WITH PRAYERS: CONTAINING THE COMPLETE DUTY OF A CHRISTIAN BY THE RT. REV. JEREMY TAYLOR, D.D. LATE BISHOP OF DOWN, CONNOR, AND DROMORE. TO WHICH IS PREFIXED A MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. A NEW EDITION. NEW-YORK: D. APPLETON & CO., 346 & 348 BROADWAY. M.DCCC.LIX. THE LIFE OF JEREMY TAYLOR, D. D. JEREMY TAYLOR, the third son of Nathaniel Taylor, a barber-surgeon at Cambridge, was born on the 15th of August, 1613. His family, had formerly held a respectable rank in Gloucestershire; and he was lineally descended from Dr. Rowland Taylor, chaplain to Archbishop Cranmer, who suffered death at the stake, in the reign of Queen Mary. Jeremy Taylor was taught the rudiments of grammar and mathematics by his father, and in the Free-school at Cambridge he received further instruction. At the age of thirteen he was entered as a sizar of Caius College; and took his degree of master of arts, and was admitted into holy orders, in 1633. About this period he removed to London, having been engaged by a former chamber-fellow, of the name of Risden, to supply his place as lecturer of St. Paul's Cathedral for a short time. he preached, says Dr. Rust, "to the admiration and astonishment of his auditory, and by his florid and youthful beauty, and sweet and pleasant air, and sublime and raised discourses, he made his hearers take him for some young angel newly descended from the visions of glory." Laud, archbishop of Canterbury, having heard the fame of Taylor's eloquence, was anxious to hear him, and sent for the young divine to preach before him at Lambeth. The archbishop was highly pleased with his discourse, but observed that he was too young for the office he was then filling in St. Paul's. Taylor" humbly begged his grace to pardon that fault, and promised if he lived he would mend it." Here Being chancellor of the University of Oxford, Laud was desirous that Taylor should remove thither, either because he would be better enabled to advance him there, or, as Dr. Rust says, "to afford him better opportunities of study and improvement than a course of constant preach ing would allow of." He complied with the chancellor's desire, and in 1635 was admitted master of arts in Uni versity College. The following letter was written by Laud to the warden and fellows of All-Souls College, three days after his admission. "To the Warden and Fellows of All-Souls College, Oxford. Salutem in Christo. "These are on the behalf of an honest man and a scholar; Mr. Osborn being to give over his fellowship, was with me at Lambeth, and, I thank him, freely offered me the nomination of a scholar to succeed in his place. Now having seriously deliberated with myself touching this business, and being willing to recommend such an one to you as you might thank me for, I am resolved to pitch upon Mr. Jeremiah Taylor, of whose abilities and sufficiencies every ways I have received very good assurance. And I do hereby heartily pray you to give him all furtherance, by yourself and the fellows, at the next election, not doubting but that he will approve himself a worthy and learned member of your society. And though he has had his breeding, for the most part, in the other university, yet I hope that shall be no prejudice to him, in regard that he is incorporated into Oxford, (ut sit eodem ordine, gradu,&c.) and admitted into University College. Neither can I learn that there is any thing in your local statutes against it. I doubt not but you will use him with so fair respects as befits a man of his rank and learning; for which I shall not fail to give you thanks. So I leave him to your kindness, and rest "Your loving friend, "WILLIAM CANT." The following account of the proceedings on this election, is extracted from Heber's Life of Taylor, prefixed to the complete edition of his works. "What authority," says he, "Mr. Osborn can have had to dispose in this manner of the nomination to a fellowship which he was himself about to resign, or how he could undertake to influence an election in which he was to have no voice, is not very easy to conjecture; unless we sup pose him to have spoken the sentiments of some other of his brethren, who may have desired to pay their visitor the unusual compliment of asking his opinion in the choice of a new member of the society. The recommendation, however, forcible as it must have been, was not received with |