124 
profefling to carry the lowe of the bre- 
thren to great perfection. -They ~are 
myjtics, at leaft the crigindl fect was, 
thinking meanly of unenlightened human 
reafon, interpreting the fericture not ac- 
cording tothe letter, but allegoricaliy and 
fpiritualiy, and’ looking to a divine in- 
fiin&, or infpiration, as the only princi- 
ple of the Chriftizn life. Of this feét was 
Mr. Francis Okely, formerly of St. John’s 
college. 
This gentleman very early in life be- 
came acquainted with the writings of Mr, 
William Law, achurch of England di- 
vine, the well-known author of A De- 
vout Call toa Holy Life. Law himielf 
was a great myftic, a man of piety, a pro- 
found admirer of Jacob Behmen.. Being 
brought into a fuitable frame of mind b 
Law's woiks, Okely thought himfelf qua- 
lified to ftudy Jacob Behmen. He paffed 
many years in Germany, among the Mo- 
ravians, and fettled at laft at Northamp- 
ton, with a {mall congregation of his bre- 
thren. He publithed feveral religious 
treatifes, conformable to the notions of 
his favourite feét, and a few tranflations, 
among which are Serranus’s Greek Me- 
taphrafe ef David's Pfalms into different 
Metres, with a Latin @ranflation by him. 
felf, and a Tranflation from the Ger- 
man, of Memoirs of the Life, Death, Bu- 
rial, and Wonderful Writings of Faceb 
Bebmen, 1730; amott trifling book indeed 
—Mr. Okely might have written better’ 
memoirs bimielf, ‘* fans pede i uno.” 
As Jacob Behmen, however, was 
Okely’s bofom friend, we fhall extract 
the following fingular account of him, by 
Mr. Law :—‘* He was no human writer, 
fpoke no more from opinion, conjeure, 
or reafon, in what he publithed to the 
world, then St. John did, when he put 
his Revelations in. writing ; yet he has no 
right to be placed among the infpired 
penmen of the New Teftament, being no 
meflenger from God of any thing new in 
religion; but having only had the myf 
tery of all that was true, both in religion 
and zaiure, opened tohim.”’ Mr. Okely 
feems to have been a fincerely devout 
man, entirely wrapt up in the Moravian 
belief, as the wodutienv Mapyepiray, the 
pearl of great price. 
Oh, all ye wife, and rich, and juf, 
Who the Bloods do&trine have difcufs’d, 
And judge it vain, and weak, and lights 
Grant but I may (the reft’s your own) 
In thame and poverty fit down, 
At this one well-fpring of delight. 
\ 
Cantabrigiana. 
{ March 1, 
No.CXCIX.—=-MR. WILLIAM WOOLSTON, 
OF SIDNEY COLLEGE. 
This gentleman, born ia 1669, was 2 
writer of*great wit and banter, fo forcibly 
and pointedly exprefled, as to be entitled *’ 
Sarcafm. He was fellow of Sidney, re- 
fident many years in college, being diftin- 
guifhed as a fevere fludent, and a good 
fcholar. _ His predominant quality was 
diflike of the clergy, no lefs than the fyf- 
ftems which they fupported. This is 
the black dye which gives the tin€ture to 
all his writings. He was a man of de- 
termined courage, perfevering in his far. 
cafic ftyle of writing, at all hazards, 
rallying priefts and prelates, and majefty 
itfelf; defending, at times, the Quakers, 
whom he confidered as the mott fcriptural 
and coniftent fe& in Chriftendom. 
His firit work, entitled the Old Atpo-, 
logy for the Truth of the Chriftian Reli- 
gion againft Jews and Gentiles, fhews 
him to have had a very early acquaint- 
ance with the fathers and church hiftory. 
He then became filent for many years, but 
was underftood to be deeply employed in 
ftudy during that filence. He afterwards 
publifhed feveral other works, the moft 
diftinguifhed of which was entitled A Dif- 
courfe of the Miracles of our Saviour in 
View of the prefent Controverfy between 
Infidels and Apoftates. ‘The object of 
this work is to fhow, that the miracles of 
healing all manner of bodily difeafes are 
none of the proper miracles of the Meffiah ; 
and that the literal hiftory of many of the 
miracles of Chrifi as recorded by the 
Evangelifis, being abfurdities, they were . 
only related as parabolical and propheti- 
cal. Mr. Collins, a man of great learning 
and integrity, had applied the fame mode 
of reafoning to the prophecies that refpeét 
the Meffiah, in the O!d Teftament. It is 
generally underltood, that both Woolfton 
and Collins adopted a mode of reafoning, 
which, under fhelter of defending Chrif- 
tianity, was intended to attack it,—that 
being the only mode which could with 
fafety be adopted, —though Woolfton evi-. 
dently treats the clergy as the apoftates. 
He loft his fellowfhip, was profecuted, 
fined, and imprifoned, was very poor, and 
apparently difinterefted, and died with 
great compofure, thefe being his laft 
words :-—** This isa itruggle that all men 
muft go through, and which I bear not 
only patiently but with willingnefs.”” 
No. CC.—-MR. SCARGILL. 
Mr. Daniel Scargill was fellow of Bene’t 
college, but expelled both the college and 
univerity 
