Effare marmor iners; die cujus cinis? Salvis modesEissimi viri manibus, Josephus heic Medus jacet, S. T. B, Collegii Christi apud Cantabrigienses socius, ipse musarum hospitium solenniorum, et justa in collegio universitas ;. qui omnes linguas calluit, artes excoluit, philosophie et mathematica adjugens quicquid Egyptii occultarunt, aut in-` venerunt Chaldæi; chronologiam insuper, ac historiam, omniumque reginam theologiam: Quaram prælucente face, induit se in abditissimos, prophetiarum recessus, et spe lunca apocalyptica exuit Romanam beiluam; confligendi cum dificultatibus avidissimus, mysteriorum interpres felicissimus; ut in Josepho, hoc nostro facile agnovisset gens hieroglyphica Zaphnath-paaneuh redivivum. Hic nullis addictus partibus, omnibus æquus fuit, veritatis ac pâcis amans; benignus aliis, amicis totus patens; verbis, voto, vita, sanctus, castus, humillimus. Ast imminentis tunc ecclesiæ et reipublicæ tempestatis mens, prophetis contubernalis, præsaga, caiestem portum occupavit anno post natam salutem, MDCXXXVII. ætatis suæ LII.”

i. e.

"Speak, dull marble; say whose are these ashes? This monument is sacred to the memory of a most modest man. Joseph Mede lies here, Bachelor in Divinity, Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge; himself an habitation of the muses, and a University in a college; who studied all languages; cultivated the arts, to philosophy and mathematics adding whatever the Egyptians disguised, or the Chaldeans discovered; joining also Chronology and History with the queen of all sciences, Divinity. By the help of these lights he penetrated the darkest passages in Prophecy, and drew out of the apocalyptic cave the Roman beast. Desirous of engaging with difficulties; a most happy interpreter of mysteries; so that in our Joseph, such as were versed in hieroglyphics, readily acknowledged the revealer of secrets revived. Addicted to no party, he was impartial unto all, loving truth and peace; affable to all, entirely open to his friends: in words, thoughts, actions, holy, chaste, humble. But his prophetic soul presaging the impending storms in Church and State, he sought the gates of Heaven, in the year of our salvation 1658, of his age 52,

Vox

VOX PISCIS.

DR. SAMUEL WARD, master of Sidney College, Cambridge, in a letter to Archbishop Usher, dated June 27, 1625, relates the following singular fact:

"There was the last week a cod-fish brought from Colchester to our market to be sold; in the cutting up of which, there was found in the maw of the fish, a thing which was hard; which proved to be a book of a large 16mo, which had been bound in parchment; the leaves were glewed together with a gelly. And being taken out, did smell much at the first; but after washing of it, Mr. Mead did look into it. It was printed; and he found a table of the contents. The book was intituled, A preparation to the Cross, (it may be a special admonition to us at Cambridge). Mr. Mead upon Saturday, read to me the heads of the chapters, which I very well liked of. Now it is found to have been made by Richard Tracy, of whom Bale maketh mention, Cent. 9. p. 719. He is said to flourish then 1550. But I think the book was made in king Henry the eighth's time, when the six articles were afoot. The book will be printed here shortly."

The book was accordingly printed with this title, "Vor Piscis, or the Book-Fish; containing three Treatises, which were found in the belly of a cod-fish in Cambridge market, on Midsummer eve last, 1626."

DR. KILBYE AND BISHOP SANDERSON.

Dr. RICHARD KILBYE, rector of Lincoln College, and Hebrew professor in the University of Oxford, was a divine of great learning, and one of the translators of King James's Bible. He died in 1620. Honest Izaack Walton, in his life of Dr. Sanderson, has the following anecdote.

The Doctor was to ride a journey into Derbyshire, and took Mr. Sandersou to bear him company, and they resting on a Sunday with the Doctor's friend, and going together to that parish church where they then were, found the young preacher to have no more discretion than to waste a great part of the hour allotted

for his sermon, in exceptions against the late translation, of several words (not expecting such a hearer as Dr. Kilbie), and shewed three reasons why a particular word should have been otherwise translated. When evening prayer was ended, the preacher was invited to the Doctor's friend's house, where after some other conference, the Doctor told him he "might have preached more useful doctrine, and not have filled his auditor's ears with needless exceptions against the late translation; and for that word which he offered to that poor congregation three reasons why it ought to have been translated as he said, he and others had considered all of them, and found thirteen more considerable reasons why it was translated as now printed:" and told him "if his friend (then attending him) should prove guilty of such indiscretion, he should forfeit his favour.' To which Mr. Sanderson said, "he hoped he should not." And the preacher was so ingenuous as to say," he would not justify himself."

WILLIAM NOY.

THIS celebrated person, who became peculiarly obBoxious to the nation by recommending the famous impost called ship-money, was a native of Cornwall, and educated at Exeter College, Oxford, after which he studied at Lincoln's Inn, and attained justly the cha racter of being the first lawyer of his age. Wood gives a curious account of him: "He was a man," says he, passing humourous, of cynical rusticity, a most inde-fatigable plodder, and searcher of ancient records, whereby he became an instrument of good and ill to the king's prerogative." At length his body being much out of order by continual toiling and drudging, he retired to Tunbridge Wells, to gain health in the month of July, but the waters effecting nothing, he died there the 9th of August following, 1634. His body being opened after his decease, his heart was found shrivelled like a leather penny purse, nor were his lungs right, which caused several conjectures by the puritans. But that which was most observable after his death, was his will, at which all the world wondered, because the

maker

maker thereof was accounted a great clerk in the law; for, therein, after he had bequeathed to his son Humphrey an hundred marks per annum to be paid out of his tenements in the hundred of Pyder in Cornwall, he concludes, et religa omnia, &c. and the rest of all my lands, goods, &c. I leave to my son Edward Noy, whom I make my executor, to be consumed and scattered about, nec de eo melius speravi, &c. But Edward lived not long to enjoy the estate, for within two years after, he was slain in a duel in France by one Captain Byron. In the place of attorney general, Noy was succeeded by Sir John Banks; and the next year by Sir Robert Heath, who being removed from the chief-justiceship of the King's Bench for bribery, Sir John Finch came into play, whereupon these verses were made :

"Noy's flood is gone,

The Banks appear;

Heath is shorn down,

And Finch sings there."

REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

Jewish Prophecy, the sole Criterion to distinguish between genuine and spurious Christian Scripture; or an humble attempt to remove the grand and hitherto insurmountable obstacles to the conversion of Jews and Deists to the Christian Faith, affectionately submitted to their serious consideration. A Discourse preached before the Rev. Dr. WILLIAM GRETTON, Archdeacon of Essex, at his visitation holden at Danbury, on Tuesday the 8th of July, 1806. By FRANCIS STONE, M. A. F. S. A. Kector of Cold Norton, Essex, author of "A Call to the Jews." 8vo. pp. 48.

IF

F any thing had been wanting to confirm what we have repeatedly alledged on the lamentable loss of discipline in the church, the very extraordinary pamphlet before us would afford an ample, though melancholy

proof of the fact. The judicious appointment of episcopal and archidiaconal visitations for the purpose of enquiring into the condition of particular districts, and of inspecting the conduct of the clergy, appears to have dwindled away into mere formality, or at least to be attended with no other benefit than the regulation of such abuses as relate merely to externals, which are of minor consideration; while the important concerns of doctrine and morals are passed over unnoticed. It is true we often meet with excellent charges and sermons delivered on such occasions, and which being printed at the request of the clergy, proves that religion and learning have still their able advocates and zealous admirers; but in an ecclesiastical sense, it is to be feared that our strength is departed from us, and that our glory is faded. .

While every other church, and every petty sect, hold their synodal meetings, their general assemblies, . and their conferences, wherein the conduct and preaching of their ministers are made the subjects of particular enquiry and representation, the Established Church of the united kingdom is deprived of such a privilege, or is afraid to exercise it. Hence her enemies increase in numbers around her and insult over her; hence schism is encouraged; and heresies prevail even in her very bosom; and the natural consequence of all is, that there is a general indifferency to the truth, joined, as is always the case, with a laxity of manners.

Such is the state of things at present, and if not roused from it to watchfulness and vigilance, the hour of total darkness may come suddenly upon us. Happy will it be if the example of former churches shall have a powerful and timely influence in producing a spirit of holy zeal, whereby we may "strengthen the things which yet remain, that are ready to die."

We have been led to these gloomy reflections from the perusal of this Visitation Sermon, in which the great founder of the Christian Church is openly vili fied, and his holy gospel pronounced to be a vile imposture.

Many divines and even dignitaries of the established church have of late broached doctrines, through the medium of the press, at direct variance, with the articles they have subscribed, and the creeds which, in Vol. XI. Churchm. Mag. for Oct. 1806. Q q the