brated rector of that parish, Bernard Gilpin*. A fchool which flourished much in the time of its founder; nor did it lofe its credit after his decease, as a "feminary of found learning and religious knowledge, from which many have gone to our univerfities, and proved great ornaments to the church and nation." Among thefe furely may be reckoned that eminent person who is the fubject of thefe memoirs: he was seven years at Houghton fchool, and, having acquired all the learning which that inftitution afforded, was sent to Oxford in the year 1730 or 1731. He. was first entered at Hertford College, and thence removed to Chrift Church. His tutor (as I think he has been heard to fay) was the Rev. Mr. Fifield Allen, who was afterwards chaplain to bishop Gibfon, archdeacon of Middlefex, fubdean of the chapel royal, a prebendary of St. Paul's, and editor of the three Electras used in Westminster school. His proficiency under his tutor, whoever he was, be inferred from his early appearance as an may author, and that not of the common fort, but as one who had read much before he wrote any thing; who had particularly ftudied the fcriptures in their original tongues, as an effential preparative for that holy function to which he was destined, and in which he afterwards excelled fo much to the edifying of the church.

* See an account of this school in the life of Bernard Gilpin, in the fecond volume of the Rev. Mr. Middleton's Biography.

p. 205,

&c.

B 3

As'

As a proof of his employment in thefe feats of literature, and of the eftimation in which he was held by his fuperiors in them, we have a remarkable anecdote brought forward in the excellent fermon upon his death preached and published by his late curate and prefent fucceffor in the church of Blackfriars. Drefs was never his foible, his mind was fuperior to fuch borrowed ornaments; and, immersed in nobler purfuits of literature, before confecrated to a fill more exalted purpose, be paid but little attention to outward decorations. Being obferved to pass by rather negli-, gently attired, a vifitor inquired of his friend, a mafter of one of the colleges, Who is that flovenly person with bis stockings down? The mafter replied, That flovenly perfon, as you call him, is one of the greatest geniuses. of the age, and is likely to be one of the greatest men in the kingdom*.

He refided principally at Oxford till he took his degree of Master of Arts, which he did on the fifteenth day of October 1737, having been ordained a deacon at Hereford a year before by the then bishop of that fee, Dr. Henry Egerton; whether by a nomination to a cure in his diocefe, or by letters dimiffory from fome other bifhop, is not certain. His firft engagement, after he was in orders, was the curacy of Loe Trenchard, near Lidford in Devonshire. He went there upon a vifit with one of his cotemporaries at Oxford, whofe father lived at Lidford; and upon

See Mr. Goode's funeral fermon and the authorities there referred to.

the

the exprefs condition that his friend would find him employment in the way of his profeffion. This employment was accordingly found for him in the church aforementioned, which he ferved for fix months, moft probably, of the year in which he took his master's degree. In the year following he was refident at Epfom in Surrey, as appears by a letter dated from that place October 4th, 1738, and written to Mr. Warburton upon the publication of his firft volume of the Divine Legation of Mofes; of which letter fome notice fhall be prefently taken. And on the fifteenth day of December in the fame year he was ordained a priest by the then bishop of Winchester, Dr. Benjamin Hoadly. His title for orders was most probably a nomination to the church of Banftead, which he ferved for fome years toge ther with that of Horton in Middlefex, being curate to Mr. Edwards, who had both thofe livings. At Banftead he became acquainted with Sir Daniel Lambert, who had a country house in that parish, an alderman of the city of London, and elected lord mayor in the year 1741. Mr. Romaine was appointed his chaplain, and fo had a door of utterance opened to him in the cathedral church of St. Paul; where he delivered the fecond fermon that he printed on the 14th and 15th verfes of the fecond chapter of the Epiftle to the Romans; in which is to be found a critical and a chriftian illuftration of that difficult paffage. Though we do not discover in this fermon the fame fertile experience, B 4

use,

use, and application of the truth, as are to be found in his later writings; yet we discover the fame truth itself by which he was then made free from the errors of the day, and in the knowledge and enjoyment of which he lived and died. We difcover in it the reasoning of a logical head, the writing of a claffical pen, the religion of a believing heart, and the preaching of a found divine. The point evidently pursued in it is redemption from fin by the blood of Jefus, as it was revealed from God to Adani, and through him to the patriarchs; to Mo-' fes and the prophets, and through them to the Ifraelites; and as it was conveyed to the gentiles, before the preaching of the gospel among them, by tradition; which is the only probable cause of their facrifices, or appeafing the Deity by the fhedding of blood, a custom fo unnatural in itself, and yet fo univerfally prevalent among them. In fhort, the object of this difcourfe is to prove that a creature, whether upright or fallen, was never made to teach himself, but to learn from his Maker; and to hold forth to men the only religion which is fuited to their fallen condition; not as the religion of nature, but as the religion of grace; not as a human device, but as a divine revelation. And let the author of it be confidered as having attained only to the age of twenty-seven years, and he may be thought to have discovered in it a maturity of judgment, a proficiency of reading, meditation, and doctrine, to which few in fo early a period of life have attained.

The

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The truth is, he was a believer-poffeffed of that unfeigned faith which dwelt in his father and his mother before him, and we are perfuaded that it was in him alfo. And that from a child he had known the fcriptures, having ftudied them with that proper faculty by which alone they are able to make us wife unto falvation, viz. faith which is in Christ Jesus. 2 Tim. i. 5. ii. 15.

The fermon which he printed prior to that juft mentioned was one preached before the university of Oxford, March 4th, 1739, entitled, The Divine Legation of Mofes demonftrated, from his having made express mention of and infifted so much on the Doctrine of a Future State: whereby Mr. Warburton's Attempt to prove the Divine Legation of Mofes from the Omission of a Future State is proved to be abfurd and deftructive of

all Revelation.

This was followed above two years after by a fecond fermon upon the fame fubject, and from the fame text, entitled, Future Rewards and Punishments proved to be the Sanctions of the Mofaic Difpenfation. This fermon was preached at St. Mary's, in Oxford, in the end of the year 1741, and printed in the begining of the next year.

Whoever wishes to know more of this controverly between Mr. Romaine and Mr. Warburton, may get fome information from the fecond volume of the history of the works of the learned for Auguft 1739, where are to be found, Mr. Romaine's original letter to Mr. Warburton, and a fecond to

the