:

field, June 17, 1722, by the Rev. Mr. William Lowth, rector of that parish, and prebendary of Winchester, in a Letter to himself, in which his characters of an Apostolical Church are considered; the dissenters' right to them is asserted and maintained; their ministers' call and ordination defended; their public worship vindicated; and Mr. Lowth's reflections on them and their assemblies are proved to be unjust and groundless. By John Norman, of Portsmouth;" Lond. 1723. Mr. Norman had opened the new meeting-house with a sermon, which he had published under the title of "The nature and extent of Christ's Church considered a sermon preached at Petersfield, February 13, 1721-2, at the opening of a new meeting-house, lately erected by the Protestant Dissenters of that town." Mr. Lowth took no notice of this sermon of Mr. Norman, "because he would not furnish him with a pretence to say, that he had given him any provocation to answer his sermon';" but however unwilling he was to be engaged in this controversy, he could not avoid being drawn into it. He soon published "An Answer to the Remarks of Mr. John Norman, of Portsmouth, on a Sermon preached at Petersfield, June 17, 1722: wherein the apostolical institution of episcopacy is vindicated from his exceptions; and the nature of church-communion, and our obligations to maintain it, are at large explained;" Lond. 1723. Mr. Norman rejoined with Defence of the Remarks, &c. in which Mr. Lowth's

1 Ibid. p. 8.

"A

Answer to the Remarks is fully considered; his arguments for the Apostolical Institution of Episcopacy, and his explication of the nature of Church Communion, are impartially examined; and the rights, principles, ministry, and worship, of Protestant Dissenters, further vindicated;" Lond. 1724. Mr. Lowth had, in the conclusion of his answer, declared, that he should "here be very willing to take leave of this controversy, that he might have leisure for the prosecution of an undertaking of another nature, and more suitable to his own inclination," (viz. his Commentary on the Prophets.) "Some of our greatest Divines," adds he, "have more than once managed this controversy, with all the advantages that strength of reason and calmness of temper can give to any cause; and yet after all with very little success'. When Mr. Norman's defence appeared, he did not at all repent of the resolution in which he was already fixed, of having no more to do with one whom he thought a very unfair adversary; at least of troubling the world no farther with this dispute. However, he drew up a full answer to Mr. Norman's defence, addressed to him in form of a letter, and sent it to him in manuscript. Mr. Norman returned a short answer by letter, waiving all further discussion of particulars, as his antagonist did not think proper to lay them before the public. And so the affair dropped. Thus Mr. Lowth's labours appear to have been strictly confined within the limits of his own province, and applied

1 Answer to Mr. Norman, p. 76.

solely to the peculiar duties of his function. Yet, in order to acquit himself the better in theology, he had pursued his studies with a more general and extensive view. Few had dealt more largely in criticism. There is scarce any ancient author, whether Latin or Greek, profane or ecclesiastical, especially the latter, but what he had read with a critical accuracy; constantly accompanying his reading with critical and philological remarks, noted in the margin and initial and final leaves of his book, or entered into his Adversaria. Of his collections in this way he was upon all occasions extremely communicative. Hence the notes on Clemens Alexandrinus, sent to Dr. Potter, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, and published with the author's name to each in his edition of that Father'. Hence the like remarks on Josephus, communicated to Dr. Hudson, for his edition, and acknowledged in the preface 2. As also

1 A due mention is made of them, in the preface, in these words. "Post nullum vero mihi memorandus est W. Lowthius, Ecclesiæ Cathedralis Winton. Præbendarius dignissimus, qui non solum perpetuas fere in Clementem notas ultro mihi obtulit, sed etiam cohortationem ad Græcos, et octo Stromatum libros pro diversa materiæ, qua constant, ratione, quatenus fieri potuit in capita redegit. Hæc autem infra, propriis auctorum nominibus distincta, et suis quæque locis disposita, reperientur *." i. e. "I must mention, in the first place, Mr. William Lowth, the most worthy prebendary of Winchester; who not only offered me, without asking, the remarks he had made upon almost all Clement's works, but also divided his exhortation to the Greeks, and the eight books of Stromata, into chapters," &c.

2 Mr. Anthony Hall mentions them with due respect, in his preface to Josephus. "Neque prætereundus est Gulielmus Lowthius, Præ

Potter, Præfat. in Clem. Alexand. Oxon. 1715.

those larger and more numerous annotations on the ecclesiastical historians, inserted in Mr. Reading's edition of them at Cambridge'. The author of the Bibliotheca Biblica was indebted to him for the same kind of assistance, as we find by the preface to the last posthumous volume 2. The

bendarius Wintoniensis dignissimus, cui tantum debuit quantum familiarium nemini *." i. e. "Nor must I pass over in silence Mr. William Lowth, the most worthy prebendary of Winchester, to whom he was as much obliged as to any other of his acquaintance."

1 He thus gratefully mentions them in his preface: "Adjectæ sunt etiam conjecturæ dicam? an potius certissimæ tam textûs Græci quam interpretationis emendationes, et Historiæ per totum opus elucidationes, quas mecum pro singulari sua humanitate communicavit Wilhelmus Lowthius, Eccl. Wint. Canonicus: vir impense doctus et kρirikwraros, quod, inter alia, nuperæ ejus Clementi Alexandrino passim aspersæ castigationes, nuperi in Isaiam et Jeremiam Prophetas Commentarii, amplissimè testantur +:" i. e. "There are

also added conjectures, shall I call them? or rather most certain emendations both of the Greek text and version, and explanations of the history throughout; which were very kindly communicated to me by Mr. William Lowth, prebendary of Winchester; a man of very great learning, and a most excellent critic, as plainly appears, among other things, by his emendations of Clemens Alexandrinus, and his commentaries on Isaiah and Jeremiah."

In which is this acknowledgment. "Among his very particular favourers and friends, ought especially to be mentioned, the late reverend, learned, and pious Mr. Lowth, a gentleman of a character in all respects unexceptionable. The learned Dr. Hudson, out of a just sense of the valuable assistance received from this gentleman, when he desired his advice upon several passages of Josephus, was pleased to declare, that he took him to be the greatest scholar in the kingdom. This small tribute to the memory of so great a man, I am well satisfied, Mr. Parker, had he been living, would have looked upon as a poor return for the collection of notes which Mr. Lowth has favoured him with in this last volume of the Pentateuch, and a much meaner ex

* Ant. Hallii Præfat. ad Joseph. Edit. Hudson, Oxon. 1720.

+ Reading, Præfat. ad Eusebium, &c. Cantab. 1720.

learned Dr. Chandler, late Bishop of Durham, while he was engaged in his "Defence of Christianity from the prophecies of the Old Testament, against the discourse of the grounds and reasons of the Christian religion ;" and in his "Vindication of the Defence, in answer to the scheme of literal prophecy considered," held a constant correspondence with Mr. Lowth, and consulted him upon many difficulties that occurred in the course of that work. We should not do justice to Mr. Lowth's character, if we did not add, that the most valuable part of it was what least appeared to the eyes of the world, the private and retired part, that of the good Christian and the useful parish priest. His unfeigned piety and most exemplary life, his diligence, assiduity, and zeal, in the duties of his function; his hospitality and constant readiness in performing all the offices of kindness, whether of admonition, advice, or assistance, to his parishioners, gave all the recommendation and weight that could be added to his most earnest exhortations from the pulpit. He married Margaret, daughter of Robert Pitt, of Blandford, in the county of Dorset, Esq. by whom he had two sons and three daughters, who all survived him. By his own orders, he was buried in the church-yard of his parish church at Buriton, where he died, near the south side of the chancel; and on the

pression of the value he set on a friendship he had so happily cultivated+."

+ Bibliotheca Biblica, vol. v. Account of the Life and Writings of the author prefixed, p. 8.