be traced much higher than the Reformation,* would show that from the beginning of the seventeenth century it had been infected by as false a taste as that which caused or accompanied the corruption of the Roman eloquence after the age of Seneca.

* The reign of Henry VIII. produced two very learned divines, Fisher Bishop of Rochester, and Colet Dean of St. Paul's; the former of whom has left a few sermons, and the latter a single one, respectable at least for their stile and arrangement. Those of Latimer are defective in dignity and elegance; his frank remonstrances to persons of the highest station being delivered in expressions of peculiar quaintness, and intermixed with frequent stories unsuitable to the solemnity of the occasion. The Homilies,' drawn up under Edward VI., are to be considered as a condescension to the capacities of the common people. In the long reign of Elizabeth, appeared several preachers, who did honour to it: Jewel, Bishop of Salisbury; Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury; Sandys, Archbishop of York (whose sermons are, perhaps, superior to those of any of his contemporaries) and Hooker, author of the Ecclesiastical Polity. But the great corruption of pulpit-oratory may be ascribed to Dr. Andrews, successively Bishop of Chichester, Ely, and Winchester. The pedantry of the court under James I. completed the degeneracy of true eloquence; nor has all the wit and learning of Donne been able to secure his discourses from neglect. Those, likewise, of Hales of Eton are scarcely ever read by the most zealous admirers of his other writings and Bishop Hall of Exeter sinks extremely below himself in this species of composition. Sanderson, who subsequently filled the see of Lincoln in the beginning of the reign of Charles I., furnished an example of more easy and natural expression, and an improved propriety of argument: and the few remaining discourses of Chillingworth are not unworthy of his character. But the volume of Dr. Jeremy Taylor, who began to distinguish himself about the period of that prince's death, deserves much higher commendation for the copiousness of his invention, and the crowded yet clear and luminous galaxies of imagery' (as they have emphatically been denominated) which diffuse themselves over all his faults.

VOL. IV.

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Mr. Tillotson began his course of divinity with the true foundation of it, an exact study of the Scriptures, upon which he spent four or five years. He then applied himself to the reading of all the ancient philosophers upon ethics, and among the fathers, chiefly to St. Basil and St. Chrysostom. His joining with Dr. Wilkins in perfecting the scheme of a Real Character and Philosophical Language,' the Essay toward which was published in 1668, led him to consider more exactly the nature and proprieties of stile, in which no man knew better the art of uniting dignity with simplicity. He said what was absolutely nccessary to give clear ideas of things, and he said no more. His sentences were short and clear; and the whole composition was of a piece, plain and distinct. No affectations of learning, no torturing of texts, no superficial strains, no false thoughts, no bold flights: all was solid, yet lively, and grave as well as elegant. He read his sermons, likewise, with such due pronunciation, and in so serious a manner, that far from being enfeebled they derived grace and energy from his recitation. He was never capable, indeed, of committing them to memory, or of preaching extempore (according to the custom which prevailed during his earlier life) though so great a master of language, and so perfectly versed in the whole compass of theological learning.*

*Happening (says Birch) to be with a friend in the country, who was importunate with him to preach though he was not furnished with a sermon, Tillotson ventured into the pulpit, where he took for his text one of the plainest and fullest of matter which he could recollect, For we must all appear before the judgement-seat of Christ; upon which, he has no less than five

His first appointment, after the Restoration, was the curacy of Cheshunt in Hertfordshire. Here he is said by his gentleness and eloquence to have induced an Oliverian soldier, who preached among the Anabaptists in that town in a red coat with great popularity, to betake himself to some other employment.

The short distance of Cheshunt allowing him frequent opportunities of visiting his friends in the capital, he was often invited into the London pul pits; and in December, 1662, he was elected Minister of the Parish of St. Mary, Aldermanbury, by the parishioners. Of this, indeed, he declined the acceptance; but in June, 1663, he accepted the Rectory of Ketton (or Keddington) in Suffolk, worth two hundred pounds per ann. Shortly afterward, he was called to London by the Society of Lincoln's Inn, as their Preacher. Upon this invitation, he de termined to settle in the metropolis; and though, in the interval of the terms, he could have given a large proportion of his time to his rustic parishioners, so strict was he in the point of residence, that he resigned his Suffolk rectory, even when his income in London was scarcely competent to his support. The reputation which he gained by his discourses in his new and very conspicuous station recommended him,

discourses in his works. And yet he was soon so much at a loss, that after about ten minutes spent with great pain to himself, and no great satisfaction to his audience, he came down resolved never to make the like attempt for the future. The same kind of confusion, it may be added, happened to Bishop Sanderson, who was equally remarkable for an excellent memory, and a clear and logical head; when, at the persuasion of his friend Dr. Hammond, he left his sermon with him, and endeavoured to repeat it to a village-congregation.'

the year following, to the Trustees of the Tuesday Lecture at St. Lawrence Jewry, founded by Elizabeth Viscountess Camden. Here he was usually attended by a numerous audience, brought together from the remotest parts of the metropolis, including many of the clergy. In this pulpit, he particularly distinguished himself by opposing the growing evils of the day, Socinianism* and Popery: and in 1664 one Smith, who had deserted the Church of England for the Romish communion, having published a book of high character among the Papists, called Sure Footing in Christianity, or rational Discourses on the Rule of Faith,' he refuted it in a piece entitled The Rule of Faith,' printed in 1666 and inscribed to Dr. Stillingfleet.

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To this, Smith under the assumed name of Serjeant replied; attacking also, in another tract, a passage in Tillotson's discourse On the Wisdom of being religious.'† Both these works Tillotson defended, in the preface to the first volume of his Sermons printed in 1671, with a degree of strength and perspicuity, which completely established his reputation as a controversial writer.

* Here it was, says one of his Biographers, that he preached his incomparable sermons on the Divinity and Incarnation of our Blessed Saviour, in vindication of himself from the calumny of Socinianism, with which the Papists charged him: "I am heartily glad," observes Burnet, "to see justice done to the name of so great a man by one, who has answered that libel in so full and so convincing a manner." The author of the Life of Thomas Firmin,' indeed, himself a rigid Socinian, has fully cleared the Archbishop from that imputation.

†This discourse, remarks Dr. Birch, "is for the size of it one of the most elegant, perspicuous, and convincing defences of religion in our own or any other language."

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Synopsis CritiInterpretum,' by

His zeal for the promotion of the study of the Scriptures made him one of the earliest encouragers, about this time, of the corum aliorumque S. Scripturæ Mr. Matthew Pool. Of this useful compilation the author had first given the world a specimen, with a recommendation of it by many of the greatest contemporary authorities, in 1666; and Tillotson, in conjunction with Patrick, Stillingfleet, and some others, had the management of the monies subscribed for it's publication. His Majesty having granted a patent to Pool, in 1667, for the privilege of printing his work, the first two volumes were published at London in folio in 1669, and three more afterward.

In 1666, he took the degree of D. D. In 1668, the high reputation of his friend Wilkins, with the interest of Villiers Duke of Buckingham, having in opposition to the wish of Archbishop Sheldon and other dignitaries of the Church induced the King to advance that divine to the bishopric of Chester, Tillotson preached the consecration-sermon in the chapel at Ely House. Upon the promotion of Dr. Gunning to the see of Chichester in 1669, he was collated to the prebend of the second stall (Christ's Church) at Canterbury, which he continued to hold till he was advanced to the deanery of that church in 1672. Nor was Canterbury the only Cathedral, in which he was preferred; for in 1675 he was presented to the prebend of Ealdland in St. Paul's, London, which he resigned for that of Oxgate and a residentiaryship in the same church in 1678. This last preferment he obtained through