PARKHURST

PARKHURST (the Rev. John), was the second son of John Parkhurst, Esq; of Catesby in Northamptonshire. His mother was Ricarda Dormer, daughter of Judge Dormer. He was born in June 1728, was educated at the school of Rugby in Warwickshire, and was afterwards of Clare hall, Cambridge; B. A. 1748, M. A. 1752; and many years fellow of his college.

Being a younger brother, he was intended for the church; but not long after his entering into holy orders his elder brother died. This event made him the heir of a very considerable estate; though, as his father was still living, it was some time before he came into the full possession of it; and when he did come into the possession of it, the acquisition of fortune produced no change on his manners or his pursuits. He continued to cultivate the studies becoming a clergyman; and from his family connections, as well as from his learning and piety, he certainly had a good right to look forward to preferment in his profession; but betaking himself to retirement, and to a life of close and intense study, he fought for no preferment; and, according to the author of the biographical sketch of him published in the Gentleman's Magazine, he lived not in an age when merit was urged forward. Yet, in the capacity of a curate, but without any salary, he long did the duty, with exemplary diligence and zeal, in his own chapel at Catesby, which, after the demolition of the church of the nunnery there, served as a parish-church, of which also he was the patron.

When, several years after, it fell to his lot to exercise the right of presentation, he was so unfashionable as to

consider church-patronage as a trust rather than a property; and, accordingly, resisting the influence of interest, favour, and affection, presented to the vicarage of Epsum, in Surrey, the Rev. Jonathan Boucher, who still holds it. This gentleman was then known to him only by character; but having distinguished himself in America, during the revolution, for his loyalty, and by teaching the unsophisticated doctrines of the church of England to a set of rebellious schismatics at the peril of his life, Mr Parkhurst thought, and justly thought, that he could not present to the vacant living a man who had given better proofs of his having a due sense of the duties of his office.

In the year 1754, Mr Parkhurst married Susanna Myster, daughter, and, we believe, heiress of John Myster, Esq; of Epsum. It was thus that he became patron of the living which he bestowed on Mr Boucher. This lady died in 1759, leaving him a daughter and two sons; both the sons are now dead. In the year 1761, he married again Millicent Northey, daughter of Thomas Northey, Esq; by whom he had one daughter, now married to the Rev. Joseph Thomas.

In the year 1753, he began his career of authorship, by publishing, in 8vo, "A friendly Address to the Rev. Mr John Wesley, in relation to a principal Doctrine maintained by him and his Assistants." This work we have not seen; but though we have no doubt of its value, we may safely say that it was of very little importance, when compared with his next publication, which was "An Hebrew and English Lexicon, without Points; to which is added, a methodical Hebrew Grammar, without Points, adapted to the use of Learners, 1762," 4to. To attempt a vindication of all the etymological and philosophical disquisitions which are scattered through this dictionary, would be very fruitless; but it is not perhaps too much to say, that we have nothing of the kind equal to it in the English language. He continued, however, to correct and improve it; and in 1778 another edition of it came out much enlarged, and a third in 1792.

His philological studies were not confined to the Hebrew language; for he published a Greek and English Lexicon to the New Testament; to which is prefixed, a plain and easy Greek Grammar, 1769, 4to; a second edition, 1794; and at his death there was in the press a new edition of both these lexicons, in a large 8vo, with his last corrections; for he continued to revise, correct, add to, and improve, these works, till within a few weeks of his death. As, from their nature, there cannot be supposed to be any thing in dictionaries that is particularly attractive and alluring, this continued increasing demand for these two seems to be a sufficient proof of their merit.

He published, "The Divinity and Pre-existence of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, demonstrated from Scripture; in Answer to the first Section of Dr Priestley's Introduction to the History of early Opinions concerning Jesus Christ; together with Strictures on some other Parts of the Work, and a Postscript relating to a late Publication of Mr Gilbert Wakefield, 1787," 8vo. This work was very generally regarded as completely performing all that its title-page promised; and accordingly the whole edition was soon sold off. The brief, evasive, and very unsatisfactory notice taken of this able pamphlet by Dr Priestley, in "A

Parkhurst. Letter to Dr Horne," &c. shewed only that he was unable to answer it.

Mr Parkhurst was a man of very extraordinary independency of mind and firmness of principle. In early life, along with many other men of distinguished learning, it was also objected to him, that he was an Hutchinsonian; and on this account alone, in common with them, it has been said that he was neglected and shunned.

There is not, in the history of the times, says the biographer already quoted, a circumstance more difficult to be accounted for than the unmerited, but increasing, discountenance shewn to those persons to whom Hutchinsonianism was then objected. Methodists, Papists, and sectaries of any and of every name, all stood a better chance of being noticed and esteemed than Hutchinsonians. Had it even been proved that the few peculiar tenets by which they were distinguished from other Christians were erroneous, the opposition they experienced might have been deemed hard measure, because even their opponents allowed their principles to be inoffensive, and themselves to be learned.

Is this a fair state of the case? We think not. The early Hutchinsonians had imbibed all the peculiar notions of their master, and maintained them with a degree of acrimony which would have disgraced any cause. Being in general very little acquainted with the higher mathematics, as Mr Hutchinson himself seems likewise to have been, they censured dogmatically works which, without that knowledge, they could not fully understand; whilst they maintained, with equal dogmatism, as matters of fact, hypotheses, which a moderate share of mathematical science would have shewn them to be impossible. Had they stopped here, no harm would have been done; they might have enjoyed their favourite notions in peace: but unfortunately they accused of Atheism, Deism, or Socinianism, all who thought not exactly as they thought, both in natural philosophy and in theology. Because Newton and Clarke had demonstrated that the motions of the planets cannot be the effect of the impulsion of any material fluid, Hutchinson, with some of his followers, affirmed, that these two illustrious men had entered into a serious design to overturn the Christian religion, and establish in England the worship of the Heathen Jupiter, or the Stoical anima mundi. Because the Bishops Pearson, Bull, and others, who had uniformly been considered as the ablest defenders of the Catholic faith, thought not exactly as Hutchinson thought of the filiation of the Son of God, they were condemned by the pupils of his school as Arians, or at least Semi-arians; and the writer of this sketch has heard a living Hutchinsonian pronounce the same censure, and for the same reason, on the present illustrious Bishop of Rochester, and the no less illustrious Whitaker.

That men, who thus condemned all that before them had been deemed great and good in physical science and Christian theology, should meet with some

discountenance while they continued of such a spirit, needs not surely excite much wonder; but that the discountenance is increasing, we believe not to be true. The Hutchinsonians, as soon as they became less violent against those who differed from them, had their share of preferment, in proportion to their number, with others; and we doubt not they will continue to have it, while they allow that a man may be no heretic, though he believe not Mr Hutchinson to have been infallible. The late excellent Bishop Horne was an avowed Hutchinsonian, though not an outrageous one like Julius Bate; and we have been told, and have reason to believe, that the Bishop of St Asaph is likewise a moderate favourer of the same system. There may be others on the episcopal bench; but perhaps two out of twenty-six is the full proportions of Hutchinsonian divines of eminence in England. It is true that Mr Parkhurst was a man of great learning and great worth; but before we attribute his want of preferment in the church to his Hutchinsonianism, it is incumbent upon us to say why Mr Whitaker, who is no Hutchinsonian, is still nothing more than the rector of Ruan-Lanyhorne.

Mr Parkhurst, however, was not, if his biographer deserves credit, a thorough-paced Hutchinsonian; for though he continued to read Hutchinson's writings as long as he read at all, he was ever ready to allow, that he was oftentimes a confused and bad writer, and sometimes unbecomingly violent. To have been deterred from reading the works of an author, who, with all his faults, certainly throws out many useful hints, for fear of being thought a Hutchinsonian, would have betrayed a pusillanimity of which Mr Parkhurst was incapable. What he believed he was not afraid to profess; and never professed to believe any thing which he did not very sincerely believe. An earnest lover of truth, he fought it where only it is to be found—in the Scriptures (A). The study of these was at once the business and the pleasure of his life: from his earliest to his latest years, he was an hard student; and had the daily occupations of every 24 hours of his life been portioned out, as it is said those of king Alfred were, into three equal parts, there is reason to believe that a deficiency would rarely have been found in the eight hours allotted to study. What the fruits have been of a life so conducted, few theologians, it is presumed, need to be informed, it being hardly within the scope of a supposition, that any man will now sit down to the study of the Scriptures without availing himself of the assistance to be obtained from his learned labours. These labours ceased at Epsom in Surrey, where this great and good man died, on March the 21st, 1797. Besides the works which we have mentioned, there is in the Gentleman's Magazine, for August 1797, a curious letter of his on the Confusion of Tongues at Babel.

Mr Parkhurst's character may be collected with tolerable accuracy even from this imperfect sketch of his life. His notions of church patronage do him honour; and as a farther instance of the high sense he entertained

ed of strict justice, and the steady resolution with which he practised it on all occasions, an incident which occurred between him and one of his tenants, within these ten years, may here be mentioned. This man falling behind hand in the payment of his rent, which was L. 500 per annum, it was represented to his landlord that it was owing to his being over rented. This being believed to be the case, a new valuation was made; and it was then agreed that, for the future, the rent should not be more than L. 450. Jolly inferring, moreover, that if the farm was then too dear, it must necessarily have been always too dear, unmarked, and of his own accord, he immediately struck off L. 50 from the commencement of the lease; and instantly refunded all that he had received more than L. 450 per annum.

Mr Parkhurst was in his person rather below the middle size, but remarkably upright, and firm in his gait. He was all his life of a sickly habit; and his leading so remarkably studious and sedentary a life (it having, for many years, been his constant practice to rise at five, and, in winter, to light his own fire) to the very verge of David's limits of the life of man, is a consolatory proof to men of similar habits, how much, under many disadvantages, may still be effected by strict temperance and a careful regimen. He also gave less of his time to the ordinary interruptions of life than is common. In an hospitable, friendly, and pleasant neighbourhood, he visited little; alleging, that such a course of life neither suited his temper, his health, nor his studies. Yet he was of sociable manners; and his conversation always instructive, often delightful: for his stores of knowledge were so large, that he too has often been called a walking library. He belonged to no clubs; he frequented no public places; and there are few men who, towards the close of life, may not, on a retrospect, reflect with shame and sorrow, how much of their precious time has thus been thrown away, or, perhaps, worse than thrown away.

Like many other men of infirm and sickly frames, Mr Parkhurst was also irritable, and quick, warm, and earnest, in his resentments, though never unforgiving. But whether it be or be not a matter of reproach to possess a mind so constituted, it certainly is much to any man's credit to counteract and subdue it by an attention to the injunctions of religion. This Mr Parkhurst effectually did: and few men have passed through a long life more at peace with his neighbours, more respected by men of learning, more beloved by his friends, or more honoured by his family.