lation he himself gives it in his preface) of a different

kind.

"After his death, his library and manuscripts were sold, excepting a few sermons, which were selected by his wife's nephew, and published. These never reached a second edition, although they had the following testimony from Dr. Johnson; who, after seeing them in the Library in Lichfield Cathedral, to which they were presented by his widow, said to her, as he met her in the Close," Madam, I have been reading your late husband's sermons: they are excellent." Dr. Johnson was not singular in this opinion: several other learned gentlemen having expressed their approbation of them, in terms equally strong, if not so concise. They are written in a nervous, animated language, calculated to convince and persuade, without any affectation or pretence to rhetoric, but with a simplicity which was a prominent feature in the character of their author, It was a maxim with him, that, if a writer was clear in his ideas, be would be equally so in his expressions.

"His library, consisting of upwards of 2000 voJumes in the best preservation, was sold to Fletcher, of Oxford, for the small sum of £120, and for which no more than £100 or £105 had been offered by White and Payne; whereas 2co of his MSS. sermons, which I am certain, were never transcribed by him, but appeared in the very state in which they first flowed from pen, were disposed of (after a previous proposal) for 6co guineas. Dr. Winchester, an old acquaintance, and fellow-collegian, said, repeatedly, both before and after their sale, that the price of five guineas ought to have been put on each, when they would have been parted with as rapidly as they were for three.

his

"Dr. Horbery was, indeed, a truly amiable and excellent person, as well as a most able and sound Divine. On the Death of Dr. Jenner, President of Magdalen, he was solicited by eleven out of the thirteen (I think there are) fellows who compose the seniority, to stand for the presidentship; but he declined the flattering offer, saying, "I prefer being where I am." The election then fell upon Doctor, afterwards Bishop,

2

Horne;

Horne; who, it was said at the time, would not have presented himself if Dr. Horbery would have come forward.

"It is, scarcely, necessary to add, that, as he lived, greatly beloved, so he died, sincerely lamented by those few who had the happiness of knowing him.

"He proceeded M.A. 1733, B.D. 1743, D.D. 1745."

The following account is given of his sermons by the Monthly Reviewers, Feb. 1775.

"The discourses of this orthodox Divine are, in general, sensible, ingenious, and judicious. We have perused them with pleasure, though we may not at all times subscribe to his sentiments, or think that his argument, in every case, conveys clear and full conviction."

It must be acknowleged however, that Dr. Horbery's Sermons are entirely devoid of animation; there is in them no zeal, no pathos: they may be read in the family, or rather in the closet, with great improvement, but would be heard from the Pulpit without edification. The same remark applies to the sermons of Catcott, Conybeare, Goddard, Pearce, Peters, Powell, Scattergood and Tucker.

MR. JONES.

THE Rev. William Jones was born at Lowick, Northamptonshire, on the 30th of July, 1726. His father was a descendant of Colonel Jones-but of principles very different from those of his ancestor-who married a sister of the Usurper. William so abhorred, even while a lad, the sin of rebellion, and so dreaded the judgment of God upon it, that he used to say, his family, he feared, would never prosper in the world for the iniquity of his ancestor, who had been a principal in the murder of the Royal Martyr; but "God visiteth

"the

"the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the "third and fourth generation of them" only, "that "hate Him" not "of them that love Him and keep "His commandments."

The subject of this memoir, as soon as he was of the proper age, was admitted a scholar at the Charterhouse, where he made a rapid progress in Greek and Latin, and laid the foundation of that knowlege which has since been such a blessing to the Christian world. At about 18 years of age, he went to University College, Oxford, on a Charterhouse Exhibition.

Having taken the degree of B.A. in 1749, he was ordained a Deacon by the Bishop of Peterborough, and in 1751 ordained a priest by the Bishop of Lincoln. His first situation was that of Curate of Finedon, in Northamptonshire. There he wrote a full answer to Bishop Clayton's Essay on Spirit, which was published in 1753, and dedicated to the Rev. Sir John Dolben, to whom, as his Rector, he considers himself, he says, in some measure accountable for the use he makes of his leisure hours. And a full answer it is to all the objections urged by his Lordship, who, eating the bread of the Church, "did lift up his heel against "her."

In 1754 Mr. Jones married Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. R. Bridges, and went to reside at Wadenho, in Northamptonshire, as Curate to his brother-in-law the Rev. Brook Bridges, a gentleman of sound learning, singular piety, and amiable manners. Like Zacharias and Elizabeth, this happy couple were righteous before God, he in the care of the parish, and she co-operating with him in all his designs for the good of the people committed to his charge.

Here he drew up the Catholic Doctrine of the Trinity. To the Third Edition, 1767, was added, A Letter to the Common People, in Answer to some popular Arguments against the Trinity. The Society for promoting Christian Knowlege has since, laudably, admitted it into their list of books, and from the general distribution of it, there can be little doubt of its producing great and good effects.

.

In 1766 he published An Essay on the first Principles of Natural Philosophy; and in 1781, a larger work, under the title of Physiological Disquisitions, or Discourses on the Natural Philosophy of the Elements.

In the year 1764, Archbishop Secker presented him first to the Vicarage of Bethersden, in Kent, and soon after to the Rectory of Pluckley. He took his wife, his two children, and all his substance, which was not much-my master, Jones, said an old servant of his, minds money no more than the dirt in the street-and went to the place which the Providence of God had allotted for him. But the living being less valuable than was expected, he took a few pupils. Happy it was for those who were to have the benefit of his instructions.

In 1773, Mr. Jones collected into a volume Disquisitions on some select subjects of Scripture, which had been before printed in separate tracts-all in the highest degree instructive and edifying.

After twelve year's residence at Pluckley, he accepted the perpetual Curacy of Nayland, in Suffolk, and soon after exchanged Pluckley for Paston, in Northamptonshire. To Archbishop Secker he was first known only as the Author of the Catholic Doctrine of the Trinity-from Archbishop Moore, he received most unequivocal proofs of friendship, independent of the sinecure Rectory of Hollingbourne, and very valuable Living of Lackington, given to Mr. Jones's son in the life-time of his father.

After the example of his Blessed Master, he was ever anxious to receive little children under his care, and "train them up in the way wherein they should go." In the exercise of this branch of his pastoral office, he took peculiar pleasure. He taught them privately at his own house, and publicly in the Church; and his catechetical lectures, adapted to the capacities of children, were admirably calculated for the edification of those of riper years. Having observed the many evil consequences of non-conformity, he was particularly careful to instruct his young pupils in the nature of the Church, and convince them betimes of the heinousness of the sin of schism.

By the advice of his learned and judicious friend

Bishop Horne now become his diocesan, to whose opinion he, always, paid the greatest deference, he put forth in the year 1790 two volumes of sermons on moral and religious subjects. He gave being to the British Critic, and he published in two volumes The Scholar Armed against the Errors of the Times. His Scholar Armed is a judicious well-digested collection of invaluable tracts, intended for the information and assistance of young students, and ought to be in the hands of every one.

When the democratical and levelling principles were spreading with so much rapidity, he wrote the Letter of Thomas Bull to his Brother John, which was disseminated throughout the kingdom: it came home to men's bosoms and business, and was, indeed, a word in season. Notice was taken of it in the House of Commons, and the author was bitterly inveighed against by the great popular orator, once the man of the people.

In 1793, he published in four numbers, The grand Analogy, or the Testimony of Nature and Heathen Antiquity to the Truth of a Trinity in Unity, and inscribed them to Bishop Horsley, as no less profoundly skilled in every branch of human learning, than well affected to every doctrine of the Christian Faith.

On the death of Bishop Horne in 1792, this his afflicted Chaplain, out of dutiful and affectionate regard to the memory of the venerable prelate, his dear friend and patron, undertook the task, the painful task, of writing his life. It was published in 1795, and the second edition in 1799. A gentleman writing to a friend on reading it, said It is executed with more skill, more talent, more address, and more feeling than ⚫ can be described; and if there was only one HORNE, it may, really, be said, there was only one JONES fit to paint his picture.'

The life of a private country Clergyman is not expected to abound with incidents. Happy the unifor mity when it consists in doing good! Such was that of the minister of Nayland, who to all his other knowlege, added the knowlege of medicine, to the benefit and comfort of his people, "the sheep of his pasture."

As