MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. THE Sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are the most important in the ecclesiastical history of our country. They were productive of the greatest names which have exalted the character of the Church of England; of men of the most extensive reading, of unwearied study, and profound thinking. But they were, unfortunately, periods of incessant and angry controversy, promoted by a variety of inconsistent sects and opinions, all contributing to perplex the understanding, and disturb the conscience. Amidst these many contests of religious sentiment, and vicissitudes of civil power, the writings of many eminent scholars and divines rose and fell in the public estimation, and some of the most valuable were sunk into oblivion merely by the influence of party spirit. The restoration of church and state under Charles II. had not all the effect that might have been expected in reviving public attention to the best writings of the preceding age. It, indeed, put an end to many of the controversies which had distracted the country, yet it was followed by a marked neglect, and even contempt for the services of the ablest writers on the side of religion, and by a state of public manners, partly flagitious, and partly frivolous, which was extremely unfriendly to literature. The antipathies created during the usurpation, some of which were natural, at least, if not justifiable, still prevailed to keep up hostile feeling; and toleration, the want of which all parties had formerly deplored, was as far as ever from making a part of public opinion, or, as it now happily is, of the law of the land. In looking back to the period alluded to, it is found very difficult to discover the truth, where the only evidence to which we can appeal is liable to the suspicion of inveterate prejudice and invincible party-spirit. It is more difficult yet to apply the tests of the present enlightened and liberal age to characters and events, where liberality and mutual forbearance were either totally unknown, or, if acknowledged in theory, were never employed by any of the parties into which the country was divided. We have, however, at length arrived at the time when we may look back on the turbulent controversies of religion and learning, with an exemption from personal warmth and the recentness of painful feeling-when we can perceive by what means the greatest and wisest men of all parties were led to retard the progress of religious liberty, and to rely on the harsh and ungracious efforts of civil power, instead of that spirit of conciliation, to which we now owe all that prevails of social and public harmony. One effect of this better train of thinking has been to lead the public attention to the works of those eminent writers, the founders and defenders of the church, which may be consulted with advantage, as the great depositories of those essential doctrines, in the belief of which all protestants concur. And although they are found to differ in some disputed points, concerning which it were hopeless to expect an universal concurrence, yet the benefit to be derived from these writings is acknowledged to be incalculable, and has lately been appreciated in a manner that does honour to the age. Within the last thirty years, our libraries have been enriched by complete editions, carefully edited, of the works of Hall, Taylor, Hooker, Hopkins, Leighton, Beveridge, Owen, Baxter, Lightfoot, Burnet, Barrow, Watts, Doddridge, Howe, Charnock, and Waterland, to which we may add, to the credit of the University of Oxford, Strype's valuable Ecclesiastical Annals, Memorials and Lives. Nor, while the munificence of those great corporate bodies, the Universities, are entitled to public gratitude for perpetuating the usefulness, as well as fame, of some of the illustrious scholars above mentioned, ought we to deny the praise justly due to the enterprising spirit of the humbler individuals to whom we owe many of the republications noticed. Both have been in a great measure rewarded by public patronage; and both may still, it is hoped, look with confidence to a continuation of it. The same motives and the same spirit have suggested a complete edition of the WORKS OF BISHOP REYNOLDS, in the form now exhibited. It seems to be acknowledged by all the authorities we have been enabled to consult, that he was a profound scholar, an eloquent and sound divine, and a man whose character and works were highly esteemed by all parties during his long and useful life. The present writer, when solicited to draw up a memoir, soon had occasion to regret that very scanty information was to be found respecting Dr. Reynolds's private life, character, and manners. Biography was not much cultivated in his days, and his sons unaccountably neglected his memory. Still, the history of the times furnishes us with many important particulars, and we are not wholly without testimonies to the excellence of his personal as well as public character. Dr. EDWARD REYNOLDS, forty-ninth bishop of Norwich, was the son of Augustine Reynolds, one of the customers of Southampton. This Augustine was the son of John Reynolds of Longport, or Langport, in Somersetshire, and grandson to another John Reynolds of the same county. Our prelate was born in the parish of Holywood, or rather Holyrood, Southampton, in November 1599. His mother's family we have not been able to ascertain: her Christian name was Bridget. He was educated at Southampton, in the free-grammarschool, founded by Edward VI. in 1553, near the termination of his valuable life. The letters patent are dated the 4th of June, in the seventh year of his reign. When Mr. Reynolds attained the bishoprick of Norwich, he gave a benefaction of fifty pounds to the school; and his son Edward, then Archdeacon of Norfolk, gave another benefaction of twenty pounds. |