it happens that we have so many sciolists in divinity, and so many wild and corrupt notions, to the injury of real religion and the violation of church unity. A famous enemy of the fathers hath been compelled, by the force of truth, to confess" that those times which were nearest to the apostolic age, were of course the purest, and less subject to a suspicion of errors either in doctrine, manners, or discipline, it being reasonable to believe that whatever corruptions there might be in the church, they crept in by degrees, and imperceptibly, as is usual in all other cases*.' If this be so, aud the point can hardly be contested, it follows that those persons who would obtain a right knowlege of the faith and practice of the early Christian church, must have recourse, not to what modern writers, however well-informed and well-intentioned, may say upon the subject; but to those venerable remains of antiquity, which by the blessing of Providence have come down to us, and the authenticity of which is beyond a doubt. In ministers of Christ's church, this knowlege is indispensibly necessary; for as we cannot well allow any man to be a good Latin or Greek scholar unless he is intimately conversant in the best Roman and Attic writers of the purest periods, so nether can that person be regarded as a thoroughly qualified interpreter of ristian doctrine who is superficially acquainted with the productions of its early expositors and defenders.

Thus much we have been tempted to say in order to recommend the course of study pursued by the eminent person of whom we are now speaking; and which course, by being timely adopted, enabled him at a future period to gain a brilliant victory over a confident champion of heresy.

After taking his bachelor's degree in civil law, Mr. Horsley entered into holy orders; but where and in what quality he first discharged the ministerial duties, we are not informed.

About 1768 he became private tutor to Lord Guern sey, eldest son of the Earl of Aylesford; which young nobleman he accompanied to Oxford, and there both pupil and tutor were admitted members of Christ Church.

* Daillé on the Right Use of the Fathers.

It

It was about this time that his study of the conics of Apollonius led him particularly to a minute investigation of the books on inclinations, of which he gave the scientific world an elegant edition in quarto.

A display of such powers very naturally introduced the author into the Royal Society, of which he was elected a member; and in 1773 his merits occasioned him to bę chosen secretary, a situation for which no person certainly was ever better qualified. The Hon. Constantine John Phipps, a captain in the royal navy, afterwards Lord Mulgrave, having been sent on a voyage towards the north pole, on his return communicated to the Royal Society a letter containing some observations on the length of the pendulum in a high latitude, from whence he drew some conclusions respecting the figure of the earth, which drew from our author a most able and satisfactory refutation, founded on incontrovertible principles.

In 1774 the Earl of Aylesford presented him to the rectory of Albury, to which was added the same year by the Bishop of Worcester the rectory of St. Mary, Newington, in the same county. On this he took his degree of doctor of civil law at Oxford, and in the course of this year he married the daughter of a respectable merchant in the city of London.

сь

Dr. Horsley's acquaintance was now courted by men of letters in general, as well as by those persons whose scientific pursuits were of the same description with his own. He became a member of the literary club at the Essex Head in Essex Street; and he lived on terms of familiar intimacy with the excellent founder of it, Dr. Samuel Johnson.

He had long projected a uniform and elucidated edition of the works of the immortal Newton; and having

* Apollonius of Perga, in Pamphylia, a famous mathematian, lived in the reign of Ptolemy Evergetes, that is, from the 133d Olympiad to the 3d year of the 139th. He studied a long time at Alexandria, under the disciples of Euclid, and composed several books, of which only those on the conic sections are extant. The four first books were printed at Antwerp in 1655, folio: another edition, with the 5th, 6th, and 7th books, appeared at Florence in 1661. To this a commentary was added by the celebrated Borelli. Dr. Barrow published an edition at London, with the works of Archimedes, and the Spherics of Theodosius, at London in 1675. The edition by Dr. Horsley is distinguished by its correct ness, and the neatness and elegance of the explanation.

prepared

prepared the text and commentary, he issued proposals for the publication in 1776. This splendid work made its appearance under the royal auspices in 1779, in five elegantly printed volumes in quarto. The dedication is a master-piece of latinity, concise but forcible, sufficiently respectful and expressive, without being servile or laboured.

On this occasion Dr. Horsley was introduced to the king by the Earl of Aylesford, and had a long and literary conversation with his majesty, the particulars of which he was wont to dwell upon with peculiar pleasure many years

afterwards.

In 1777 Dr. Lowth was translated from the see of Oxford to that of London, in consequence of the death of Bishop Terrick; and immediately he solicited it as a par ticular favour that Dr. Horsley would become his domestic chaplain. This flattering invitation was readily complied with; and Dr. Horsley spent a considerable portion of his time, as much at least as could be spared from his other avocations, at Fulham palace, where he cultivated with ardour the study of the Hebrew language, and was assistant to the learned prelate in preparing his incomparable version of Isaiah for the press.

As examining chaplain, he was remarkably strict, and on no occasion did he suffer rank, friendship, or partiality to bias him in in giving a wrong recommendation. Ignorance and negligence met with no favour or excuse from him; and many who came in full confidence of their own abilities, or in a reliance upon the strength of their connections, were peremptorily returned as insufficient. On one occasion a candidate of considerable rank applied with his credentials quite in a careless, self-important manner, as if he came rather to confer than to receive a benefit. The chaplain eyeing him in his usually acute way, said, "I suppose, Sir, you have duly applied to theological authors in the course of your studies.""Why, yes, Sir, I have lately been skimming them!""Oh, then," said the doctor, "no doubt, as that is the case, but you will favour me with the creum." It happened, however, that the fopling had neither milk nor cream; and therefore he was obliged to go into the army, to the mortification of his noble relatives, who were very angry with the chaplain for what they termed excessive rigour.

When

When the celebrated controversy was excited by Dr. Priestley respecting man's free agency; and the knotty point of moral and philosophical necessity was agitated by a great variety of writers, some of whom, with that restless disputant at their head, openly espoused the dangerous notions of fatalism and materialism, Dr. Horsley. then recently preferred to a prebend in the cathedral of St. Paul's, discussed the question in a sermon delivered in that church, April 17th, being Good Friday, in the year 1778. In this sensible and liberal discourse he maintained that qualified doctrine which hath been generally asserted by the Arminians; and which unites the freedom of the human will with the certainty of divine prescience, and the accountableness of man with the agency of divine providence. This sermon soon afterwards appeared in print, and was quickly replied to by Dr. Priestley, who always wrote much faster than he either read or thought. But no farther controversy was carried on between these two parties for the present. It was not, however, from any consciousness of Priestley's superior powers in metaphysical enquiries that made Ďr. Horsley decline a contest at this time; but a thorough conviction of the uselessness of such a discussion. He was well aware that it tended rather to perplex the minds of believers with doubtful speculations, and to encourage a spirit of scepticism in others, than to answer any one good purpose. He also knew full well the conceited and restless temper of his opponent; and was persuaded that it was not truth but victory which animated him in all his disputations.

In this year Dr. Horsley resigned his situation as one of the secretaries of the Royal Society, though he still continued an active member of that learned body, particularly as one of the reading committee.

(To be continued.)

MISCELLANIES.

VINDICATION OF CHARLES I.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S

I

SIR,

MAGAZINE.

HAVE lately been reading a new Life of MILTON, in which the author, Dr. Charles Symmons, is not content with endeavouring to white-wash the political character of that celebrated man, but he indulges himself in the most rude and illiberal attacks upon some of the best characters this country has produced.

In the highest tone of dogmatism, he deals out his virulent invectives against all who have ventured to form an opinion of Milton's conduct and principles different from his own.

His zeal in behalf of a favourite writer would have been commendable, if it had been tempered with judgment and candour; but Dr. Symmons goes beyond the bounds of a biographer and an apologist; he becomes a partizan; and in the plenitude of his admiration of republican principles, he imbibes all the fierceness and uncharitableness of the zealots of 1641.

I am much mistaken, if the doctor has not by his intemperance injured the very cause he undertook to defend; and placed Milton's political character in a very disgusting point of view.

Milton was at first the warm, I may say fiery champion of the Presbyterians, whom the doctor condemns in strong terms as a set of consummate hypocrites; afterwards Milton joined the ascendant party of Independents, whose favour he secured by anathematizing his quondam friends, Always a professed republican, he yet became the supple sycophant of Oliver Cromwell, and his only consist ency lay in his rooted animosity to the Royal Family, to whose misfortunes he had contributed almost as much as any man of his time, by the powers of his pen.

After all, the political character of Milton might have remained, and Dr. Symmons would have enjoyed the pleasure of his admiration of the man and his principles, Vol. XI. Churchm. Mag. for Oct. 1806. Kk without