which place he conftantly refided eight months, at leaft, in every year, till he had taken his degree, of bachelor of arts. In the time of the long yacation, and after he had taken his degree, he was with his father and friends at Litchfield, till he returned to Cambridge to deliver the fpeech, on the 29th of May, in order to his being chofen fellow in the October following. Not long after his election to this fellowship, he fettled in London. It having been his inclination from a child, and as he was always defigned for holy orders, he had fufficient time to prepare himfelf for the important work of the miniftry, and compofed feveral fermons, which, by the advice of a good old clergyman, he took care to write in large legible characters, that he might never have occafion to copy them; and having fome flock in hand, he was not under the neceffity of making fermons in a hurry, nor of borrowing them from others, but might proceed at his leifure with more time and deli beration. His method was, in all his compofitions, to finish the whole in his mind, before he committed any part of it to writing; and to fome of his friends, he would repeat feveral of his fermons verbatim, before he had wrote a fingle tittle of them; fo that, if he had pleafed, he could have preached eafily without notes. Mr. Newton was ordained deacon on the twenty-first of December, 1729, and prief in the February following. He firft officiated, for a fhort time, as curate of St. George's, Hanover-Square, and continued feveral years affillantpreacher to Dr. Trebeck, whofe ill ftate of health prevented him from performing the duties of his function. His first preferment was that of re'der and afternoon preacher at Grofvenor's Chapel, in south-Audley freet. He was then taken into the family of lord Carpenter, af

terwards earl of Tyrconnel, to whofe fon he was appointed tutor, In this family he lived many years, much at his cafe, and happy in the intimacy of lord and lady Carpenter.

In the year 1738 an acquaintance commenced between him, and that venerable prelate, Dr. Pearce, af, terwards bishop of Rochefter, whofe life we have pourtrayed in one of our preceding numbers. By his interest he was appointed morning preacher to the chapel in Spring Garden; and another friend, very ufeful to him, was Mrs. Ane Deanes Devenish, of a very good family in Dorfetfhite. This lady was married to Mr. Row, the dramatic writer, by whom he was left in circumftances far from affluent. She was afterwards married to colonel Deanes, by whom he was alfo left a widow; and upon the family eftate coming to her by the death of a near relation, the refumed the family name of Devenish. Being honoured with the friendfhip of the prince and princess of Wales, fhe was often with them in their privacies and retirements; and as the prince was then inftru&ting his children to repeat fine moral paffages out of plays, particularly out of Mr. Rowe's, which are the most chafte and moral, he defired to have a more correct edi tien printed of Mr. Rowe's works, and recommended Mr. Mallett to her for that fervice. She rather chofe to employ a friend of her own, and engaged Mr. Newton to undertake it, who corrected the prefs, and wrote the dedication in her name to the prince of Wales. By thefe fortunate incidents the name of Mr. Newton came first to be known to their royal highneЛes; and Mrs. Devenifh, ftrictly just to the facred character of a friend, took every opportunity of fpeaking to them in his commendaNot content with having performed this act of friendship, The

tion.

true

fhe likewife introduced him to the acquaintance of lord Bath; and thefe two introductions he afterwards confidered as the most happy circumftances of his life.

Through the intereft of the above noble lord, in 1744, Mr. Newton was preferred to the rectory of St. Mary le Bow in Cheapfide; fo that he was forty years old before he obtained any living; but having obtained this, he quitted the chapel in Spring-gardens; vacated his fellowship of courfe; and at the beginning of the year 1745, he took his degree of doctor of divinity; and in 1747 he was chofen lecturer of St. George's, Hanover Square, in the room of Dr. Savage, deceased. The fame year he married his first wife Jane, eldest daughter of the Rev. Dr. Trebeck, with whom he lived in a happy union near seven years.

If we confider Dr. Newton as an author, his writings, particularly thofe on the prophelies, are the best eulogium. In 1749 he published his edition of Milton's Paradife Loft. which met with a very favourable reception. The earl of Bath, being fome time after in Paris, wrote to him in the following terms, in a letter dated January 2, 1750. 66 There are many perfons here great admirers of Milton. I have lent Monfieur Dupre your edition, and he is extremely pleafed with it, and particularly with the notes."

In

another letter he writes, "Your Milton has been much admired here: the edition and notes greatly commended. Numbers of ladies as well as gentlemen understand English enough to read it with pieafure, and the Milton you fent me has travelled already through twenty different hands. At laft it has gone into exile with Monfieur de Maurepas, and will remain with him at Bourges (for he is prodigiously pleafed with it) till fuch

time as the king of France pleases to fend for them both back again."

At St. George's Hanover Square, in 1751, Dr. Newton preached a funeral fermon, on the death of Frederick prince of Wales. Having excufed himself from complying with the request of some of the noblemen and gentlemen of the veftry to publifh it; the princess dowager, to whom it was reported, fent Lady Charlotte Edwin to requet a private perufal of the difcourfe, with which her royal highnefs was fo well pleafed, that the appointed him immediately one of her chaplains. In 1754 the doctor loft his father, aged eighty-three; and a few days after his wife, aged thirty-eight. At this time he was engaged in writing his Differtations on the prophecies; and under any affiction he generally found a remedy by plunging deep into ftudy. The firft volume of his Differtations was published the following winter, but the other two did not appear till three years afterwards; and in this interval of time he was appointed to preach Boyle's Lectures. reception of his Differtations, at home and abroad, was very favourable. The famous count Bernitorf, fo many years the great minifter in Denmark, in a letter to M. Schrader, one of the preceptors, and Gerinan fecretary to Frederick prince of Wales, wrote as follows, March 29, 1760. "I am charmed with the Differtations of Dr. New

The

ton. It must be confeffed, theEnglish think and write with fuperiority." In another letter he writes, "Newton every day delights and convinces one more and more. His method is undoubtedly that which ought to be followed in treating of the prophecies. I cannot believe that any thing more decifive has ever been written against the fee of Rome, whofe adherents must be at a lofs what to answer. This work cannot be too much known, and it

has

has been already tranflated into German." It was alfe tranflated into the Danish language by commodore Effura, and was recommended to the perufal of the counts Struenfee and Brandt, during their imprisonment, to convince them of the truth of the Chriftian religion, and were not without effect, according to the narratives of their preparations for death, by the two divines, D. Munfter and D. Hac, who were appointed to attend them in their laft moments.

In the year 1756, Dr. Newton was appointed chaplain to his majety, and made the year following a prebendary of Westminster. At this period he experienced the friendship of archbishop Gilbert, who on the promotion to the fee of York, procured him the appointment of fub-almoner to his majesty, and afterwards gave him one of the most valuable pieces of preferment in the church of York, the precentorfhip, which he held till he obtained a bishopric. On the 5th of September 1761, he married his fecond wife, Elizabeth, daughter of John lord viscount Lifburne, by a fine young woman, whom his lordfhip had married, and much injured. What this injury was has been thus related. Lady Lifburne, as fhe fuppofed herfelf to be, was one day obferving to her lord, that the newspapers had announced the death of a lady Lifburne in Portugal-Who, fays fhe, can this lady Liburne be?-She was my wife, anfwered my lord. Why then, replied the lady, I am not your wife, for you were the husband of another when yeu married me.

The

Her

fact was not to be difowned; upon which the lady refolutely declared for a feparation, and they never lived together afterwards. daughter married the Rev. Mr. Hand, and after his death was, with great credit, housekeeper to a noble lord. This daughter Dr.

Newton married, when a widow, at the time abovementioned, and on the eighteenth of the fame month he was promoted to the fee of Bristol. The bishop, in the life of himself, and anecdotes on his friends, which make 135 pages, and are prefixed to his works, fays, "He was no great gainer by this preferment, being obliged to give up the prebend of Westminster, the precentorship of York, the lecturefhip of St. George's, and the office of fub-almoner.

In 1758 his lordship fucceeded to the deanery of St. Paul's vacated by the promotion of bifhop Cornwallis to the fee of Canterbury. On this preferment, which feems to have been the fummit of his wishes, he refigned, with becoming moderation, the living of St. Mary le Bow, which, notwithstanding, he might have held in commendam. From the time of this promotion his health became very tender and precarious, and he was often afAlicted with many fevere fits of illness. However, the bifhop of Bristol lived long enough to furvive almost all his friends; and on Thurfday the fourteenth of February, 1782, he expired. His lordship was buried on the 28th following, in the vaults under the fouth ifle of St. Paul's cathedral.

As a divine, the conduct of the bishop of Bristol was regular and exemplary; but his fentiments on political fubjects appear to have been weak, narrow, contracted, and not abfolutely devoid of a tendency to intolerance.

Having thus given an accurate and faithful narrative of this pious, learned, and great prelate, the EDITORS of this Magazine beg leave refpectfully to inform their friends, fubfcribers, and their readers in general, that it is their intention to prefent them with more examples of our late eminent bishops, and not to trouble themfelves, or their

their publifher, (to whom they are much obliged for the labour and time he has freely bellowed in the first department of their plan) with painful, and fruitless enquiries, after thofe LIVING characters, who feem perfectly content with the fatisfaction of living to themselves. We have lately received feveral hints from fome correfpondents, to whose judgment we fhall always pay a due deference, expreffing their fentiments on this matter, and which exactly correfpond with our own inclinations. On this account, and with a view of giving (which is our highest ambition) general fatisfaction, it is our intention, in future, only to prefent the public

with the Portraits of our prefent bifhops, whofe likeneffes fhall be carefully procured; being determined to undertake ONLY the memoirs of fuch LIVING CHARACTERS, who, may be pleased to favour us with proper materials. At the same time, those of our friendly correfpondents, who feem to have expected more under our article of modern biography, than it has been in our power to lay before them, we would request to remember, that, in general, the lives of scholars and churchmen are too uniform to abound with many striking incidents, and much lefs with ad

venture.

ANTIENT

MEMOIRS

O F THE

LIFE OF FRANCIS DE LA MOTTE FENELON, ARCHBISHOP, AND DUKE OF CAMBRAY, &c.

THIS great man, equally fa

mous in the Chriftian and in the literary world, was of an ancient and illuftrious family in France. His father was Pons de Salignac, marquis of Fenelon, and his mother Louifa de la Cropte, fifter to the marquis de l'Abre. He was born at the Caftle of Fenelon, in the province of Perigord, Auguft the 16th, 1651. He was educated at home under the eye of his parents, till he was twelve years of age; at which time he was fent to the univerfity of Cahors. But the most happy circumstance in his

education, cle, Anthony marquis of Fenelon; a man of great genius, and diftinguished no lefs for his virtue than he was fo kind as to

was the care of his un

his valour;

4

take his nephew into his own house, at Paris, and to treat him, in all refpects, as his fon; and under his inftructions the young man made a great progrefs, fufficiently difco vering the rays of that genius, which afterwards fhone forth with fo much fplendor. At the age of nineteen, he preached publicly, and with great reputation at Paris; but the marquis his uncle, fearing left the young Abbé, (for fo the French call thofe young men, who defigned to take, or are in orders, though they have no preferment) fhould appear too early in the world, and not have fufficient ballaft to weather the blaft of vanity, which too much applaufe would raife, perfuaded him to imitate for feveral years the filence of Jefus Christ.

The young man readily embraced his uncle's propofal; and dedicated himself with unwearied affiduity to fuch ftudies, and improvements, as were fuited at once to his rank, and profeffion. At the age of twentyfour he was admitted into orders: preferred