William Powell, D. D.

BORN A. D. 1717.-DIED A. d. 1775.

WILLIAM SAMUEL POWELL was born at Colchester, on the 27th of September, 1717. We have no account of his juvenile years. In 1734 he was admitted of St John's college, Cambridge; in 1739, took his degree of A.B.; in 1740, was elected to a fellowship; and in 1741, entered the family of Lord Viscount Townshend, as private tutor to his lordship's second son Charles. In the same year he was ordained deacon and priest, and instituted to the rectory of Colkirk in Norfolk, on the presentation of Lord Townshend.

In 1744 he became principal tutor in his own college, and drew up an able series of lectures on natural philosophy, which continued to be the text-book at St John's until superseded by the more elaborate publications of Dr Wood and Professor Vince. In 1749 Mr Powell proceeded B.D.; at the commencement in 1757 he was created D.D. In the controversy which soon after this last date arose about subscription, Dr Powell took an active share. His commencement sermon was directed principally to the support of subscription and all established forms and usages in the university. He asserted that "young people may give a general assent to the articles, on the authority of others!"

In 1760 he entered into a controversy with Edward Waring, then a candidate for the Lucasian professorship. Waring had published the first chapter of his Miscellanea Analytica,' as a specimen of his qualifications for the chair to which he aspired. Powell commented upon this publication in some anonymous Observations,' which drew forth a vindication from Waring, who completely demolished his antagonist. On the death of Dr Newcombe, master of St John's, no less than seven candidates, one of whom was Powell, started to succeed him. Powell was the successful candidate, having been unanimously elected master on the 25th of January, 1765.

In the first year of his mastership he established college-examinations, and applied himself sedulously to the improvement of the whole routine of college-business. Mr Jebb's proposals, however, with the same view, were sturdily opposed by the master of St John's, who contended that the business of education, both of government and instruction, is conducted with more success under the domestic discipline of each college than it could be under the direction of the senate; and that whatever reformation was really needed could be easily introduced in the separate colleges by the master and fellows.

Dr Powell died on the 19th of January, 1775. His works, chiefly consisting of pulpit discourses, were edited by his friend Dr Balguy. They are acute and close-reasoned performances, written in a style of great perspicuity and purity. "He was," says Cole, "rather a little, thin man; florid and red; with staring eyes, as if almost choked, or as if the collar of his shirt was too high about his neck. He was a man of a rugged and severe discipline; but virtuous, learned, and by no means beloved: his manners were too rigid and unbending for the age he lived in. As he was a strict disciplinarian, so he was by nature

positive and obstinate, and never to be beat out of what he had once got into his head; yet he was generous in his temper, and when it was proposed improving the college and walks, at an expense of £800, he called the fellows together, recommended a subscription ainong its former members of note, and set it a-going by putting down £500."

Samuel Ogden, D.D.

BORN A. D. 1716.-DIED A. D. 1778.

SAMUEL OGDEN was born at Manchester in 1716, and educated at the free-school of his native place. In 1733 he was admitted of King's college, Cambridge. He graduated as B. A. at St John's in 1737, and, eventually, proceeded to the degree of S. T.P. In 1739 he became a fellow of his college; in 1744, master of the free-school at Halifax; about 1753, vicar of Damerham in Wiltshire; in 1764, Woodwardian professor at Cambridge; and, in 1766, rector of Lawford in Essex, and of Stansfield in Suffolk. He also held the cure of St Sepulchre's, at Cambridge, where he obtained considerable notoriety as a preacher. He died on the 23d of March, 1778. "His person, manner, and character of composition," says Wakefield, "were exactly suited to each other. He exhibited a large, black, scowling, grisly figure,-a ponderous body, with a lowering visage, imbrowned by the horrors of a sable periwig; his voice was growling and morose, and his sentences desultory, tart, and snappish." His "uncivilized appearance and bluntness of demeanour were," Wakefield adds, "the grand obstacles to his elevation in the church." The duke of Newcastle would, it is said, have taken him to court, if he had been what his grace termed, ' a producible man.' Dr Halifax, the editor of his sermons, and author of a vindication of his writings against some objections which Mainwaring had preferred against them, says that, notwithstanding the sternness, and even ferocity, which he would sometimes throw into his countenance, Ogden was one of the most humane and tender-hearted men ever known. Cole, the Cambridge antiquary, states, that Dr Ogden was an epicure; that he loved a cheerful glass,-had a great turn for banter and ridicule, and used to sit in company in his night-gown and slippers.

Augustus Toplady.

BORN A. D. 1740.-died a. D. 1778.

THIS strenuous champion for the Calvinism of the church of England, was born at Farnham, in Surrey, November 4, 1740. His father was a captain in the army, who died at the siege of Carthagena soon after his son's birth. He received the rudiments of his education at Westminster school; but, it becoming necessary for his mother to take a journey to Ireland to pursue some claims to an estate in that kingdom, he accompanied her thither, and was entered at Trinity college, Dublin, at which seminary he took his degree of bachelor of arts.

On

taking orders, he was inducted into the living of Broad Hembury in Devonshire. Here he pursued his labours with increasing assiduity, and composed most of his writings. He had for some years occasionally visited London; but in 1775, finding his constitution much impaired by the moist atmosphere of Devonshire, he removed to London entirely, after some unsuccessful attempts to exchange his living for another of equivalent value in some of the middle counties. In London, by the solicitation of his numerous friends, he engaged the chapel belonging to the French reformed, near Leicester-fields; where he preached twice in the week while his health permitted, and afterwards occasionally, as much as he was well able to do. He died August 11, 1778. His body was buried, agreeably to his own desire, in Tottenham-court chapel. It is supposed that his intense application to study, which he frequently pursued through the night to three or four o'clock in the morning, was the means of inducing his disorder and accelerating his end. He had no preferment in the church besides the vicarage of Broad Hembury, which, as his mind could never brook the idea of living in animosity with his parish upon the account of tithes, did not amount, communibus annis, to eighty pounds a-year. His publications were, 1. The Church of England vindicated from the charge of Arminianism; and the case of Arminian subscription particularly considered; in a Letter to the Rev. Dr Nowell,' 1769.-2. 'The Doctrine of absolute Predestination stated and asserted; with a preliminary Discourse on the Divine Attributes: translated in great measure from the Latin of Jerom Zanchius; with some account of his life prefixed,' 1769. -3. A Letter to the Rev. Mr John Wesley, relative to his pretended abridgment of Zanchius on Predestination,' 1770, 2d edition, 1771.— 4. A Caveat against unsound Doctrines: a Sermon preached at Blackfriars, April 29th, 1770.'-5. 'Jesus seen of Angels; and God's Mindfulness of Man: three Sermons preached at Broad Hembury, Devon, December 25th, 1770.-6. Free thoughts on the projected Application to Parliament for the Abolition of Ecclesiastical subscriptions,' 1771.-7. 'More work for Mr John Wesley: or a vindication of the Decrees and Providence of God from the defamations of a late printed paper entitled "The Consequence proved," 1772.-8. Clerical subscription no grievance: a Sermon at the annual Visitation of the archdeaconry of Exeter, May 12th, 1772.'-9. Historical Proof of the Doctrinal Calvinism of the Church of England,' 1774, 2 volumes 8vo. -10. 'Free-will and Merit fairly examined; or men not their own Saviours: a Sermon preached at Blackfriars, May 15th, 1774.'—11 'Good News from Heaven; or the Gospel's joyful sound: a Sermon preached at the Lock-chapel, June 19th, 1774.-12. The Scheme of Christian and Philosophical Necessity asserted, in answer to Mr John Wesley's tract on that subject,' 1775.-13. 'Joy in Heaven, and the Creed of Devils: two Sermons preached in London,' 1775.—14. 'Moral and Political Moderation recommended:' a Sermon preached on the general fast, December 13th, 1776.-15. 'Collection of Hymns for public and private worship,' 1776.-16. His dying avowal, dated Knightsbridge, July 22d, 1778.

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The chief object of his writings, as well as of his sermons, was the defence of Calvinism, and the proof that Calvinism was to be found in the articles, &c. of the Church of England. His creed, says one of his

reviewers, (probably Badcock) was Calvinism in the extreme; and when he reasoned on some of its distinguishing principles, particularly predestination, he discovered no mean talent for disputation. He understood all the niceties of that article; and if his arguments could not convince, his subtleties would confound an Arminian. He would take his adversary on his own ground, and make his own concessions contribute to his defeat. Of this we have a remarkable example related by himself in a letter to Mrs Macauley, in which he tells her of a debate he once had with Mr Burgh, author of the Political Disquisitions.' "I should have had," says he, "a sharp onset if he had been in perfect health. Even as it was, he could not forbear feeling my pulse on the article of free will. In the course of our debate I drove him into this dreadful refuge: viz. that God doth all he possibly can (these were Mr Burgh's own words) to hinder moral and natural evil, but he cannot prevail: men will not permit God to have his wish.'" On Mr Toplady's asking him if this would not render the Deity an unhappy being? he replied, "No; for he knows that he must be disappointed and defeated, and that there's no help for it: and therefore he submits to the necessity, and does not make himself unhappy about it." Of his defences of Calvinism, his 'Historical Proof' is by far the most able. a controversialist, in his disputes with Wesley and others, he has been blamed for a degree of acrimony unworthy of his cause; but he possessed a warm and acute imagination, and a degree of zeal which was not always under the guidance of judgment. Against Wesley he may be said to have had a confirmed antipathy, and employed ridicule as well as argument in opposing his opinions and conduct. The last act of his life was to publish what he called his Dying Avowal,' in which he contradicted a report circulated by Wesley or his followers, respecting his having changed his sentiments. In this short piece he informs us that his Arminian prejudices received their first shock from reading Dr Manton's sermons on the xviith chapter of John's Gospel. Besides the works above-mentioned, Mr Toplady was the editor for some years of 'The Gospel Magazine,' begun in 1774; and in it, under the article, 'Review of Books,' will be found some of his bitterest philippics against Wesley. Upon the whole, however, he must be considered as one of the ablest of modern writers in defence of Calvinism, and brought a larger share of metaphysical acuteness into the controversy than any man of his time.1

Bishop Warburton.

BORN A. D. 1698.-DIED A. D. 1779.

As

THIS extraordinary man was a native of Newark-upon-Trent. His father was an attorney, and at the usual age young Warburton was articled to a gentleman of his father's profession. On completing his clerkship, he practised some time in his native town, but he either appears to have deserted his profession, or to have been deserted by it. After filling for some time the situation of usher in a school, we find

'Chalmers.-Life published in 1778, 8vo.-Month. Rev. vol. LXX.

him in deacon's orders in 1723, and in 1726 vicar of Greasley in Buckinghamshire.

In this latter year, Warburton contributed some notes to Theobald's edition of Shakspeare, and also enrolled himself in the literary confederacy against Pope, then lord of the ascendant in the literary world. His notes on the great dramatist, both in this and his own edition, are erudite and ingenious, but singularly perverse in many instances. His biographer, Hurd, has indeed praised "the felicity of his genius in restoring numberless passages to their integrity, and in explaining others," but we greatly doubt the correctness of this view of Warburton's labours on the Shakspearian text: the truth is, he appears either to have understood the mighty dramatist a great deal better than he understood himself, or to have possessed a singular obliquity of mental vision throughout the whole of this task. He is perpetually discovering difficulties where an ordinary mind would perceive none; and rendering what was before clear and simple of apprehension, perplexed and contradictory. His connexion with the inferior wits, or dunces,' of the day was, as might have been anticipated, of very short duration; he soon became the intimate friend of Pope, Chesterfield, Murray, and the other leading men of that party.

In 1727, he published an Enquiry into the Causes of Prodigies and Miracles,' and in 1736 his famous treatise on the Alliance between Church and State.' Towards the conclusion of this piece he announced the approaching publication of his great work, 'The Divine Legation of Moses,' the first volume of which appeared in 1787. Of this work the following account has been given in an interesting article on Hurd's edition of Warburton's works, in the 7th volume of the Quarterly Review.' "To the composition of this prodigious performance, Hooker and Stillingfleet could have contributed the erudition, Chillingworth and Locke the acuteness, Taylor an imagination even more wild and copious, Swift, and perhaps Eachard, the sarcastic vein of wit but what power of understanding, excepting that of Warburton, could first have amassed all these materials, and then compacted them into a bulky and elaborate work so consistent and harmonious?

"The principle of the work was no less bold and original than the execution. That the doctrine of a future state of reward and punishment was omitted in the books of Moses, had been insolently urged by infidels against the truth of his mission, while divines were feebly occupied in seeking what was certainly not to be found there, otherwise than by inference and implication. But Warburton, with an intrepidity unheard of before, threw open the gates of his camp, admitted the host of the enemy within his works, and beat them on a ground which was now become both his and theirs. In short, he admitted the proposition in its fullest extent, and proceeded to demonstrate from that very omission, which in all instances of legislation, merely human, had been industriously avoided, that a system which could dispense with a doctrine, the very bond and cement of human society, must have come from God, and that the people to whom it was given, must have been placed under his immediate superintendence.

"In the hands of such a champion, the warfare so conducted might be safe; yet the experiment was perilous, and the combatant a stranger: hence the timid were alarmed, the formal disconcerted; even the ve