Episcopius having attempted in a popular manner to expel from the public mind all veneration for antiquity in religious matters; Courcelles, his disciple, and author of an edition of the Greek New Testament with various readings, in which he is accused by Moller of Socinianism, followed up and went beyond his master,* And the attempts also to unite the high temperature of ultra-Calvinism,† with the frigid formality of Socinianism, were additional causes why our author published the Judicium Ecclesiæ Catholicæ. How far he has succeeded in rectifying mis-statements, and exposing erroneous positions, the unbiassed reader must decide.

Some time after its publication, a copy of the "Judicium Ecclesiæ Catholicæ," &c. was sent by Robert Nelson, Esq. the biographer of Dr. Bull, to Monsieur Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux, the panegyrist of Lewis XIV. He not only perused it carefully himself, but handed it round to the other Bishops in France, who expressed their warm approbation of the performance, in a congratulatory letter from the clergy assembled at St. Germains, to the author.

The letter of the Bishop of Meaux contained a number of queries, with a view to extort Dr.

Nelson's Life, &c, Sect. 66.-Horne's Introd. to the Crit. Stud. of the H. Scrip. vol. II. p. I. ch. 3, sect. 2.

+ Mosheim's Eccles. Hist. Cent. 17. sect. 2, part 1, ch. 2.

See Testimonies of his Picty, &c.

Bull's sentiments upon some controverted points between the Church of Rome and that of England. Having read the letter, our author very unreservedly published his sentiments in reply to it; but the Bishop died before the answer reached him. Had Bossuet's life been protracted a few years, it is not improbable but that he and our author would have tried their strength in defending their respective tenets. The former was a subtile disputant, and could manage either a good or a bad cause with great dexterity. His successful disputes with Pope Innocent XI. in defending the "Regale" of the Kings of France; and, that with the amiable Fenelon, against the peculiarities of Madame Guyon, are proofs that he was not unskilled in attacking either tyranny or fanaticism. The latter was a host in himself, and a courageous defender of the truth. When he engaged in controversy, he put on an invulnerable panoply. When he called forth his latent energies, error fell before him like the rocks, trees, and shrubs, which are borne down before the precipitating avalanche. Should they have measured pens, we are not afraid of what would have been the consequence. Sophistry may obscure the truth, when it is banished by public authority; but when introduced and supported by such powerful friends as the author of the" Judicium,"

* This Letter was re-published in 1813, by the Venerable Bishop of St. David's.

Mosheim's Eccles. Hist. Cent. 17, sect. 2, p. 1, ch. 1.

its enemies are overpowered with its emanating splendour, and, like nocturnal birds, seek the shade.

The last work which Dr. Bull published, was "Primitiva et Apostolica Traditio Dogmatis," &c. with a view to counteract the dangerous tenets of Dr. Zwicker, a Prussian Socinian, and those of his followers in England.* That daring controversialist had the boldness to affirm, that the Orphean Verses and the Sibylline Books were the crude compositions of some of the followers of Simon Magus, and had been clandestinely dragged forward by Justin Martyr, to support Christianity against the attacks of the Gentiles. Such a gratuitous assertion met with an unanswerable confutation from Dr. Bull, who justly exposed the fallacious arguments by which the dogmatizing Prussian and his followers had attempted to impose upon the credulous and the unwary, with a view to proselyte.

The various works of Dr. Bull which had been published in Latin, at different periods, were, in 1703, re-published in an uniform folio edition, His intense nightly studies, and laborious efforts to do good in the different parishes which had enjoyed the ministry of such a watchful pastor, began now to exhibit symptoms of their having been carrying on the work of destruction. Bodily

Nelson's Life, &c. sect. 67.-Appendix, No. 2.

weakness and languor prevented him from correcting the press; but his intimate friend, Dr. J. E. Grabe, the editor of an elegant edition of the Septuagint, voluntarily undertook the labour, and ushered this folio copy into the world, with a long preface and learned annotations.*

The venerable subject of this Memoir, was now in his seventy-first year. And though many in the same space of time, may have reared more temporary piles by their diligence; yet, there are very few who have reared such lasting monuments of laborious industry.. The labours of some resemble houses of snow, which begin to diminish before they are completed; but those of our author are like the marble monument and the pillar of brass, which stand and behold generations of mortals passing them into the land of forgetfulness. The self-gratulatory words of the Sabine bard, are not inapplicable to the author of the "Judicium Ecclesiæ Catholicæ."

Exegi monumentum aere perennius,
Regalique situ pyramidum altius:

Quod non imber edax, non Aquilo impotens
Possit diruere, aut innumerabilis

Annorum series, et fuga temporum.

*

Appendix, N. 3. Nelson's Life, &c. sect. 71.

III. From his Promotion to the Diocese of St. David, till his death, including a period of five years.

If the author of "Alexander's Feast," "followed fame”-it "pursued" the author of the "Judicium," &c. ; for her Majesty, Queen Anne, was so much satisfied with the accounts which she heard of his piety and abilities, that she, in 1705, signified her intention of promoting him to the Diocese of St. David. He received the account with surprize. Considering his advanced age, bodily infirmities, and the pressure of duty which must necessarily have borne upon a Bishop in those days, he acted according to the letter and spirit of the ancient, "Noli Episcopari."

His friends, who were the best judges of his qualifications for the Episcopal College, urged him to comply with her Majesty's appointment. Having reconsidered the matter, he yielded to the wishes of his friends, and those of the church, and was consecrated in Lambeth Chapel, on April 29, 1705. His reflections on this memorable occasion, would undoubtedly have been instructive, had they been committed to writing; especially as he was now about to occupy a post which had been so nobly defended by a Farrar, who, rather than betray the cause committed to him, honorably fell in the contest. If proof