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fences or cafual temerities, against crimes never com. mitted, or immediately repented.

The infidel knows well what he is doing. He is endeavouring to supply, by authority, the deficiency of his arguments; and to make his cause less invidious, by fhewing numbers on his fide: he will, therefore, not change his conduct, till he reforms his prin ciples. But the zealot should recollect, that he is labouring, by this 'frequency of excommunication, against his own caufe; and voluntarily adding strength to the enemies of truth. It must always be the condition of a great part of mankind to reject and embrace tenets upon the authority of those whom they think wiser than themselves; and, therefore, the addition of every name to infidelity in some degree invalidates that argument upon which the religion of multitudes is neceffarily founded.

Men may differ from each other in many religious opinions, and yet all may retain the effentials of Christianity; men may fometimes eagerly difpute, and yet not differ much from one another: the ri gorous perfecutors of error fhould, therefore, enlighten their zeal with knowledge, and temper their orthodoxy with charity; that charity, without which orthodoxy is vain; charity that "thinketh no. " evil," but "hopeth all things," and " endureth "all things."

Whether Browne has been numbered among the contemners of religion, by the fury of its friends, or the artifice of its enemies, it is no difficult task to re

place him among the most zealous profeffors of Chrif tianity. He may, perhaps, in the ardour of his imagination, have hazarded an expreffion, which a mind VOL. XII. X

intent

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intent upon faults may interpret into herefy, if confidered apart from the reft of his discourse; but a phrase is not to be opposed to volumes; there is fcarcely a writer to be found, whofe profeffion was not divinity, that has fo frequently teftified his belief of the facred writings, has appealed to them with fuch unlimited' fubmiffion, or mentioned them with fuch unvaried re

verence.

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It is, indeed, fomewhat wonderful, that he should be placed without the pale of Chriftianity, who declares, that "he affumes the honourable style of a "Christian," not because it is "the religion of his country," but because " having in his riper years "and confirmed judgment feen and examined all, he "finds himself obliged, by the principles of grace, "and the law of his own reason, to embrace no other name but this :" who, to fpecify his perfuafion yet more, tells us, that he is of the Reformed "religion; of the same belief our Saviour taught, "the apostles diffeminated, the fathers authorised, "and the martyrs confirmed:" who, though " para"doxical in philofophy, loves in divinity to keep the "beaten road; and pleases himself that he has no "taint of herefy, fchifm, or error :" to whom, "where "the Scripture is filent, the Church is a text; where "that speaks, 'tis but a comment ;" and who uses not" the dictates of his own reason, but where there ❝is a joint filence of both: who bleffes himself, that "he lived not in the days of miracles, when faith had "been thruft upon him; but enjoys that greater "bleffing, pronounced to all that believe and faw "not."

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He cannot furely be charged with a defect of faith, who "believes that our Saviour was dead, " and

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❝ and buried, and rofe again, and defires to see him "in his glory :" and who affirms that "this is not "much to believe ;" that " we have reason to owe "this faith unto history ;" and that "they only had "the advantage of a bold and noble faith, who lived "before his coming; and upon obfcure prophecies "and mystical types, could raise a belief." Nor can contempt of the pofitive and ritual parts of religion be imputed to him, who doubts, whether a good man would refuse a poisoned eucharift; and "who would "violate his own arm, rather than a church.”

The opinions of every man must be learned from himself: concerning his practice, it is fafest to trust the evidence of others. Where these teftimonies concur, no higher degree of historical certainty can be obtained; and they apparently concur to prove, that Browne was a zealous adherent to the faith of Christ, that he lived in obedience to his laws, and died in confidence of his mercy.

ASCHA M*.

ROGER ASCHAM was born in the year 1515,

at Kirby Wiske, (or Kirby Wicke,) a village near Northallerton, in Yorkshire, of a family above the vulgar. His father, John Afcham, was houfefteward in the family of Scroop; and in that age, when the different orders of men were at a greater distance from each other, and the manners of gentlemen were regularly formed by menial fervices in great houses, lived with a very confpicuous reputation. Margaret Afcham, his wife, is faid to have been allied to many confiderable families, but her maiden name is not recorded. She had three fons, of whom Roger was the youngest, and fome daughters; but who can hope, that of any progeny more than one fhall deferve to be mentioned? They lived married fixtyseven years, and at laft died together almoft on the fame hour of the fame day.

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Roger having passed his first years under the care of his parents, was adopted into the family of Antony Wingfield, who maintained him, and committed his education, with that of his own fons, to the care of one Bond, a domeftic tutor. He very early difco

* First printed before his Works in 4to.

vered an unusual fondness for literature by an eager perufal of English books; and having paffed happily through the fcholaftick rudiments, was put, in 1530, by his patron Wingfield, to St. John's college in Cambridge.

Afcham entered Cambridge at a time when the laft great revolution of the intellectual world was filling every academical mind with ardour or anxiety. The deftruction of the Conftantinopolitan empire had driven the Greeks with their language into the interior parts of Europe, the art of printing had made the books eafily attainable, and Greek now began to be taught in England. The doctrines of Luther had already filled all the nations of the Romish communion with controverfy and diffention. New studies of literature, and new tenets of religion, found employment for all who were defirous of truth, or ambitious of fame. Learning, was at that time profecuted with that eagerness and perfeverance which in this age of indifference and dissipation it is not eafy to conceive. To teach or to learn, was at once the business and the pleasure of the academical life; and an emulation of study was raised by Cheke and Smith, to which even the present age perhaps owes many advantages, without remembering or knowing its benefactors.

Afcham foon refolved to unite himself to those who were enlarging the bounds of knowledge, and, immediately upon his admiffion into the college, applied himself to the study of Greek. Those who were zealous for the new learning, were often no great friends to the old religion; and Ascham, as he became a Grecian, became a Proteftant. The Reformation was not yet begun, difaffection to Popery was

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