attended him. "I was really happy," says he, "in my little cure, and could have cheerfully remained among them, had I not been obliged to return to England, to receive priest's orders, and make a beginning towards laying a foundation for the orphan-house." The scheme to which he here refers, was the formation of an institution for orphans in the colony, an object which he kept in view in the course of his approaching visit to England. For this destination he embarked in September, 1738. The voyage was unfavourable, and the travellers were almost reduced to extremity by want of provisions. At length the ship anchored before an island on the Irish coast. In reference to this circumstance, he remarks in his Journal :-" Ever since I have been on board the Mary, these words, Howbeit we must be cast upon a certain island' (which were part of the lesson I read last at Savannah,) have been continually pressed upon my heart, so that I have often mentioned it to one of my companions., Behold, they are now fulfilled!" The bishop of Limerick received him kindly, and he preached in the cathedral of that town. From Dublin he set out for England, and reached Parkgate at the end of November. In January thereafter he received priest's orders from Bishop Benson. Certain ministers of the establishment, however, treated him with coldness, and several churches were refused him. But he preached in others to which access was allowed him, and met with his followers for social intercourse in Fetter-lane. At Bristol, after preaching in the churches for two or three Sundays, they were at length shut against him. He officiated, however, at Newgate; and at Kingswood, a neighbouring tract inhabited by colliers, who were at this time in a rude and neglected state, he, after a struggle with his own mind, began to preach in the open air. This he found a peculiarly interesting scene. "The first discov ery," says he, speaking of the colliers who attended him, "The first discovery of their being affected was to see the white gutters made by their tears, which plentifully fell down their black cheeks, as they came out of their coal-pits. Hundreds and hundreds of them were soon brought under deep convictions, which (as the event proved) happily ended in a sound and thorough conversion." His own feelings he thus describes "The open firmament above me, the prospect of the adjacent fields, with the sight of thousands and thousands, some in coaches some on horseback, and some in the trees, and at times all affected and drenched in tears together, to which sometimes was added the solemnity of the approaching evening, was almost too much for, and quite overcame me." At length, on John Wesley undertaking the post which he

himself had so successfully occupied at Kingswood, he proceeded to Wales; and, after preaching in various places, he returned to London. There, during several months, he officiated in the open air, at Moorfields, Blackheath, and Kennington common; and many of his audiences on these occasions have been reckoned at upwards of twenty thousand. Having collected more than £1000 for the orphan-house of Georgia, he set sail for America in August, 1739, and after landing at Philadelphia, and preaching in that city and various other places to audiences that flocked to hear him, he reached Savannah in January, 1740. There, in the succeeding March, he began the building of the orphanhouse, which he named Bethesda. Fresh contributions being required for the institution, he again itinerated. Early in June he returned to Savannah; but, again setting out, he paid a successful and interesting visit to New England.

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In January, 1741, Whitefield again embarked for England. His visit to his native country opened on a melancholy scene. He had written what he himself calls "two well-meant, though injudicious letters against England's two great favourites, The Whole Duty of Man,' and Archbishop Tillotson," and had also answered a sermon by John Wesley on the subject of election. On this, as on other points, Whitefield was Calvinistic; but he himself remarks, that he thought his "answer had some too strong expressions about absolute reprobation, which," he adds, "the apostle leaves rather to be inferred than expressed." On his arrival in England, accordingly, he found that he had given offence to many even of his former followers. His unpopu larity he seems to have felt the more discouraging, as he was under great pecuniary embarrassment in regard to the orphan-house. A breach ensued between himself and the followers of Wesley; but a large shed was erected for him in London, near the Foundery, and multitudes attended his preaching. He also itinerated in England; and, being invited to Scotland, he arrived at Leith in the month of July. Proceeding to Dunfermline, he preached in the meeting-house of Ralph Erskine, one of the heads of the Secession; but a division soon occurred between himself and the Associate Presbytery, of which Erskine was a member, owing, apparently, to a difference of opinion in regard to the Solemn League and Covenant, and the propriety of his preaching for persons not of their communion. During his stay in Scotland he produced a powerful effect, and preached in a multitude of places. look," says Mr Willison of Dundee, in a letter dated October, 1741, "I look upon this youth as raised up of God for special service, and spirited for making new and singular attempts for promoting true Christianity in the world, and for reviving it where it is decayed; and I see him wonderfully fitted and strengthened both in body and mind for going through with his projects amidst the greatest discouragements and difficulties. I see the man to be all of a piece; his life and conversation to be a transcript of his sermons. It is truly a rare thing to sce so much of God about any one man. Many here are blessing God for sending him to this country, though Satan has raged much against it." Returning to England he there continued his zealous exertions; but, on the 2d of June, 1742, he again arrived in Scotland. A great religious excitement had, by this time, taken place in the west of that country, particularly at Cambuslang. This

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