which might become vacant; for which an Act of Parliament was obtained, and still continues in force. It is stated that a sermon preached before the Queen, on 30th January, 1705, offended certain persons in power, who prevailed on the Queen, (contrary to her inclination) not to recommend him to the Bishopric of Lincoln, when vacant by the decease of Dr. James Gardiner; in consequence of which Dr. W. Wake, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, was appointed. His reply to a nobleman, who told him he had lost a Bishopric by his preaching, was to this effect, that he was not at all concerned, "because his intention was, never to gain one by preaching." On the death of Bishop Stratford, A.D. 1707, her Majesty carried her wishes into effect; and Sir W. Dawes, on the 8th of February, 1707-8, was consecrated, at Henry the VII.'s Chapel, at Westminster, to the see of Chester, in the province of York, by Dr. John Sharp, Archbishop of York; assisted by Sir Jonathan Trelawney, Bishop of Winchester; Dr. Thomas Sprat, of Rochester; and Dr. William Nicholson, of Carlisle.(Chester Register). On the 9th of March, 1713-4, he was translated to the See of York, at the desire of Archbishop Sharp, who had urgently recommended him as his successor. After his translation, on the 4th of April, he consecrated his own successor in the See of Chester, Dr. Francis Gastrell, in the chapel of Somerset House, assisted by Philip Bisse, Bishop of Hereford, and Adam Otley, of St. David's. (York Register.). This was the ony consecration in which he ever officiated. Although generally enjoying good health, he was subject, when on his active duties, to severe colds, accompanied with diarrhoea, which he was generally able to subdue by an alteration in his diet. In his last sickness, however, the disorder, being too long neglected, was followed by inflammation of the bowels, which on April 30th, 1724, at the somewhat early age of 53," put a period to his life, and deprived the world of as kind a friend, as generous a patron, as devout a Christian, as laborious a prelate, as fine a gentleman, and as worthy a patriot, as ever Church or nation had to boast of." He was buried by his lady in the chapel of Catherine-hall, in Cambridge. His character as a scholar, prelate, and peer, and as a man, a friend, and relative, is described to have been exemplary; his person tall, proportionable, and prepossessing; his behaviour courteous and considerate to all men. After his death his whole works appeared in three volumes, 8vo., with a preface and life. They contain the works already named, and also sermons preached on several occasions before King William and Queen Anne, the House of Lords, &c. ; besides the Rev. W. Milner's sermon, at his consecration to Chester. We find among his sermons one on 2 Tim. iii.,— Self-love the great cause of bad times; on Eccl. vii., 11, 12,-The excellency of wisdom, especially to persons of quality and estate; On Psalm cxxix.,-The continual plots of the Romanists against the Church and government of England, ever since the reformation; and one of the earliest preached before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (1708), on Acts, xxii. 21. His sermons are plain and unaffected, adapted to every common comprehension; but it is said that his excellent delivery, and his exemplary character, rendered him one of the most effective preachers of his time. FRANCIS GASTRELL, Whose consecration to Chester by Archbishop Dawes we have recorded, was born about 1662, at Slapton, in Northamptonshire; and being on the foundation at Westminster, was elected to Christ Church, of which he became a student in 1680; M.A. in 1687; and B.D. 1694, in which year he was made preacher to the Hon. Society of Lincoln's-inn. He preached the Boyle's Lectures in 1697, on the certainty and necessity of religion in general, and published them in that year as one continued discourse. He then prepared a second part, on the certainty of the Christian revelation, which he published in 1799. Robert Harley, Speaker of the House of Commons, made him his Chaplain; he became D.D. 1700; and, in 1702, Canon of Christ Church, in which year he published his Considerations on the Trinity, reprinted in the Enchiridion Theologicum. In 1707 he published his Christian Institutes, or the sincere word of God, collected and digested under proper heads, in the very words of Scripture. This has been frequently reprinted by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; and an abridgment of it, under the title of The Faith and Duty of a Christian, is extensively used, as a very useful class book, in our National and Sunday schools. In the same year he preached the sermon at the anniversary meeting of the charity schools, in which he drew a contrast between such institutions and popish monasteries. He wrote also in vindication of his work on the Trinity against the Freethinker Collins; and also some remarks upon the Scripture doctrine of the Trinity, by the Arian Dr. Samuel Clarke, who acknowledged the merit of his opponent's work. His elevation to the See of Chester, in 1714, is noticed above. He seems to have found as much disfavour from the administration under George I. as he had the favour of that under Queen Anne, and, as some suppose, in consequence of it. He alone of all the Bishops spoke, and that earnestly and severely, against the bill for inflicting pains and penalties on Bishop Atterbury; though he was no admirer of his haughty temper, and had opposed his arbitrary measures when Dean of Christ Church. He lived but few years after Atterbury's banishment: and died Nov. 24th, 1725, at his lodgings in Christ Church; his canonry in which cathedral and college he held in commendam. He was succeeded in his See by Dr. Samuel Peploe, respecting whom, when appointed Warden of Manchester by George I., he had a contest with the Archbishop of Canterbury, who had exercised his Metropolitical privilege of creating Mr. Peploe a Bachelor in Divinity, without which degree he could not hold the office: the Bishop contending that a degree so obtained did not qualify him. The courts of law, however, gave it in Mr. Peploe's favour. The Bishop published a vindication of his proceedings, and was rewarded by the thanks of the University of Oxford, "for having so fully asserted the rights, privileges, and dignities of the University degrees in his book." NOTICE OF PROFESSOR HEY, D.D. Written by his Brother Richard, and published in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1815; and prefixed also to the last edition of his Lectures, by Dean Turton. DIED March 17, 1815, JOHN HEY, D.D., aged 80. He was born in July, 1734. In 1751, he was admitted of Catharine Hall, in the University of Cambridge; and he continued a member of that College till 1758, when he removed to a Fellowship in Sidney Sussex College; of which College he continued a member till he quitted the University in 1795. He took the following degrees: B.A. in January, 1755, of Catharine Hall; M.A. in 1758, of Sidney; B.D. in 1765; D.D. in 1780. But in 1775 he performed his exercise for his Doctor's degree, in which he gave an instance of that mode of disputation which is not usual, and is called a public act. He was a tutor of Sidney College from 1760 to 1779, and was one of the preachers of his Majesty's Chapel, at Whitehall. His Fellowship in Sidney College became vacant by his accepting from Lord Maynard the Rectory of Passenham, in Northamptonshire, near Stoney Stratford. Not long afterwards, he obtained the adjoining Rectory of Calverton, by exchange, for a distant living offered to him by the late Earl of Clarendon, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. On these two livings he bestowed assiduous pastoral care; the small extent of the whole, and the thin population, enabling him to attend to every distinct. family in both parishes. From the time of his obtaining Passenham till about five months before his death, his ordinary residence was there; except the time which the duties of his Professorship required him to spend at Cambridge. In 1780, he was elected the first Norrisian Professor of Divinity in the University. In 1785, and again in 1790, the Professorship became vacant by the will of Mr. Norris, the founder, and he was each time re-elected. In 1795, he ceased to be Professor, being too old by the will to be re-elected, and having declined to vacate the Professorship in 1794, in order to be re-elected within the prescribed age. When tutor in Sidney College, he gave lectures in Morality; which were attended by several persons voluntarily (amongst whom were the late Mr. Pitt, and other persons of rank), besides those pupils whose attendance was required. These lectures have not been printed. His lectures in Divinity are before the public; having been printed at the University press in 1796-1798, and published in four volumes octavo. He also published seven Sermons at different times; and a poem on the Redemption, which gained Seaton's Prize in the University, in 1763; and Discourses on the Malevolent Sentiments, in one volume, in 1801. And in 1811, he printed, without publishing, General Observations on the Writings of St. Paul. In 1814, he divested himself of the whole of his ecclesiastical preferments, which was merely the two livings mentioned above. And he removed to London, in October, having resigned Calverton at Lady-day and Passenham on the 10th of October. From that time he continued in London to his death; growing feeble in body, till, without painful disease, he sunk under that feebleness; retaining to the last a soundness of mind, and giving to every business that came before him a remarkable degree of that persevering attention which had evidently been, with him, a matter of strict duty through a long course of years. Had a mitre been placed on his head (which was, at least once, from good authority, understood to be highly probable), he appears likely to have discharged the duties imposed by it with the same steady and principled perseverance. He is buried in the burying-ground of St. John's Chapel, St. John'swood, in the parish of Marylebone, in which parish he died, CHURCH HISTORY FROM THE BEGINNING; OR, A REVIEW OF THE NO. VI. THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD AND THE COVENANT WITH NOAH. We have shown, in our last paper, how a future victory over their spiritual adversary, and over death the last enemy, was announced to our first parents; how the fear of immediate vengeance was replaced by the hope of present mercy, and final salvation; and how that hope would derive confirmation and strength from the succeeding events which are recorded. In proceeding to offer some further remarks on the state of God's Church during the Adamic or Antediluvian dispensation, it is obvious to remark, that the brevity of the Scripture history of the early ages does not enable us to form a very specific or detailed description of the state of religion. It is evident, nevertheless, from the tenor of the narrative, that divine communications, which appear to have been almost necessary in the circumstances of the times, were frequently made; and from them God's servants probably derived a more extensive acquaintance with their duties and hopes, than we have any positive authority for ascribing to them. We can collect, from several passages, which seem to be consistent only with such inferences, the divine institution of sacrifices, their design and nature, and the acceptable manner in which they were to be offered the observance of the Sabbath, and of public worship. But it was not necessary that the introductory book of Moses, called Genesis, should be swelled, beyond its present magnitude, by details of such points of doctrine and duty, as were more largely explained in the remaining books of the Pentateuch, in a manner more suited to the age in which Moses wrote. We can always discover with sufficient clearness, that an adequate portion of knowledge had been given under each dispensation; that it was corrupted or forgotten by sinful man; and then restored, with additional clearness and security, under a following dispensation. Succeeding books of Scripture frequently supply additional hints, by which to illustrate the state of things in the earlier periods. : The seeds of evil sown by the wicked one, the first tempter of mankind, soon began to produce their deadly fruit. Cain, the first-born of Adam, was of that wicked one, and slew his brother," because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous." The signal punishment of Cain does not seem to have effected his reformation; he seems to have " gone out from the presence of the Lord," and to have forsaken the observance of religious ordinances required by the Lord, and the place blessed by God's worship and presence. His posterity followed the example of his apostacy from the revealed doctrines of redeeming mercy, and from the commemoration of them in animal sacrifice; and in consequence followed their own devices and desires, forgetting alike their sinfulness, and the promises of deliverance from it. The pious family of Seth adopted the precaution of avoiding connection with Cain's wicked descendants; and to distinguish. themselves more effectually as the faithful members of his church, and to guard against the danger of union with others, began, as the marginal rendering of Gen. iv. 26, expresses it, "to call themselves by the name of the LORD." The danger, and the precaution against it, took place in the time of Enos, the second from Adam. Progressive, though gradual, were the advances of that corruption of the Antediluvian revealed faith, which at length was all but universal. The descendants of Cain seem to have been distinguished by their irreligious character, as decidedly as by their ingenuity as artificers. The family of Seth, however, long maintained the pure knowledge and worship of God, till at length, by intermarriages with the fair daughters of an apostate race, they imbibed their wicked principles. "The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.-And the Lord said, my spirit shall not always strive with man.' Having mentioned Tubal-Cain, the sixth in the line of Cain, the historian remarks," and the sister of Tubal-Cain was Naamah." (Gen. iv. 22.) It is conjectured that, by this remark, he meant to signify the period at which the fatal intermarriages began; since no other female is mentioned in this manner, and her name signifies "fair." This certainly agrees with the tradition, that the mixture of the two families began in the time of Jared, who was the father of the pious Enoch, the seventh from Adam, who, in these days of increasing licentiousness, seems to have "reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and a judgment to come;" for of him St. Jude declares, that he "prophesied, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh, with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodlily committed, and of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him." It is probable that in this he immediately referred to the approaching visitation of the world. of the ungodly by the universal deluge.. It is certain, however, that he referred to this in the name given to his son; "for the word Methuselah imports" (as Dr. Henry Owen observes) "that, when the person so called was dead, there should ensue an inundation of waters. And so exactly did the event correspond with his name, that, in the very year he died, the earth was overwhelmed by the deluge.' The prediction of a circumstance, connected at least with the deluge, by Lamech the son of Methuselah, is related in a more express manner; and the fulfilment of his prediction we shall have to consider immediately. "Lamech lived an hundred and eighty-two years, and begat a son. And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed."+ "'* The corruption of man, at a time much later than this, is described by the sacred historian, in connection with the long suffering of God, and the means used to reclaim mankind, which we may suppose to have been for a time extensively, though not universally, effectual: "The Lord said, my spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh," i.e. * Dr. H. Owen's Boyle's Lecture Sermons on the intent and propriety of the Scripture Miracles, Sermon VI. † Genesis, v. 28, 29. |