put the wrong end foremost, it will not hit the object aimed at, but run into your own hand. 66 There was no living author he had so high an opinion of as Dr. Johnson, whom he called the greatest and best man of the age, and had his picture hung over the fireside, in the room in which he usually sat. "I have Johnson always before me," he often said, whom I look on as my master, and strive to imitate; when he dies he will not leave a man in these kingdoms of such deep thinking behind him." Johnson's noted orthodoxy conduced somewhat to increase his good opinion of him. His own violence in this instance was reckoned by some among his defects, though he had a real esteem for any one who acted conscientiously, which he clearly exhibited by offering a part of his income to support Mr. Robinson, an entire stranger to him, who resigned his living, as he could not believe in the Trinity. He was indeed severe upon those clergymen who continue to enjoy the emoluments of a benefice, and yet disbelieve the doctrines of the Church that maintains them. In a candid display of his character and manners, it is necessary to observe, that he was rather liable to be deceived by the art of flatterers. This weakness, which was derived from the sincerity of his own mind, caused him sometimes to have a good opinion of those whom he found afterwards to be unworthy of his regard. If you once lost his friendship you could not easily regain it, for he usually suspected you ever after. In his old age, however, he sometimes entertained unreasonable suspicions of mankind. When it was observed to him a short time before his death, that he had got fine cotton curtains to his bed, he replied, the people who bought these expected I should soon die, and then they knew they would get them to themselves. Having been appointed, on account of his services to the Magdalen Charity, one of its governors, he attended a public meeting of these, about 1785, where he found some ladies of great consequence, who treated his opinion, he declared, on every occasion with contempt; which made him resolve to go near them no more, to which resolution he strictly adhered. The benefits conferred by him on this useful institution entitled him, he thought, to more respect; yet his suspicions in this instance were, it may be presumed, founded rather on imagination than reality. In the course of this narrative, a short and separate character has been given of each of his works, which consist now of seven large octavo volumes. It only remains to make some general observations on the whole. They discover him to have possessed strong natural powers, which were enriched with a complete knowledge of both sacred and profane literature. Had he employed more care in polishing his discourses, they would have been considered probably the first sermons in the English language. It has been observed, that the style of his two last volumes is far superior to that of the other five. The style of the last is so different from that of the first in point of perspicuity, that if there did not appear a simila rity in the mode of thinking, you could scarce suppose them to be both the productions of the same author. He is entitled to the character of an original writer. His writings are also animated with an ardent zeal for the happiness of his fellow creatures. The subject on which he employed his pen is of a nature the most noble and excellent, either to prove the truth of divine revelation, or to point out to man the conduct that will render him acceptable to the great author of his being. From the specimen of his ability in explaining the Scriptures exhibited in his Senilia, we have reason to lament that he did not write a Commentary on that sacred volume. Though he was so eminent for his pulpit eloquence, his productions in defence of revelation, and the exemplary sanctity of his private life, yet he remained at least twenty years a curate. At length he obtained, by powerful interposition, a small living from Bishop Clayton in a wild part of the country; where he would probably have continued all his days, had not Providence placed Dr. Garnet in the See of Clogher, who was remarkable for promoting men distinguished for literary qualifications. In the *Irish Church it is well known that fortune or powerful relations are the chief requisites for preferment, and that professional diligence and exemplary conduct are too often neglected and disregarded. His being a native of Ireland, the condition of his parents, and the honest freedom of his language contributed to prevent his advancement to ecclesiastical honours. The following panegyric on Mr. Skelton, taken from the Philosophical Survey of Ireland, may naturally be subjoined. * The remark, unhappily, applies equally to the English Church. "Mr. "Mr. Orr published a volume of Sermons, which pro cured him the friendship of Hoadley, Bishop of Win chester; they discover a free and original cast of thought, and are composed in a manly, nervous style. The present Bishop of Clogher has the honour of promoting him to an archdeaconry, when he governed the See of Ferns. And to the same excellent prelate Mr. Skelton owes his preferment, "This gentleman, though ungraduated, but as a ba chelor, by any of the Universities, is the living glory of the Irish Church. He has published five volumes, mostly in defence of Revelation, which, though ably written, shed but a secondary lustre on the character of this excellent person. His learning is almost universal, and his language uncommonly fluent and vigorous; nature formed him a poet, but a Bishop prematurely ordained him a divine; and no sooner did he assume this function, than his feeling heart was penetrated by the nicest sense of duty. He resigned himself wholly to the service of his Master. Such a servant could not long escape notice; he became eminent; he was followed in London as a preacher. He dedicated two volumes of Sermons to the citizens of that metropolis: he knows no use of money, but to relieve distress. In one of those seasons of calamity, which neglect of tillage in this country renders so frequent, he sold his books, his only worldly goods wherein he took delight, to buy bread for the poor. He is now advancing towards seventy, yet he preserves an uncommon share of vivacity. Had he been educated and lived in England, a stage little enough for his great abilities, he would have long since obtained the first niche in the Temple of Fame; now he is known only in Ireland, and by a few inquisitive men elsewhere." A marble tomb-stone has been placed over him at the expence of Miss Leslie, whom he appointed his residuary legatee, with the following inscription, the composition, it is said, of the Rev. Robert Burrows, junior; Fellow of Trinity College. Beneath this stone are deposited the remains of THE REV. PHILIP SKELTON, Prebendary of Donaeary, in the Cathedral of Clogher, Liberally Liberally endowed by Providence with intellectual He did not suffer them to lie waste through inactivity, Invigorating it by exercise, and enriching it with And pursuing the noblest ends by means the best He laboured industriously to promote the happiness By advancing the influence of the Christian Religion. While his Example shewed at once The practicability, and the amiableness of its precepts; As his opinions were orthodox, his manners were His conversation was candid and unreserved; His preaching was forcible and dignified, And with indignant elocution, and nervous diction, Pious without superstition, and zealous without His life was practical devotion, And his controversies the earnest efforts of Leading infidels to truth, and sinners to salvation. Indigent, He had a hand still open to relieve them. Without ambition he acquired celebrity, It. A friend to the poor, and an ornament to the Church, Patriarchal life, In the immediate presence of that God, Whose Whose name he had worshipped with such piety, A. M. ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES; RITUAL; &c. WHITBY CHURCH. TO THE EDITORS OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S MAGAZINE. GENTLEMEN, TH HE Public Journals announce to us the dilapida tion of another of our ancient churches, WHITBY. The equinoctial gales have materially damaged this timehonoured pile, already in a shattered condition; and its complete ruin, we are informed, may be looked for in a short space of time. The newspapers gravely tell us, that the church of Whitby was built by the Percies and the Nevilles. The church was one of the glories of our isle, four hundred years before either a Percy or a Neville set a foot within it. They passed into England at the æra of the Conquest;-but in detailing "the Ecclesiastical History of the English," (Historia ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum) my good countryman, the venerable Bede, in 21st chap. of his 3d book, (year A.D. 653 to 664) speaks of it as the burial place of kings and nobles, even at that early period; a little after it was built. Oswy (Osuiu, in Bede) who began his reign as king of Northumberland, A.D. 643, made a vow, that if he should subdue Penda, the pagan king of Mercia, he would dedicate his daughter Aelfleda to the service of God, and would set apart twelve estates for the purpose of erecting monaste ries. This is a specimen of the religion of those times. Osay was victorious; Penda was slain; the whole kingdom of Mercia became Christian; and the victorious king of Northumberland performed his vows. Aelfleda entered the monastery of Heruteu (id est Insula Cervi, Hartlepoole), governed by the abbess Hild, (or Hilda), who after two years, having obtained possession of certain lands inhabited by ten families (doubtless consisting of persons |