GOD, our Neighbour, and Our Selves, which refults from the Nature and Relations of Things: and this He has done in the plainest and most intelligible Manner.

IN the Caufe of Christianity He labour'd as fincerely; and, with the fame Clearness and Strength, produced and illuftrated All the Evidences peculiar to It: not indeed, confidering It, as it has been taught in the Schools or Difcourfes of Modern Ages; but as it lies in the New Teftament itself.

AND throughout All this, As his First Principle was the Unity of GOD, which He esteemed the Only Guard against Idolatry, as well as the Bafis of All Moral Obedience; fo, next to This, Nothing Seem'd to be more ftrong within Him, than his Inclination to fettle the True Notions of Neceffity and Liberty in what is called Action. This He has done in a very convincing Manner, and at the same time demonftrated, beyond all reafonable doubt, That Freedom of Action in Man, which only can make Him at all Accountable to his Creator, as a Judge of his Behaviour. Such was the Course He ran, in the Caufe of That Religion,

which alone can be ftyled worthy of GOD to propose, or of Man to embrace !

IN Natural Philofophy, and the Mathematical Knowledge neceffary to It, amidst All his other Employments, He excelled, as if Thefe had been his Darling Study. Not that He could poffibly find Time Himself to make all the proper Experiments, or neceffary Calculations. But He had I know not what happiness of Genius, by which he immediately comprehended what coft Others a great deal of Pains; and fuch a Faculty of judging of any New Systems, or Propofitions, from what He knew certainly before; and these supported by a Memory which hardly ever failed Him upon these Subjects; That He was esteemed, by the Knowers, to be One of the Beft Judges, to apply to, for a Quick Determination about the Force or Failure of any Arguments, or appearing Demonftrations, in these Studies.

HIS Critical Skill in the learned Languages was like the Gift of Nature; fo ftrong and so easy in Him, that it appeared plainly, to what a Wide Extent This would have gone, had not his Other Affairs

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Affairs and Studies put a neceffary Stop to what He was fo exquifitely framed for. Great as the Impediments were; We See, His Memory and his Judgment in this part of Learning were fo Strong and Powerful, that They fhone through them all in a few Inftances; and thefe fufficient to make All Men of Letters wifh that He could have spent more of his Time this way. It is for his honour to obferve That he made this Critical Skill fubfervient to the Caufe of Religion, as well as Polite Learning; and gave a Noble Specimen of applying it to the difcovery of the True Meaning of Words and Phrases used in the Sacred Writings : without which, We do but wander in the dark, when We pretend to fpeak upon many of the Subjects contained in those Books.

As much as I have faid already of his Excellencies in Learning; There is ftill One behind, which was (I had almoft faid) ftrictly peculiar to Him: I mean The manner of his handling Subjects of a Metaphyfical and Abstract Nature. In this Skill, He had a Superiority fo vifible; that, I think, the Greatest Masters of it

ought

ought to yield it up to Him. This Superiority appeared by his fhewing that He had always clear and diftinct Ideas; by clothing them with plain and Intelligible Words; by going no farther than these Ideas and Words could go together; and by arguing as closely upon the abstrusest Points which He pretended to understand, as is ufual in Mathematical Deductions themselves,

IF in Any One of thefe Many Branches of Knowledge and Learning He had excelled only fo much, as He did in All; This alone would have justly intitled Him to the Name of a Great Man. But there is fomething fo very extraordinary, that the fame Perfon fhould excel, not only in those Parts of Knowledge which require the Strongest Judgment, but in Those which want the help of the Strongeft Memory alfo; and It is fo feldom Seen, That One, who is a Great Mafter in Theology, is at the fame time skilfully fond of all Critical and Claffical Learning; or Excellent in the Phyfical and Mathematical Studies; or well framed for Metaphyfical and Abstract Reasonings: That it ought to be remarked, in how particular a Man

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a Manner, and to how high a degree, Divinity and Mathematics, Experimental Philofophy and Claffical Learning, Metaphyfics and Critical Skill, All of them, (Various and different as They are amongst Themfelves,) united in Dr Clarke.

THIS way of fpeaking of Him, with regard to All these, may Sound fo high; that Many perhaps who were Strangers to Him, and to His Real Excellencies, may think, I have faid too much. But I am confident, (and this is my Satisfaction) That In All that I have faid upon these Subjects, I have the Confent and Testimony of Many of the most Judicious and Learned Men, of All Denominations amongst Us; as well Thofe who did not come into All his Sentiments, as Thofe who did.

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HIS Preaching was what One would naturally expect from a Perfon of fo Critical a Genius, and fo fedate a Judgment. The Defign and Tendency of it was not to move the Paffions: nor had He any Talent this way. He wifely never attempted it, becaufe He was fenfible. He fhould not fucceed if He did. And if This was a Defect; it was a Defect