'Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity,' and half-a-sheet of arguments, in manuscript, from the pen of Dr Law.

At no distant date from his first settlement he commenced his labours as an author, and, as would be natural to expect, was soon drawn into the field of controversy. A translation of Erasmus's preface to his paraphrase of Matthew was made at his request, and one of his first publications was a discourse prefixed to this translation. The tendency of this discourse was rather practical than controversial, and was chiefly designed as a preservative against the influence of popery, and an encouragement to study the scriptures. The two or three succeeding pieces which he published were chiefly aimed at the abuses of church power, faults of discipline, and errors of systematic forms of worship and faith. His next subject of controversy was the intermediate state of the soul. Bishop Law, in the appendix to his Theory of Religion,' had defended the doctrine of the unconscious being of the soul between death and the resurrection. This appendix was attacked with vehemence. Blackburne defended it, and attempted to show, that the scriptures afford no proof of an intermediate state of happiness or misery. The controversy was protracted, and Blackburne came forward several times to meet the arguments of his opponents. In the progress of the discussion, he published remarks on certain passages in Warburton's Divine Legation,' and on the account given by that writer of the opinions of the Jews concerning the soul. He at last wrote a historical view of the whole controversy.

But the work which has gained him greater celebrity than any other is The Confessional; or a full and free Inquiry into the Right, Utility, Edification, and Success of establishing systematical Confessions of Faith and Doctrine in Protestant Churches.' This was published in 1766, and passed through three editions in four years. Its object is well-expressed in the title. This work was the beginning of a controversy which sent many publications into the world, and did not terminate for several years. The following is the language of the author in his preface to the second edition: "The favourable reception which "The Confessional' hath met with from the public, though it will not be admitted as an argument of the merit of the book, is undeniably an argument of something of much more consequence. It is an argument that the love of religious liberty is still warm and vigorous in the hearts of a considerable number of the good people of England, notwithstanding the desponding apprehensions of some good men, that these stiflers had well nigh succeeded in their unrighteous attempt. The Confessional' hath likewise had the good fortune to make another valuable discovery, namely, that encroachments on religious liberty in protestant communities, by whatever specious pretences they are introduced, can never be defended upon protestant principles."

About the same time that 'The Confessional' was published a vacancy happened in the congregation of dissenters at the Old Jewry, London, by the death of their pastor, Dr Chandler. From the sentiments which Blackburne was known to entertain, it was thought by some persons that he might be induced to leave the established church and accept an invitation to take charge of this society. The proposal was encouraged by some of the friends of the archdeacon, and he was consulted; but he declined the offer.

Blackburne's opposition to the established church, and his continuance in it, have been considered an anomaly not easily to be explained. He died on the 7th of August, 1787, in the eighty-third year of his age. His works were collected and published by his son in seven volumes.

Bishop Law.

BORN A. D. 1703.-DIED A. D. 1787.

THIS prelate was born in the parish of Cartmel, Lancashire, in 1703. His father, who was a clergyman, held a small chapel in that neighbourhood, but the family had been situated at Askham in the county of Westmoreland. He was educated for some time at Cartmel school, afterwards at the free grammar-school at Kendal; from which he went, very well-instructed in the learning of grammar-schools, to St John's, Cambridge. He took his bachelor's degree in 1723, and soon after was elected fellow of Christ's college in that university, where he took his master's degree in 1727.

During his residence here, he became known to the public by a translation of Archbishop King's Essay upon the Origin of Evil,' with copious notes; in which many metaphysical subjects, curious and interesting in their own nature, are treated of with great ingenuity, learning, and novelty. To this work was prefixed, under the name of a 'Preliminary Dissertation,' a very valuable piece written by Mr Gay of Sidney college. Our bishop always spoke of this gentleman in terms of the greatest respect. "In the Bible, and in the writings of Locke, no man," he used to say, was so well-versed." Mr Law also, whilst at Christ's college, undertook and went through a very laborious part, in preparing for the press an edition of Stephens's Thesaurus.' His acquaintance, during his first residence in the university, was principally with Dr Waterland, the learned master of Magdalen college; Dr Jortin, a name known to every scholar; and Dr Taylor, the editor of Demosthenes.

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In 1737 he was presented by the university to the living of Graystock, in the county of Cumberland, a rectory of about £300 a-year. The advowson of this benefice belonged to the family of Howards of Graystock, but devolved to the university for this turn, by virtue of an act of parliament which transfers to these two bodies the nomination to such benefices as appertain, at the time of the vacancy, to the patronage of a Roman catholic. The right, however, of the university was contested, and it was not until after a lawsuit of two years' continuance, that Mr Law was settled in his living. Soon after this he married Mary, the daughter of John Christian, Esq. of Unerigg, in the county of Cumberland. In 1743 he was promoted by Sir George Fleming, bishop of Carlisle, to the archdeaconry of that diocese; and in 1746 went from Graystock to settle at Salkeld, a pleasant village upon the banks of the river Eden, the rectory of which is annexed to the archdeaconry. But he was not one of those who lose and forget themselves in the country. During his residence at Salkeld, he published Considerations on the Theory of Religion;' to which were subjoined 'Re

flections on the Life and Character of Christ;' and an appendix concerning the use of the words soul and spirit in the Holy Scripture, and the state of the dead there described.

Dr Keene held at this time with the bishopric of Chester the mastership of Peterhouse, in Cambridge. Desiring to leave the university, he procured Dr Law to be elected to succeed him in that station. This took place in 1756, in which year Dr Law resigned his archdeaconry in favour of Mr Eyre, a brother-in-law of Dr Keene. Two years before this the list of graduates says 1749-he had proceeded to his degree of D.D., in his public exercise for which he defended the doctrine of what is usually called 'the sleep of the soul.' About 1760 he was appointed head-librarian of the university; a situation which, as it procured an easy and quick access to books, was peculiarly agreeable to his taste and habits. Some time after this he was appointed casuistical professor. In 1762 he suffered an irreparable loss by the death of his wife; a loss in itself every way afflicting, and rendered more so by the situation of his family, which then consisted of eleven children, many of them very young. Some years afterwards he received several preferments, which were rather honourable expressions of regard from his friends than of much advantage to his fortune. By Dr Cornwallis, then bishop of Lichfield, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, who had been his pupil at Christ college, he was, appointed to the archdeaconry of Staffordshire, and to a prebend in the church of Lichfield, and by his old acquaintance Dr Green, bishop of Lincoln, he was made a prebendary of that church. But in 1767, by the intervention of the duke of Newcastle-to whose interest, in the memorable contest for the high stewardship of the university, he had adhered in opposition to some temptations-he obtained a stall in the church of Durham. The year after this the duke of Grafton, who had a short time before been elected chancellor of the university, recommended the master of Peterhouse to his majesty for the bishopric of Carlisle. This recommendation was made, not only without solicitation on his part, or that of his friends, but without his knowledge, until the duke's intention in his favour was signified to him by the archbishop.

In or about 1777, our bishop gave to the public a handsome edition, in 3 vols. 4to. of the works of Mr Locke, with a life of the author and a preface. Mr Locke's writings and character he held in the highest esteem, and seems to have drawn from them many of his own principles; he was a disciple of that school. About the same time he published a tract which engaged some attention in the controversy concerning subscription, and new editions of his two principal works, with considerable additions, and some alterations. Besides the works already mentioned, he published, in 1734 or 1735, a very ingenious 'Inquiry into the Ideas of Space, Time,' &c. in which he combats the opinions of Dr Clarke and his adherents on these subjects.

Dr Law held the see of Carlisle almost nineteen years; during which time he only twice omitted spending the summer-months in his diocese at the bishop's residence at Rose Castle,-a situation with which he was much pleased, not only on account of the natural beauty of the place. but because it restored him to the country, in which he had spent the best part of his life. In 1787 he paid this visit in a state of great weakness and exhaustion; and died at Rose about a month after his

arrival there, on August 14th, and in the eighty-fourth year of his age.

The life of Dr Law was a life of incessant reading and thought, almost entirely directed to metaphysical and religious inquiries; but the tenet by which his name and writings are principally distinguished, is, “that Jesus Christ, at his second coming, will, by an act of his power, restore to life and consciousness the dead of the human species; who by their own nature, and without this interposition, would remain in the state of insensibility to which the death brought upon mankind by the sin of Adam had reduced them." He interpreted literally that saying of St Paul, 1 Cor. xv. 21. "As by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead." This opinion, Dr Paley says, had no other effect upon his own mind than to increase his reverence for Christianity and for its divine founder. He retained it, as he did his other speculative opinions, without laying an extravagant stress upon its importance, and without pretending to more certainty than the subject allowed of. No man formed his own conclusions with more freedom, or treated those of others with greater candour and equity. He never quarrelled with any person for differing from him, or considered that difference as a sufficient reason for questioning any man's sincerity, or judging meanly of his understanding. He was zealously attached to religious liberty, because he thought that it leads to truth; yet from his heart he loved peace. But he did not perceive any repugnancy in these two things. There was nothing in his elevation to his bishopric which he spoke of with more pleasure, than its being a proof that decent freedom of inquiry was not discouraged. He was a man of great softness of manners, and of the mildest and most tranquil disposition. His voice was never raised above its ordinary pitch. His countenance seemed never to have been ruffled; it preserved the same kind and composed aspect, truly indicating the calmness and benignity of his temper. He had an utter dislike of large and mixed companies. Next to his books, his chief satisfaction was in the serious conversation of a literary companion, or in the company of a few friends. In this sort of society he would open his mind with great unreservedness, and with a peculiar turn and sprightliness of expression. His person was low, but wellformed; his complexion fair and delicate. Except occasional interruptions by the gout, he had for the greatest part of his life enjoyed good health; and when not confined by that distemper, was full of motion and activity. About nine years before his death, he was greatly enfeebled by a severe attack of the gout, and in a short time after that, lost the use of one of his legs. Notwithstanding his fondness for exercise, he resigned himself to this change, not only without complaint, but without any sensible diminution of his cheerfulness and good humour. His fault was the general fault of retired and studious characters, too great a degree of inaction and facility in his public station. Bishop Law was interred in the cathedral of Carlisle, in which a handsome monument is erected to his memory.1

Life by Dr Paley, written for Hutchinson's History of Durham.'

Hugh Farmer.

BORN A. D. 1714.—died a. d. 1787.,

THIS learned dissenting divine was born in the neighbourhood of Shrewsbury, in the year 1714. He early devoted himself to the ministry, and was educated under Dr Owen of Warrington and Dr Doddridge. He undertook the charge of a congregation in London, and for a time maintained considerable reputation as a preacher. In 1761 he published an essay, entitled An Enquiry into the Nature and Design of Christ's Temptation in the Wilderness,' the general intention of which is to show that this part of the evangelical history was only a divine vision premonitory of the labours and offices of our Lord in his future ministry. In 1771 he published a Dissertation on Miracles, designed to show that they are arguments of a Divine interposition.' In 1775 he published an Essay on the Demoniacs of the New Testament.' His last work appeared in 1783, and was entitled The general prevalence of the worship of human spirits in the ancient Heathen nations asserted and proved.' These publications, particularly the two former, involved their author in considerable controversy. They prove their author to have been an original, and sometimes a profound thinker; but they contain views of scriptural doctrine greatly at variance with generally received opinions.

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Samuel Badcock.

BORN A. D. 1747.-DIED A. D. 1788.

THIS dissenting minister of distinguished learning and ability, was born at South Molton, Devonshire, in the year 1747. His father was a respectable butcher. His friends being dissenters, he was brought up to their profession, and received a grammar education in his native town. Evincing at an early period a predilection for the ministry, and a propensity to study, he was placed in the dissenting academy, then conducted at Ottery-St-Mary, Devon; and subsequently at another academy kept for the education of the dissenting ministry at Taunton. On completing his studies, he was ordained over an Independent congregation at Beer-Regis in Dorsetshire. He continued here about one year, and removed in 1767 to a larger congregation at Barnstaple. While at Barnstaple he met with some of Dr Priestley's writings, with which at first he was so much fascinated, that he visited the doctor at Calne in Wiltshire, and commenced an intimacy and a correspondence with him. However at first Mr Badcock may have been struck with the apparent learning of Dr Priestley and the boldness of his theories, their true sources did not long remain concealed from his acute and penetrating mind, as will appear in the sequel. After continuing about nine or ten years at Barnstaple, some charges were raised against his character, which he is said to have satisfactorily repelled. However, he quitted the place, and removed to South Molton to take charge of a much smaller