| <p> an eminent English prelate, was born at Congreve, Staffordshire, in 1720. He was admitted at Emanuel College, Cambridge, in 1733. In 1750, by recommendation of his friend, bishop Warburton (q.v.), he became one of the Whitehall preachers, and in 1757 rector of Thurcaston. He afterwards became successively rector of Folkton, Yorkshire, in 1762, preacher of Lincoln's [[Inn]] in 1765, archdeacon of [[Gloucester]] in 1767, and finally bishop of [[Lichfield]] and [[Coventry]] in 1775, whence he was translated to [[Worcester]] in 1781. In 1783 he was offered the archbishopric of Canterbury, which he declined. He died in 1808. His Sermons (5 vols. 8vo), distinguished by elegant simplicity of style, perspicuity of method, and acuteness of elucidation, are to be found, with his other miscellaneous writings, in his Works (London, 1811, 8 vols. 8vo). His most important contribution to theology is his Introduction to the Study of the [[Prophecies]] (1772, 8vo; 1788, 2 vols. 8vo; 1839, edited by Bickersteth, 12mo). This was the first of the "Warburtonian Lectures." [[Notwithstanding]] the polemical cast of some of these sermons, the clear exposition of the general principles of prophecy and of the claims which this portion of the sacred [[Scriptures]] has on the serious and unprejudiced attention of thoughtful readers, conveyed in perspicuous and even elegant language, has secured a large amount of popularity for the work even up to recent times (Kitto, Bib. Cyclop. ii, 343). '''''—''''' He also edited The Works of' Warburton (1788. 7 vols.), and published a Life of Warburton (Lond. 1794, 4to). See Allibone, Dictionary of Authors, i, 925; Quarterly Review (London), 7:383; Hallam, Lit. Hist. of Europe (4th edit., Lond. 1854), 3:475; Life. and Writings of Hurd, by Francis Kilvert (Lond. 1860); Christ. Remembrancer, 1860, p. 262; North British Rev. May 1861, art. 4; Hook, Eccles. Biog. 6 225 sq. </p> | | <p> English bishop in succession of [[Lichfield]] and Worcester; was both a religious writer and a critic; was the author of "Letters on [[Chivalry]] and Romance," "Dissertations on Poetry," and "Commentaries on Horace's Ars Poetica," the last much admired by Gibbon (1720-1808). </p> |
