linquished for a long time before his death, from an aversion (which he was surprised not to have always felt) to any pursuit

"That owes its pleasures to another's pain."

a

It may appear more extraordinary, that at one period of his early life, he occasionally indulged in the sport of shooting; a circumstance to which he never adverted but with expressions of regret and mortification. Of the hardy delights of hunting, which, in his "Imitation of Juvenal," he has sufficiently satirized, he could form no adequate conception, as he never was on horseback in his life. The following passage, in which CICERO speaks of his manner of passing the season of retirement during the troubles of his country, he frequently quoted with great energy and admiration. "Neque otio me ignavo dedidi, nec, rursum, indignis homine docto voluptatibus." I neither surrendered myself to inac

The all-accomplished SIR H. WOTTON was passionately fond of it. His biographer, Isaac Walton, says of him, "nor did he forget his innate pleasure of angling, which he would usually call his idle time not idly spent," saying often, he would rather live five May months than forty Decembers." Zouch's Walton, p. 164.

Dr. Paley has shewn his attachment to this diversion by having his portrait taken with an angling rod in his hand. See Appendix (F.)

• Cowper.

tivity and indolence; nor, on the other hand, to pleasures unbecoming a man of letters.

Such accomplishments, both of the head and the heart, might have been very reasonably expected to advance the interest of their possessor, while men of inferior talents were continually rising to the highest honours. But Mr. Wakefield soon found himself under the painful necessity of sacrificing all flattering hopes of improving his external condition, unless he would restrain the open declaration of theological opinions too uncourtly, and too much at variance with established creeds, to be avowed by any one whose object was the promotion of self-interest.

Free as were his sentiments on many points of theology, they excited greater animadversion from the unreserved manner in which they are sometimes stated. This practice however, as has been suggested before, sprang from very honest motives; though some great men of former times, in similar circumstances, observed an opposite conduct-" concealed and timorous friends of truth, who keeping their sentiments to themselves, or disclosing them only to a few, complied with established errors and superstitions, which they disliked and despised."

b

Jortin on "The Truth of Christian Religion," p. 93. ed. 4.

Among these Dr. Samuel Clarke is a conspicuous example.

It may be fairly inferred also from the writings of several of his contemporaries, who

His great dissatisfaction with many parts of the established service is well known, from his corrected liturgy, in which "the alterations with respect to the object of worship are numerous and important;" [Biog. Brit. iii. 609.] yet he continued in the church till the time of his death; and thus gave open countenance to what he most unequivocally deemed er

roneous.

He was however a firm advocate for free enquiry and discussion, and urged the duty of making open profession of whatever appeared to be truth, however obnoxious.

In proof of this we quote the following passage from his admirable sermons. (Sermon on the Unity of God.)

"This therefore is the first and principal instance of confessing God with our mouths: the making constant profession of the true doctrine of religion, how much soever we may possibly suffer thereby in our temporal interest. Next to the profession of true religion in general, there is farther implied in this duty of confessing God with our mouths, an obligation not to be ashamed of truth and right, of virtue and goodness, in all particular cases wherein they may happen to be contested. St. Paul, as he declared in general, that he was not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, Rom. i. 16. So when in a particular circumstance he judged St. Peter to have departed from the simplicity of the Gospel, he withstood him to the face, Gal. ii. 11. And 'tis accordingly excellent advice, which is given by the son of Syrach, Eccles. iv. 20. "Beware of evil, and be not ashamed when it concerns thy soul: for there is a shame that bringeth sin, and there is a shame which is glory and grace: accept no person against thy soul, and let not the reverence of any man cause thee to fall: Refrain not to speak when there is occasion to de good; strive for the truth unto death, and the Lord shall fight for thee."

have had the good fortune to attain eminent stations in the church, that however they reconciled it to their minds to preserve their connexion with the existing establishment, they differed very little from him in many of his most obnoxious sentiments.

• Bishop Watson, especially, who in the preface to a Collection of Theological Tracts, designed for the use of students in divinity, makes the following observations:

"Some, I know, affect to believe that as the restoration of letters was ruinous to the Romish religion, so the further cultivation of them will be subversive of Christianity itself: of this there is no danger. It may be subversive of the reliques of the church of Rome by which other churches are still polluted; of persecutions, of anathemas, of ecclesiastical domination over God's heritage, of all the silly outworks, which the pride, the superstition, the knavery of mankind have erected around the citadel of our faith: but the citadel itself is founded on a rock, the gates of hell cannot prevail against it, its master-builder is God; its beauty will be found ineffable, and its strength impregnable, when it shall be freed from the frippery of human ornaments, cleared from the rubbish of human bulwarks."

He further remarks,-" The objections of unbelievers are frequently levelled against what is not Christianity, but mere human system; and he will be best able to defend the former, who is least studious to support the airy pretensions of the latter. The effect of established systems in obstructing truth, is to the last degree deplorable: every one sees it in other churches, but scarcely any one suspects it in his own." Pp. 13 & 14.

The same prelate also, in one of his charges to the clergy of his diocese, instructs his brethren, that "the divine doc

His free theological opinions were not the only hindrances to his advancement. He felt a lively interest in the great political events which occurred, especially in his latter years,

-events

"Of which all Europe rings from side to side."

Rejoicing, in common with some of the greatest and best men of his time, at the appearances (however they may have proved delusive) of freedom recovered and enjoyed in a neighbouring nation, he boldly reprobated maxims and measures which he thought subversive of the liberty and happiness of his own country. This, it appeared, was not to be done with impunity, under an administratrines of our holy religion want not the aid of human laws for their support. When Christian magistrates assume to themselves the right of interpreting doubtful passages of scripture in a definite sense, they pollute the altar of the Lord, though with a view, perhaps, of adorning and defending it, and often sanctify error by the authority of civil laws. The history of the church, from the time of its civil establishment, affords a thousand proofs of the truth of this remark." "A Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of Landaff, June 1791," P. 19.

See, likewise, some valuable observations on the great importance of free inquiry on subjects of religion, by Dr. Paley, in the Dedication of his Mor. Phil. to the late Bishop Law.See also his chapter "on Religious Establishments and on Toleration," 2d vol. of that work, pp. 303, &c. 8th edit.