With God all things are possible. That remarkable visitation with the small-pox seems to have proved a happy dispensation, under the divine blessing, to the subject of this Memoir, in great mercy laying the foundation of his spiritual health in his seemingly dangerous sickness. It is a happy sickness which terminates in the recovery of the soul to God. And the And the mercy which this unexpected recovery brought with it, was a rich equivalent for all the former sorrows of his relations and attendants. Both his religious parents and himself beautifully imitated the pious gratitude of that good woman, who, when recovered by Jesus, immediately arose, and ministered to him, and to his followers. Mat. viii. 14, 15. Those lives which are mercifully spared by the goodness of God, and that strength which is renewed by his almighty power, should be faithfully, affectionately, and solemnly, devoted to his most honourable service. Sparing our lives, heal ing our diseases, and renewing our strength, are certainly intended to fit us for action, that we may gratefully minister unto Christ, and unto those who are his, for his sake. Our religious youth, having been highly favoured with the pious instructions of his parents in very early life, found these instructions of peculiar advantage to him, while he was a stranger and pilgrim on the earth. In due time, he received a liberal education in St. John's-College, in the University of Cambridge, where he applied with great assiduity to his studies, and his proficiency was very conspicuous in different parts of literature. He was es teemed an excellent logician, a good Oriental scholar, and an eminent divine. He proceeded B. D. in that Col lege. Having finished his studies at the University, he went to London; and, in the year 1614, he became Rector of John the Evangelist, in Watling-street. In that place, he continued a faithful and labourious minister of the glorious gospel of the grace of God nearly forty years. He refused all other and higher preferments, though fre quently offered him. He did not preach the gospel of Christ with a view to obtain preferment, but with the noble view of being an instrument in gaining precious and immortal souls to his glorious Redeemer. About the

same time, he became chaplain to Dr Felton, bishop of Ely, who made choice of him on the very morning of his consecration. And the celebrated Dr Featly made choice of him as his second, in one of his disputations with Father Fisher, the famous Jesuit. Mr Walker was eminently distinguished by his very bold and successful opposition to popery, and he readily engaged several times in public disputations against its errors and superstitions, with some of the most subtle Jesuits. He boldly attacked that dreadful system of error and corruption, which is entirely contrary to the pure religion of the Bible, destructive to the souls of the human race, and inconsistent with both civil and religious liberty. He ju. diciously exposed the falsehoods of the Romish Church, and became very conspicuous as a zealous friend of the Reformation. On the last of May, in the year 1623, he had a public dispute with a popish priest of the name of Smith, before a very large assembly; and, by the consent of both parties, the account of it was afterward published, and entitled, "The Sum of a Disputation between Mr Walker, Pastor of St. John the Evangelist, and a Popish Priest, calling himself Mr Smith, but indeed Norris, printed 1623, 4to." Wood says that Norris was a Doctor of Divinity, and a publisher of several little popish pamphlets about the same time. In the following year, Mr. Walker engaged with Fisher, the Jesuit, and thereupon published Fisher's Folly Unfolded; or, The Vaunting Jesuit's Challenge Answered, London, 1624. He had many encounters with Fisher, and several other persons, who were accounted the most able disputants of the Romish persuasion.

Mr Walker was a divine of genuine piety, and of very strict Sabbatarian principles. He frequently urged from the pulpit, with great energy, the necessity and propriety of an exact observance of the Lord's day. The very little respect which is paid to the Lord's day, greatly contributes to increase that general inattention and indifference which evidently threaten to undermine the morals and religion of this country The observance of one'day in seven, as a day of rest from business, and of engaging

by well doing, to put to silence the ignorance of foolish men!

In the year 1643, Mr Walker was chosen one of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, where, by his munificent and generous behaviour, he gained a distinguished and shining reputation. He is marked in Mr Neal's list, as giving constant attendance. In the year following, he was appointed one of the Committee for the examination and ordination, by imposition of hands, of those persons who were judged qualified to be admitted into the sacred Ministry. The same year he was one of the witnesses against Archbishop Laud at his trial, when he deposed that the archbishop had endeavoured to introduce Arminianism and the popish superstitions into the church of England. He preached sometimes before the Parliament. Though Wood reproaches him with having preached, after the Long Parliament began, against the King and his followers, and having published several things, which before he was not permitted to do, he united with his brethren, the London ministers, in their protestation against the King's death, declaring that his majesty ought to have been released. He was a member of the first provincial assembly in London, and sometimes chosen moderator. He died in the year 1651, aged about se venty years, and his remains were interred in his own church in Watling-Street. Dr. Fuller says, "He was well skilled in the Oriental languages, and an excellent logician and divine. He was a man of a holy life, an humble spirit, and a liberal hand, who deserved' well of Zion College library; and who, by his example and persuasion, advanced about a thousand pounds for the maintenance of preaching ministers in his native country. He ever wrote all his sermons, though making no other use of his notes in the pulpit, than keeping them in his pocket, being wont to say, that he thought he should be out if he had them not about him." Wood allows that he was a learned man, but a severe Puritan.*

a Wood's Athenæ, vol. i. 2 edit. Fuller's Worthies of England, 1662, folio. Brook's Puritans, vol. iii. Walker's Ser.

1

Mr Walker has published, beside the two pieces which are mentioned in the account of his life, Socinianism in the Fundamental Point of Justification Discovered and Confuted. A small book, pp. 355. London, 1641. An excellent work.-The Doctrine of the Holy Weekly Sabbath, 1641.-The Manifold Wisdom of God; in the divers dispensation of Grace by Jesus Christ. A small. book, pp. 173. London, 1640, 1641.-God made Visible in all his Works, 1641.-A Sermon preached from Psalm lviii. 9. before the House of Commons, Fast, 1644. 4to. pp. 53. London, 1645.

JOHN WALLİS, D. D.

AN EMINENT MATHEMATICIAN AND DIVINE, SOMETIME SAVILIAN PROFESSOR OF GEOMETRY, IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, KEEPER OF THE ARCHIVES, MEMBER OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, SOMETIME ONE OF THE SECRETARIES TO THE ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES AT WESTMINSTER, AND CHAPLAIN IN ORDINARY TO KING CHARLES THE SECOND.

JOHN WALLIS was born at Ashford, a large market

town in the county of Kent, in England, on the 23d of Nov. 1616. His father was John Wallis, M. A. an eminently pious, learned, and orthodox divine, and minister of Ashford in Kent. His mother was Joanna, daughter of Henry and Sarah Chapman of Godmersham in Kent. His father died Nov. 30, 1622, when he was very young, and he was then and afterward under the tender care of his mother. She was peculiarly careful in the pious and prudent education of all her children; bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

In the year 1625, there was a great plague in London and many other places, and particularly in Ashford, which caused many of the inhabitants to remove for their safety. On this occasion, the subject of this Memoir was sent to Leygreen, near Tenterden, a market-town in

Kent, to receive his grammatical education. In that place, he was the scholar of Mr James Moffat, a Scotchman, for several years. By him he was well grounded in the technical part of grammar, so as to understand the rules, and the reason of these rules, with their application in such authors as are usually read in grammar-schools.

Our young scholar was always inclined from his very childhood, not only to learn rules by rote, but also to un derstand the true meaning and the reasons of these rules. The school at Leygreen at length broke up, when, for learning, he might have gone to the University; but he was thought too young; and therefore he was sent, to ward the end of Dec. in the year 1630, to Felsted school in Essex, which was at that time a school of good reputa tion, where he continued two years. By this time, he was well grounded in the Latin and Greek languages, having read several authors in both of these. He was always principally attentive to the grammar. And he had been accustomed in both schools to speak Latin, which rendered that language very familiar to him; and which he afterwards found highly advantageous. He had also learned so much Hebrew as that, by the help of his grammar and dictionary, he could proceed farther without a teacher. Afterward, in the University, he became very accurate in that language, especially in the grammatical part, the changes of points and seat of ac cents, and read over the Hebrew Bible, or the greater part of it, more than once. The knowledge of Hebrew is unquestionably essential to the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. The want of that knowledge in Ministers of the Gospel is condemnable. While it is a disgrace to the order, it is a serious loss to the Christian community. -Our celebrated scholar pursued his studies, at all times, with great vigour, industry, and success. He was now also so far instructed in the rudiments of logic, music, and the French language. And during a vacation from school, when he was about a fortnight at home with his mother at Ashford, he learned the practical part of com mon Arithmetic from a younger brother of his, which was