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listen to such a proposal. In the month of May, 1714, he paid a visit to his old friends in Cheshire, and was returning home in the month of June, when he was suddenly taken ill at Nantwich. The struggle was short. The next day, after his first illness, he was seized with apoplexy. He lay speechless three hours, and then fell asleep.' His remains were buried in Trinity church, Chester.

Mr Henry was, in private life, an amiable and highly domestic man. Though necessarily much and frequently from home, he still preferred the comforts of his own household to those of any other. Recording a journey to a distance to preach, he says, "In the evening I came to Chester late, and through much rain, but it was home." As a husband, his whole deportment was marked by prudence, fidelity, and affection; as a parent, his conduct was marked by kindness, firmness, and the most earnest anxiety for the spiritual interests of his children. Into the circle of his friends he admitted none who did not profess themselves the friends of his Divine Master. Yet he knew how to honour all men, as well as to love" the brotherhood." A gentleman by birth, education, and habits, he conducted himself to all with courtesy. "The very churchmen," says the famous John Dunton, “the very churchmen love him; and even malice is angry she can find no cause to be angry with him."

Of his diligence and improvement of time we have already spoken. He was commonly in his study at five, and sometimes at four o'clock; there he remained till seven or eight. After family worship, and some slight refreshment, he returned to his study till noon; and oftentimes again after dinner till four in the afternoon. He then visited the sick, or his friends, and attended to any piece of business which he might have to manage. His rule, without defining proportions either of time or exertion, was the following:-" Be diligent in your particular callings. Bestow the bulk of your time upon them. Understand your employment; and mind it with all seriousness."

Mr Henry had a respectable acquaintance with the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages. His reading in early life had been extensive, and he was particularly well-acquainted with the writings of the puritan and nonconformist divines, amongst whom his favourite author seems to have been Baxter. He commenced author in the year 1689, or rather 1690, with an anonymous duodecimo of 34 pages, entitled, A Brief Inquiry into the true nature of Schism.' It called forth an answer of rather an illiberal character from a writer who styled himself A Citizen of Chester.' Mr Henry left the task of reply to his friend Mr Tong. His great work, the Exposition of the Old and New Testament, was commenced in November, 1704. Mr Henry lived to finish only the Acts of the Apostles. The rest was completed by various ministers, whose names are announced in some of the editions.

Robert South, D. D.

BORN A. D. 1633.-died a. d. 1716.

ROBERT SOUTH, D. D., was an eminent divine of the 17th century. He was the son of a London merchant, and was born at Hackney in

1633. In 1647 he was admitted a king's scholar at Westminster. In 1649, while reading the Latin prayers on the day of Charles's death, he made himself remarkable by praying for the king by name. Being chosen a student of Christ-church college, Oxford, he applied himself vigorously to his studies: of the proficiency he made, his sermons are a noble and lasting memorial. While he was at the university he wrote a copy of Latin verses congratulating Cromwell on the peace he had made with the Dutch. Probably the subject was not his own choice, certainly it was the last compliment he paid either to the protector or his party. In 1657 he took the degree of A. M., and in 1658 he was ordained by one of the deprived bishops, and immediately commenced his ministry by a furious attack on the Independents, to the great joy of the Presbyterians. But the restoration of Charles in 1660 made it no longer necessary for him to temporise, and from that moment the Presbyterians themselves, as well as the Independents, were the constant butt of his inexhaustible wit and satire. "When his majesty's restoration," says Wood, "could not be withstood, then did he from the pulpit exercise his gifts against the Presbyterians, as a little before he had done against the Independents, telling his auditory of their wry face, ill looks, puning tones, &c., all which was to obtain the applause (and its consequences) of the prelatical and loyal party; but as it fell out he missed his ends; for by his too much concernment and eagerness to trample upon them, the graver sort of the said party would put their hats before their eyes, or turn aside, as being much ashamed at what the young man did utter." He was made, in rapid succession, public orator of the university, chaplain to the chancellor Clarendon, and prebendary of Westminster. After Clarendon's banishment in 1667, he was appointed chaplain to the duke of York. The Doctor's sermons, if James ever heard them, might perhaps confirm that weak prince's political creed; they certainly never taught him popery. In 1676 he went to Poland as chaplain to the English ambassador, Laurence Hyde. In 1693 he published Animadversions on Sherlock's Vindication of the Trinity.' London, 4to.; and in 1695, a Reply to Sherlock's Defence.' London, 4to.

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During the reign of James he spent most of his time in privacy: he could not tolerate the encroachments that were made on the rights of the national church, and yet his creed taught him "to abide by his allegiance, and use no other weapons but prayers and tears for the recovery of his sovereign from the wicked and unadvised counsels wherewith he was entangled." Agreeably to these principles, he could not be induced to put his name to the invitation to the prince of Orange, which was signed by the archbishop of Canterbury and other bishops. He refused to subscribe the Oxford association paper to stand by that prince. He took, however, the oaths to the new government, declaring" he saw nothing contrary to the laws of God and the common practice of all nations to submit to princes in possession of the throne." During the reign of William and his successor, he firmly rejected all offers of preferment; sincere and immoveable in his principles, he opposed all union with the dissenting protestants, as a measure likely to prove fatal to the mother church. One of his last public exertions, we are not surprised to find, was in favour of Sacheverell, who found in him an able and willing advocate. He closed a long and laborious life on

the 8th of July, 1716, and was buried in Westminster abbey, near the tomb of Busby.

"The character of this singular man," says a Retrospective Reviewer, "will be best known from his sermons. His disposition, apparently open and ingenuous, stimulated by an ardent temper not always under the control of prudence, prompted him to express his opinions without reserve or caution. He has laid himself completely open his thoughts, his feelings, his animosities, and his predilections, are all exposed to the severest scrutiny." His sermons are printed in 6 and 11 vols. 8vo. His Opera Posthuma Latina,' appeared in 1717.

George Hickes, D. D.

BORN A. D. 1842.-DIED A. D. 1715.

THIS celebrated philologist and antiquarian was born in the parish of Kirby-Wiske, north-riding of Yorkshire, in June, 1642. He was educated at the free grammar-school of North Allerton, then taught by Thomas Smelt, a pedagogue of considerable learning, who had the honour of instructing several pupils, who afterwards rose to distinguished eminence, such as Thomas Burnet, the author of the Theory of the Earth,' Thomas Rymer, Ratcliffe, and Kettlewell.

In 1659, young Hickes was admitted a servitor in St John's college, Oxford. In 1644 he was elected fellow of Lincoln college. After having spent some time on the continent, he became chaplain to John, duke of Lauderdale. While in Scotland, he imprudently published a book, entitled, Ravaillac Redivivus,' on the occasion of the trial of James Mitchell, one of the murderers of the archbishop of St Andrews, which strongly excited the public feeling against him, and compelled him to look to his own safety. These high-church principles were, however, rewarded with the degree of D. D. from the universitics of St Andrews and Oxford; and he was presented to the vicarage of Allhallows, Barking, in London.

In 1682 he was made chaplain in ordinary to the king; and the next year, upon the elevation of Dr Thomas, dean of Worcester, to the bishopric of that see, Dr Hickes was appointed to succeed him. In 1683 he published a book, entitled, Jovian, in answer to Julian the apostate,' written by the Rev. Mr Samuel Johnson, chaplain to Lord Russell. Both treatises were extremely popular, and highly esteemed by their respective parties. From his character and connections, it is more than probable that Hickes would have risen to the episcopal bench, had not the Revolution laid an insuperable bar in his way. The dean was a firm protestant, yet he was also as inflexible a loyalist, and could not reconcile it to his conscience to renounce the oath of allegiance which he had already taken to one sovereign. He did not, however, yield up his station in the church without protesting against his deprivation; which protestation, directed to the subdean and prebendaries, dated May 24, 1691, and formally signed and witnessed, was publicly fixed up in the cathedral of Worcester. Being thus embarked in the

Retrospective Review, vol. ix.-Gen. Biog. Dict.

cause of the nonjurors, the dean, by his writings, added considerable strength to that party, and very powerfully annoyed their opponents. Among these Dr Tillotson, now raised from the deanery to the archiepiscopal chair of Canterbury, by the deprivation of Archbishop Sancroft, came in for a pretty large share. In 1692-3, King James sent over to the deprived bishops for a list of those clergymen who had suffered for not taking the new oaths; and, accordingly, as perfect a list as could be formed was drawn up, and Dean Hickes was deputed to carry it over to his majesty, with a request from the bishops, that the king would appoint two out of the number to be consecrated by them as their suffragans, one of which to be at the nomination of Archbishop Sancroft, and the other of Dr Lloyd, bishop of Norwich. Dr Hickes and Thomas Wagstaffe, the deprived chancellor of Litchfield, were accordingly named by James. Archbishop Sancroft then nominated the former as his suffragan bishop of Thetford, and Bishop Lloyd, the latter as his suffragan bishop of Ipswich. The archbishop died in November, 1693, and the ceremony of consecration was performed-agreeably to his desire-by Bishop Lloyd, but whether with the assistance of any of the other nonjuring prelates does not appear.

Dr Hickes being thus spiritually a bishop, exercised the duties of that character by ordaining deacons and priests; but he became thereby so obnoxious to the government, both in church and state, that his personal safety was greatly endangered. He was often under the necessity of keeping himself closely concealed, and of going in disguise; and it is related by the continuator of the life of Mr Kettlewell, that once visiting the Doctor, that good man was "surprised and concerned at observing Mr Dean in a military dress, and passing for a captain or a major."

In 1705 the Doctor published at Oxford one of the most extraordinary, and certainly one of the most Herculean labours ever attempted and executed by one man; it was entitled, A Grammatico-Critical and Archæological Treasure of the Ancient Northern Languages,' in two volumes folio. It is dedicated to Prince George of Denmark; and in this dedication the author goes quite out of the usual course of such compositions, by discoursing not panegyrically, but upon the mutual agreement among the northern languages, on their close relation to the English tongue, and on the origin of the nations from whom ours is derived. This is followed by a long preface, containing an account of the work, and a grateful remembrance of those learned persons from whom he had received assistance, particularly Bishop Nicholson, William Elstob, Dr Hopkins, prebendary of Worcester, and Edmund Gibson, the editor of Camden. The work itself is divided into two parts; the first containing three grammars and two dissertations; the other, Humphrey Wanley's catalogue of Anglo-Saxon books. The first grammar is an Anglo-Saxon and Mæso-Gothic one. In this are contained all the helps necessary to attain a knowledge of these languages; after which the Doctor considers historically the changes which have happened in this language, dwells fully upon the Saxon poetry, and illustrates every part by copious and curious specimens. The next grammar is of the Franco-Teutonic language; added to which is a small dictionary of such Italian and French words as are manifestly derived from the northern languages. The last grammar is that called the

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Islandic, by Runolphus Jonas; but the Doctor has subjoined many curious observations of his own upon the ancient Runic monuments of the Danes, &c.

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The Doctor's 'Dissertation concerning the Excellence of the Northern Languages,' was written at the request of Sir Bartholomew Shower, and is a work of astonishing labour and erudition. This is followed by Sir Andrew Fountaine's Dissertation upon the Anglo-Saxon Coins,' with ten plates of these coins. In the second book we have an accurate list of all the books and charters in any of the public libraries, either in Anglo-Saxon, or relating to Anglo-Saxon antiquities. This catalogue takes up 310 pages, and is a mass of critical, historical, and biographical knowledge. This is followed by a catalogue of northern books, sent by the learned Perinskiold from Stockholm to the Doctor; and the whole is closed by six large and useful indexes. Besides this and the other works above-mentioned, the dean published a variety of pieces in controversial and practical divinity; and, in 1726, his friend Spinckes published a volume containing thirteen practical sermons of the Doctor's, prefaced with a short vindication of his character on the score of political sincerity.

Thomas Burnet.

BORN A. D. 1635.-DIED A. D. 1715.

THOMAS BURNET was born at Croft, in Yorkshire, about the year 1635. He was educated at Christ's-college, Cambridge, where he obtained a fellowship. He made three tours on the continent in the capacity of tutor: the first with the earl of Wiltshire, the second with the duke of Bolton, and the third with Lord Ossory, through whose interest he obtained, in 1685, the mastership of the Charter-house. During the same year he took the degree of LL.D., and, shortly afterwards, rendered himself conspicuous by resisting the king's attempt to fix a Roman catholic as a pensioner on the Charter-house. By William III. he was made a royal chaplain, and clerk of the closet; but he lost these appointments, in 1692, by the publication of his Archæologia Philosophica, sive Doctrina Antiqua de Rerum Originibus,' in which he displayed such latitude of opinion as gave offence to many influential divines. He had previously produced his celebrated work, entitled, 'Telluris sacra Theoria,' which he afterwards translated into English. He was also the author of two treatises, posthumously published, ‘De Fide et Officiis Christianorum,' and 'De Statu Mortuorum et Resurgentium.' Dr Keill attacked him with considerable severity; Flamstead, the astronomer-royal, declared that he could overthrow the 'Telluris Sacra Theoria' in a few sentences; and a satirical song-writer, in a ballad on the controversy between South and Sherlock, stigmatised him as an absolute infidel. He died in September, 1715.

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