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of learning, almost beyond all his contemporaries, and not only adorned the pulpit with his sermons, but also the commonwealth of learning with his writings.' Of him, (says Sir John Harrington,) I can say much, and I should do him great wrong, if I should say nothing: For he was indeed a reverend man, very well learned, exceeding industrious; and, which was in those days counted a great praise to him, and a chief cause of his • preferment, he wrote that great dictionary that yet bears his name. His life in Oxford was very commendable, and in some sort saint-like; for, if it is saint-like to live unreprovable, to bear a cross patiently, to forgive great injuries freely, this man's example is sampleless in this age. He married a wife at Oxford, by whom he had two daughters; but he was not happy with her, she proving unfaithful to his bed. The whole university, (Sir John Harrington tells us,) in reverence of the man, and indignity of the matter, offered to separate her from him by public authority, and so to set him free, being the innocent party: But he would by no means agree thereto, alledging he knew his own infirmity, that he might not live unmarried; and to divorce and marry again, he would not charge his conduct with so great ' a scandal.' And bishop Godwin speaks of him in a very emphatical strain.

6

WILLIAM WHITAKER, D. D.

WILLIAM WHITAKER was born in the year

1547, in the county of Lancaster, where the families of both his father and mother had long resided, and at a place called Holme, in the parish of Bournley; a mountainous situation, and such as, on account of the purity of the air, is (if Cicero may be believed) the most proper for producing the best geniuses. Mr Whitaker's parents were both of honourable descent. His father, by hereditary right, possessed the ancient inheritance of the Whitakers, which had continued in that family for several ages. His mother was yet more honourable as to her birth, being descended from the two illustrious families of the Townleys of Townley, and the Nowells of Read. He spent

his childhood under the care of his parents, learning the first rudiments of grammar in the school of Bournley, till the age of thirteen; at which time Dr Alex. Nowell, his uncle, dean of St Paul's, sent for him to London, boarded him in his own house, and had him instructed by the master of St Paul's school, till it was thought proper to send him to the university. At the age of eighteen he was admitted of Trinity-college, Cambridge, under the tuition of Mr West; where he followed his studies with such diligence and improvement, that he was first chosen scholar, and afterwards elected fellow, of that college. Being now in a more conspicuous point of view, he began to shine among those of his own age; and to give no mean specimen of his extraordinary genius and learning: For, in all the scholastic disputations, both in his own college and in the public schools, he always carried off with him extraordinary commendations, and the greatest encomiums on his capacity.

In due time, with universal applause, he took the degree of bachelor, and then that of master of arts. His talents, considerable as they were, gave him no elation of mind; but he adorned them by his doctrine and modesty. He did not, as too many university-students do, after having taken their degrees, as if all their business was over, give themselves up to ease and pleasure; but became the more eager in pursuit of knowledge, and followed his studies with the greater assiduity and improvement. And that he might exhibit some proof of his labour, as well as his gratitude, he translated into Greek, an excellent catechism of his uncle's, published in Latin, and dedicated this first fruit of his learning to his learned uncle Dr Nowell. He was desirous, also, to shew his early respect to the church of England; which he did in giving a Latin version of the book of Common-Prayer. He also translated into Latin the polemical discourse of our celebrated bishop Jewel against Harding; a disputation written with the acutest judgment, and illustrated by the most extensive reading, in which twenty-seven questions are argued from scripture, and from the councils and fathers. This performance likewise met with universal approbation and applause.

At this time the professorship of the philosophy-chair being vacant, Whitaker had the honour of that appointment conferred on him by the university; though he was yet a young man; and though it had been the custom of the university to chuse one of the two proctors, who, as it is

supposed, on account of their age and standing, were deemed most properly qualified for that important charge. Whitaker was indeed young in years, but old in understanding; and very conversant with the philosophical writers. Therefore this province, which was so much the more difficult, as it was taken from others, and suddenly imposed upon him, he managed with so much zeal, prudence, and success, and as became a philosopher, that, in a manner scarcely to be credited, he struck all with the highest wonder at his learning and eloquence.

Ar length, leaving Plato and Aristotle, which last he had closely studied for a long time, he betook himself to the diligent study of the holy scriptures; to which, as indeed becomes a Christian, he always attributed the only authority for determining matters of faith, and for deciding religious controversies. He likewise diligently perused the modern divines, especially the faithful and sincere interpreters of GOD's word. And being a person of incredible application, he in a few years went through almost all the fathers, both Greek and Latin. He was so entirely devoted to this pursuit, that, it is said, if, on any occasion, either by the visits of friends, or other avocations, any part of the time he had allotted to reading was lost; he used to sit up at night till he had accomplished the task he had prescribed to himself the preceding day. By this close application to study, he improved greatly in knowledge, but at the same time so impaired the vigour of his body, that, it is supposed, he laid the foundation of those complaints which followed him during the rest of his life, and brought him early to the grave. Whitaker's great industry and parts struck the attention and admiration of the head of the college, Dr Whitgift, at that time Regius professor of divinity, and afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, who took great delight in him, and admitted him to the closest intimacy and friendship, not only while he was head of the college, but when he was afterwards bishop of Worcester, recommending to his care and tuition a great number of young persons of the first distinc

tion.

Our Author's Exercises upon the college thesis were handed about for the perusal of the best divines; as were also some popular sermons delivered in the country; his Catechetical Lectures in the college; and likewise his ingenious Prælectiones in divinity, for his degree of bachelor in divinity; in all which, it might be questioned, whether he shewed himself more the pious Christian, or the learned divine. But all these performances were only

specimens

specimens of his industry and rising greatness. At the Cambridge commencement, in the year 1578, he delivered in St Mary's church his first Concio ad clerum, which was as remarkable for its sound divinity, as for its profound erudition. After this, he handled, publicly in the schools, two theological questions, with great copiousness and elegance, and defended them with that judgment and force, which became an able divine and acute disputer. Having performed the requisite exercises, he took the degree of bachelor in divinity, with the utmost applause. In a word, he acquitted himself with so much. ingenuity and learning, that some of the heads of houses. and several of the ablest divines, maintained a disputation with him (a distinction paid only to first-rate abilities), from which he came off with the greatest honour to himself, and the satisfaction of others.

After this success, he rested for a while; but in such a way, that he was never less idle, than when he was idle, For in ease he thought of business; and in his retirement he furnished himself for his public ministrations; probably presaging in his own mind what soon came to pass. Dr Chaderton, then Regius professor of divinity, being promoted to the dignity of bishop, and resigning both the presidentship of Queens's-college, and the professorship; Whitaker, younger in years than usual, but riper in knowledge and judgment, was chosen in his room. Whether

he had the honour to be invested with these offices from his own merit, or the favour of the electors, or the solicitations of his friends, cannot be doubted by any one, who either heard the lectures themselves, from which a judg ment is to be formed of each of the candidates; or knew the modesty of Whitaker, and his backwardness in asking favours. However, some were highly displeased; complaining that so young a man should be preferred to an experienced old man; and pretending to fear that he was not sufficiently qualified for so weighty and important a charge, and that the reputation of the university would suffer. But when it was urged, what he had written, the acuteness of his dispositions, and his extensive reading; added to his modesty, piety, and the venerable gravity and prudence of his behaviour, equal to that of the ripest age; his adversaries were silenced, and even induced. to hope, that the choice would be fully justified by his conduct. Nor were they in the least disappointed: For, his extensive reading, acute judgment, admirable style, sound and solid doctrine, shone forth in Whitaker's first

prelec

prelections and sermons. Numbers, being excited by his fame, repaired to his theological lectures, attended them diligently, and received his instructions with the greatest avidity.

Our Author's first lectures, in the professor's chair, were on the three first chapters of the gospel by St Luke: Which having finished, he went through the whole epistle to the Galatians. Next he explained the first epistle of St Paul to imothy, from which he deduced many important principles most necessary to be known by students in divinity Lastly, in his lectures, he descanted upon Solomon's Song.

Some time after this, he seemed to be called, in some measure, to lay aside his commentaries and discourses upon the scriptures, and to take up the controversy between us and the Papists; which he began on the seventeenth of February, 1585. The first adversary, that felt the power of Whitaker's abilities, was a conceited jesuit, Edmund Campian, who, with ten dull arguments, published in 1581, threatened, as with so many batteringrams, utterly to undermine, and rase to the foundation, the whole Protestant doctrine. But Whitaker so effectually refuted the arguments of this Thraso, that his threats and his boastings soon ended in smoke to his own confusion. After the defeat of this Campain, there suddenly started up another jesuit, Dury, a Scotchman, who gathered together the broken arguments of Campian; and aimed by his own sophistry, to repair the breach that had been made in the cause of Rome. Whitaker passed over his invectives and scurrilities, and pressed him so home, that he fared no better than his predecessor. These controversies soon rendered him the distinguished foe of Rome, and one of the first champions of the Reformed religion in Christendom. And accordingly, his adversaries began to increase upon him. At the same time he carried on the controversy with Dury, he maintained another with a famous papist of that time, one Nicholas Saunders, upon the person of antichrist; upon which Saunders, though more able and acute, came off no better than his brethren. To the publication of this controversy, he annexed his own thesis for his doctor's degree, in the year 1582. His answer to Saunders's demonstrations procured him another adversary; one Reynolds, an Englishman who had fled to Rheims, and who, with craft and malice, had engaged some of our divines one against another, in order to bring the truth into contempt. But Whitaker clearly

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