dicious and orthodox writers of former times as well

as of the present.

"Considerations on the Nature and Efficacy of the Lord's Supper" was published in 1800. This excellent treatise has been equally well received with Dr. Knox's other theological writings. It proves most ingeniously and learnedly the important truth that

benefits are annexed to the reception of the eucharist," in opposition to the opinions advanced on this subject by Bishops Hoadley and Pearce, Drs. Sykes, Balguy, and Bell. That able polemical divine, Dr. Horseley, Bishop of St. Asaph, speaks of this work in the following words in the last charge he delivered to his diocese of Rochester:

"It is with much satisfaction I recommend to your perusal a work not long since published upon this sublime subject, by a learned divine of this diocese (Dr. Knox), under the title of "Considerations on the Nature and Efficacy of the Lord's Supper." I have requested the reverend author to reduce it to a form and size fit for general dispersion among the laity, which I mean to recommend. Meanwhile it highly deserves the attention of the profession, to whose particular use it is perhaps better adapted in its present shape than in one more popular; and it is no inconsiderable monument of the learning and piety of the writer."'+

The reader will, at the close of our account of this

* Drs. Gloucester Ridley, Isaac Barrow, Scott, Lucas, Townson, &c.; Bishops Taylor, Sanderson, Bull, Pearson, Secker, Horne, Horseley, &c. ; not to mention that the writer of this memoir has been told by one of the most distinguished prelates now living, who bestowed warm commendation upon this book, that he read it to his family, for their improvement, on Sunday evenings.

See the Bishop of Rochester's Charge, page 28. Robson, 1800.

1803-1801.

M m

celebrated

celebrated scholar and divine, expect a list of the benefices and dignities he holds as retributions for these various and highly useful labours in the service of the public we have thus cursorily enumerated; but he will be affected equally with surprize and regret to learn, that this steady defender of the church establishment, this able and strenuous advocate in the cause of religion, virtue, social order, civil government, learning, and every thing that renders life amiable or valuable, has never had any preferment bestowed upon him except the curacy of a little village, if it may be called preferment, which he has constantly supplied for a pittance ever since he was ordained by Bishop Lowth, at Christ Church, in Oxford, about 1777! Instances of the neglect of such merit as Dr. Knox's tempt us to exclaim with the poct,

"That Parson knows enough who knows a Duke." We have, however, the satisfaction to add, that by his own successful industry Dr. Knox is in very easy circumstances; and he has, moreover, in private life, the happiness to enjoy the unbounded esteem of a highly respectable acquaintance.

From what has been here impartially detailed it will appear, that there is no author now living whose works have been more extensively diffused; and, as it has been observed by a very distinguished character,

every page of Dr. Knox's writings is in favour of virtue, religion, learning, and whatever is conducive to the welfare and stability of church and state."

JOHN

JOHN RANDOLPH, D. D.

LORD BISHOP OF OXFORD,

AND REGIUS PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY IN THAT UNIVERSITY.

THIS learned and distinguished prelate was born, as Anthony Wood would have quaintly expressed it, in the lap of the Muses, about the year 1750. His father, Thomas Randolph, D. D. president of Corpus Christi College, was a divine of great eminence, and a very able controversialist. He published several polemical pieces, chiefly levelled against the oppugners of the Athanasian doctrine of the Trinity.

The present Bishop of Oxford, in his primary charge. to his clergy, in 1802, thus affectionately records his early and continued connection with that see:

"Being entrusted with the care of a diocese known to me by long experience, and endeared by long attachment, in which I passed my very infancy, and in which also I received a great part of my education; having held in the same almost every inferior office in the church, as those of curate, rector, and canon of its cathedral; having passed through almost every kind of employment in that university, which gives to this diocese a distinguished and almost peculiar character, it may be expected that I should betake myself on this my first occasion of meeting you, to appropriate and local considerations," &c.

At an early period of his life he was placed at Westminster school, where he made a considerable progress in classical learning, and was chosen King's scholar. At the usual age he was elected to Christ Church, Oxford, and was made student of that college the Christmas following, according to the general custom. While an under-graduate he conducted: himself

M m 2

himself with a great deal of propriety and regularity, and gained the respect of the society to which he belonged. His abilities were soon discovered to be of a more than ordinary stamp, and his quickness of parts and acquisitions of various kinds of knowledge were his only recommendation to the governors of his college, whose favour he did not fail to obtain. Soon after he had commenced bachelor of arts, he was appointed one of the sub-librarians of Christ Church, and was probably employed at the same time in private tuition. However that might be, he gave up a great deal of his time to close study, and attained a very extensive knowledge of the learned languages. Having taken the degree of master of arts, he became one of the public tutors of the college, in which office he exerted himself with a laudable diligence, labouring as much to render his instructions and lectures pleasing and attractive, as he did to make his pupils accurate and well-grounded scholars. His industry in this department was by no means unsuccessful, and many persons of eminence and distinction have to thank him for a material part of their education. In a short time he was appointed rhetoric reader and also censor of the college, the last of which offices he held for many years, during several of which he had for his colleague Dr. William Jackson, now canon of Christ Church, and younger brother of Dean Jack

son.

While censor of Christ Church he went through the offices of pro-proctor and proctor in the university, in which he conducted himself with great impar

tiality

tiality and lenity. Upon a vacancy in the poetry professorship, he offered himself as a candidate, and was elected almost unanimously. His terminal lectures were much admired, and exceedingly well attended, though never committed to the press. Bishop Lowth's "Lectiones Sacra Poesi Hebræorum" form a specimen of those lectures which are delivered by every professor of poetry, and are perhaps the best which were ever read before the university; though it was thought by some admirers of those delivered by Bishop Randolph, that his were little inferior to them. About this time he published an elegant Latin composition in praise of the Greek language, and of the antient Greek authors, particularly the poets, which was well received in the university.

Dr. Randolph was first instituted to a living in Oxfordshire of inconsiderable value, and afterwards raised to a canonry of Christ Church, with the regius professorship of divinity attached to it, in the year 1783. We cannot say to whom entirely he owed this preferment; but it is gencrally supposed he was favoured by the interest of the Buckingham family.

In 1785 he married Miss Lambard, daughter of the late Thomas Lambard, esq. of Sevenoaks, Kent, in whom he has found every qualification which tends to make the marriage state happy and desirable. She is a person of eminent piety, and has been the mother of six children, one of which, Cyril, died about three years ago; he was a promising child, and