474 CLAYTON. the stain of heresy, and preventing his rising farther in the church. After all, the work was not written by the bishop bimself, but by a young elergyman of bis diocese, who shewed the manuseript to bis lordship, but had not the courage to print it. The bishop conveyed it to the press, and so managed the affair, that he alone sustained the whole brunt of the opponents. There was a considerable degree of romantic generosity in this conduct, but little of worldly prudence. In 1752, be was recommended by the Duke of Dorset, the viceroy of Ireland, to the vacant archbishopric of Tuam, but was refused the promotion simply from his being reputed the author of this essay. The next work the bishop sent to the press was un- doubtedly his own composition, A Vindication of the Histories of the Old and New Testament; in Answer to the Objections of the late Lord Bolingbroke" in two letters to a young nobleman, 1752, 8vo. It is a work of great learning and ability, which discovers great acute- ness of criticism and industry in his lordship, and in it he objections of Bolingbroke are ably exposed and con- fated. There are, however, in it some physieal prineiples laid down, which are more fanciful than solid. This is more particularly the case with the second part, which The controversy to which the " Essay on Spirit" gave rise, continued but a short time. The best answers to the work were, " A Full Answer, &e." 1753, 8vo. by the late Rev. William Jones, the friend and biographer of Bishop Horne; and A Vindieation of the Doctrine of the 'Trinity," inr three parts, with an Appendix, by the Rev. Dr. Randolph, father to the. late Bishop of London. Dn. Keppis expresses his opinion that, the " Essay on Spirit" and the tracts in defenee of it, were the means of diffusing the Arian sentiments, which, however, he adds, "are at present upon the decline, the Unitarians tending fast to the doetrines of Socinns. On, the "Essay on Spirit,' Dr. Warburton says, in a letter to Dr. Hurdy " The Bishop of Clogher, or some such heathenish name, in Ireland, has. just published a book. It is made up out of the rubbish of the heresies; of a mneh ranker cast than common Arianism. Jesus Christ is Michael, and the Holy Ghost, Gabriel, &e. This might be heresy in an English bishop, but in an Irish, 'tis only a blunder. But thank God, our bishops are far from making or vending, heresies; though for the good of the ehureh, they have excellent.eyes at spying it out wherever it skulks or lies
