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and in 1762 he more direftly and feverely attacks their 

 leading principles, in his work entitled " The Doftrine of 

 Grace, or the Office and Operation of the Holy Spirit 

 vindicated from the Infults of Infidelity and the Abufes of 

 Fanaticifm." In 1763 he was the mover in the houfe of 

 lords of a charge againft Mr. Wilkes, as the author of an 

 indecent " EfTay on Women ;" for which he was abufively 

 attacked by Churchill, and others of that party. In 1765, 

 a fourth edition of the fecond part of his " Divine Lega- 

 tion" appeared, as the third, fourth, and fifth volumes of 

 that work. In this edition he treated the father of the 

 learned Dr. Lowth in a manner fo illiberal, as to occafion an 

 acrimonious controverfy between thefe antagonifts. A 

 third volume of his " Sermons" was publifhed in 1767; 

 and in 1 768 he transferred 500/. to truftees, for defraying 

 the charge of a lefture at Lincoln's Inn, inftituted with a 

 view of proving the truth of Chriftianity from a completion 

 of the prophecies in the Old and New Teftament relating 

 to the Chriltian church. The decay of his faculties was 

 foon afterwards accelerated by the death of his only child, 

 who was carried off by a confumption in his 19th year ; and 

 his life tern\iiiated at Glouceiler, June 7th, 1779, in the 

 8ift year of his age. His works were coUefted and printed 

 by Dr. Hurd, bifhop of Worcefter, in 1788, comprehended 

 in 7 vols. 4to., to which the editor has prefixed an account of 

 his hfe, writings, and charafter. In 1809 appeared " Let- 

 ters from a late eminent Prelate to one of his Friends," 

 ( Warburton to Hurd,) containing refleftions on the htera- 

 ture of the times ; but " lamentably deformed," as a bio- 

 grapher before us juftly obferves, " by the arrogance and 

 imperative fpirit of one prelate, and the adulation of the 

 other." Dr. Johnfon, in his " Life of Pope," has juftly 

 delineated the literary charafter of bifhop Warburton, of 

 whom it is faid that he was kind in the domeftic relations of 

 life, and ardent in his friendihip, in the following paffage : 

 " He was a man of vigorous faculties, a mind fervid and 

 vehement, fupplied by inceffant and unlimited inquiry, with 

 wonderful extent and variety of knowledge, which yet had 

 not opprefled his imagination, nor clouded his perfpicuity. 

 To every work he brought a memory full fraught, together 

 with a fancy fertile of original combinations ; and at once 

 exerted the powers of the fcholar, the reafoner, and the wit. 

 But his knowledge was too multifarious to be always exaft, 

 and his purfuits were too eager to be always cautious. His 

 abilities gave him a haughty confequence, which he difdained 

 to correft or mollify ; and his impatience of oppofition 

 difpofed him to treat his adverfaries with fuch contemptuous 

 fuperiority, as made his readers commonly his enemies, and 

 excited againft the advocate the wifhes of fome who fa- 

 voured the caufe. He feems to have adopted the Roman 

 emperor's determination, " Oderint dum metuant." He 

 ufed no allurements of gentle language, but wiflied to 

 compel rather than perfuade. His ftyle is copious without 

 feleftion, and forcible without neatnefs : he took the words 

 that prefented themfelves ; his diftion is coarfe and impure, 

 and his fentences are unmeafured." Hurd. Nichols. 

 Johnfon. Gen. Biog. 



WARD, Seth, D.D., in Biography, an eminent mathe- 

 matician, was born at Buntingford, in Herts, in 1617, and 

 completed his education at Sidney college, Cambridge, of 

 which he became a fellow. Mathematics were his favourite 

 iludy ; but his purfuits were interrupted by the civil war, 

 as he chofe to fliare the fate of his friend and patron. Dr. 

 Samuel Ward, the mafter of his college, to accompany him 

 in his imprifonment, and to attend him even on his death- 

 bed, in 1643. In confequence of refufing to take the 

 covenant, he was deprived of his fellowlhip in 1644, and of 



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all means of fupport at the univerfity. Many opportunities 

 of private inftruftion in families of diftinftion prefented 

 themfelves ; but preferring refidence with Ralph Freeman 

 of Afpenden-hall, efq., whofe fons he taught, he continued 

 with him till the year 1649, when he was appointed chap- 

 lain to Thomas lord Wenman of Tame-park, in Oxford- 

 fhire. On the expulfion of Mr. Greaves, civihan profeflbr 

 of aftronomy at Oxford, he was chofen to fucceed him, 

 but with the condition of taking the oath called the engage- 

 ment. Having raifed the ailronomical lefture to reputation, 

 he, together with his friend Dr. Wallis, was made doftor 

 of divinity ; and they both concurred in attending thofe 

 meetings at Wadham college, which laid the foundation of 

 the Royal Society, of which he became a fellow in 1661, 

 and tor feveral years fecond prefident. In 1659 he was 

 chofen prefident of Trinity college, but refigned it in favour 

 of the legal owner. After the Reftoration, he became 

 vicar of St. Lawrence-Jewry, in London, in 1660; foon 

 after dean of Exeter, and, by the intereft of Monk and 

 Clarendon, bilhop of that fee, which he improved in a va- 

 riety of refpefts by his munificence. At Salifbury, to 

 which he was translated in 1667, he conciliated univerfal 

 refpedt by his charity and hofpitality. To this fee he was 

 a diftinguiftied benefa£lor, obtaining for its bifhop the per- 

 petual honour of being chancellor of the order of the Garter, 

 which had been for more than a century alienated from it ; 

 and founding in the town the college of matrons in 1682, 

 for the maintenance of ten widows of orthodox minifters in 

 the tliocefe. Although he was not naturally of a perfe- 

 cuting difpofition, yet he was aftive in executing the orders 

 which he received from court for the fuppreflion of con- 

 venticles. In confequence of a fever, with which he was 

 attacked in 1660, his bodily ftrength declined, and his in- 

 telleftual faculties were impaired ; and at length he clofed a 

 melancholy life in 1689, in the 72d year of his age. Mr. 

 Oughtred gives him the character of a prudent, pious, and 

 ingenious perfon, (killed not only in mathematics, but in all 

 branches of polite literature. According to Burnet, he 

 was, in many refpefts, one of the greateft men of his age : 

 but he elfewhere fays, that his fincerity was much quef- 

 tioned ; being a profound ftatefman, but an indifferent 

 clergyman. His various works on mathematics and aftro- 

 nomy were valued at the time when they were written, but 

 they have been fuperfedcd by modern difcoveries and im- 

 provements. For an account of the hypothefis that bears 

 his name, fee the article Anomaly. He publifhed, befides 

 fermons, " A philofophical Effay towards the Eviction of 

 theBcingand Attributesof God,the Immortality of the Souls 

 of Men, and the Truth and Authority of Scripture," Oxford, 

 1652, 8vo. ; " Dc Cometis, ubi de Cometarum Natura 

 difleritur, nova Cometarum theoria ex noviffima Cometse 

 Hiftoria proponitur. Prasleftio Oxonii habita, et Inqui- 

 fitio in Ifmaelis Bulhaldi Aftronomi^ Philolaicx Funda- 

 menta," Oxon. 1653, 410. ; " Idea Trigonometria: de- 

 monftrata, in Ufum Juventutis," Oxon. 1654, 4to. ; " In 

 Thomx Hobbii Philofophiam Exercitatio Epiftohca, ad 

 D. J. Wilkinfium Guardianum Coll. Wadkami," ibid. 

 1656, 4to. ; " Aftronomia Geometrica : ubi Methodus pro- 

 ponitur qua primariarum Planetarum Aftronomia five El- 

 liptica five Circularis pofTit geometricc abfolvi," Lond. 

 1656, 8vo. Biog. Brit. Hutton's Dift. 



Ward, John, LL.D., the fon of a nonconformift 

 minifter, was born in London in 1679, and for fome years, 

 after a competent education, occupied a place in the Navy. 

 office ; but devoted to literary purfuits, he quitted this fitua- 

 tion in 1 7 10, and became a fchool-mafter. As a member 

 of a focicty, eftablifhed for hterary improvement, he read, 



in 



