learning and ability. That a layman, so distinguished by birth and station, and whose legal eminence had obtained for him the offer of the highest professional honours, 'should successfully have engaged in a theological warfare, was undoubtedly a circumstance which claimed from the University to which he belonged some extraordinary notice. And as those thanks were well deserved, so they could hardly have been presented through a channel which would render them more acceptable, than that of a person whom the public already regarded as foremost in the ranks of orthodoxy, and whom the Earl himself had noticed with becoming respect. The Grace was as follows:-" Placeat vobis, ut viro perquam honora"bili Daneli Comiti de Nottingham, propter egregiam suam fidei Christianæ, nominatim vero "æternitatis Filii Dei et Spiritus Sancti, defensio"nem, hujus Academiæ nomine Gratiæ agantur, et " ut venerabiles viri Doctores Lany et Waterland, "ad hoc præstandum sint vestra authoritate depu"tati et assignati."

66

Two years after the termination of the proceedings respecting Dr. Bentley, Dr. Waterland was actively concerned in a transaction considerably affecting the rights and interests of the University Press. This related to the renewal of a lease for printing, granted by the University to the Company of Sta

This Earl of Nottingham (who was son of the Lord Chancellor Nottingham) was, on the accession of King William and Queen Mary, offered the post of Lord High Chancellor of England, which he excused himself from accepting, alleging his unfitness for an employment that required a constant application; but was appointed one of the Principal Secretaries of State. See Chalmers's Biograph. Dict.

tioners in London. Much difference of opinion, not without some warmth of altercation, occurred in the arrangement of this concern; in which Waterland's advice and assistance were freely given, and ultimately prevailed. Throughout the negociation, his efforts were directed to guard against any misconstruction or misconception, on either side: and his letters (which were written from London) shew that he entered upon the discussion with the most upright and equitable feelings. His residence at that time in the metropolis afforded him an opportunity also of personally mediating between the parties, so as to prevent occasion being given for subsequent litigation. His correspondence on this matter was chiefly with the Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Craven, Master of Sidney college; his letters to whom, with other documents relating to them, are now in the possession of the college, and were obligingly communicated by the present Master, Dr. Chafy, on the application of Mr. Todd, Librarian to the Archbishop of Canterbury; who discovered them in searching for some other papers.

In the year 1729, the University was agitated by another political struggle; the two great parties vehemently contending to place each a favoured candidate of their own in the office of Vice-Chancellor. Dr. Mawson, afterwards Bishop of Ely, and Dr. Lambert, Master of St. John's, were the competitors. Lambert had already served the office; but was now again unexpectedly nominated by the Tory party. Waterland is mentioned as one of those whom this manœuvre of their opponents had taken d'

VOL. I.

by surprise; and he is said to have made great efforts to bring votes to Cambridge for Mawson. Dr. Gooch, and others of the Heads, did the same; but they were defeated, by a majority of 84 to 83. The successful party exulted exceedingly in the result of this hard-fought contest; and many pasquinades were circulated, in ridicule of the leaders on the other side but the general respect entertained for Waterland's character appears to have secured him against the attacks of these petty assailants.

After this affair, Dr. Waterland's name is not often mentioned in the University records. It occurs at a subsequent period, on the occasion of maintaining the rights of the University against some magistrates in the town, who had bailed a person committed by the Vice-Chancellor; and afterwards, as one of a Syndicate appointed to revise and correct the list of benefactors to the University; which is the last memorial of him in these public documents. It should not, however, be passed over here without due commendation, that in the year 1733 (as is recorded in the register of his college) he subscribed twenty guineas towards beautifying the College chapel.

The foregoing particulars, whether of greater or less importance, may serve to prove the high estimation in which Dr. Waterland stood among the leading characters of the University, his unremitting zeal for its best interests, and the active services which he rendered to it upon several occasions. They place him in the light of a person generally looked up to by his contemporaries, as one whose

judgment, temper, and talents for business, as well as his learning and zeal, entitled him to the fullest confidence.

The correspondence subjoined to this edition of his Works will throw still further light upon this part of his history, and tend to confirm this representation of his academical character. Several passages in them shew the lively interest which he took, not only in the literary concerns of the University, but also in the ecclesiastical and parliamentary proceedings connected with its rights and privileges.

This attention, on the part of Dr. Waterland, to academical concerns, may be deemed so much the more deserving of notice, when it is considered, that a very large portion of his time, during the last twenty years of his Headship, was necessarily occupied elsewhere, and his attention required to other professional engagements of high importance. For we have now to trace his progress in a wider field of action, and to view him distinguished both by his honours and his labours in the Church; the one opening the way to the other, as they who had the means of rewarding merit, and were desirous of upholding the interests of sound learning and pure religion, discovered in him one preeminently deserving of their patronage. It is necessary, however, for this purpose, to suspend in some measure the continuation of the biographical part of this narrative, that a more distinct and uninterrupted view may be presented to the reader of the services he has rendered, as an author, to the cause of religious truth, and which have handed down his name to posterity with such distinguished credit.

SECTION III.

WATERLAND'S CONTROVERSIAL WRITINGS IN VINDICATION OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY.

IT was not until some time after Dr. Waterland had attained to academical distinction, that he established his more extensive reputation as an author. The only pieces he had hitherto published were an Assize Sermon preached at Cambridge, July 21, 1713, and a Thanksgiving Sermon preached before the University, June 7, 1716, on the Suppression of the Rebellion. In the year 1719, appeared his first considerable work, entitled, A Vindication of Christ's Divinity, being a Defence of some Queries relating to Dr. Clarke's scheme of the holy Trinity, in answer to a Clergyman in the Country. This being the commencement of the chief polemical contest in which he engaged, and that in which truths of all others the most important were at issue, some account of the previous state of the controversy may not be unacceptable to the reader.

For nearly thirty years of a long and laborious life, Bishop Bull had taken the lead in defence of the doctrines of the Trinity and our Lord's Divinity, against the chief assailants of those doctrines, at home and abroad. Many publications, tending rather to Socinianism than Arianism, were put forth towards the latter end of the 17th century, in Holland and in England. Petavius a Jesuit, Zwicker a Socinian, and Sandius an Anti-Trinitarian, were foremost among foreign writers of this description; against whom Bishop Bull's first great work, his De