_ 
466 
preachers at Whiteball. chapel. — It 
was ndét, however, until 1759, that. Mr. 
Porteuvs was known beyond the limits 
Of his University, for it was then that he 
obtained the Seatonian prize, for the best 
composition on * Death,” which he pub- 
lished soon after, in conformity with the 
will of the founder. This was his first 
‘poetical essay, or, at least, the first ever 
issued from the press, and it obtained 
for him not only a considerable portion of 
fame, but was also considered as the 
prelude_to still greater celebrity. 
‘The following passage seems so appro- 
priate to his own situatiofi, and we trust 
his own feelings, on a late awful occasion, 
that we cannot refrain from transcrib- 
ing it:— 
— 
- ——* At thy good time, 
Let Death approach.; I reck not—tet him but 
come 
In genuine form, not with~thy vengeance 
arm’d, ; 
Too much for man tobear. O rather lend 
Thy kindly aid to mitig.te his stroke : 
«6 And at that hour, when all aghast I 
stand bs 
(A trembling candidate for thy compassion) 
Qn this world’s brink, and iook into the 
next. 
When my soul starting from the dark un- 
. known, “ 
@asts back a wishful look, and fondly clings 
To her frail prop, unwilling to be wrench’d 
From this fair scene, from all her *custom’d 
JOYS, 
And all the lovely relatives of life, © 
Then shed thy comforts o’er me ; then put on 
The gentlest of thy looks. ~ Let no dark 
crimes, 
In all their hideous forms then starting up, 
Plant themselves round my couch in grim 
array5 pines Bs 
And stab my bleeding heart with two-edged 
terture— y 
Sense of past guilt, and dread of future woe. 
‘© Far be the ghastly crew! and in their 
stead : my 
Let’ cheatful Memory, from her purest cells, 
Lead forth a goodly train of Virtues fair, 
Cherish’d in earlier youth, now paying back 
With ten-fold usury the pious care, 
And posring o’er my wounds the heav'aly 
. balm. 
Of conscious innocence. — 
: ‘s But chiefly Thou, 
Whom soft-eyed Pity once led down: from 
” Peav’n, ; : red 
To bleed for man, to.teach him how to lives 
And Ob! still harder lesson! how to die ; 
Disiain not thou to smooth the restless bed 
O£ cickness and of pain.” Forgive the tear 
That feeble Nature drops, calm all her fears, 
Wake all her hopes, and animate her faith 5 
Memoir of tke late Right Reo. Beilby Porteus, [June 7, 
Till my rapt soul, anticipating heav’ny . 
Bursts from the. thraldom of incumb’ring 
Lk eT aa mane 
And, on the wings of ecstacy upborne, _ 
Springs into liberty, and light, and lite.” 
On the demise of George II. Mr. 
Porteus once more invoked the Muses, 
and, in some verses to the memory of 
that prince, exhibited his propensity to, 
and his excellence in poetical composition, - 
a talent on which he has been since com~ 
plimented by Hannah Moore, in her poeti- 
cal composition, “Sensibility.” But other 
studies and avocations, ofa far differentna< 
ture, called off his attention. In 1761, the 
pen of the subject of this memoir was oc> 
cupied in simple prose, and on a subject 
not very pleasant to a man of his placid 
turn of mind—controversial divinity. A 
little before this period appeared a 
work, entitled, ‘“* The ‘History of the 
Man after God’s own Heart ;” in which 
the many glaring defects in the character 
of David were artfully exposed and 
heightened, with a degree of boldness 
that alarmed’ many good and well-dis- 
posed Christians. Mr. Porteus, fearing 
lest it might produce much mischief, un- 
dertook, as well as many others, to vin-. 
dicate one of the heroes of the Old Tes- 
tament; and he accordingly preached a 
sermon, November 29, before the Uni- 
versity of Cambridge, which had pre- 
fixed to it by way of title-page, ‘The 
Character of David, King of Israel, im- 
partially stated.” pe 
it iss perhaps, to this little work, that . 
his future fortunes are to be wholly attri-. 
buted ; for Dr. Thomas Secker, who, in 
1758, had been translated from the see of 
Oxford, to the archiepiscopal throne of 
Canterbury, having read his discourse, 
was induced bya perusal of this and his 
other publications, totake Mr, P. who 
by this time had obtained the degree of 
M, A. under his own immediate patron- 
age.*. He accordingly was pleased ims 
mediately to appoint him one ‘of his do- — 
mestic chaplains; and soon after pre- 
“sented him, in succession, to two rec- 
tories 1 Kent, and one in Middlesex. 
A prebendal -stall in Peterborough fol- 
lowed at no: great ‘distance, and on the 
* It is evident from vol. 2d of his Ser- 
mon on various Subjects, p. 303, that he was 
obliged to Dr. Secker for his preferment, 
whom he there styles his ‘‘ excellent friend _ 
and patron.” He also says, that he is, ine 
debted for part of six pages, beginning p, 302, 
Sermon XLV, to that prelate, aside 
lA acd 
