DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6886#0322
290
HISTORY OF
were directed, under the successor of that learned physician, to objects of an in-
ferior nature, he determined, in his own memorable words on the occasion, to re-
tire from that temple where Philosophy once reigned, and Newton presided as her
officiating minister. His great merit introduced him to Lowth, Bishop of Lon-
don, who appointed him his domestic chaplain, no common honour, and by whose
favour he succeeded his father in the livings of St. Mary Newington, Surry, and
Thorley, in Hertfordshire; the latter of which he resigned on being preferred to
that of Soutlvweald, in Essex.
About this time, he attracted no small attention, from the learned and clerical
world, by the superior knowledge and critical acumen which he displayed in his.
controversy with Dr. Priestley. The able manner in which he exposed the fal-
lacious tenets of that heresiarch, and turned his own weapons against him; the
unanswerable arguments which he opposed to his sophisms; with the final and
complete victory which he gained over the champion of materialism and philoso-
phical necessity, under the guise of Socinianism, gained him the grateful respect of
every friend of genuine Christianity. It was this important contest that introduced-
him to the notice of Lord Chancellor Thurlow, and his advancement to a stall in
the cathedral church of Gloucester soon followed; which, without any acquaint-
ance with that nobleman, was, by his lordship's unsolicited interposition, conferred
upon him; while the voluntary favour was enhanced by the declaration, that the
honours and emoluments of the church could never be so well bestowed as on such
an able defender of it. On the translation of Bishop Smallwell to the see of Ox-
ford, in 1788, Dr. Horsley was promoted, by the influence of the same noble pa-
tron, to that of St. David's; when, by his vigilant and truly pastoral conduct, his
particular attention to the state of the clergy, and the constant exercise of his epis-
copal duties, in every branch of them, he obtained the veneration and grateful re-
gard of all ranks of people throughout his diocese. On the death of Bishop
Thomas, in 1793, he was translated to the see of Rochester and the deanery of
HISTORY OF
were directed, under the successor of that learned physician, to objects of an in-
ferior nature, he determined, in his own memorable words on the occasion, to re-
tire from that temple where Philosophy once reigned, and Newton presided as her
officiating minister. His great merit introduced him to Lowth, Bishop of Lon-
don, who appointed him his domestic chaplain, no common honour, and by whose
favour he succeeded his father in the livings of St. Mary Newington, Surry, and
Thorley, in Hertfordshire; the latter of which he resigned on being preferred to
that of Soutlvweald, in Essex.
About this time, he attracted no small attention, from the learned and clerical
world, by the superior knowledge and critical acumen which he displayed in his.
controversy with Dr. Priestley. The able manner in which he exposed the fal-
lacious tenets of that heresiarch, and turned his own weapons against him; the
unanswerable arguments which he opposed to his sophisms; with the final and
complete victory which he gained over the champion of materialism and philoso-
phical necessity, under the guise of Socinianism, gained him the grateful respect of
every friend of genuine Christianity. It was this important contest that introduced-
him to the notice of Lord Chancellor Thurlow, and his advancement to a stall in
the cathedral church of Gloucester soon followed; which, without any acquaint-
ance with that nobleman, was, by his lordship's unsolicited interposition, conferred
upon him; while the voluntary favour was enhanced by the declaration, that the
honours and emoluments of the church could never be so well bestowed as on such
an able defender of it. On the translation of Bishop Smallwell to the see of Ox-
ford, in 1788, Dr. Horsley was promoted, by the influence of the same noble pa-
tron, to that of St. David's; when, by his vigilant and truly pastoral conduct, his
particular attention to the state of the clergy, and the constant exercise of his epis-
copal duties, in every branch of them, he obtained the veneration and grateful re-
gard of all ranks of people throughout his diocese. On the death of Bishop
Thomas, in 1793, he was translated to the see of Rochester and the deanery of