:

ON completing another volume of their Miscellany, it is the duty and inclination of the proprietors and conductors, to return thanks to their friends and the public, by whose assistance and encouragement the Orthodox Churchman's Magazine has preserved its course, and attained its present station.

They flatter themselves, that the work has been of some service to the cause of Religion in general; as well as to the particular interests of the Established Church of England and Ireland.

The artifices of the Sectaries have been laid open; and many nefarious practices have been brought forth and exposed to open day, through the medium of this publication; by which the friends of the Church and State have acquired information on the condition of Religion among us, which otherwise, probably, would have remained unheeded, or imperfectly known.

We cannot help observing, however, that all the faithful members of our communion are bound to exercise an uncommon degree of vigilance: for in no period since the Revolution has this Church stood in such perilous circumstances, as at the present moment. In addition to the prevalence of Scepticism and the increase of Schism, she has now to encounter the formidable assaults of that party, which arrogating to itself the exclusive

character of being the Catholic and Apostolic Church, cannot, consistently with that pretension, allow the legality of any other Establishment than its own.

Already have the champions of the Papacy thrown off the mask, and from claiming what they call Civil Rights, commenced an attack upon the Constitution of our Church, as well as upon the truth of her Doctrines. To what other object this hostility tends, than to subvert one branch of our Ecclesiastical Establishment, the Church of Ireland, it would be difficult to guess; at all events, the fact, which is indisputable, ought to rouse the attention of every Protestant, and to cement in a close union, all who have a good will to our Zion.

We presume then, in this exigency, to call for the support of our brethren in the important cause in which we are embarked; and earnestly do we entreat them to consider, ere it be too late, how necessary a duty it is to contribute their utmost exertions in behalf of every undertaking that has for its object the defence of our venerable Con stitution in Church and State.

June 30, 1808.

THE

ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S

MAGAZINE AND REVIEW,

FOR JANUARY, 1808.

They who are in the CHURCH Which CHRIST has upon terms which entitle them to God's favour; out of it, fall to his mercy.

founded, are they who are WM. LAW.

Biography.

The Life of the Most Reverend JOHN POTTER, D. D. Lord Archbishop of Canterbury.

THE father of this learned divine, and vigilant prelate, was a linen draper at Wakefield, in Yorkshire, where the fon was born in 1674, and received his education at the grammar school till he came to the age of fourteen, when he was removed to Oxford, and entered a batteler of Univerfity College. In 1698, he published in one volume octavo, "Variantes Lectiones et Notæ ad Plutarchi librum de audiendis Poëtis, cum Interpretatione Latina Hugonis Grotii; item Variantes Lectiones et Notæ ad Bafilii Magni Orationem ad Juvenes quomodo cum fructu legere poffint Græcorum libros." This work was printed at the University press, and the expense was defrayed by Dr. Arthur Charlett, master of University College, who presented copies of it as a new year's gift to the young students of his house. The year following, Mr. Petter was chosen fellow of Lincoln College, where he became

VOL. XIV.

Chm. Mag. Jan. 1808.

B

became a distinguished tutor. In 1697, he published a beautiful edition of Lycophron's Alexandra in folio, and the same year appeared the first volume of his Archæologia Græca, or the Antiquities of Greece, which was followed by the second volume the next year. These works established his fame in the learned world, and procured him an extensive correfpondence with men of letters at home and abroad. In 1704, he took the degree of bachelor in divinity, and was appointed chaplain to archbishop Tenison. He proceeded to his doctor's degree in 1706, and foon after became chaplain in ordinary to Queen Anne. The next year, he published his valuable "Discourse on Church Government," in which he thoroughly refuted the pernicious principles of Eraftianism, then beginning to be fashionable; and vindicated Episcopacy by incontrovertible arguments. This excellent performance has been well abridged in a small compass, by the late worthy Mr. William Stevens. At the beginning of the next year, he succeeded Dr. Jane, as Regius professor of divinity, and canon of Christ Church, in Oxford, for which he was indebted to the special interpofition of the great duke of Marlborough. By the fame interest also, Dr. Potter was raised to the bishopric of Oxford in 1715, in which year appeared his edition of Clemens Alexandrinus. While he was engaged in printing this work, a humour fell into his eyes, which obliged him to commit the care of correcting the press to others: whence it unfortunately happened that numerous typographical errors abound in it, of which he makes a heavy complaint in his preface. He still held the profefforship, and filled both dignities with the greatest reputation, rarely failing to preside in person at the divinity disputations in the schools; and regularly holding his triennial visitation at St. Mary's church, upon which occafion, his charges to the clergy were always fuited to the exigency of the times. Accordingly, when Hoadley advanced his doctrine about Sincerity as the only ground of acceptance with God, bishop Potter took occasion in his first charge in 1718, to caution his clergy against it. This charge being printed at the request of the audience, was warmly resented by Hoadley; and though neither his name nor the title of his book oc>curred therein, he took the rebuke to himself, and presently published an answer, to which our author replied. Bishop Potter entered into this controversy with a more fervent zeal than was thought natural to the coolness and moderation of his temper, for which he alledged, that the very existence of the church being struck at by the doctrines he opposed, it became