PREFAC E. THE publication of the following Difcourfes, and of the Confiderations on pluralities, will not be improperly introduced by a short account of the writer of them. I am perfuaded, that those perfons who were well acquainted with our author will derive no fmall fatisfaction from contemplating afresh, the excellencies of a character which they refpected and admired while living, and will honour now dead. Among others, who knew him not, there are many who will rejoice to be told of fo much worth, and that being dead, he speaketh to them in the following difcourses. In the courfe of a few months, I loft two greatly esteemed friends, Dr. John Jebb, and the fubject of these prefatory pages ; both of them deservedly valued by those who knew them and, from a concurrence of very very different circumstances, it has been my lot to be the editor of the writings of both. I was engaged in preparing for the prefs the works of Dr. Jebb, when the event took place, which deprived me of my worthy relation and I should with great reluctance proceed to discharge my engagement to him, by the publication of the prefent volume, without accompanying it with a fimilar proof of affection and regard. Mr. Difney, the author of the following Difcourfes, was the only furviving child of the reverend Samuel Disney of Wakefield, * and The reverend Samuel Difney (father of our author) was the fourth fon of the reverend John Disney, vicar of St. Mary's, Nottingham, and Mary daughter of William Woolhoufe, M.D. of North-Muskham, in the county of Nottingham, and, in fine, fole heir of her brother. He was born at Lincoln, June 9, 1705, and educated at Brigg in Lincolnshire, under the reverend Thomas Waterworth, mafter of the school there, and a gentleman of diftinguished learning. Afterwards, he was admitted of Corpus Chrifti college in Cambridge, under the tuition of the reverend Samuel Kerrich, and took the degree of B. A. 1727, and was ordained deacon at Peterborough, Septem ber and of Margery, youngest daughter of Francis Procter of Thorpe in the county of York, ber 22, 1728, by Dr. White Kennet, then bishop of that diocefe. July 5, 1729, he was unanimously pre-elected fellow of Corpus Chrifti college, in the place of the reverend Edmund Castle, public orator of the univerfity, who had accepted of a living in the diocese of Ely, given to him by Dr. Green, then bishop of Ely. Which fellowship, becoming vacant November 15, he was on December 4, perfonally admitted by Dr. Mawson, master of the college. December 22, the fame year (1729) Mr. Difney was ordained priest, at Buckden, by Dr. Richard Reynolds, bishop of Lincoln, upon the title of his fellowship, when he returned to Nottingham to affift his father, then in a very declining state of health, and who died February 3, 1729-30. In 1731, he proceeded M. A.-And on January 21, 1731-2, after a competition with the reverend Lewis Fenton, was elected, by the company of Mercers in London, to the lady Campden's lectureship at Wakefield in Yorkshire. He married in September 1732, Margery, youngest daughter of Francis Procter of Thorpe, near Wakefield Efq. by whom he had four children; three of them died in their infancy; Samuel, his fecond fon, only furviving him. He died at Wakefield, July 22, 1741, and, according to his own defire, with the defign of removing a common prejudice, was buried in the north fide of the church-yard there. York, cfq. He was born at Wakefield, January 5th 1737-8; but his father dying be.fore he was three years old, the direction of his early education devolved on his mother. To her great attention and serious piety, he owed the improvement of his own religious dispositions, which were affiduously nurtured and cultivated by her maternal care: alfo to her prudent management he owed the fecurity and improvement of his patrimony. In a private paper, of recent date, he obferves, with regard to his mother, that "he could not but mention her great kindness in fending him early to school; her abstaining from a fecond marriage, to which she was fo well entitled, from an early widowhood; her ftrict œconomy in the management of his fortune, there. Over his grave was erected a tomb with the following infcription. "Here lies the body of the truly pious and worthy, the reverend Samuel Difney, who departed this life, (in hopes of a bleffed refurrection through the merits of Chrift,) the 22nd day of July A. D. 1741. univerfally and deservedly lamented. What he was, the laft day will fhew, when every private virtue, will receive a public reward. Aged, 36 years. fortune, and a thousand other favours and compliances which amply deferved this grateful recital, and any return of acknowledgment he could make." His claffic learning he received at the grammar fchool of Bradford, in Yorkshire, under the care of the reverend Benjamin Butler, M.A. In teftimony of the general regard and esteem in which this gentleman was held by Mr. Difney and his contemporary scholars, he promoted among a select number of them, fo lately as the year 1780, a subscription for a handsome filver cup, which was bought and prefented accordingly, bearing the following infcription: BENJAMINI BUTLER, A.M. APUD BRADFORDIAM PLUS QUINQUAGINTA ANNOS LUDIMAGISTRO HOC POCULUM ALUMNI SUI DICANT VOLENTES. From *The cup weighed upwards of 112 oz. and coft 551. 3s. 3d. The fubfcribers were Dr. William Richardfon; William Rookes, efq. Mr. Edmund Lodge; Rev. John |