WILLIAM, a learned English divine in the seventeenth century, was born in 1641, and educated at Eton school, where he distinguished himself by the vigour of his genius and his application to study. From this he was removed to Cambridge, where he took his degrees. In 1669 he became rector of the parish of St George, Botolph Lane, in London; and in 1681 was collated to the prebend of Pancras, in the cathedral of St Paul's. He was likewise chosen master of the Temple, and had the rectory of Therfield, in Hertfordshire. After the Revolution he was suspended from his preferment, for refusing the oaths to William and Mary; but at last he took them, and publicly justified what he had done. In 1691 he was installed

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1 It had the singularity of never winking. ock as dean of St Paul's. His Vindication of the Doctrine of the Trinity engaged him in a warm controversy with Dr South and others. Bishop Burnet tells us he was "a clear, a polite, and a strong writer; but apt to assume too much to himself; and to treat his adversaries with contempt." He died in 1707. His works are very numerous, among which are, 1. A Discourse concerning the Knowledge of Jesus Christ, against Dr Owen; 2. Several pieces against the Papists, the Socinians, and Dissenters; 3. A Practical Treatise on Death; 4. A Practical Discourse on Providence; 5. A Practical Discourse on the Future Judgment; and many other works.

Dr Thomas, bishop of London, was the son of the preceding, and was born in 1678. He was educated in Catharine Hall, Cambridge, where he took his degrees, and of which he became master. He was made master of the Temple when very young, on the resignation of his father; and it is remarkable, that this mastership was held by father and son successively for more than seventy years. He was at the head of the opposition against Dr Hoadley, bishop of Bangor, during which contest he published a great number of pieces. He attacked Collins's Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion, in a course of six sermons, preached at the Temple Church, which he entitled The Use and Intent of Prophecy in the Several Ages of the World. In 1728, Dr Sherlock was promoted to the bishopric of Bangor, and was translated to Salisbury in 1734. In 1747 he refused the archbishopric of Canterbury, on account of his ill state of health; but recovering in a good degree, he accepted the see of London the following year. On occasion of the earthquakes in 1750, he published an excellent Pastoral Letter to the clergy and inhabitants of London and Westminster, of which it is said there were printed, in quarto five thousand, in octavo twenty thousand, and in duodecimo about thirty thousand, besides pirated editions, of which not less than fifty thousand were supposed to have been sold. Under the weak state of body in which he lay for several years, he revised and published four volumes of Sermons, in octavo, which are particularly admired for their ingenuity and elegance. He died in 1762, worth L150,000. "His learning," says Dr Nicholls, "was very extensive. God had given him a great and an understanding mind, a quick comprehension, and a solid judgment. These advantages of nature he improved by much industry and application. His skill in the civil and canon law was very considerable; to which he had added such a knowledge of the common law of England as few clergymen attain to. This it was that gave him that influence in all causes where the church was concerned, as knowing precisely what it had to claim from its constitutions and canons, and what from the common law of the land." Dr Nicholls then mentions his constant and exemplary piety, his warm and fervent zeal in preaching the duties and maintaining the doctrines of Christianity, and his large and diffusive munificence and charity; particularly by his having given large sums of money to the corporation of clergymen's sons, to several of the hospitals, and to the society for propagating the gospel in foreign parts, and also bequeathing to Catharine Hall, in Cambridge, the place of his education, his valuable library of books, and his donations for the founding a librarian's place and a scholarship, to the amount of several thousand pounds.