The Lives of Dr. Edward Pocock, the celebrated orientalist

NYPL RESEARCH UBRAB|ES

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THE

OF

DR. EDWARD POCOCK,

THE CELEBRATED ORIENTALIST,

BY DR. TWELLS ;

OF

DR. ZACHARY PEARCE,

BISHOP OF ROCHESTER,
AND OF

DR. THOMAS NEWTON,

BISHOP OF BRISTOL,

BY THEMSELVES;

AND OF THF

REV. PHILIP SKELTON,

BY MR. BURDY.

IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.

PRINTED FOR F. C. AND J. RIVINGTOX

NO. 62, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD j
By R, and R. Gilbert, St. John's Square, Clerkemc,

1S16,

PREFACE.

THE republication of the Lives con-
tained in these volumes will, it is hoped, be
deemed an acceptable service to those who
may not be in possession of the works to
which they have been hitherto attached ;
or who may be desirous to increase their
stores of literary history by having them pre-
sented in a form more easily accessible than
the original. They are principally valuable
as belonging to that species of Biography,
called the minute, which we cannot expect
to find in Biographical Collections, im-
portant as the latter are ; and of their im-
portance, no man can be more sensible than
the writer of the present article.

It has been often complained that the au-
thors of some lately published lives have be-
come

PREFACE.

come insufferably prolix by interweaving ac-
counts of other persons who flourished at the
same time, and were but remotely con-
nected with the chief object. It is, however,
to this very fault, this digressive information,
that we owe our knowledge of many men of
acknowledged worth in past times ; and it is
from such apparent redundancies and scat-
tered notices that the compilers of Biogra-
phical Collections, acquire some of their
most accurate and best authenticated mate-
rials. There is reason to think, therefore,
that what may seem tedious while the events
are fresh in the reader's memory, will be
found more interesting to future generations.
Of lives connected with contemporary
history, and abounding in literary notices
and traits of character no where else to be
found, we have some valuable specimens in
the English series, which are becoming
scarce by neglect, or by the natural lapse of
time, It occurred to the present writer,

that

9

PREFACE*

that a republication of the most important
of these, exactly as left by the respective au-
thors, would not be unacceptable at a time
when biography and literary history are
more the objects of a laudable curiosity, and
when there is a general wish that the bene-
factors of past times may no longer remain
in obscurity.

How far he has made a just estimate of
the public inclination in this respect, or how
far the contents of these volumes may gra-
tify the curiosity which he supposes to exist,
their fate must determine. The undertak-
ing was first suggested by a perusal of the
very interesting life of DR. POCOCK ; and the
lives which accompany it were selected as
containing, with respect to more modern
times, an equally considerable portion of
curious history, ecclesiastical, political and
literary.

To the whole is added the very necessary
appendage of a nominal Index*

A. Ce

Nov. 1816.

THE

LIFE

OF THE

HEV. AND MOST LEARNED

DR. EDWARD POCOCK,

SECTION I.

DR. POCOCK was born on the eighth day of
November, in the year of our Lord 1604. He
was the son of Mr. Edward Pocock, bachelor
of divinity, some time fellow of St. Mary Mag-
dalen college in Oxford, but then vicar of Chievely
in Berks. It happened that the place of his birth
was that, wherein he was to spend the greatest
part of his life. For his father having been lately
presented to the vicarage before-mentioned, could
not yet order his affairs to settle upon it, but was
forced, it seems, for some time, to leave his
family in Oxford ; and there, within the parish of
St. Peter's in the West, this his eldest son Edward
was born.
VOL. i. B Hfe

2 THE LIFE Ofr

His infancy discovered such promising parts,
easily drew his parents to dedicate him to religion
and learning : and for that purpose he was early
sent to the free-school at Thame, in Oxfordshire.
The school-master there, to whose care he was
committed, was Mr. Richard Butcher, bachelor
of law, a man of great accuracy in grammatical
learning, whose skill and industry the doctor, even
in his old age, would often very gratefully remem-
ber. The diligence of that worthy person, meet-
ing with an extraordinary capacity in this his
scholar, was blessed with a more than common
success : for he was no sooner come to the age of
fourteen yearsy but he was thought fit for the uni-
versity; and accordingly, being brought to Ox-
ford, he was entered in Magdalen Hall ; and after
two years stay in that place, his merits recom-
mended him, upon a strict examination, to a scho-
lar's place in Corpus Christi College, to which he
was admitted, Dec. 11, 1620.

By all our enquiries we cannot learn who was
his tutor in the hall, but are assured by a late wrr-
ter *, that Mr. Gamaliel Chase, bachelor of divi-
nity, and fellow of Corpus-Christi, was his tutor
in that college. Of whom the same author f
gives this character. " He was a man of great

»

* Dr. Walker, in his History of the Sufferings of the
CUrgy, Part I, p. 98, and Part H. p. Ql 7.

t Ibid* p. 217.

'< piety,

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 3

€* piety, and of deep and sound learning ; inso-
" much that he was justly intitled to the character
" of a great man/ Afterwards, as we learn
from the same hand, he became rector of Wam-
hrook, in Dorsetshire^ and vicar of Warcomb, in
Devon, both which he lost in the grand rebellion,
for his adherence to the King and the Church.
At the same time, his temporal estate of 100/. per
annum, was sequestered, his wife and seven chil-
dren exposed to the greatest necessities, and his
goods, not excepting his books and papers, en-
tirely carried away, and himself imprisoned. He
survived the Restoration many years, was restored
to both his preferments, and died not till about
the year 1 680. It is not to be wondered at, if,
under such direction, Mr. Pocock imbibed those
sentiments of religion and loyalty, which distin-
guished him in the future conduct of his life; and
still less, that he made a very considerable pro-
gress in his studies. He soon appeared eminent
in all those parts of learning which are commonly
taught in universities. To those arts and sciences

o

which the ordinary discipline obliged him to be
acquainted with, he added the knowledge of the
best writers, both Greek and Roman. For in
some papers, written by him when very young,
there are such observations out of Quintiiian,
Cicero, Plutarch, Plato, and other authors, as
speak a great deal of skill and judgment. And

B 2 there

4 THE LIFE OF

there arc too, in the same papers, the marks of a
mighty industry : for it being sometimes his cus-
tom to note the time when he began the perusal of
any treatise, it thereby appears, that the reading
and considering that whole dialogue de Oratori-
bus, by some ascribed to Tacitus, but commonly
printed with Quintilian's works, was the business
only of one day.

On Nov. 28, 1622, being but very little more
than eighteen years old, he was admitted to the
degree of bachelor of arts. And, having already
made a considerable progress in the ordinary
paths of learning, he began in a short time to be-
take himself to some of the more retired and
untrodden walks of it ; applying his mind, with
great diligence, to the study of the Eastern lan-
guages. For which, he had the advantage of a
skilful director in Matthias Pasor, a German, the
son of George Pasor, a learned professor at
Herborn, the author of the Greek Lexicon to the
New Testament. This Matthias Pasor, havincr

^"X

been professor of mathematics in the university of
Heidelberg, whence he was driven by the late
troubles which bcfel the Palatinate *, came to Ox-
ford, and there being incorporated master of arts,
as he had stood at Heidelberg-)", for his mainte-

* P. Freheri Thcatrum Virorum eruditione clarorum,
p. 154C.

f Mr. Wood's A then Oxon. vol. i. p. 440.

nance.

DR. EDWARD FOGOCK. 5

nance, he not only taught in a private chamber,
the sciences he had professed in his own country ;
but also the Oriental tongues, reading for some
time an Arabic lecture twice a week publicly in
the divinity school, upon the encouragement of a
pension collected from his auditors. Dr. Pocock
would, upon all occasions, express a great regard
to the memory of this person, whom he was wont
frequently to commend, as for a very learned, so
likewise for a very honest and good man. He was
scholar to him for languages, at the same time
that the late * Lord Radnor was for mathematics.
The statutes of the college requiring some de-
lay, he did not take the degree of master of arts
till March 28, 1626. And soon after that, I
suppose it was, that being arrived at as great a
height in Oriental learning as Mr. Pasor could
lead him to, he applied himself for farther instruc-
tion to Mr. William Bedwell, vicar of Tottenham
High Cross, near London: a person to whom
the praise of being the first who considerably
promoted the study of the Arabic language in
Europe, may perhaps more justly belong, than to
Thomas Erpenius, who commonly has it. This
Mr. Bedwell had made a vast progress in the

* This noble person was son and heir to Richard Robarts^
the first Lord Robarts of Truro, so created Jan. l69 21
Jac. I. to whom he succeeded, and was afterwards created
Viscount Bodmyn and Earl of Radnor, July 23, 23 Car. 2o

know-

6 THE LIFE OF

knowledge of that tongue before Erpenius had
any name in the \vorld for skill in it. And as the
latter spent some time in England about the year
1006, he was obliged to the former for many
directions which he received from him in that sort
of learning. Besides several books which Mr.
Bed well published relating to it, he employed him-
self many years in preparing an Arabic Lexicon
in three volumes; and was at the pains of a
Voyage into Holland, to peruse the papers of
Joseph Scaliger, who had made a collection, as he
declared*, of twenty thousand words in that lan-
guage. But being, as *)- Isaac Casaubon com-
plained of him, slow in his proceeding, doubtless
out of a desire that the great work he was en-
gaged in should be as perfect as might be; at
length, Golius's undertaking of the same kind,
ivho had furnished himself to the best advintage
from the east, made the publication of it useless.
Mr. Pocock profited much under the instruc-
tions of this learned man ; and the advances he
made in several uncommon sorts of literature,
could not but meet with encouragement from that
learned society, whereof he was a member ; who,
as a proof of their just regard for him, admitted
him probationer fellow July 24, 1628. And now

* Epist. ad Steph. Ubertum, inter Joseph! Scaligeri
Opuscula, p. 458.

t Is. Caeaboni Epistola?, Nu, 575.

the

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 7

the statutes of the college providing that he
should speedily enter into holy orders, it was high
time for him to add the study of theology to his
former acquirements, which were only prepara-
tory for it. And this, I cannot doubt but he
betook himself to in the method which had been
some years before recommended to the university
of Oxford, by that learned and judicious prince,
king James I. * namely, not by insisting on mo-
dern compendiums and tracts of divinity, but by
applying himself chiefly to fathers and councils,
ecclesiastical historians and other antient writers,
together with the sacred text, the word of God.
For though he perused the books of some late
writers in divinity, it was not, I find, to form his
notions in matters of religion, according to their
conceptions and opinions, but to take their direc-
tion about several pieces of antiquity, in order to
a general knowledge of their nature and excel-
lency, and to distinguish the genuine from such
as are of doubtful original, or manifestly spurious.
This, in particular, I learn from some papers
begun to be written by him Sept. 7, 1629, was
the use he made of a treatise of some account,
then reprinted at Oxford, namely, Ger. Vossius's
Theses Theologies, out of which he collected
several things of this nature and of no other.

* Vid. Historiam el Antiquitates Univers Oxon. A. D.
and A, P. 1622.

But

THE LIFE OF

But amidst his theological studies it was impos-
sible for him to lay aside all regard for those east-
ern languages to which his mind was so addicted,
and on which he had bestowed so much time and
pains. He therefore, about this time, pursued a
design wherein both were joined together, and
that was, the fitting for the press those parts of
the Syriac version of the New Testament, which
had never yet been published. Ignatius, the Ja-
Cobite patriarch of Antioch, had, in the last age,
sent Moses Meridinaeus, a priest of Mesopotamia,
into the west to get that version printed, in order
to the carrying back a sufficient number of copies
for the use of his churches. And this work, by
the care and diligence of Albertus Widmansta-
dius, was very well performed at Vienna, A. D.
1555. But the Syriac New Testament thus
brought out of the East, and followed in that im-
pression, wanted the second epistle of St. Peter,
the second and third epistles of St. John, the
epistle of St. Jude, and the whole book of the
Revelation: because, as a learned man * conjec-
tures, those parts of Holy Scripture, though ex-
tant amongst them, were not yet received into the
canon, by those Oriental churches. This defect
no body took care to supply, till that very learned
person Ludovicus de Dieu, on the encouragement

* Ludovicus de Dieu, Praefat. in Apocalyps. Syriac.

and

DR. EDWARD POCOCK.

and with the assistance of Daniel Heinsius, set
about the Revelation; being furnished with a
copy of it, which had been given with many other
manuscripts, to the university of Leyden by the
famous Joseph Scaliger. That Version of the
Apocalypse was printed at Leyden in the year
1627, but still the four Epistles were wanting,
and those Mr. Pocock undertakes, being desirous
that the whole New Testament might at length
be published in that language, which was the
vulgar tongue of our blessed Saviour himself,
and his holy Apostles. A very fair manuscript
for this purpose he had met with in that vast trea-
sure of learning the Bodleian library; containing
those epistles, together with some other parts of
the New Testament. Out of this manuscript,
following the example of de Dieu, he transcribed
those epistles in the Syriac character ; the same
he likewise set down in Hebrew letters, adding
the points, not according to the ordinary, but the
Syriac rules, as they had been delivered by those
learned Maronites, Amira and Sionita. He also
made a new translation of these epistles out of
Syriac into Latin, comparing it with that of Etze-
lius, and shewing upon all considerable occasions,
the reason of his dissent from him. Moreover,
he added the original Greek, concluding the
whole with a good number of learned and useful
potes.

This

10 THE LIFE OF

This work was finished by him \vhen he was
yet but four and twenty years old ; and though he
performed it with the utmost care and exactness,
yet so great was his modesty and distrust of him-
self, that he could not be persuaded to think it fit
for publication till after it had lain by him about
a year, when he suffered it to be printed upon the
following occasion.

Gerard John Vossius, at this time a professor
at Leyden, being of great fame throughout the
world for his extraordinary learning, had a parti-
cular respect paid him by some of the nobility,
and many learned men of the English nation *.
He had published several excellent books, parti-
cularly his Pelagian history : wherein, as he had
expressed more temper and moderation than
some of his countrymen, so he manifested a just
esteem for ecclesiastical antiquity, which no
church in the world had a truer regard for than
that of England. Being on these accounts much
valued by his friends in this nation, he had some
time since been earnestly pressed to accept of a
professor's place, with a very honourable salary,
in the university of Cambridge ; and now was in-
vited by a message from his Majesty King
Charles I. to a prebend in the church of Canter-

* Vide Epistolam Joanni Meursio, inter Ger. Vossii
Epistolas, Num. 114.

9 bury.

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 11

bury. The first of these offers he had refused,,
as not agreeing with his circumstances, which
would not admit of a remove from his own coun-
try: but the latter he readily closed with, having
been assured that residence would not be expected
from him. To be installed in this prebend he
comes into England ; and there making a visit to
the university of Oxford, where he was received
with all the marks of a very great esteem, he
spent much of his time during his stay, in view-
ing the manuscripts, and other rarities of the
public library. Amongst other things, he took
particular notice of the Syriac manuscript of the
epistles, which gave occasion to Mr. John Rouse,
the chief librarian, to acquaint him with Mr.
Pocock's performance. Vossius, being extremely
pleased with what he thus heard, desired to see
both the author and the work. And, after much
discourse with him, and a diligent examination of
that, he made it his earnest request that what so
well deserved to see the light should no longer be
kept in darkness.

Mr. Pocock was overcome by the persuasions
of a man, against whose judgment he could have
no exception. And being also further encouraged
by the promise he made, that it should, by his
procurement, be carefully printed in Holland, he
presently took care to add a preface and a dedi-
cation. And the patron he made choice of was

Vossius

THE LIFE OF

Vossius himself, to whom he addressed this work
in terms of much deference and respect. Vos-
sius, upon his arrival at Lcyden, committed the
care of the edition to the learned Ludovicus de
Dieu, who gladly received Mr. Pocock's papers,
and after a diligent perusal of them, wrote to
him, highly commending the fidelity of his tran-
script, the justness of his version, and the learn-
in^ of his notes. At the same time he proposes
several emendations in the pointing of the He-
brew character, and one in that of the Syriac,
together with two alterations in the Latin version,

o *

and likewise one additional note, intending to
delay the impression, till he could receive Mr.
Pocock's answer, without whose consent, he re-
solved, as himself expresses it, to interpolate
nothing. After that was come to hand, de Dieu
put the epistles to the press, and when the edition
was finished, he wrote a second time to Mr.
Pocock ; and congratulates him on that occasion.
From this second letter it appears, that the reply
to the first brought consent to most of the desired
amendments. And accordingly all of them, ex-
cept three, stand, as proposed, in the printed
work. Besides which, de Dieu had a commis-
sion to make what further alterations he should
find expedient. In pursuance of which he pro-
ceeded to other emendations with Vossius's
advice, in number six, of which he gives an ac*

count

13

£ount in his second letter, with his reasons for
each of them : they all concern the Latin ver-
sion. The edition being thus finished, a consi-
derable number of copies were sent by Vossius,
as a present to the author at Oxford, together
with due acknowledgments of the usefulness of
the work, and of the affection and honour ex-
pressed in the declaration. And, indeed, that
most learned man entertained on this occasion

such a value for Mr. Pocock, that though he was

* .—>

thirty years older, and a sort of dictator in the
commonwealth of learning, he treated him ever
after with all the kindness and familiarity of a
friend. He corresponded with him by frequent
letters, some of which have been made public * ;
he presented him with the books he published ;
and, upon all occasions, made honourable men-
tion of him to the day of his death.

Some time in the year 1629, Mr. Charles Rob-
son, of Queen's College, in Oxford, returned
from being chaplain to the English merchants at
Aleppo, and the vacancy thereby made, Mr.
Pocock was appointed to fill, being now in holy
orders. That of priest was conferred on him by-
Richard Corbett, bishop of Oxford, Dec. 20,
1629. By whom also he had some time before
been made a deacon. We cannot say to whom

* Inter Vossii ct Cl. Virorura ad Vossium Epistolas.

it

14 THE LIFE OF

it was Mr. Pocock was indebted for his last-men-
tioned preferment. Bishop Laud was in himself
a most observing and munificent patron of learn-
ing, and being then bishop of London, had the
direction of religious affairs abroad. On both
•which accounts he might naturally be supposed to
have recommended him to that post, were it not
that the first letter written by that prelate to Mr.
Pocock at Aleppo, and dated Oct. 30, 1631,
plainly discovers that they had then no acquaint-
ance with each other: and that the bishop having
no interest of his own in the chaplain at Aleppo,
wrote to him in the strength of Mr. Bed well's
acquaintance.

I cannot meet with any account of the circunv
stances of his departure from England, nor of
his voyage, till he eame to Scanderoon; where
having been long at sea, he arrived, I find, Oct.
14, 1630, and came three days after to Aleppo.
Being a man of a meek and humble temper, and
naturally in love with retirement and peace, he
did not (as many travellers do) carry with him a
violent desire of viewing strange countries. Nay,
he was so far from being; delighted either with

o o

what he had already seen, or the place where he
was now settled ; that in a letter, written about
two months after his arrival to Mr. Thomas
Greaves, ft very studious young man, then scho-
lar of Corpus Christi, he gave but a very melan-
choly

D&. EDWARD POCOCK.

choly account of himself. " My chief solace,"
said he, " is the remembrace of my friends, and
fc my former happiness, when I was among them.
" Happy you that enjoy those places where I so
" often wish myself as I see the barbarous peo-
" pie of this country. I think that he that hath
" once been out of England, if he get home,
" will not easily be persuaded to leave it again.
•' There is nothing that may make a man envy a
" traveller." However, being abroad, he re-
solved that his natural aversion for such a kind of
life should not make him neglect the doing any
thing in the post he was in, which was either his
duty to God, or might answer the expectation of
good and learned men.

Above all other things he carefully applied him-
self to the business of his place as chaplain to
the factory ; performing the solemn duties of re-
ligion in that decent and orderly manner which
our Church requires. He was diligent in preach-
ing, exhorting his countrymen in a plain, but
very convincing way, to piety, temperance, jus-
tice and love, and all those Christian virtues or
graces, which would both secure to them the fa-
vour and protection of the Almighty, and also
adorn their conversation, rendering it comely in
the sight of an unbelieving nation. And what he
laboured to persuade others to he duly practised
himself, proposing to his hearers, in his own

regular

16 THE LIFE OF

regular and unspotted life, a bright example of
the holiness he recommended.

As he was seldom or never drawn from the
constant performance of these duties of his
charge by a curiosity tempting him to the view of
other places of that country, so he would not
omit what belonged to his office, even when at-
tended with a very afYrightening danger. For in
the year 1634, as the plague raged furiously in
Aleppo, and many of the merchants fled two
days journey from it, and dwelt in tents on the
mountains; he had that holy confidence in the
Providence of God, and that readiness to meet
his good pleasure, whatever it should be, that
though he visited them that were in the country,
he, for the most part, continued to assist and
comfort those who had shut up themselves in the
city. And indeed, the mercy of God (as he most
thankfully acknowledged in a letter sent a little
after to a friend in Oxford) was signally mani-
fested, at that time, towards him, and all our
nation belonging to that factory. For though the
pestilence wasted beyond the example cf former
times, not ceasing, as usually, at the entrance of
the dog-days, all the English were preserved, as
well they that continued in the town as they that
fled from it. God covered them with his protec-
tion, and was their shield and buckler against that
terrible destruction : " A thousand fell at their

" side

DR. EDVPAKD POCOCK. 17

*"' side, and thousands at their right hand, and
| w yet it did -not come nigh them."

During his abode at this very melancholy place
(for so he always considered it) he diverted him-
self sometimes with philosophical inquiries into
those works of nature which were not to be met
with in his own country. For, I find, in a letter
of his to Mr. Thomas Greaves, a short descrip-
tion of the wonders of the Chameleon, and yet
in some respects as accurate as that of the ana-
tomists at Paris*; together with a promise of
further observations, as he should have an oppor-
tunity to make them. He noted the several co-
lours into which he saw that animal change itself,
which were chiefly such as are mingled of green
and yellow. All sorts of green, from the darkest
to the lightest, he observed it to take ; and some-
times with spots, one while blackish, another
ash-coloured. And as for that mistake of Plinyf
and some other of the ancients, that it neither eats
nor drinks, but lives wholly upon air ; he beheld
the confutation of it as it darted out a long sharp
tongue and caught flies : and was assured by the
gardeners, that it frequently did mischief to some
of their plants. However, though this creature,

* Description Anatomique d'un Cameleon, &c. a Paris9
1669.

t C. Plin, Natural!* Histor. 1. viu. cap, 51.

VOL. i, C as

18 THE LIFE Or

as well as others, is supported by food, he was
convinced, as he kept it in a box, that it could
live indeed a considerable time without any, at
the least, several months.

But, as well became a divine and a Christian
philosopher, his inquiries of this kind were chiefly
made into those productions of nature and art,
the knowledge of which might give light to some
difficult places of Holy Scripture. He was now
in that part of the world wherein most of the
sacred penmen wrote; and he could not therefore
but conclude, that a true account of several
things of it, which they have referred to, might
explain some passages in those holy writings,
which have not yet, by many interpreters, been
very well understood. And, it will not, I sup-
pose, be thought tedious, if I set down two or
three observations of this kind, which are to be
met with, among others, in his papers and printed
books.

There are a sort of creatures mentioned in the
Old Testament, which most translators render by
the name of dragons, though the property there
ascribed to them will not agree to the nature of
those animals. For we read in the books of na-
turalists and historians of no other noise made by
dragons, but only that of hissing; whereas in
most versions, at Micah i. 8, we meet with the
howling or wailing of dragons. This difficulty

x the

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 19

the learned Bochartus* endeavoured to solve,
from a particular fancy of some of the ancient
Jews, who supposed the erecting the heads, and
opening the mouths of those creatures, to be a
sort of lamentation to God for the lot that was
befallen them. But the observations made by
Mr. Pocock of those -animals called jakales, or,
according to the Turkish pronunciation, chacales,
led him to agree with the antient Syriac version,
and an Arab one of Rabbi Saadias, in supposing
that these are meant, and not dragons, in that and
some other places of Scripture. They are, as he
describes them f , a kind of wild dogs, between a
fox and a wolf; and the noise they make is such
as none that travel in those parts in the night,
can be ignorant of. For abiding in the fields and
^ aste places, they howl so lamentably, that per-
sons unacquainted with them, would conclude
that a company of wTomen and children were wail-
ins one to another. In this he was the more con-

o

firmed by some manuscript notes of Rabbi Tan-
chum, of Jerusalem, a learned Jew, who wrote
on the Old Testament in Arabic, part of which
Mr. Pocock procured from the east. He ob-
serves it for an error in expositors, that in this
and some other places they render dragons where

* Sam. Bocharti Hierozoic, part, prior, lib. i. c, 9«
•j- Dr, Pocock's Comment, on Micah i. 8.

c % they

20 THE LIF£ op

they should render jakales. The reason of whicDi
mistake, he saith, is, that the word which sig-
nifieth jakales, in the plural number is, in writ-
ing, the same with that which signifieth a dragon
in the singular, both Tannin. To prevent, there-
fore, this mistake, Mr. Pocock lays down this
rule : that wheresoever we meet with tannim, or
tannin, or tannoth, as plurals, they signify those
howling wild beasts, inhabiting waste desolate

O ' O

places : but where tannim or tannin in the singu-
lar, or tanninim in the plural, they are to be ren-
dered dragons, or serpents, or sea-monsters, or
whales, according as they are spoken of crea-
tures on land or in the water.

These jakales are so ravenous, that they will
prey on dead bodies, yea, dig them out of their
graves if not well covered. For which reason he
thinks * these animals are meant, not only, Psalm
xliv. 13, by tannim, which we and others tran-
slate dragons ; but also Psalm Ixiii. 10, by shua-
lim, which we render foxes. The name jakale,
he says, is borrowed from the Persian language,
in which it is written shegal, and is from the He-
brew shual, which word may comprehend both
those kinds, which are not very different from each
other.

Not a few passages we have also in Scripture,

* Dr. Poeock's Comment, on Mai, i. 3.

relating

DR. EDWARD POCOCK.

relating to the thrashing of corn, -which to him
that only considers the customs in that matter of
common use in these parts, mil appear very hard
to be understood. * We there read of " thrash-
" ing with instruments of iron, of thrashing the
" mountains, and beating them small, and mak-
" ing the hills as chaff, with a new sharp thrash-
" ing instrument having teeth, as also of thrash*

o o

" ins with oxen and heifers, with a cart wheel.

O '

" and with horsemen." And when the daughter
of Zion is commanded to arise and " thrash her
" enemies," who should be gathered as sheaves
into the floor ; she was, we read, to be provided
with " hoofs of brass to beat them in pieces."
In some other places also, thrashing and cutting
seem to be the same thing; as when the heathen
were to be assembled together, for a terrible de-
struction in the valley of Jehoshaphat, after the
preparation for the following thrashing or execu-
tion, by " putting the sickle into the harvest," the
place of it is called the " valley of decision," or
concision, of thrashing or cutting asunder. Now,
certainly the usage among us of beating out corn
with a flail, will give us no just idea of the true
meaning of such expressions as these. Whereas,
what Mr. Pocock observed of the customs of

* Amos i. 3. Isa. xli. 15. Deut. xxv. 4. Hos. Xt 11-
Isa. xxviii. 28, Mic, iv. 13. Joel iii. 14.

tbose

THE LIFE OF

those eastern people, makc^ them plain and intel-
ligible : for he tells us. *that the harvest being

O ' O

over, they lay the sheaves in order on a large
floor or plain, made fit for that purpose in the
open field, and there cause their oxen, or other
beasts, to draw over the sheaves so disposed, ei-
ther an instrument made of heavy planks of
wood, with sharp stones or flints driven into it,
or else two iron wheels dented with sharp teeth,
and coupled with an axle-tree or beam of wood;
and that this labour is not ended till both the
grain is divided from the husk, and the straw cut
into small pieces ; the latter being designed for
proper repositories, such as caves, or dry wells,
where it is kept to feed their cattle, as the former
is for the granary.

Several years after his return into England,
some letters passed between him and Dr. Ham-
mond, whilst that very learned and pious man
was preparing his excellent paraphrase and anno-
tations on the New Testament, concerning that
instrument used in the east for purging or cleans-
ing the floor, which in our translation is stiled a
fan. Being said in Scripture to be carried in the
hand, it cannot well be supposed to be any coi>
trivance of sails, whereby to throw off the dust,

* Comment, on Joel iii. 14, also on Mic. iv. 13, and on
H'js. x. 11.

and

DR. EDWARD POCOCK.' £3

and therefore was rationally concluded by Mr.
Pocock (whose opinion was followed by Dr.
Hammond *) both from the signification of the
original word, and those words it is rendered by
in Syriac and Arabic, to be a kind of trident
made use of after the thrashing was over, by
raising or tossing up the straw and chaff, to sepa-
rate them from the corn ; or else a sort of shovel,
which would produce the same effect by throwing
the whole heap in small parcels, to a good dis-
tance, through the air.

Such remarks as these, so useful for under-
standing the sacred text, he was careful to make

o

as he met with convenient opportunities for them.
But another business there was, in which he daily
employed himself, and which indeed took up the
greatest part of that time which he could spare
from the necessary duties of religion; and that
was, the labouring to arrive at what perfection he
could in the knowledge of the eastern languages.

o o o

Soon after his coming to Aleppo, he endea-
voured, by the assistance of the Jews he found
there, to obtain greater accuracy in Hebrew, en-
tertaining one Rabbi Samuel for this purpose, to
whom he allowed a good stipend by the month,
and afterwards applying himself to some others.
But it was not long before he was fully convinced,

* Dr. Hammond's Annotation on Matt. iii. 12.

that

£4 THE LIFE OF

that this attempt would be altogether fruitless :
for the stupidity of some of those wretched peo-
ple was so great, that they could not, and the
envy of others so mischievous, that they would
not, afford any considerable direction.

It appears too, from some papers written by
him in this place, that he made use of such op-
portunities as he there met with, of improving his
skill in Syriac : for they contain several grammar
tical collections relating to that language, as also
a praxis in it on some parts of Holy Scripture.
The same way it is also manifest, that he then
studied the Ethiopic tongue, and furnished him-
self, either from masters or books, with proper
rules whereby to understand it.

But Arabic, the most learned and general lan-
guage of the east, was the subject of his greatest
industry and application ; for farther instruction in
which, he agreed with a sheich or doctor, called
Phatallah, to come to him frequently, and enter-
tained, as a servant, by the year, one Hamet,
chiefly for this end I suppose, that he might on
every occasion converse familiarly in it. With
this assistance, to obtain exactness in a tongue so
very difficult, he furnished himself, as appears
from his papers, with many grammatical observa-
tions, and made sundry collections out of lexico-
graphers and other authors which he there met
with. He also read the alcoran of that impostor

Mahomet,

DR. EDWARD POCOCK.

Mahomet, with great care and a critical dili-
gence; a book, the contrivance of which was
held to be so great a miracle * by the author of
it, and is so still by his followers ; and which in-
deed, as a very good judge informs us, f bating
the folly, the confusedness and incoherency of
the matter contained therein, is, as to the style
and language, the standard of elegancy in the
Arab tongue. Another very useful exercise for
the same purpose, on which he then bestowed
much pains and time, was the translating several
Arabic books. And the chief of these was a
vast collection he there procured of six thousand
proverbs, containing the wisdom of the Arabians,
and referring to the most remarkable passages of
their history. This he turned into Latin, adding
some notes for explication, with a design, as he
seemed to tell his friend Gen Vossius J, to pub-
lish the whole after his return into England. By
such a continued labour and study, he at length
overcame, in a great measure, all the difficulties
of this copious language ; and that to such a de-
gree, that he spake it with as much ease as his
mother-tongue, and so well understood the criti-
icism and niceties of it, that his sheich pronounced

* Dr. Pocock's Specimen Histor. Arab. p.
t Dr. H. Piideaux's Life of Mahomet, p. 36.
I Cl. Virorum ad G. Vossium Epistoias, Nu. 23p.

jiim

THE LIFE OF

him a master in it, in no sort inferior to the mufti
of Aleppo.

Though what has been already mentioned was
a great deal of work, it was not the only employ-
ment he had at this place. As he now resided on
a factory, so he was concerned in a sort of mer-
chandize : not that of buying up silks and other
ornaments to furnish the pride and luxury of Eu-
rope, or any other traffic that might issue in a
plentiful increase of wealth ; but the purchasing
far more precious and valuable wares, even the
learning and knowledge contained in the books of
those eastern nations. Jacobus Golius, a very
learned professor of Arabic and mathematics in
the university of Leyden, was now very lately re-
turned out of Syria, bringing with him a great
many manuscripts of good account, which he had
procured in those parts; and though Mr. Pocock
had the disadvantage of coming after, he resolved
that if diligence could effect it, his abode there

o *

should not be of less use to the commonwealth of
learning. He bought up whatever manuscripts
of any value in that language, he could meet with
at Aleppo, and employed his friends there to pro-
cure the like from other places, waiting the oppor-
tunities of the caravans from Persia, and other
countries. When he could not obtain the books
themselves, he took care to have them exactly
transcribed, Aud because amongst the rubbish,

as

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 27

as he called it, of the Jews, there were many
considerable things, especially such as had been
formerly written by their learned men in Anbic,
when that tongue was more in request an.ong
them : he employed several brokers to get some
of these out of their hands. For he was well as-
sured, that though the Jews were either so igio-
rant as not to understand them, or else so sottish
as not to make use of them, they would not pirt
with them to one whom they knew to be a chrs-
tian.

As he thus dealt in books for his own priva.e
use, and at his own expence, so he had a corr-
mission from Bishop Laud (in a letter, dated Oct
30, 1631) then of London, desiring he would

buy for him such antient Greek coins, and such

^

manuscripts, either in Greek or the Oriental lan-
guages, as in his judgment may best befit an uni»
versity library. From whence it appears, that
this excellent man (as Lord Clarendon deserved!}'
stiles him) had then designed those noble benefac-
tions, which he afterwards bestowed on the Bod-
leian library at Oxford. Whether the Arabic,
Persian, Hebrew, Armenian, Ethiopia, and othei
manuscripts given by him to that university in the
years 1635 and 1636, were any of them procured
by Mr. Pocock, I am not able certainly to say.
I find a letter of that prelate's, then made Arch'
bishop of Canterbury, dated May 21, 1634, to

Mr.

2$ THE LIFE OF

Mr. Focock, in which he thanks him for Greek
coins but mentions no books. Nay, he inti-
mates, that no such had been procured, by ex-
pressing, at the same time, his doubt, that the
French and Venetians had raised the price of
inauuscripts more than that of coins. The arch-
bisiop however continues to request of Mr. Po-
cotk, " that he would send him word when there
" was hopes of getting any good ones at a toler-
" able rate." To which he adds, " I hope you
" will, before your return, make yourself able to
" teach the Arabic language." From which we
nay assuredly gather, that his grace had then en-r
tertained thoughts of founding an Arabic lecture
a! Oxford, and was resolved in the choice of his
first lecturer.

The execution of this project, about two years
ifter, furnished Mr. Pocock with an honourable
Kcasion of returning home and leaving Aleppo,
sfter a stay of five or six years in that place, with
vhich he was never heartily pleased. The arch-
bishop, notwithstanding the calumnies of his ene-
nies, had his mind always full of the noblest
iesigns, and never thought any thing too trouble-
some or too costly, that might be for the service
of religion, the benefit of the poor, or the ad-
vancement of learning. Amongst his other cares
for the university of Oxford, he had often reflected
on a considerable defect there relating to the study

of

DR. EDWARD POCOC£< 29

of the learned languages. King Henry VIII. in
the five lectures he instituted, took care both for
Greek and Hebrew. But Arabic, a learned and
useful language, was still unprovided for and for
carrying on the study of this, Archbistop Laud
resolves to establish a lecture, and to encourage
it with a considerable stipend. With tris design
he acquaints Mr. Pocock at Aleppo, teling him,
in the letter he sent to him for this purpse, that
he could do him no greater honour thai to name
him to the university for his first profeisor ; and
ordering him, at the same time, to hastn his re*
turn that he might undertake the employnent.

On such encouragement as this, there is no
doubt but that he chearfully prepared for his de-
parture. But that which was matter of joy to
him was not a little grievous to his friends in that
place. A kind and obliging carriage, aid a vir-
tuous life ; a faithful discharge of his duty as a
minister, and a wonderful diligence in several ex-
traordinary designs, could not but obtain from all
the English there, at least from them that had any
sense of what was praise-worthy, a great respect
and deference. And the approaching loss of the
advantages they reaped from his pastoral care, and
ef the comfort and satisfaction they had in his
company, must needs be to them a very sensible
affliction. Of this we may speak the more assur-
edly, from the character given of Mr. Pocock, in

a letter
G

30 THE LIFE OF

a letter to Air. Seldcn, written from Aleppo in the
year 1 6:7-2, by Mr. Wandesford, then residing
there.

" Yoi commended/' says he, " a diligent and
" able gentleman, Mr. Pocock, to me, who hath
41 enabled iiimself very much in the Arab tongue.

" 1 have no other comfort but in him for

" conveise. And indeed his nature is so sweet
" and aniable, 1 owe much to you for the com-
" in and: you laid upon me to receive him."

Even :he Mahometans themselves, with whom
he was acquainted, were so charmed with his
shining virtue, his amazing industry, and most
agreeabb conversation, that they were extremely
unwilling to part with him. Particularly his
sheich, or master for Arabic, was so fond of him,
that when he saw him resolved to be gone, he not
only offered his service, but expressed also a very
earnest desire to accompany him to England.
Nor did this Mahometan doctor ever forget his
excellent scholar, even to the last moment of his
life. For in the year 1670 Mr. Huntington, in
his first letter to Mr. Pocock from Aleppo, writes
thus : " Your old sheich" (who died several years
since) <c was always mindful of you, and expressed
" your name with his last breath. He was still
telling the good opinion he had of you, that
you were a right honest man ; and that he did
not doubt but to meet you in paradise, under

2 " the

a

C(

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 51

" the banner of our Jesus." And the poor Der-
vise Ahmed, perhaps the same person with Ha-
met, before-mentioned, doubtless expressed his
affection in such strains of Oriental eloquence, as
are to be met with in the epistles he afterwards
seat to him ; telling him, that his love for him,
was it embodied, would fill a thousand rivers;
that though absent from his eye he should be still
present in his heart, from which no distance should
remove him ; and wishing and praying the peace
of God to be with him as long as the east wind
blows. And that the reader may be diverted with
some further expressions of this person's esteem
and love ; ard also be satisfied, that Mr. Pocock's
endeavours for the promotion of learning, by pro-
curing manuscripts from the east, were not ended
on his return to Oxford, I will hereby subjoin one
whole letter, being the first that Ahmed sent to
Mr. Pocock, after he left Aleppo, as it was
translated out of the original Arabic, by his eldest
and very learned son, Mr. Edward Pocock, late
rector of Mildenhall, in Wiltshire.

To the presence of that eminent scholar, Pocock

the Jionoured.

" Very fair are the ornaments of paper en-
" riched with the embroidery of words ; and very
" beautiful is that which the point of the pen
" draws forth from the minds of souls : let peace

" spread

tHE LtF£ OF

" spread its sweet smell like amber, and display
" its savour like jessamine toward the tract of that
" country, whither he goes. Let God give suc-
" cess to what he delights in and desires. Besides
" this, there came to us a much desired letter,
" fairly written after the best manner ; and we
" were revived at its coming, and satisfied at its
" sweet aspect, beyond the spring, and smell of
<f flowers ; and we know the matter it contained,
" and what answers you desired in it. And if
" you enquire concerning us, God be praised we
" are well and safe, and we trust in God, you
" are in like manner : only, since you left us, we
" have been as though our own brother had left
" us, or the spirit which is in the heart. And
" therefore, we had sincere joy when we heard
*' the news of your health, and of your arrival
" in your country ; and we praise God, who
" brought you to your people in health and safe-
" ty ; for his mercy is plentiful. We also give
" you to understand, that we have taken to wife,
" a Camel woman, riding on a camel, that she
" may look after our affairs. We have also got-
" ten Echwans Sepha, which you saw formerly,
" fairly drawn for sixty garshes ; and we had not
" gotten it for that price, unless Hieronymo had
" gotten it for us ; for how we could buy that
" which I saw the day that I went from Aleppo
" you know. And, as for the history of AL

" Jannabi,

DR. EDWARD POCOCK.

" Jannabi, the Kadi, of which I saw some pieces,
" you told me that we should tarry till the tran-
" scribing it was finished, and when it was finished
" we should buy it, if the most high God please.
" The commentary on Gubstan is also finished,
" which we will send you ; and, if it please God,
" we will do our endeavour to send you the his-
" tory of Ebn Chalecan ; and any book that we
" shall see, which is convenient for you, we shall
w send to you. And you must needs send us an
" answer to these letters, and some little token of
" what your country affords. Send us also a printed
" geography ; and whatsoever business you shall
" have in these parts, send and let me know, that
I may enjoy the performance of it,

The poor DERVISE AHMED."

A UJOy ClJJUy

<c

SECTION II.

MR. POCOCK having settled his affairs at
Aleppo, in order to his return, soon had the op-
portunity of a ship to carry him home. During
the former part of his voyage he enjoyed the com-
pany of a person, who, though he told sad stories,
was of a very entertaining conversation. He was
an old dominican friar, dispatched out of the east
to Rome, with a lamentable account of the state

VOL, J. D Of

34 THE LIFE Of

of Christianity in India and China. And as he
diverted Air. Pocock with several relations of the
learning and customs of those remote countries',
so he made no scruple to acquaint him with the
secrets of his message; which was to complain of
the Jesuits, and give a particular account of the
abominations they were guilty of. Those wretched
apostles, who had boasted so much of vast num-
bers of proselytes, converted people indeed, but
not to the faith of Christ: to acknowledge the
pope's supremacy, and bear a great deal of re-
spect to their order, were some of the chief duties
they recommended to those they preached to;
and provided they would be hearty in such as
these, any thing else, which they were fond of,
w as ea&ily dispensed with. They might, on such
terms, have as much zeal as they pleased for Con-
fucius, or retain any of their former impieties:
they might be still Pagans and Idolaters, and yet
very good Catholics. What success this honest
old friar met with when he came to Pvome, I know
not; but too manifest it is, that these missionaries
have still proceeded in the same method ; their
practices of this kind having been not very long
since, under the examination of the Inquisition-.

The friar being set on shore in Italy, the ship
continued her voyage, and came safe into Eng-
land ; and Mr. Pocock having taken care for the
landing and conveyance of the learned ware he.

brought

DR. EDWARB POCOCK. 35

brought with him, made what haste he could to
Oxford; where he was received with due respect
and esteem from all ; but by his old friends, with
all the expressions of a very tender affection :
principally, by Mr. Thomas Greaves, aforemen-
tioned ; the eldest, Mr. John Greaves, being then
still in Italy.

After what was due to the kindness of his
friends in Oxford, Mr. Pocock's next business
-was, to make preparation for his degree of ba-
chelor in divinity, which he was now persuaded
to take. The questions, on which he answered,
in his exercises on that occasion, were these two :
Whether pilgrimages to places, called holy, un-
dertaken on the account of religion, are to be
approved ? And, Whether there be any such thing
as purgatory? And, as he defended the negative
of both these, so in his explanation of them, he
confirmed the Protestant doctrine, about these
matters, in opposition to the opinions of Rome,
with all imaginable strength and clearness ; not
contenting himself with what is to be met with in
modern tracts, but searching out the sense of the
primitive church, from the writings of the fathers;
particularly, on the first question, to expose the
vanity of those pilgrimages, which the council of
Trent hath declared to be very pious, and are
esteemed, as of considerable merit, in Popish
countries. He made reat use of that oration,

or

36 THE LIFE OF

or rather epistle, of Gregory Nyssen, concerning
them that travel to Jerusalem, published by
itself in Greek and Latin, by Peter du Moulin ;
setting the arguments of that excellent father \&
their best light, after he had first noted the un-
reasonable scruples and the impotent rage of
some Popish writers, on occasion of that epistle,
more especially of G reiser, the Jesuit.

The Latin Sermon he preached, I suppose,
was on those words of the Prophet Malachi,
chap. ii. ver. 7- " The priests lips should keep
" knowledge, and they should seek the law at
" his mouth ; for he is the messenger of the Lord
" of Hosts." This however is certain, that a
learned discourse on that text, written by his
own hand, was found amongst his papers. But
on whatsoever subject it was, he had, as he would
sometimes in discourse occasionally remember,
an extraordinary auditory, when he preached it.
For, besides the usual members of the university,
there were then present, Dr. John Bancroft,
Bishop of Oxford ; Sir John Coke, one of the
principal Secretaries of State ; Sir Henry Marten,
Judge of the Admiralty and of the Prerogative
Court : Sir Edward Littleton, Solicitor General ;
and Dr. Thomas Ptives, the King's Advocate ;
being at that time his Majesty's Commissioners
at Oxford, on a very solemn occasion*. It was

** Hist, et Antiq. Univer?. Oxon. 1. i. p. 342.

the

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. S7

the confirmation of the new body of statutes for
that University, which by the care and wisdom
of the Chancellor of it, had been collected out of
a vast number, that had continued a confused
heap for many ages. A work which proved too
difficult for those two great Cardinals, Woolsey
and Pool: who both attempted it in vain*, and
which only that excellent conduct, and those un-
wearied endeavours, which were peculiar to Arch-
bishop Laud, were able to get accomplished.

The necessary exercises being thus finished, he
was admitted to the degree of Bachelor of Divi-
nity, July 8, 1636. And soon after that, the ho-
nour, which his great patron had designed for
him, was actually conferred on him. For on the
eighth day of the next month, Dr, Baylie, Pre-
sident of St. John Baptists College, and Vice-"
chancellor of the University, declared in a convo-
cation, held for this purpose, that, whereas their
much honoured Chancellor, the Archbishop, had
lately given to the public library a considerable
number of Arabic books ; he was now to acquaint
them, with an addition to that bounty. For, that
these treasures might not continue lockt up, and
go useless, his Grace had been pleased to settle
401. per annum, during his life, on a person, who

* Hist, of the Troubles and Trial of Archbp. Laud. p.
304,

should

38 THE LIFE OF

should read a lecture in that tongue. And the
rnan, whom he nominated for the approbation of
that house, was, he told them, Mr. Pocock, of
Corpus-Christi, lately returned out of the east-
ern parts, who was, as he assured them, and they
very well knew, eminent for his probity, his lean>
ing, and skill in languages.

So kind a message was received by the Univer-
sity, with much joy, and a very grateful acknow-
ledgment. And the lecturer, thus appointed, to
express a just diligence, opened his lecture two
days after, viz. Aug. 10, with an excellent Latin
speech ; wherein, as he took care to pay those
respects which were due to the founder, so he
gave a learned account of the nature and useful-
ness of the tongue he was to explain : a small
part of which speech, declaring the mighty esteem
the Arabians anciently had for poets and poetry,
•was afterward printed *. After this introduction,
the book, which he first undertook to read on,
was the Proverbs of Ali, the fourth Emperor of
the Saracens, and the cousin german and son-in-
law of Mahomet : a man of such account with
that impostor, not only for his valour, but know-
ledge too, that he was wont to declare, that if all
the learning of the Arabians were destroyed, it

* Ad fir.era Notarum in Carmen Tograi, Edit. Oxon,
A. D, 1661,

DR. EDWARD POCOCK.

might be found again in Ali, as in a living library.
Upon this book, observing the directions of the
Archbishop, in the statutes he had provided, he
spent an hour every Wednesday in vacation- time,
and also in Lent, explaining the sense of the au-
thor, and the things relating to the grammar and
propriety of the language; and also shewing the
agreement it hath with the Hebrew and Syriac,
as often as there was occasion. The lecture be*
ing ended, he usually tarried for some in the pub-
lic school, to resolve the questions of his hearers,
and satisfy them in their doubts ; and always, that
afternoon, gave admittance in his chamber, from
one o'clock till four, to all that would come to
him for further conference and direction.

Whilst Mr, Pocock was employed in this man-
ner, his dear friend, Mr. John Greaves, towards,
the end of the year 1636, returned home from
Italy, where he had been, probably on Archbishop
Laud's account, for two years. Immediately after
his arrival, he writes to Mr. Pocock ; acquainting
him, that it had been his fortune to meet with
Mr. Petty, in Italy, who proffered him, in my
Lord of Arundel's name, 2001. per annum, and
such fortunes as that lord could heap upon him,
if he would stay with him, and go into Greece.
In answer to which, Mr. Greaves declared his
purpose of returning first into England, to see
Mr. Pocock, after so long an absence; adding,

that

40 THE LIFE OF

that if he returned back, lie should rather think
of going into Egypt, \\hcre lew had been, and
where, besides searching after books and anti-
quities, he should make astronomical observa-
tions. Mr. Petty very much approved this reso-
lution, and assured Mr. Greaves, that if he would
undertake that journey as under his lord's send-
ing, he should have, besides what was above-
mentioned, those preferments settled upon him,
which he himself then possessed. But getting no
absolute promise of compliance, and perceiving
that Mr. Greaves stood in some relation to Arch-
bishop Laud, Mr. Petty advised him, for his bet-
ter security, that since he would not cast himself
upoa his lord, he should, by the Archbishop's
means, go consul to Aleppo, and procure leave
of the Grand Seignorto have a consular power at
Alexandria, as often as he should go thither. To
this Mr. Greaves could give no positive answer,
till he had spoken of it to Mr. Pocock, wtio could
best inform him, whether he was fit for the place,
or the place for him. And of both these he would
plainly deliver his opinion.

It is very probable, that Mr. Pocock, at this
instant wished for an opportunity of travelling
once more into the east, to perfect himself in a
language the most copious and difficult in the
world. And besides attaining to greater skill in
the Arabic tongue, he had other reasons for de-

2 siring

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 41

siring such a voyage. He had lately engaged in
the translation of an historical work, which he
intended to dedicate to the Archbishop, as a last-
ing monument of his gratitude ; and this, he be-
lieved, could not be performed by him any where,
with so much ease and exactness, as there, where,
upon every difficulty, he might have recourse to
those whom he thought most likely to give the
truest accounts of the matters of fact, and also
best understood the language they were written
in. Moreover, he could not be of opinion, that
the Oriental books he had already purchased,
were a sufficient provision for his studies; and
hoped, that upon his return to the east, he should
be able to procure many useful treatises he still
wanted, and which were not yet heard of in
the west.

The receipt of Mr. Greaves's letter, happily
opened to him a prospect of accomplishing these
desires : and there is little doubt to be made, but
that, upon sight of it, he soon approved the pro-
ject of the consulship, and in his answer signified
how glad he should be, if, when he communicated

o

his own affair to the Archbishop, he could procure
his Grace's consent and encouragement, for him to
make another vovage to the Levant for the ends

•> o

abovementioned. For in Mr. Greaves's next let-
ter, dated December 23, of the same year, which

was

42 THE LIFE OF

\va.s soon after, in answer to one of Mr. PococI
he is desired to send him up Uluu; 1^-g's astrono-
mical tables ; " of which," says he, " I propose
" to make this use. The next week I will shew
" them my Lord's grace, and highly commend
" your care in procuring of those tables, being
" the most accurate that ever were extant. Then
" will I discover my intention of having them
" printed, and dedicated to his Grace. But be-
" cause I presume, that there are many things
" which in these parts cannot perfectly be under-
" stood, I shall therefore acquaint my Lord with
" my desires of taking a journey into those coun-
tries, for the more emendate edition of them ;
afterwards, by degrees, fall down upon the bu-
siness of the consulship, and how honourable
" a thing it would be, if you were sent out a se-
w cond time, as Golius, in the Low-countries,
" was, by the States, after he had been once there
u before. If my Lord shall be pleased to resent,
<] and compass the business, I shall like it well;
" if not, I shall procure 3001. for you and myself,
*' besides getting a dispensation for the allowances
" of our places in our absence ; and, by God's
" blessing, in three years dispatch the whole
f< journey. It shall go hard too, but I will get
" some citizen in, as a benefactor to the design.
" If not, 3001. of mine, whereof I give you the

" half

"

"

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 43

*f half, together with the return of our stipends,
" will, in a plentiful manner, if I be not deceived,

" in Turkey, maintain us."

./ *

The success of Mr. Greaves's application to
the Archbishop, we know no otherwise, than by
the event Mr. Greaves did not go consul to
Aleppo, nor indeed did he at all visit that place,
but went directly from Constantinople to Alex-
andria, or Grand Cairo. From whence we may
conclude, that his Grace did not come into that
proposal, but provided for Mr. Greaves's secure
travelling into Egypt some other way, and ques-
tionless contributed generously to the expence
thereof. As to Mr. Pocock, the Archbishop not
only approved of his desire to visit the east once
more, but also encouraged it, by allowing him the
profits of his lecture, during his stay in the
Levant.

This, and the like revenue, from his fellowship
in Corpus-Christi, together with an estate of some
value, which was lately fallen to him on the death
of his father, enabled Mr. Pocock to prosecute
this design, without accepting the offer of his ge-
nerous and affectionate friend, Mr. Greaves,
And accordingly, they both embarked together
about the beginning of July, A.D. 1637. Beforq
Mr. Pocock left Oxford, he entered the following
^nemorandum in a spare leaf of his six .chiliads of

Arabic

44- THE LIFE OF

Arabic proverbs, where it is yet extant in the
Bodleian library.

In nomine S. S. et individiue Trinifatis, cui Lam
in omnem JEternitatem ; Amtn :

If it please God that I return not, otherwise
to dispose of this translation of proverbs, 1 de-
sire that it may be put in the archives of Corpus-
Christi College library ; there, though very rude
and imperfect, to be kept for some help of those
that study the Arabic language; hoping that Mr.
Thomas Greaves, or some other, may at some
time perfect this work for an edition.

April 10, 1637. Per me EDV. POCOCK.

Mr. Thomas Greaves having, with the Arch-
bishop's consent, undertaken the care of the Ara-
bic lecture, till Mr. Pocock's return; Mr. John
Greaves landed at Leghorn, and went thence to
Rome, to dispatch some employments, which, as
he wrote to Mr. Pocock the year before, would
make it necessary for him to return into Italy :
but Mr. Pocock continued in the prison of his
ship ; for so he both considered and called it, till
he came to Constantinople ; whither Mr. Greaves
soon after followed him ; one of his letters to
the archbishop being dated, December 28, of the
same year, from Galata, near Constantinople.
Mr. Pocock, on his arrival, was kindly received

by

DR. EDWARD TOCOCK. 45

by all the English, and especially by the ambassa-
dor, Sir Peter Wich, to whose favour and protec-
tion he was particularly recommended by the
Archbishop. That very worthy person not only
entertained him at his house, but also allowed him
there all the liberties he could desire, both for him-
self and his friends ; and doubtless was not want-
ing to afford any assistance he could give him in
his learned designs. Of which obliging temper
also towards him, was Sir Sackvil Crow, who, in
a short time, succeeded the other, as ambassador
at that court.

Mr. Pocock being settled at Constantinople, or
rather near it, at Pera, or Galata, on the other
side of the water, where the English, and other
merchants usually resided, made it his first busi-
ness to enquire out, and to obtain the conversa-
tion of some learned Turk, that might assist him
in acquiring both books and languages. But
such a one was, it seems, a rarity, which even the
metropolis of the Turkish empire would not pre-
sently afford him. For in a letter written there,
some months after his arrival, he complained,
that he could yet see no likelihood of any such
person, of whom he might make use.

But here he had a happiness, which he formerly
sought for in vain at Aleppo, which was the so-
ciety of several Jews, who wrere both learned and
civil. For it is manifest, from an account of his

expences.

46 THE LIFE OF

expences, which he then kept, that some of those
people did him considerable services, in buying
and transcribing books, for which he very well
paid them. And that which he then highly va-
lued, and which he would afterwards frequently
remember with great satisfaction, was, an inti-
mate acquaintance he there had with Jacobo Ro-
mano, the author of an Auctuarium to Buxtorf's
Bibliotheca Rabbinica, and one of the most learned
Jews of his time *. As this was a candid and
very judicious person, so he would make use ot a
great deal of freedom in his conversation. lie
had carefully read over several Christian books,
as well of Popish, as Protestant authors ; par-
ticularly among those of the latter, Calvin's In-
stitutions; and he would often declare to Mr. Po-
cock, the great difference he observed amongst
them. Which was, that the reformed were of
a religion, which was very consistent, and held
such doctrines, as agreed with the principles they
owned, namely the writings of the New Testa-
ment : whereas the Papists, in many instances,
were at war with themselves, and pretended to
observe a rule, which they would yet very fre-
quently thwart and contradict.

* Judseorum, quos mihi nossc contigit, nemini, vel doc-
trinS, vel ingenuitate secundus Poc. Not. Misccll. ad por-
tam Mosis, p.SO.

Amongst

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 47

Amongst the Grecian Christians at Constanti-
nople, those miserable remains of a once famous
and most flourishing Church, that have long

o ' O

groaned under an insupportable tyranny, there
were several persons, with whom he was ac-
quainted, and that were useful to him in his de-
signs. Upon which account they will deserve to
be here mentioned. And the precedence is most
justly due to that great man, Cyril 1 us Lucari,
Patriarch of that See, who, to use Mr. Pocock's
own words concerning him, was a most reverend,
grave, and learned person. He was of a genius
much above the slavish condition of his country,
and laboured, with a mighty courage and industry,
to promote the common cause of Christianity,
and the particular advantages of the Church un-
der his care, notwithstanding all the malice and
barbarity that oppressed him.

For such purposes as these, amongst the other
great things he did, he had collected a very excel-
lent library, furnishing it with all the choice ma-
nuscripts, which those parts afforded, especially
in the Greek language. And indeed, a specimen
of the treasures of this kind, in his possession, he
had given the world in that book of inestimable
value, brought with him from Alexandria, of which
he had been formerly patriarch, and sent as a pre-
sent to his majesty of England, King Charles t,
viz. the Septuagint's Translation of the Old Tes-
tament,

48 THE L1FL 0*

lament, and the Greek Text of the New, written,
as he believed, by the hand of Thecla, a noble
Egyptian woman, near fourteen hundred years
ago; at the end of which manuscript is also the
admirable Epistle of St. Clemens Romanus to the
Corinthians, as old as some parts of the New
Testament itself, and antiently read in churches,
but in vain sought for by the learned men of
Europe, for many ages. Mr. Pocock, who could
not but earnestly desire such a privilege, doubt-
less had the use of any books which this vene-
rable person had the command of; the esteem
and affection of that patriarch being very great
for the reformed in general, and the people and
Church of England in particular, of which, per-
haps, a short account will not be thought too great
a digression.

\-j

This great man had travelled, when young, in
several places of Europe, and understood, besides
Latin, several modern languages *. And as he
had occasion particularly to enquire into the state
of religion in those countries, so he was abundantly
convinced, that the true difference between pro-
testancy and popery is, that the first is Christia-
nity purged from many corruptions, whereas the
latter is Christianity loaded and polluted with

* Vide Narrationem <le Vita, &<\ Cyrilli, Autore Viro
Rev, D. Tho. Smith.

them.

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 49

them. This was very manifest to him from the
writings of the fathers, and in a great measure
too, from the present sense and belief of the
Church wherein he presided ; which he well knew
to have been always a perfect stranger to several
of those opinions, which the Church of Rome
would impose upon the world for Catholic doc-
trines. And as he had, upon these accounts, a
just value for the Reformation ; so the like reflec-
tions produced in him a peculiar regard for it, as
it was established in the Church of England.
For knowing the constitution of this Church very
well, he could not but discern, that as it cast out
all the errors and superstitions of the Church of
Rome ; so no intemperate zeal, nor any necessity
of affairs, caused it to throw out, together with
them, that apostolical government, and those rites,
which had been of constant ttse with the whole
Church of Christ, in all places and times. When,
therefore, this great man first composed his Con-
fession of the Faith and Doctrines of the Greek
Church, which hath been printed more than once
here in the west, he dedicated it to King James L.
and designed to get it printed in England ; and
afterward, when he ventured upon that bold at-
tempt of ordering Nicodemus Metaxa to set about
printing it at Constantinople itself, in the Greek
press which he had brought thither from London,
it had a dedication prefixed to King Charles I.
vox,, i. E And

50 THE LI IE

And the satisfaction that patriarch had, in owning
communion with the English, as a sound and
excellent part of the Catholic Church, he some-
times expressed by his presence at the worship of
God in the ambassador's chapel, according to
our established Liturgy. Particularly., as Mr.
Pocock would often remember, upon an extraor-
dinary occasion, when he was present, which was,
the baptising a son of the Ambassador, born at
Constantinople. At which time, the most reve-
rend Cyril was not only of the congregation, and
joined in the service with much devotion, but also
undertaking to be a godfather, gave his own name
to the child, who was afterward the Honourable
Sir Cyril Wich, one of the trustees appointed by
parliament, some years ago, for the forfeited
estates in Ireland.

But of how much comfort and use soever the
favour of this most reverend and learned man
was to Mr. Pocock; alas! he enjoyed it not
long. For before he had been a full year at Con-
stantinople, the good old patriarch, being caught
in the snares his enemies had laid for him, was
hurried, to what the world calls a miserable end,
but indeed to a crown of martyrdom. Of the oc-
casion and circumstances of his murder, Mr. Po-
eock sent a large account to Archbishop Laud,
soon after it was acted; keepin 1 o a copy of
what he wrote, for his own remembrance. But,

as

DR. EDWARD POCOCK.

as the former, I believe, did not escape the fury
of Mr. Pry nne, when he scattered and destroyed
that archbishop's papers ; so the latter, as Mr.
Pocock would often complain, was casually lost.
What I shall therefore here add, of this great
man's death, is chiefly taken from a letter of Mr.
Pocock's, written to Mr. Thomas Greaves, in the
year 1659, to satisfy the desire of Dr. Morton,
Lord Bishop of Durham, then ninety-six years
old, and residing in the house of Sir Henry Yel-
verton, and which agrees with the larger account,
which the Rev. Dr. Smith published many years
after, from Dr. Pocock's own mouth, in his Latin
narrative of the life and actions of that great patri-
arch.

His boldly asserting the doctrines of true and
genuine Christianity, in opposition to the corrup-
tions of Rome, exposed him to the rage of those
busy factors for that church, the Jesuits. Several
of which order, at Constantinople, under the pro-
tection of the French ambassador, continually per-
secuted him almost twenty years ; for near so long
it was from his first coming to that throne, to the
time of his martyrdom. They had, more than once,
by their interest in the ministers of state, gotten
him deposed ; they had also caused him to be
banished ; and to obtain their wicked purposes,
they suggested such things against him, as any
*hat pretend to the name of Christ, one would

think.

*

2

53 TJJK LIKE Of

think, should be utterly ashamed of: representing
the arguments he made use of, for the divinity of
our Blessed Lord, against Jews and infidels, as
blasphemy against Mahomet; and the Greek press,
which he had provided to print Catechisms, and
other useful books, for the instruction of the Chris-
tians under his care, as a seditious design against
the government ; but by the zeal and diligence of
the English ambassadors, first Sir Thomas Howe,
and afterward Sir Peter Wich, together with the

c*

assistance of the Dutch resident, who heartily
espoused his cause, he not only disappointed the
wicked designs of those men, but obtained such an
interest in the Prime Vizier, as seemed a sufficient
fence against all future trouble. However, a

O '

Jesuitical malice, though baffled, is not ended, and
a hellish contrivance at length prevailed. A bar-
gain is struck up with a great Basha, to take the
opportunity of the Vizier's absence, and fill the
ears of the Grand Seignior, Sultan Morad, then on
the borders of Persia, in order to the siege of Bag-
dad, with the great danger that his empire was in,
from the patriarch Cyril, a popular man of a vast
interest, and that kept, as this informer pretended
to be well assured, a close correspondence with
Christian princes. This succeeded according to
their hopes, and a written order was immediately
dispatched for the taking away his life ; which was
presently executed, with a barbarity natural to

such

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 53

such instruments. A crew of Janizaries, seizing
him in his palace, carried him to sea, as it were
for another banishment ; where, in a boat, amidst
the most devout prayers to Almighty God, which
on his knees, with much fervor and constancy,
he poured out, they reviled, buffeted, and then
strangled him ; and having taken off his clothes,
cast him naked into the water. His body, being
driven to the shore, was there secured, till some of
his friends took care to bury it. But the rage of
his enemies would not afford it such a resting

o

place. They caused it to be digged up and cast
again into the sea. However, a second time it
was taken up, by the humanity of some fishermen,,
and at the charge of his friends, buried in a Greek
chapel, on a little island ; whence afterward, to
satisfy the people, when the heat of things was
over, it was brought to Constantinople, and there
decently interred.

As this venerable man was thus murdered on
the water; so a little time after, there was too
much reason to conclude, that the choice manu-
scripts of his library were swallowed up by it.
Those precious wares were a very desirable pur-
chase, to any that understood the worth of them ;
and, it seems, the Dutch resident had the good
fortune to find means to obtain them. To make
sure of which, against the endeavours of a new
patriarch, who began to make a diligent enquiry

after

54 THE T.IFE OP

after them, he sent them away, \vith some other ot
his goods, by a ship the i returning to Holland.
And though that vessel arrived Cutely at the in-
tendeu harbour, the very n. xt day, by the violence
of an extraordinary storm, it sunk there, among
many Ouiers, and the caigo with it. That those
manuscripts, by these means, were irrecoverably
lost, I find by one of Mr. Pocock's letters, was be-
lieved at Constantinople. But whether the report
afterward appeared true or ialse, I have not had
opportunity of inquiring. I shall conclude the
account of Cyril with observing, that Archbishop
Laud was deeply concerned at the misfortunes of
the old patriarch. In his answer to Mr. Pocoek,
on that head, he writes thus : " For his successor,
" I hear no good yet ; what it will please God to
" work by him I know not. It may be, he hath
" shewed the Turk a way, in the death of Cyril,
" how to deal with himself." In this, the Arch-
bishop conjectured happily enough. For in less
than a year's time, the new patriarch, whose wicked
intrigues hastened the death of his predecessor, was
charged by the Greeks with extortion, and other
wrongs done to their church and its privileges ;
and upon a hearing before the Basha, he was con-
victed and imprisoned, and the Greeks had leave
to choose a new patriarch ; upon which they elected
Parthenius, Archbishop of Adrianople.

The patriarch Cyril having had a great esteem

for

DR. EDWARD POCOCK,

for Mr. Pocock, it cannot be doubted, but that his
chaplains, and other domestics, treated him with
much respect, and did him all the good offices they
were capable of. This was particularly and cer-
tainly true of Nathanael Canopius, his * Protosyn-
cellus, a Cretan born, as was also the old patri-
arch, and of equal good inclinations towards the
religion established in the Church of England.

o £3

This person, being assured of commendatory let-
ters, both from the English ambassador and Mr.
Pocock, had resolved to spend some time in Eng-
land ; there to improve himself in several kinds of
learning. And upon the death of Cyril, what be-
fore was matter of choice to him, became also ne-
cessary, to avoid the same usage that he had met
with. Taking, therefore, the first opportunity of
a ship for his passage into England, he came to
London ; where Archbishop Laud received him
with a great deal of kindness, sent him to Baliol
College in Oxford |, and there allowed him a com-
fortable maintenance. Some time after, he was
removed from Baliol, and became one of the Petty-
Canons of Christ Church; and living there several

* The Syncclli, both in the Latin and Greek Churches,
but principally in the latter, were ecclesiastics, that cohabited
with bishops and patriarchs in the same cell; from whence
they took their name. They were instituted as witnesses of
the Bishop's good behaviour, anrj that they might profit by
his holy example. Of these the chief was called the Proto
jyncellus. See Du Fresne.

f Athen. Oxon. Vol. II. p. 65?.

THE LIFE OV

years after Mr. Pocock came back from his tra-
vels, be met with suitable returns from him for
the kindness he had shewn him at Constantino-
ple. And to digress also here a little farther with
the account of this good and learned man, more
years would he have spent on his studies in Ox-
ford, had not such a furious zeal as forced him
from home driven him also from this University.
It was not, indeed, that of Jesuits and Mahome-
tans, but of a sort of people, whom there w ill be
too much occasion hereafter to mention, called
Parliamentarian visitors. By these, in the be-
ginning of Nov. 1648, being turned out of his
preferment at Christ Church he went into Hol-
land *, where he was reduced to such extremities,
that he was forced, in a Latin address, to petition
the states for the necessary expence of his own
passage home, and the carriage of his books f.
After his return, he was made Bisaop of Smyrna,
but what afterwards beiel him, I know not.

Another person amongst the Greeks, who
proved of some use to Mr. Pocock, was Georgio
Cerigo, a doctor of physic, residing at Galata.
Besides the skill he had in his profession, he was
a man of considerable learning, especially in as-
tronomy, and other mathematical sciences. And

• Ger. Tossii Epistolae, Nurh. 518.
Clar. Viror. ad Voss. Epistolae, Num. 220.

as

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 57

as he had the command of a great many manu-
scripts, so he would part with several of them to
Mr. Pocock for his own use, and that of his
friends, especially to receive in exchange for them
some western rarities. This person had also a
brother, who was a scholar, and now concerned
with him in the same, learned traffic. To whom
may be added, Seignior Dominico and Constan-
tinus Duca, who are mentioned on the like occa-
sions.

With this assistance, Mr. Pocock carried on
his business of procuring manuscripts with good
success, purchasing a considerable number of
such as were very useful ; but for the most part of
no small price, for the dearness of books there
he often complained of. Neither were his endea-
vours of this kind confined to Constantinople.
For having frequent opportunities of sending to
Aleppo, he often desired several of his old friends
there to be diligent in taking up such as that coun-
try afforded. The chief of these were Mr. Wil-
liam Corderoy and Mr. Richard Hill, English
merchants ; and indeed the service they did, not
only to this learned man, but to learning itself,
well deserves that they should be remembered,
especially the first, who was also very useful in
this way to some others *. By the diligence of

* Vid. Prsefat, in Eutych, Origines Jo, Seldeni, p, 25.

these,

5S THE LIFE OF

these, he got the Persian gospels, which proved
afterwards of good use in the edition of the Eng-
lish Polyglott bible. They waited a considerable
time before they could buy these, first from one,
called by them Cogie Caudie, and after his death
from his son, who would not be induced to sell
this book, till at length his poverty forced him to
it. And there being several books which he had
desired, that were not to be gotten there, they sent
a person as far as Damascus, on purpose to seek
them fur him. Moreover, they recommended to
him a Syrian Christian, called, as they told him,
Abdel Messiah, and dwelling at Mussoloe, who
was taking a journey on some business to Constan-
tinople, as a person very fit and willing to be
employed, on his return, in buying books, which
being sent to Aleppo, they promised to pay for,
and to see conveyed. Indeed, among the chris-
tians of those parts, there were several with whom
he had been very intimate, and who now, and
upon all occasions, were ready to oblige him by
any thing they were capable of: paticularly the
patriarch of Antioch, and a brother he hadj who
styled himself Thalge, the scribe. The patriarch
had that regard for Mr. Pocock, that he under-
took to procure for him as many of the books of
Ephraem, in the original Syriac, as were to be had
in that country, in order to their being transcribed.

•r * CJ

And his brother, who wrote a very fair character*,
* Vid. Pococki Prxfat. in Annalcs Eutycbii.

and

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 59

and was very diligent in transcribing both Syriac
and Arabic books, engaged to furnish him with
true copies of all the parts that were to be found
of that father's works. Several of these were sent
to him at Constantinople, by the care of Mr.
Hill, which, I suppose, are now among his other
manuscripts, in the Bodleian Horary. The rest
too would have been finished, and sent in a little
time, had not that work been interrupted by the
death of the patriarch. It also appears, by a
letter of this Thalge to Mr. Pocock, (wherein,
with much respect, he calls him his father, his
much desired chief master, and honoured doctor)
that he undertook to procure for him whatever
historical accounts were to be obtained there of
Ephraem's life. Some few of these he inserted in
that epistle, but whether any more were sent after
that time, I know not. Besides these persons
that were thus serviceable to him, his Turkish and
Arabian friends at Aleppo gave him all the assist-
ance they could; particularly his old sheich, or
doctor, who procured, I find, about this time, a
large parcel of books by his direction. And in-
deed the kindness he still retained for him was so
great, that he was even transported with joy on
the news that his beloved scholar was again in the
east ; and resolved immediately on a journey from
Aleppo to the port on purpose to see him, which

he

60 THK LITE OF

he performed accordingly, some time before Mr.
Pucock left that place.

Besides the society of such learned men as Con-
stantinople itself afforded, Mr. Pocock had some-
times that of some who came from other parts.
Amongst these was Christianus. Ravius, born in,
or near * Francfbrt on the Oder, and brother to
Joannes Ravins, a teacher of Arabic for some
time at Utrecht. He having a design toco into

o o o

the east for his improvement in the languages of
those countries, and to collect books, Gerard
Vossiusf, at his request, recommended him di-
rectly, in a letter, to Mr. Pocock, and desired
Archbishop Laud to do the same, which he did
accordingly. And happy was it for Ravius, that
he brought to Constantinople this last recommen-
dation. For, as Mr. Pocock informed the Arch-
bishop, by letter, " He came thither, without
" either clothes befitting him fof which he said he
" had been robbed in France) or money, or letters
" of credit, to any merchant. He had letters of
" recommendation from some of the states to the
4* Dutch ambassador, who was departed before

* Tins is Mr. Smith's account, which I know not how to
reconcile with a letter of Kavius's to Mr. Selden (among a
valuable collection of that kind, now, or lately in the hands
<»f the learned Dr. Mead) in which he styles himself Chi is-
tianus Ravius Berlinas.

f Clar. Vir. ad Ger. Voss. Epistolae, Nam, 288.

"

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 6i

*' his arrival. Sir Sackvil Crow, the English arn-
" bassador, finding that he brought the Arch-

' O O

" bishop's recommendation, generously took him
" into his house and protection, and gave him all
" due furtherance; requiring of him that, if oc-
" casion so present itself, England may enjoy the
" benefit of what time he shall here employ in
" the study of the eastern tongues." " His de-
" sire," Mr. Pocock adds, <k seems to be to be
" employed in setting forth books in the Arabic
" language, and to be overseer of the press in
" that kind, for which he would be very fitting."
Ravius afterwards returned with a * collection of
four hundred manuscripts in several languages (a
catalogue of which was printed at Leyden) and
became of some fame in the world for eastern
learning.

But of all the learned men that did, or could
come to Constantinople, no one was so welcome
to Mr. Pocock as his dear friend, Mr. John
Greaves, who having dispatched those affairs
which obliged him to stop in Italy, as has been
before mentioned, arrived at the port, probably

* Mr. Pocock, in a letter to Mr. Selden (penes D. D,
Mead, uti supra) speaking of this collection, says, " It is
*' made, not only in Turkey, but more in London, of books,
*' gotten by the direction of others, by merchants who, by

reason of the disturbance of the times, knew not how to
" dispose of them."

some

THE LIFE OF

some time in December, 16.37. Having been
recommended, as well as Mr. Pocock, to the
English ambassador by the archbishop, he found
there the same kind receptio ,. And with the
assistance, and tinder the protection of that ho-
nourable person, he made those observations,
and did those other things, which the learned wri-
ter of his life *: has promised to oblige the world
with. But besides the enquiries he was concerned
in as an antiquary, a natural philosopher, and a
mathematician, his endeavours were much the
same with Mr. Pocock's, in the matter of lan-
guages and manuscripts. The tongues which he
now principally applied his mind to get perfection
in, were Arabic and Persian; and with what suc-
cess his immortal writings have sufficiently disco-
vered ; and he was unwearied in searching after
rare and curious books, so he spared no cost in
the purchase of them.

We have observed before, that Mr, Greaves's
original design of travelling was to visit Egypt, as
it is probable Mr. Pocock's was to reside at Con-
stantinople. The latter was never fond of tra-
velling, and he had now a particular call to stay
where he was. Sir Peter Wich's lady was gone
for England, himself intending speedily to follow
her ; and with her went his chaplain. But Sir

Vita Jo. Gravii, p. 12.

Peter

DR, EDWARD POCOCK. 63

Peter was obliged to stay much longer than he
designed, by reason of the Grand Seignior and
Grand Vizier's absence in the Persian war. For
till their return, he could not obtain his recreden-
tial letters ; and wanting a chaplain for that sea-
son, which lasted a full year, Mr. Pocock desired
the Archbishop's leave to supply that place, and
obtained it. Mr. Greaves, who, as is said above,
arrived at Galata in Dec. 1637, intended, the
following spring, to set out for Alexandria; but
delighted with the company of his dear friend, or
finding more employment about manuscripts than
he expected at Constantinople, he dicl not leave
that place at soonest till the latter end of August,
1638. About which time, finding a ship bound
for those parts, he set out, and after spending
some little time in the way, in the isle of Rhodes,
he arrived at Alexandria, towards the middle of
October, where he resided for many months, and

* •/ • '

from whence that letter, full of due respect and
reverence, was sent by him to Archbishop Laud,
which became, among many other things of like
sort, one of the crimes with which he was charged
on his trial in the House of Lords, and which
gained to Mr. Greaves a lasting testimony of his
worth and learning, delivered in that place by
that great prelate *.

* Hist, ef Troubles and Trial of Archbishop Laud,

p. 3S4.

Mr.

THE LIFE OF

Mr. Pocock having now the whole business of
procuring books at Constantinople on his hands,
made use of the diligence that was necessary to
serve Mr. Greaves, as well as himself. And
some time after, he found cause for the increase
of it in both respects, having received an account
from him of the ill success of his endeavours of
this kind in Egypt. For he assured him, that
notwithstanding all the search he had made after
manuscripts for himself and him both at Alexan-
dria and Cairo (where he ventured openly to go
to the Bezar, and to many of the Moors houses)
he could find, besides common things, nothing
but a few old papers, or rotten and imperfect
books. Several letters complaining of this dis-
appointment, he sent to Mr. Pocock, first from
Alexandria, and afterward from Leghorn, wherein
he pressed him to do his utmost for supplying this
detect at the place where he now was, being, he
said, as he found by experience, the sea, into
which all the lesser rivers had emptied themselves,
all books of any value in other parts having been
taken up, and brought to the port. He earnestly
desired hi ID, therefore, to make a due use of the
opportunity he now had in his hands, not only by
soliciting the assistance of their common friends
at Galata, but even by going over the water him-
self to the Eezars, and shops at Stambol; which
he supposed might be done without hazard, pro-
vided

DR. EDWARD FOCOCK. 65

vided a due caution were used about such books
as relate to religion. He intreated him also to
make a further enquiry after the libraries of pri-
vate men, and to attend to the return of the then
victorious army from Persia, which, perhaps,
among other spoils, might bring with them many
books in the language of that country.

Besides the directions Mr. Greaves had left
with Mr. Pocock, at Constantinople, when he
went thence, he now also sent him a further ac-
count of such manuscripts, as he most desired to
have; and perhaps the learned reader will not
think it tedious to take a short view of some of the
particulars. Very solicitous, I find, he was for
the astronomical, and other works of that Indian
prince, Ulug Beg, nephew to Tamerlane the Great.
With the help of two or three copies of these, one
of which the lord ambassador had promised to
buy for him, he hoped, he said, having made a
Latin translation out of Persian, to publish the
whole at his return into England ; which work
he, in some measure performed, dedicating one
part of it jointly to Mr. Pocock, and his own bro-
ther, Mr. Thomas Greaves. He was not less
earnest for the geography of Abulfeda, prince of
Hamah, an Arabic writer, part of which, in like
manner, he afterward translated and published.
The Alcoran he desired, not only in the original
Arabic, but alao in Turkish and Persian, with such

VOL. i. F glosses

66 THE LIFE OF

glosses and commentaries relating to it as could
be found. Also Avicenna de Anima, and any
other part of him that was to be had in Persian ;
Al Battany, the Planisphere and Geography of
Ptolemy, Gulistan in Arabic, and Mircondus in
Persian. And though he named these, and some
other books, it was not his design that none else
should be procured for him. For he desired that
Mr. Pocock, who very well knew his studies, and
what would be of use to them, would endeavour
to get all the manuscripts he should think good,
in Persian, Turkish, and Arabic, especially such
as relate to history, philosophy, physic, chemistry,
algebra, and mathematics. And as for mathe-
maticians, that he would carefully remember to
enquire after the ancients, that have been trans-
lated out of Greek, and either are not yet extant
in Europe, or else imperfectly published. After
all, he begged him not to be forgetful of several
Greek manuscripts, which Dr. Cerigo had pro-
mised to procure.

Mr. Pocock's commission from the Archbishop
was more general. He left it to his own discre-
tion, to procure such books in the eastern, or other
learned languages, as he should judge proper for
an University library, and in such places where he
thought they might most easily be found. But in
April, A. D. 1638, at the motion of Archbishop
Usher, he recommended to him a more particular

method,

9

fC
€t
€(

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 67

method. " The Primate," says he, in a letter of
the date last-mentioned, " is persuaded that the
*f patriarch Cyril can procure Clemens Alexan-
" drinus's Hypotyposes. It were wonderful well
worth getting, if it might be had. But, for my
own part, I do not think the patriarch hath it.
Yet you may try and hearken after it, that I
" may be able to give the Primate the better satis-
" faction. The Primate writes further to me,
" that Greece having been often gleaned, the
likeliest way left for good Greek manuscripts is,
for you to strike over from the place where you
are to Natolia, and see what that and Mount
Athos will afford you, whilst you are so near
them; which yet I must leave to your own
conveniences." In answer to this, Mr. Pocock
writes Aug. 18, giving an account of the pa-
triarch Cyril's unfortunate end, which prevented
his applying to him for the Hypotyposes of Cle-
mens. He gives also the Archbishop an account
of the Greek books at Mount Athos, wherein the
patriarch of Alexandria seems to have promised
his assistance, if not also to accompany Mr. Po-
cock thither. But he was hindered from doing
either, and moreover in danger, for not consent-
ing to anathematize good old Cyril. Which, to
use Archbishop Laud's own expression in his next
letter to Mr. Pocock, is such a piece of charity
as barbarity itself is scarce acquainted with. It

F 2 appears,

«

«

a

£(

THE LIFE OF

appears, from the course of the correspondence,
that the patriarch of Alexandria, in the end, lost
his life, and, as was supposed, through the con-
trivance of the new patriarch of Constantinople,
who had served his own predecessor so before.
The death of two great and good patriarchs*
contrived to gratify his own ambition and malice,
was a heavy charge upon the new patriarch. And
as men are apt to form severe judgments against
the authors of mischief to those in their own cir-
cumstances, it might have been expected, that
Archbishop Laud would not have discovered the
least approbation of that mercy which spared the
life of the new patriarch after his fall, and con-
demned him to imprisonment rather to prevent
his death from the fury of the multitude, than as
a punishment. But to shew how little the Arch-
bishop favoured sanguinary methods, though still
calumniated on this score by his enemies, hear his
Christian and temperate expression. " I heard,"
says he, (in a letter to Mr. Pocock, dated April
8, 1640) " before your letters came to me, that
" the patriarch who succeeded Cyril, was like to
" suffer. And certainly he deserved it, and that
" in a severer manner than is fallen upon him*
" Yet I cannot but say there is charity, and per-
haps wisdom, in preventing the execution that
" might otherwise have fallen upon him."

And now to return to Mr, Greaves. It will

DR, EDWARD POCOCK. 96

BOt, perhaps, be thought a very great indecency,
that the affairs of a person, who had the largest
share in Mr. Pocock's friendship, take up so
much room in this account of his life. I shall
therefore let the reader know a little further how
Mr. Greaves employed himself in Egypt, arid
what requests he sent thence to Mr. Pocock, be-
sides those already mentioned. He was now, as
a very learned person hath observed *, travelling
in that country, with designs as great as those of
Pythagoras, Plato, or any other of the ancient
Greek philosophers, who went thither in the search
of knowledge. And as the methods he made use
of to obtain it were much more exact than theirs,
so his industry was indefatigable. He made a
collection of an infinite mass and variety of hiero-
glyphics f ; considered all the rarities he met with
in architecture ; took a most accurate account of
all the monuments of antiquity, and the several
inscriptions he found ; and diligently inquired into
all the works of nature, which seem rare and
wonderful. Twice he went from Alexandria to
Cairo, and both times measured the three famous
pyramids, which are near that place, and that
with an exactness incomparably beyond whatever
had been attempted there before ; using, for that

* Vita Joan. Gravii, p. 7.
t Mr. John Greaves's Pyramidographia, p. 142,

purpose,

70 THE LIFE OF

purpose, besides other instruments, a radius, ten
foot long, most accurately divided. And as- he
ascended by the degrees on the outside, to the
top of the greatest pyramid ; so by the narrow
passage on the north side of it, he entered to the
very center of it ; where, taking with the utmost
niceness, all the dimensions of the spacious mar-
ble chamber, in the midst of which is the tomb
of Cheops, or Chemmis, the supposed founder,
he fixed a standard for adjusting measures to all
posterity. An expedient much desired by learned
men, but never taken care of by any before him *.
At Cairo, nothing rare or curious could escape
him, as appears from his account of hatching
chicken there in ovens, printed long after his
death, by the care of his great friend, Sir George
Ent t- Neither was he discouraged from travel-
ling many miles in the Libyan deserts, partly to
view the several pyramids that stand there, but
principally to see the mummies, several of which
he opened and accurately examined, taking exact
notice, as of the substance of each, so of the
make of the coffin, the linen ribbands or bandages
about the body, and the scroles, full of mystical
characters, that were fastened to it ; and conclud-
ing from these, as well as the measures of the

* Pyramidographia, p. $4.
f Philosophical Transactions, Num. 137, p. 923.

marble

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 71

marble tomb in the pyramid afore-mentioned, that
nature doth not indeed languish in her produc-
tions, as some imagine, but that the men and wo-
men of this age are of the same stature with those
who lived near three thousand years ago. And
as such enquiries were his business by day, so
when the weather proved clear, he allowed him-
self very little sleep at night; making accurate
observations wherever he came, of many phaeno-
mena in the heavens, especially such as were ser-
viceable to rectify geography, by giving the true
longitude and latitude of places, In one of Mr.
Greaves's journeys from Cairo to Alexandria, be-
tween Rosetto and Alexandria, an accident befel
him, which might have proved of dangerous con-
sequence. He, with some English and French,
fell into the hands of the Arabs, who robbed
them. But Mr. Greaves's loss was inconsider-
able, if we except that of a fair manuscript of
Euclid, in Arabic, with vowels. This happened
to him in January, 1638-9.

Of these employments in Egypt, Mr. Greaves,
from time to time, gave Mr. Pocock an account,
and pursuant to the same designs, he requested
his assistance in some matters of the like nature
to be transacted at Constantinople. He desired
him to be careful in procuring for him several
observations, especially of eclipses, which were
to be made by Dr. Cerigo, at Galata, by a lla-

gusa

ll THE LIFE OF

gnsa doctor, who went with the army to Bagdat>
and by a certain consul of his acquaintance at
Smyrna ; also to consult a manuscript, not to be
bought, in the hands of Seignior Dominico, con-
cerning the topography of Egypt, an'd to tran-
scribe thence several tilings, particularly such as
related to the Feddanes, which is the measure by
which that country is divided. Moreover, he re-

it

commended to his particular care some marble
stones, having inscriptions, which were to be sent
by the general ships into England ; and also re-
quested him to be at the pains of noting some
things that had been omitted by him at Constan-
tinople concerning the composition of their ink,
the Turkish way of writing, their manner of let-
ting houses, and making contracts. Lastly, he
desired Mr. Pocock, if he could possibly, to
measure the west end of S. Sophia very exactly,
with a very fine small wire of brass or iron. He
had done it himself with a line of packthread,
which, because it sometimes stretches about half
a foot, he could not depend upon. " You must/'
adds he, " with many circumstances, describe the
" place which you measure, that if any should
" desire to do it hereafter, they may take the very
" same without erring." So wonderfully exact
was this great and good man to give information
in such things that might be depended on.

Besides all this, there was yet another business

which

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 73

which he requested of Mr. Pocock, and that was,
his examination of a Latin Ode, lately made by him
on a victory, obtained by the Great Duke of Tus-
cany, over the united strength of the Corsairs of
Barbary. This Ode, he desired him carefully to
peruse, and to send his opinion of it in a letter,
that might meet him on his return to Italy, where
he designed to make use of it. And the end, he
said, which he had in composing it was, besides the
doing an act of gratitude for the like honour, lately
done by one of that Court to his Majesty of Eng-
land, by this means to gain admission to the Me-
dicean Library, which he had found, by experience,
when formerly at Florence, to be shut to strangers.
A library, famous for a great variety of excellent
Greek manuscripts; from one of which the genuine
epistles of S. Ignatius have, by the care of Isaac
Vossius, been published to the world, after they
had been lost for some ages. Three copies of this
Ode he sent to Mr. Pocock, for fear of miscarriage,
two of which, I find, came to his hands. It is ad-
dressed, Serenissimo, Potentissimoquey Principi,
Magn<£ Hetrurice Duel, and begins in this manner:

Tyrrhcni Domitor Maris, Metusque
Classis Barbaricae, nimis potentis,

Mr. Pocock's friends about this time, viz. 1639,
began to press him, by letters, to think of return-
ing home. Mr. Greaves, from Alexandria, in his

last

74 THE LIFE OF

last letters, had advised him not to devote himself
so much to his oriental studies as to forget his
hopes and his fortunes at home. And Mr. Charles
Fettiplace, a Turkey merchant, residing in London
(who took care to receive his money from the
Archbishop, and the college, and to give him bills
for it at Constantinople), acquainting him, in a
letter, with some preferments lately bestowed on
his friend, Mr. Thomas Greaves, had desired him
to consider that his great patron was mortal, like
other men, and that therefore, he should by no
means absent himself unnecessarily, and lose the
opportunities of improving his favour to the best
advantage. The Archbishop also, in many suc-
cessive letters, had been quickening him in this
respect. In one, dated March 4, 1 6^9-40. " I
" am now going," says he, "to settle my Arabic lec-
" ure for ever upon the University. And I would
" have your name in the deed, which is the best
u honour I can do for the service." Mr. Pocock
excused himself for some time, as waiting the
coming of his old Arab from Aleppo, writing, that
he purposed to set forward for England some time
the following summer. And with this the Arch-

o

bishop rested satisfied. Accordingly, in August,
1 640, he went on board the Margaret, after near
four years stay at Constantinople, which had cost
him between five and six hundred pounds.

He did not design to return to England entirely

bv

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 75

by sea, but rather to make his way through part of
Italy and France. It appears, that he intended,
before his setting out, to land at Leghorn. For
he had provided himself, belbre he left Constanti-
nople, with letters ot credit to some merchants in
that city. That he was at Genoa, he would often
tell his friends, relating to them somewhat that
passed there ; which well deserves a very serious
reflection. During some stay he made in that
place, there was on a certain day a icligious pro-
cession, which went through the streets with all
the ceremonious pomp that is usual on such occa-
sions. And as he stood in a convenient place, to
take a view of it, he was surprised with the dis-
course of some persons, at a little distance, who
talked in Arabic. They were a couple of slaves
in chains, who being confident that nobody could
understand the language they spake in, expressed
their opinions or what they saw with all manner of
freedom. And as they rallied the pageantry they
beheld, with a great deal of wit, so from it they
took occasion to ridicule Christianity itself, and to
load it with contempt. So unhappy has the
Church of Rome been in her practices on the
Christian religion : for whilst, to serve some
worldly designs, she hath laboured to engage the
minds of the vulgar sort, by empty shews, and su-
perstitious solemnities, she hath, by those corrupt
additions, exposed what is infinitely rational, wise

and

THE LIFE OF

and good, to the laughter and reproach of infidels,
who will not take the pains to distinguish in the
professors of Christianity, what hath, indeed, the
warrant of the gospel, from what hath not.

A little a.ter Christmas he came to Paris, where,
doubtless, h conversed with several eminent men,
though no account is to be met with of any confe-
rence he had with more than two. One of these was
Gabriel Sionita, the famous Maronite, who then
re^Led at that place. With him he had much dis-
course about Oriental learning, and, without ques-
tion, was very welcome to hirtt, not only because
of his great skill in those matters, and the very
co iderable pains he had formerly taken about
the Syriac Epistles, but for the honourable men-
tion he had made of this very learned man, in the
preface to that work. The other, whom I am also
assured he visited there, was the most learned
Hugo Grotius, then ambassador at the court of
France, from the crown of Sweden, to whom he
could not but be very acceptable, as upon several
accounts, so particularly, on that of the relation he
stood in to a person, for whom Grotius had all
imaginable esteem and reverence, the Lord Arch-
bishop of Canterbury. And doubtless the trou-
bles, which had lately begun to fall on that great
prelate, and the black cloud, which now hung
over the Church of England in general, were the
subject of no small part of their conversation.

6 But

i)R. EDWAfeD POCOCK. 77

But there were other things, about which he
was willing to discourse with this great man. Mr.
Pocock, while he continued in the East, had
often lamented the infatuation, which so great a
part of the world lay under, being enslaved to the
foolish opinions of that grand impostor Mahomet.
He had observed, in many that professed his reli-
gion, much justice, and candour, and love, and other
excellent qualities, which seemed to prepare them
for the kingdom of God : and therefore, he could
not but persuade himself, that, were the sacred
doctrines of the Gospel duly proposed to them,
not a few might open their eyes to discern the
truth of it. Something, therefore, he resolved to
do towards so desirable an end, as he should meet
with convenient leisure ; and, he could not think
of any thing more likely to prove useful in this re-
spect, than the translating into Arabic, the general
language of the East, an admirable discourse, that
had been published in Latin, some years before,
concerning the truth of Christianity. With this
design he now acquainted Hugo Grotius, the ex-
cellent author of that treatise * ; who received the
proposal with much satisfaction, and gave him a
great deal of encouragement to pursue it And
Mr. Pocock's aim in this matter being only the
glory of God, and the good of souls, he made no

* Grotii Epistolae Gulielmo Fratri, Nunu 534.

scruple

78 THE LIFE OF

icruple at all to mention, to that learned man,
some things, towards the end ot his book, which he
could iiot approve, viz. certain opinions, which,
though they arc commonly, in Europe, charged on
the followers of Mahomet, have yet no ioundation
in any ot their authentic writings, and are such as
they themselves are ready, on all occasions, to dis-
claim. With which freedom of i\lr. Pocock, Gro-
tius was so far from being displeased, that he
heartily thanked him for it; and gave him autho-
rity, in the version he intended, to expunge and
alter whatsoever he should think fit.

Upon this occasion, these two learned men en-
tered into a long discourse concerning the state of
things in the East, and the reasons why the holy
religion of Jesus Christ was so far from gaining
ground in those countries, that it was treated
there, by unbelievers, with great contempt. Mr.
Pocock mentioned several things, which he ob-
served to be thus fatally mischievous : but amongst
them all, he told him, there was nothing more so,
than the many schisms and divisions of those that
own the name of Christ, who ought to be " as one
" fold under one shepherd/' As Grotius very
easily believed what Mr. Pocock thus reported ;
so it inspired him with new resolution and cou-
rage, to pursue the design he was engaged in, to
promote, as far as he was able, the peace and
union of the Christian world. A glorious under-
taking.

DR. EDWARD 1'OCOCK. 79

taking, and such as highly deserves the most zeal-
ous endeavours, and the most fervent prayers of
all that love the Lord Jesus Christ with sincerity ;
though some of the measures, which were fol-
lowed by that most learned man, are not to be jus-
tified. For though we are to do what lies in us
for the sake of Christian peace, we are not to
yield up the truth, even for obtaining that most
desirable blessing : we must not, we cannot, part
with truth.

In a short time Mr. Pocock left Paris, and
came for England ; where taking London in his
way to Oxford, he found, what he had heard se-
veral reports of before, namely, a great change of
affairs since he left the nation, and a sad face of
things. A turbulent party among the Scots, who,
when upon very groundless pretences they had
armed themselves the last year, had met with all
the kindness and satisfaction, which a very gra-
cious prince could give them ; renewing their se-
dition, had now invaded the Northern parts of the
kingdom. And in the Parliament, which was
convened to find out the proper means of sending
these disorderly and ungrateful people home, too
many there were, who were so far from promoting
a just defence against them, that some of them ap-
proved, and others resolved to make use of their
designs. This unhappy correspondence between
those that raised these troubles, and several of

them

80 THE IIFE OF

them that were now called upon, as only able
quiet them, disappointed all the peaceable endea-
vours of a pious and good king, and even began to
shake the very foundations of the kingdom. The
thing that was now first, and most violently at-
tacked, was the ecclesiastical government, esta-
blished by law. This hierarchy, as it is agreeable
to the word of God, and warrranted by the constant
practices of the Church of Christ, in all places, and
at all times ; so it had, for fourscore years, reckon-
ing from the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign,
stood both the glory and the defence of the Church
of England. And, as a learned gentleman was
pleased to express his sense of the matter*, upon
the account of its antiquity alone, it must be con-
cluded now to need repair. But repairing or
mending was but a mean attempt, for the violent
zeal of some others. Wherefore they were for
making an utter destruction of all the roots and
branches of it, even a total abolition. That this
last course might be taken was earnestly desired f
by such as, doubtless, had made a deep search into
the nature of the thing ; to wit, some thousands of
tradesmen, in and about the city of London, who
were ready also to demand, what they thus re-

* Mr. Grimston's speech in the House of Commons, Fe-
bruary 9, 1640. Nalson's Collect, vol. i. p. 771.

•fr London Petition, presented Dcccembcr 11. Nals, Coll,
vo), i. p. 666.

quested.

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 81

quested, at the doors of the Parliament. And
these were soon seconded by five and twenty hun-
dred Kentishmen *, who had found, by experience,
as they said in their petition, " episcopacy to be
very dangerous, both to Church and common-
wealth. The ecclesiastical government itself being
thus struck at, it could not be expected, that the
governors should escape. Accordingly, the chief
of these, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was early
accused of high treason ; and several of those, who
had been justly punished in the courts wherein he
was concerned, for seditious and immoral prac-
tices, were let loose against him, to worry him
even to death.

The Archbishop, having been ten weeks in the
custody of Mr. Maxwell, Gentleman Usher of the
Black Rod, waiting for the charge, which was to be
brought up against him, was committed to the
Tower, March 1, 1640, about which time, or a
little after, Mr. Pocock came to London. And he
thought himself under the same obligation to go

O O O

and pay his duty to his patron, now in this con-
finement, as if he had been still one the height of
his former prosperity, either at his palace at Lam-
beth, or his lodgings in Whitehall. Being ad-
mitted to his presence, doubtless, the vast diffe-

* Kentish Petition, presented January 13. Nalson's CoiL
vol. i. p. 720.

VOL, i, G rencs

g!2 THK LIFE OF

rcnce of circumstances, which he now beheld, from
those he hud formerly seen him in, could nut hut
fill his mind with the just sense of the unceituinty
of human greatness, anil the transitoriness of
worldly honour and power, even when established
upon innocence and virtue, lie now saw a man,
who, besides his high station in the Church, had
been for many years the favourite of a great and
good prince ; a man, whose advice was most fol-
lowed in affairs of state, which he still save, ao

* O '

cording to his best wisdom, and with undoubted
integrity ; a man, w hose requests to the throne,
were seldom or never denied ; for it w as manifest,
that he managed no private interest for himself or
his relations ; but had long devoted all that he had
to the public good ; this man Mr. Pocock now
saw fallen from that eminence, on which he stood,
become the object of popular hatred and con-
tempt, reproached, accused, and shut up in prison,
there to expect the bitter effects of the malice of
his enemies, and the madness of the people.

The Archbishop received Mr. Pocock with
many expressions of a very great esteem, and
a most hearty kindness; he thanked him for the
pains he had been at, in procuring so many curious
manuscripts for him in the East, and for the se-
veral accounts of things, which, from time to time,
he had sent him thence ; he told him, that he very
well knew, what that diligence, together with an

• D ' O

extraordinary

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 83

extraordinary piety and learning, deserved from
him ; that he had firmly purposed to make a
just acknowledgment of all, by some considerable
preferment on his return ; and that the impos-
sibility of doing it, which he was now reduced to,
was such an addition to his other afflictions, as
very sensibly touched him. Mr. Pocock. who

* ^

could not but be much affected with so obliging a

o o

discourse, retufned him thanks, both for the fa-
vours he had already conferred on him, and for
those which he had further designed for him. And
lamenting the unjust usage he had met with, and
the imprisonment he now suffered, he delivered to
him a message relating to both, wrhich Hugo Gro-

o o ' o

tius had charged him with, when he waited on him
at Paris. It was the humble advice and request
of that learned man, that his Grace would find out
some way, if possible, to escape out of the hands
he was now in, and pass to some place beyond the
seas, there to preserve himself for better times ; at
least to obtain some present security from the ma-
lice of his bitter enemies, and the rage of a deluded
people. This, Mr. Pocock told him, that excel-
lent person had earnestly pressed him to move his
Grace to, as soon as he should be able to have ac-
cess to him ; and he hoped the thing would appear
so reasonable to him, that he would neglect no
means or opportunity that might be offered, to put
it in execution.

G 2 Though

ti.
tt

84 'iiii, i.i ih

Though this was a course uhich iiad been late>y
followed by some other great men, particularly by
the Lord Keeper of the (ircat Seal, and by one of
the principal Secretaries of State ; the former

"<t^-

having withdrawn himself into Holland, the latter
into Trance ; the Archbishop, as soon as it was
thus proposed to him, declared his resolution
against it. " I am obliged," said he. u to mv "ood

O O ' •/ O

" friend Hugo Grotius, for the cape he has thus
expressed for my safety ; but 1 can by no means
be persuaded to comply with the counsel he
" hath given me. An escape, indeed, is feasible
enough ; yea, 'tis, I believe, the very thing
" which my enemies desire; for every day an op-
" portunity for it is presented to me, a passage
" being leit free, in all likelihood, for this purpose,
" that I should endeavour to take the advantage
" of it. But they fhall not be gratified by me, in
what they appear to long for ; I am almost se-
" venty years old, and shall I now go about to
'{ prolong a miserable life, by the trouble and
" shame of flying? And were I willing to be
" gone, whither should I fly? Should 1 go into
" Trance, or any other Popish country, it would
" be to give some seeming ground to that charge
of Popery, they have endeavoured, with so
" much industry, and so little reason, to fasten
" upon me. But if I should get into Hollam', I
" should expose myself to the insults of tr.ose

" sectaries

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. $,5

sectaries there, to whom my character is odious,
" and have every Anabaptist come and pull me
" by the beard. No, I am resolved not to think
<c of flight; but, continuing where I am, patiently
" to expect and bear, what a good and a wise
" Providence hath provided for me, of what kind
" soever it shall be."

Having thus discharged his duty to his great
patron, Mr. Pocock hastened away from the tu-
mults and noise of London, to seek for peace and
rest at Oxford, where he had the satisfaction to
find that his Arabic lecture would no longer de-

o

pend on the uncertainties of an aged life, pursued
too by the most industrious malice, being now set-
tled to perpetuity. For the good Archbishop,
foreseeing the storm that was about to fall upon
himself, had lately sent a grant to that University
of about a fifth part of his lands, lying in Bray,
within the county of Berks, for the maintenance of
this lecture for ever : the other four parts being
likewise settled on the town of Reading, the place
of his nativity, for charitable uses there. The grant

•/ Cj

from the Archbishop to the University of Budd's
pastures, at Bray, aforesaid, for the perpetual en-
dowment of an Arabic lecture, bore date June 6,
in the 16th of Charles I. 1640, and was regis-
tered in Chancery the 1 8th of the same month.
The «rant was not direct, but conveyed through

C1 ' «/ O

the hands of two trustees, viz, Adam Fortescue

and

THE LIFE OF

and William Dell, both of Lambeth, Esquires,
An i, I suppose, the reasons of constituting this
trust was, that the grant running to the Chan-
cellor, &c. the Archbishop, who was then Chan-
cellor, must otherwise hare granted to himself.
The trustees devised the pastures above men-
tioned to the University of Oxford, June 13, 1640.

On the 6th of November following, the munifi-
cent Archbishop made another present of manu-
scripts to the University of Oxford ; six of which
were Hebrew, eleven Greek, thirty-four Arabic,
twenty-one Latin, two Italic, and two English, be-
sides five Persick, one of which, written in very
large folio, contained the History of the World,
from the Creation to the end of the Saracenick
Empire ; in all eighty-one. Together with these
he sent a most affectionate letter, deploring the
iniquity of the times, and the state of the Church ;
concluding, with most ardent prayers for the peace
and prosperity of that University. This letter was
dated November 6, just four days after the first
sitting of the long Parliament, and less than six
-weeks before the Archbishop's commitment to the
Black Rod. This donation is the more pertinent
to our main story, as it is probable that most of
these manuscripts had been procured by Mr. Po-
cock and his dear friend Mr. John Greaves.

Mr. Pocock, now at Oxford, applied himself
with as much cheerfulness as those melancholy

times

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 87

times would admit of, not only to the duties of his
lecture, but to several other designs, both in
Arabic and Rabbinical learning : and, indeed, it
was impossible for him to do otherwise, if he
would now answer the expectation which every
body had of him. His great abilities were very-
well known before he went from England ; and it
could not but be concluded, that in the many years
he had spent in the East, he had made a vast im-
provement in all the learning of those countries.
Wherefore, upon his coming home, great matters
were expected from him by the learned men of
this and other nations. This, in part, appears
from an epistle which his old friend, Gerard Vos-
sius sent him*, together with a present of some
books, lately published by him, as soon as he heard
of his arrival at Oxford. " I give thanks unto God,"
said he, " for your safe return, as upon the private
66 score of our friendship, so upon the public
" account, because I well perceive how great
" advantages the republic of letters, and the
" Church of God, may receive from you. For, if
" for more than fifteen years ago, you could ac-
" quit yourself so well, what may we not hope
" from you now, that age, and the industry of so
" many years, have much increased your know-
" ledge, and ripened your judgment ? Your re-

* Ge Vossii Epistoke, Num. 425,

83 THE LIFE OF

" tarn, therefore, I congratulate to yourself, to
" Oxford, and to all England ; yea, and to the
" whole learned world."

That which was most likely to lessen his dili-
gence in preparing any thing for the public view,
was that diffidence of himself, and his own labours,
which his great modesty and humility still sug-
gested to him ; whereby he was, upon all occa-
sions, very prone to fancy, that none of his per-
formances could be of valueand usefulness enough,
to justify the publication of them. However,
upon the earnest request of his friends, and the
representations they made to him of the services
he was capable of, he was contented to proceed,
and he now laid the foundations of several very
considerable works, which, some years after, were
made public, being ready, as he tells Gerard Vos-
sius, in his answer to the letter but now men*
tioned *, to put his hand to any business, concern-
ing which he should be satisfied, that it would be

O '

of the least benefit to the commonwealth of
learning.

This year, viz. 1641, a correspondence began
between Mr. Pocock and two learned men, Ja-
cobus Alting, a foreigner, then in England, and
Mr. John Selden. The latter- of these was then
preparing for the press some little part of Euty-

* Clar. Virorum ad G, Vossium Epistol«> Kum, 336.

chius's

DR. EDWARD POCOCK.

chius's Annals, in Latin and Arabic, which he pub-
lished the year following, under the title of Ori-
Ale&andrifue ; and on this account wanted

'

Mr. Pocock's assistance in collating, and extract-
ing from Arabic books at Oxford. The occasion
Mr. Selden had for his services, then and after-
wards, produced a friendship, that proved of sin-
gular use to him on several urgent affairs, as will
appear in the course of his story. He had endea-
voured, when in London, to wait on Mr. Selden ;
but was prevented by the other's constant em-
ployment. But Providence soon supplied him
with an opportunity, which he before sought in
vain. The following year added another very
learned correspondent, to those before mentioned,
which was John Henry Hottinger, of Zurich, who,
a little before, had seen and known Mr. Pocock
in England. He was them employed in trans-
lating the Chronicon Samaritanum, which he
brought out of Holland, and shewed to Primate
Usher here, who then pressed him to render it
into Latin. It appears also from Hottinejer's
letter, that he was incited to turn the Helvetic
Confession into Arabic, by hearing from Hugo
Grotius, at Paris, that Mr. Pocock had done the
same by his book, De Veritate Rdigionis Chris-
tiana ; and thereupon, he earnestly begs direc-
tions for that work,

The

THE LIFE OF

The war, which broke out this year, viz. 1642,
interrupted all correspondence between him and
the learned, both of our own, and other nations,
and also made Oxford itself an improper place for
study. Its antient quiet was now lost, and nothing
to be heard there, but the noise of arms and armed
men. For in the month of July, the members of
that University, having exposed themselves to the
indignation of the two Houses of Parliament, by
advancing all the money they had in their public
treasuries, and much out of their own purses, for
the service of the King, who w?as then at York;
were obliged, as soon as they understood that the
Earl of Essex began to march with an army, to
begin to think of their own safety. And accord-
ingly, being authorised, as well by a proclamation
against the rebels, as by particular messages sent
to them from his Majesty, some hundreds of them
immediately put themselves in arms, and were
soon after joined by two hundred horse, under the
command of Sir John Byron. About two months
after, these forces being drawn out for the King's
service in other parts, some troops of the Parlia-
ment side, took possession of Oxford, and there,
under the command of the Lord Say, did what
they thought fit ; till, in a little time, his Majesty
marched thither with his foot, after the battle at
Edge-Hill, and ordered it to be made a garrison,

which

DR. EDWARD POCOCK.

which it continued to be, and also the ordinary re-
sidence of the court to the end of the war. The
military state the University was then in, and the
hurry that attended it, suffered Mr. Pocock to
make but small advances in the designs he had
undertaken. And in a short time, his mind was
diverted toother matters: for, in the year 1643,
the rectory of Childry, a living of a very good
value in the county of Berks, becoming vacant, he
was presented to it by the President and Fellows*
of Corpus-Christi College, the patrons of it. As
this was an evidence of the esteem, which that
learned society had for this worthy member ; so,
doubtless, it could not but be very agreeable to his
inclinations : for Childry being about twelve miles
from Oxford, he could conveniently live upon his
parsonage, and perform the several duties he was
obliged to there, and yet at the proper times re-
pair to the University, and read his lectures.
Though, indeed, at present, there was no room at-
all for such exercises ; the minds of those who
were to frequent them, being filled with the
thoughts of other matters, and the public schools
up for provisions and warlike stores.

SECTION

THJt LIFE OF

SECTION III.

MR. POCOCK being now a country clergyman,
set himself, with his utmost diligence, to a con-
scientious performance of all the duties of his
cure; labouring for the edification of those com-
mitted to his charge, with the zeal and application
of a man, who thoroughly considered the value of
immortal souls, and the account he was to give.
He was constant in preaching, performing that
work twice every Lord's Day. And because the
addition of catechizing, which he would not neg-
lect, made this a burthen too heavy to be always
borne by himself, he sometimes procured an as-
sistant from Oxford, to preach in the afternoon.
His sermons were so contrived by him, as to be
most useful to the persons that were to hear them.
For though such as he preached in the University
were very elaborate, and full of critical and other
learning; the discourses he delivered in his parish,
were plain and easy, having nothing in them,
'which he conceived to be above the capacities,
even of the meanest of his auditors. He com-
monly began with an explanation of the text he
made choice of, rendering the sense of it as obvious
and intelligible, as might be : then he noted what-
ever was contained in it relating to a good life ;

and

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 93

and recommended it to his hearers, with a great
force of spiritual arguments, and all the motives,
which appeared most likely to prevail with them.
And as he carefully avoided the shews and osten-
tation of learning ; so he would not, by any means,
indulge himself in the practice of those arts,
which at that time were very common, and much
admired by ordinary people. Such were distor-
tortions of the countenance and strange gestures, a
violent and unnatural way of speaking, and af-
fected words and phrases, which being out of the
ordinary way, were therefore supposed to express
somewhat very mysterious, and, in a high degree,
spiritual. Though no body could be more un-
willing than he was to make people uneasy, if it
was possible for him to avoid it ; yet neither did
his natural temper prevail with him, nor any other-
consideration tempt him, to be silent, where re-
proof was necessary. \Vith a courage, therefore,
becoming an ambassador of Jesus Christ, he
boldly declared against the sins of the times ; warn-
ing those who were under his care, as against all
profane and immoral practices, so against thosfc
schisms and divisions, which were now7 breaking

' O

in upon the Church, and those seditions which
aimed at the subversion of the state. His whole
conversation too was one continued sermon, pow-
erfully recommending, to all that were acquainted
with him, the several duties of Christianity. For
i as

THE LIFE Of

he was (f Mameless and harmless, and without re-
buke ;" .so his unaiiected piety, his meekness and
humility, his kind and obliging behaviour, and
great readiness, upon every occasion, to do all the
good he was capable of, made him shine as " a
" light in the world."

A minister that thus acquitted himself, one
would think, should have met with much esteem,
and all imaginable good usage from his whole
parish ; but the matter was otherwise ; he was one
of those excellent persons, whom the brighest
virtue hath not been able to secure from an evil
treatment; yea, that upon account, even of what
was highly valuable in them, have been contemned,
reproached, and injuriously handled. Some few
indeed, of those under his care, had a just sense
of his worth, and paid him all the respect that was
due to it ; but the behaviour of the greater number
was such, as could not but often much discom-
pose and afflict him. His care not to amuse his
hearers, with things which they could not under-
stand, gave some of them occasion to entertain
very contemptible thoughts of his learning, and to
speak of him accordingly. So that one of his
Oxford friends, as he travelled through Childry,
inquiring, for his diversion, of some people, who
was their minister? And how they liked him?

*/

Received from them this answer: " our parson is
v< one Mr. Pocock, a plain, honest man ; but

" master,.''

DR. EDWAtlD TOCOCK.

<f master," said they, " he is no I/atiner." His
avoiding, as he preached, that boisterous action,
and those canting expressions, which were then
so very taking with many lovers of novelty, was
the reason that not a few considered him as a weak
man, whose discourses could not edify, being
dead morality, having nothing of power and the
spirit. But his declaring against divisions, se-
dition, and rebellion, was most offensive, and
raised the greatest clamour against him. Be-
cause of this, such in his parish, as had been
seduced into the measures of them, who were
now endeavouring the overthrow, both of Church

o

and State, were ready, upon every occasion,
to bestow on him the ill names, then so much
in use, of, " a man addicted to railing and
" bitterness; a malignant and one Popishly af-
" fected." But disesteem and reproachful lan-
guage were not the only grievances which this
good man suffered under. That income, which
the laws of God and man had made his just right,
and which he always endeavoured to receive, with

** /

as much peace as might be, was thought too much
for him, and they studied to lessen it in all the
ways they could : besides, what they called out-
witting him in his tithes, of the contributions and
great taxes which were frequently exacted, a sum
much beyond the just proportion was still allotted
to him ; and when any forces were quartered in

that
*

96' THE LIFE 01-

that parish, as considerable numbers often were,
he was sure to have a double, if not a greater,
share.

Tiiis usage could not but seem very strange to
a man, who had been treated with respect and
civility, by all sorts of persons whom he had
hitherto conversed with : and it was impossible for
him to reflect upon such unsuitable returns, with-
out a great deal of disquiet, and very melancholy
thoughts. The barbarous people of Syria and
Turkey, whom he formerly complained of, ap-
peared to him now of much greater humanity
than many of those he was engaged to live with.
There his exalted virtue had won upon Mahome-
tans, and made even Jews and Friars revere him ;
but these charms had, at this time, a contrary
effect on the pretenders to saintship and purer
ordinances at home. And he, who, when at
Aleppo, still longed to be in England, as the most
agreeable place in the world, now considered an
abode in the East as a very desirable blessing.

«/ o

Yea, to such a degree of uneasiness did the public
calamities, and the particular troubles he was every
day exercised with, at length carry him, that he
began to form a design of leaving his native coun-
try for ever, and spending the remainder of his
days either at Aleppo or Constantinople : in which
places, from his former experience, he thought he
might promise himself fewer injuries, and more

quiet

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 97

quiet and peace. But upon further consideration,
and a due use of those succours, which both reason
and religion afforded him, he fortified his mind
against the force of all such trials, and learned
" to possess his soul in patience." He very well
knew, that it is the part of " a good soldier of Jesus
" Christ, to endure hardship," and that he that
hath devoted himself to the work of the Gospel,
must be ready in cc afflictions and distresses, by
" honour and dishonour, by evil report as well as
" good, to approve himself a minister of God.';
He considered too, that his case was not singular,

o '

but such as was common, at that time, to almost
all others of the same calling, throughout the
nation, who would not humour the people in un-
reasonable things, nor descend to unlawful com-
pliances. And he was very well satisfied, that all
the evil, that comes to pass in the world, is still
overruled by the Providence of that all-wise God,
who, in the moral as well as the natural world, brings
light out of darkness, and order out of confusion, and
who will make " all things work together for good
" to them that love him." Upon such reflections
as these, therefore^ he resolved to stand his ground,
and to persevere in a faithful discharge of all the
duties he was called to, notwithstanding all the
difficulties that attended it. Having thus laid aside

^j

all thoughts of a remove, to ease himself of the

cares of house-keeping, and the management of a

VOL. i. H family,

THE LIFE 0?

family, and to have the comfort of an agreeable
partner, amidst the troubles he was exposed to, he
be^an to think of a wife. And Providence directed

o

him to the choice' of a very prudent and virtuous
gentlewoman, namely, Mary, the daughter of Tho-
mas Burdett, Esq. of West Worlham, in Hamp-
shire, whom he married about the beginning of the
year 1646, and by whom God was pleased to
bless him with nine children, six sons and three
daughters.

At the same time that Mr. Pocock underwent so
many uneasinesses at Childry, his affairs were in a
yet worse condition at Oxford : where, though he
attended his lecture with as rauch diligence as the

C1

present state of the University would admit of, his
salary was wholly detained from him. For Arch-
bishop Laud, after almost four years imprisonment
in the Tower (notwithstanding such a defence of
himself against all the crimes with which he was

«_ 7

charged, as will be a lasting monument both of his
innocence and great capacity) being put to death
by an ordinance of Parliament, they that had thus
gotten his life were for disposing of his estate, which
had been sequestered some time before ; and into
the list of that they took, besides several other lands
given by him to pious and charitable uses, Budd's
pastures, in the parish of Bray, which had been set-
tled by him for this Arabic Lecture. The seizing a
revenue, which had been applied to so excellent a

purpose.

t)R. EDWARD POCOCK*

purpose, was not only a manifest injustice, but might
well be understood to be such a contempt and
hatred of learning, as the authors of it, one would
think, shoulds even for their own credit in the
world, by no means have consented to : or, if they
had taken possession of that estate, by mistake,
they should have been ready, on the first applica-
tion to them, to deliver it up again. But the matter
was otherwise ; for notwithstanding Mr. Pocock's
endeavours, who took care to let them understand
the true state of the case, they would not be pre-
vailed on to discharge it. It appears, from the
copy of one of his letters, written by him on this
occasion, that he let them know " how useful that
" sort of learning is, which the income of those

O '

et lands was designed to promote, both to divinity

" and other commenable studies ; what reputation

" it now had in most universities beyond the seas,

" and what large salaries had been appointed in

fe several of them, for the encouragement of it."

' O

He also laboured to make them sensible, " that,
" besides the settlement of the founder, which was
" made with all the formalities the law required,
" he had also an equitable right to what he
" claimed. For, as his continuance at Aleppo,
" which first recommended him to the choice of
" the Archbishop, had been a thing of charge and
" difficulty to him ; so, to qualify himself better
" for this employment, he had been at the hazard

n 2 " of

100 THE LIFT; irr

" of a voyage to Constant!) o;)lc, the necessary e
fc pences of which amounted to a sum sufficient,
" even for the purchase of a revenue for life, of
" much greater value." But all these representa-
tions were of no force with the people he had to
deal with; and, doubtless, they would not have
delivered up his right to him, had not some other;
method been thought of by his friends, whereby to
obtain it.

The learned Mr. John Sclden, at that time, one
of the burgesses in Parliament for the University
of Oxford, had long entertained a particular esteem
for Mr. Pocock, and was, as appears above, much
obliged to hiiD, having frequently borrowed of him
several manuscripts, and other books, not to be
gotten elsewhere, and also often received from him
satisfaction in considerable difficulties, relating to
oriental learning. Mr. John Greaves, therefore,
(who had likewise a large share in the friendship
of that great man), being in London, made him
acquainted with this injury that was done, not only
to Mr. Pocock, but to learning itself, and desired
his assistance in the redress of it. Nobodv could

mi

be more ready than Mr. Selden was, to grant this
request. He told him, that he had a due sense
both of the injustice and scandal of this proceed-
ing, and that the persons concerned in it could
have no countenance for it from the order of Par-
liament, by which they pretended to act. " For

" the

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 101

" the sequestrations, appointed by it, could only
" relate to particular persons, as Seius and Sem-

pronius," to use his own expressions on that oc-
cason, " and not to corporations, which was the

case of these lands." He also promised, that he
would himself search the rolls, where the donation
was recorded, and make the best use of it he could,
ivhen he had found it.

While this was transacting for Mr. Pocock in
London, his friends in Oxford were careful also to
do him all the service they were capable of. Dr.
Langbaine, the very worthy Provost of Queen's
College, was at the pains himself of drawing a long
instrument in Latin, wherein the course taken by
the Archbishop, effectually to settle these lands, was
at large, and very particularly recited; and also a
formal grant from that body inserted, of all the

o •/

profits issuing out of them to Mr. Pocock, during
the time that he should continue to be Arabic Lec-
turer ; and this instrument, being proposed by him
and some others in congregation, with unanimous
consent had the seal of the University affixed to it.
What was thus done for him by his friends, was
abundantly sufficient to clear his title to the satis-
faction of all reasonable men. But lest all this
should not be effectual, Mr. Selden, with much
earnestness, recommended the matter to some of
the leading men of that time, in whom he had a
considerable interest, and, by their means, this

salary

102 THE LIFE OF

salary was at length restored to Mr. Pocock, alter
it had been detained from him about three years.
This restitution was effected about the middle of
the year J6'47. And 1 have reason to suppose,
that Dr. Langbaine's good offices, above-men-
tioned, (to which he was strongly incited by
T. Smith, a Fellow of his own College, and a
friend of Mr. Pocock's), was the foundation of
that friendship which continued between him and
Mr. Pocock f jr the remainder of their lives.

This same year, viz. An. 1647, he and his
family, at Childry, were delivered from a ruin,
that threatened them, by the diligence and interest
of his excellent friend, Mr. John Greaves. For
Mr. Pocock beins considered as a malignant,
some of the forces for the Parliament, which had
now carried all before it, grievously oppressed him,
by free quarter, and other violence; and such a
treatment he was to expect, as often as any troops
should corne into those parts. Hereupon he com-
plains to his friend Mr. Greaves, by letter, who,
by the assistance of Dr. Ent, procured him a pro-
tection, under the hand and seal of my Lord Fair-
fax, dated at Windsor, Dec. 5, 1647, by which
all officers and soldiers are forbid to plunder his
house, or take away his horses, sheep, or other
cattle or goods, or to offer violence to his person,
or the persons of any of his family. Constables
also, and quarter-masters, are, by the same instru-
ment,

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 103

raent, forbid to quarter upon him above his just
and due proportion. And, to crown this good
office, Mr. Greaves would be at all the expences
that attended the procurement of this protection.

It was indeed, a singular good providence for
Mr. Pocock, under the troubles and difficulties he
met with in these times, that he was provided with
so many useful and active friends. For, besides
his own natural modesty and meekness, which dis-
qualified him from stirring effectually in his own
behalf, his long absence from England had made
him a stranger even to the common remedies
against oppression ; and his only methods, for re-
dress, were to complain, from time to time, to his
friends, of his hard usase.

' *_^

Beins; delivered out of these difficulties, he had

o

but very little time to breathe, before a fresh
occasion was given for the exercise of his own
patience, and of the kindness of his friends. For
now the Visitation of the University of Oxford was
coming on, which, under the pretence of reforma-
tion, threatened the utmost severity to all persons
of that body, who had manifested any loyalty to
the King, or zeal for the Church. In the Articles
of Oxford, indeed, when that city was delivered up
by Sir Thomas Glenharn to General Fairfax, ex-
press provision had been made, that all the mem-
bers of the University should enjoy their ancient
rights and privileges, notwithstanding any thing

done

104 TUP: LIFE, or

done by any of them, relating to the unhappy war
between the king and the parliament. Put such
agreements were very weak bonds to restrain them,
who having the power entirely in their hands, were
now resolved both to gratify the ambition and the
avarice of those that depended on them, and to
satisfy their own revenge. On the 1st day of
]\Iay, therefore, in the year 164-7, an ordinance of
Parliament was made, whereby of twenty-four
persons therein named, and five or more had
authority given them to be visitors of that Uni-
versity, for the hearing any determination of all
matters and causes they should think fit to en-
quire into, relating to it, or any members of it :
and also twenty Lords and forty-nine of the House
of Commons, were, at the same time, appointed to
be a standing committee for receiving the reports
of those visitors, and hearing all appeals that
should be made to them.

Of the visitors thus nominated, ten had been
formerly members of that University, and most of
them, such as had been expelled, or otherwise
punished, for misdemeanours committed in it.
The other fourteen were lawyers, and country
gentlemen, of known zeal for the cause they were
carrying on, amongst whom Mr. Prynne was one
of the chief. There could be no doubt at all, but
that such as these would be very forward in the
execution of this power ; as, indeed, they were,

FOV

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 105

for a citation, under the hands of a sufficient
number of them, dated the 35th of the same
month, was sent to Oxford, commanding " both
" the proctors, and all heads of colleges and
" halls, to appear before them in the convocation-
" house there, on the fourth day of the next
" month, between the hours of nine and eleven in
" the morning." But the mischief designed, at
that meeting, was delayed for some time by the
dextrous management of Dr. Samuel Fell, the
Vice-chancellor. For whilst Mr. Harrys, one of
the visitors, was entertaining his brethren at St.
Mary's with prayers, and a long sermon for the
occasion, the hour limited in the citation was
passed, and the Vice- Chancellor, having gotten a
testimonial of the attendance of those that had been
summoned, attested on the place, in due form, by
a public notary, immediately dismissed the assem-
bly. This disappointment put the visitors into so
much confusion, that they attempted nothing more,
till, by an additional ordinance of Parliament,
dated the 26th day of August following, they had
new powers conferred upon them. But then they
applied themselves to the work again, with a great
deal of diligence, and never omitted it, till they
had forced out a great number of the best and
most learned men of the University, and put them-
selves, and their friends, in their places.

"When the violence of these reformers began to

rage

106 THE LIFE OP

rage at Oxford, Mr. Pocock was on his parsonage
atChildry; and there he still continued, as well
by the particular direction of his friends, as from
his o\vn jud'jf-nent and inclination. He had fre-

•J CJ

quent accounts sent to him of the troubles many
worthv men were in, and the methods made use of

*/

to ruin them, and he continually expected a share
in the same treatment. And though he was readv,

O «/ '

when Providence should call him to it, not only to
throw up his lecture, but every thing else that he
had, if he could not keep it with a good con-
science: he thought himself, however, under no
obligation to invite and hasten the danger, by ap-
pearing in the University.

The visitors, and their masters of the committee,
having other employment, no notice was taken of
him for several months ; but at length something
extraordinary fell out, which brought him on the
stage. Dr. Morris, the Hebrew Professor at Ox^
ford, died of a fever, March 27, 1648. The King,
who was then a prisoner in the Isle of Wight,
having a full knowledge of Mr. Pocock's suf-
ficiency, and being also moved thereto by the
recommendations of Dr. Sheldon and Dr. Ham-»
mond, nominated him for the Hebrew Lecture,
thus vacant, and for the Canonry of Christ Church
annexed to it ; but he was not consituted by patent,
the King then not having the Great Seal in his
power. About this time, likewise, Dr. Payne,

Cariou

it

it

DK. EDWARD POCOCK. IOJ

Canon of the same Church, was turned out, by an
order of the committee. And on the 7th of April
ensuing, the committee having resolved, that the
matter of the answer, put in by the Dean of Christ
Church, Dr. Fell, and others the Prebends, whose
bands were subscribed to it, w?as an " high con-
" tempt of authority of Parliament ;" and, " That
" for an effectual remedy thereof, the said Dr.
" Fell, Dean of Christ Church, and others the
Prebends of Christ Church, who subscribed
their names to the said answer, jbe forthwith
" removed from their said places." Then the
.order immediately proceeds : " This Committee
" being informed, that Dr. Morris, one of the said

O '

f( Prebends, and jrlebrew Lecturer of the Univer-
" sity, is lately deceased, whose hand is subscribed
" to the said answer, do order that Mr. Pocock
" be Hebrew Lecturer of the University, in the
" place of the said Dr. Morris, deceased, and
" shall receive all profits and dues belonging to
" the said place. And further order, that the said
•" Mr. Pocock be, and hereby he is, constituted
" and established a Collegiate Prebend of Christ
•" Church, in the place of Dr. Payne, removed
" from his prebend's place, by a former order of
" this committee. And the said Mr. Pocock shall
" enjoy and have all the power, rights, emolu-
" ments, rooms, and lodgings, by any statute, or
*' custom, or right, formerly belonging to the said

" Dr,

308 THE LIFT; 01

" Dr. Payne." It might seem a matter of diffi-
culty, at this distance of time, to give a full ac-
count, ho\v Mr. Pocockj whose absence from Ox-
ford alone preserved him from a summons of the
victors, to take the solemn league and covenant,
aid consequently from the loss of his Arabic Lec-
ture ; I say, how he came to meet with such dis-
tinguishing favour at that time from them, who

o O

seemed to have so little regard, either to learning

O ' CJ

or goodness, in others of his principles. But it
was chiefly to be imputed to the hearty kindness
of an eminent member of that committee, namely,
his constant friend, who had been so serviceable
to him already, Mr. John Selden. For to him.

•/ '

Mr. Pocock wholly ascribed this unexpected suc-
cess, in a letter he sent to him some time after.
And, indeed, as that learned man found out means
to preserve some few of his particular friends in
Oxford, from the dangers that then threatened
them ; so he did all that was possible for him, on
behalf of the University in general. This, I find,
was gratefully acknowledged by Dn Langbaine, in
a letter written to him about this time. Which,
as well in honour to the memory of so great a
friend, and patron of Mr. Pocock ; as for that it
gives so particular an account of the sad state of
the University, and the different opinions of some
great men in it, at that juncture, I shall here in-
sert, as it was found amongst the papers of the

Lord

"

(t

it

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 109

Lord Chief Justice Hale, who was one of Mr. Sel-
den's executors *.

" Most honoured Sir,
" Notwithstanding those common endearments,

O '

" by which you have purchased so great an
interest in this disconsolate University, and
those multiplied favours which you have been
pleased to heap upon myself, the meanest of
your servants ; I could have been content to
hug myself in the tacit recordation of both, had
not that kind remembrance, which I received
from you, by Mr. Palmer, some few minutes
" since, seconded by the present opportunity of
" safe conveyance, by Mr. Patrick Yorige, invited,
" or indeed extorted from me this acknowledg-
" ment ; which is no more mine, than the voice
" of the public, so far as discretion will permit
" us to make it public ; that however the con-
" dition of this place be now so desperate, that
" Salus ipsa servare non potest ; yet are we all
" abundantly satisfied in your unwearied care and
" passionate endeavours for our preservation. We
" know and confess,

" Si pergama dextrd

" Defendi poterunt, etiam hdc defensa fuissent."

" Whether it be our un worthiness, as it is our
" unhappiness, to fall at last, others may better

1 This letter is in Dr, Mead's collection, above'rnentioried.

1 \6 THE LIFE OP

•--
M

;e ; but of this we are confident, that, riex£
under God's, it must be imputed to your extra-
" ordinary providence, that we have stood thus
*l long. You have been the only Belli Mora,
" and

" Quicquid apud nostias ccssatum cst moenia Trojae,

" Hccturis (I cannot add sEneceque, for you had no second)

Manu Victoria Graium
" Haesit."

?< By your good arts and prudent manage, our six.
'£ months have been spun into two years, and it
has thus far been verified upon us by your
means, Nee capti potuere Capi. But now the
decretory day is come. Fuimus. That tem-
pest, which has so long hovered, has now fallen
so heavy upon our heads, that all our pilots
" have forsaken the helm, and let the ship drive.
" The Pro-Vice-chancellors, Proctors, and other
" Officers and Ministers of the University, have
" withdrawn themselves. I might add much, but
" I fear this may be too much of this kind, as the
" sense of the most and best in this place ; who
" fly so high upon the point of loyalty and privi-
" lege, as if they were ambitious of suffering. For
" myself (and, though I have little correspondence'
'• with particulars, I believe I am not singular) I
" could be well enough content to sit down with
" a confessor's place, and not envy my betters the

ft

a

61
fi.

tc

<(
tl

DR. EDWARD FOCOCK. Ill

w glory of this martyrdom. I cannot think we are

" bound, by any obligation of law or conscience,

" from acknowledging my Lord of Pembrook for

" our Chancellor, But for the new designed proc-

" tors and heads of houses (Christ Church ex-

" cepted) we do not see, w;ith submission be it
spoken, why those Colleges, to whom the right
of election regularly belongs, may not challenge

" it by virtue of the articles, by which the rights

" of all, and every of them, is promised to be
" saved. And though we know the practice of

" former times is no rule for the present, nor the

" actions of Kings any laws for Parliaments ; yet

" we cannot choose but observe the difference here-

" tofore, when, upon occasion, Princes have some-

" times deposed the Proctors, sometimes preferred

" heads of houses to bishoprics, they always left

" the election of their successors free, according

" to the respective statutes of the University

" and Colleges, and did not otherwise interpose

" (though it was thought a point of their prero-

" gative) than, at most, by letters of recommen-

" dation, which were many times not obeyed, and

" that with impunity. But whatsoever you please

" to command, we must obey. And it will, per-

" haps, not at all offend our most eager adversa*

" ries, if we choose to do it rather by suffering,

" than compliance ; which is already the resolu-

fk tion of a good many, and perhaps his turn is

(C

»c
i;

t(

i 1'2 THE LfFE 01

k: not far off who, thou jrh he would not be over
""• hasty to offer the sacrifice of fools, by ;i peremp-
" tory opposition to ?n extraordinary and irrc-
c' sistihie power, so lon£ as nothing is commanded
which lie conceives, in its own nature, simply
unlawful, yet he "hopes, he shall never prostitute
his innocency, to purchase the short enjoyment
of a slight preferment, which he values for no-
thing more, than the opportunity it affords him
" of freedom in his studies, and thereby (if you
" shall at any time do him the honour to coni-
" mand him) of putting himself in a capacity to be

" reputed,

" Sir,

<( Your most humble, and most bounden servant^

" G. LANGBAINE."

<: Queens-College, Oxon,
March 20, l6'4?-8."

As this letter gave* such a melancholy represen-
tation of the present condition of affairs in Ox-
ford ; so the transactions that soon followed, in
that place, would require even more tragical ex-
pressions, duly to set them forth. For the visitors
first, and then the Chancellor himself (who came
thither for that purpose), with a guard of mus-
keteers, went from College to College, and break-
ing open the doors of several lodgings, dispossessed
the rightful owners with the utmost violence.

And now to return to Mr. Pocock ; the com-
mittee

DR. EDWARD POCOCK.

mittee issued an order to the visitors, June the 6th
following, to put him in possession of Dr. Payne's
lodgings at Christ Church; which was done ac-
cordingly. How he relished the manner of his
coming into this preferment, we cannot say with
certainty. But from the letters of his friends, at
that time, it should seem as if he had some scruple
on that head. Mr. John Greaves, in one to him,
dated the very day he was voted in by the com-
mittee, after acquainting him with his success, adds,
" From whence no envy can fall upon you here
" (at Oxford), seeing you displace no man, and it
" is undertaken that he shall be satisfied, who is
" most concerned, without any further trouble of
" yours. So that I see, by a wary carriage, that
" all sides may be pleased.'3 Dr. Langbaine, in
a letter, May 3, 1648, has the following expres-
sions : " I perceive that you are not fully in-

u formed concerning your Hebrew Professor's
" place ; and, therefore, I take leave to tell you,
" that however the rest of the new prebends (for
" ought I yet hear) have not, nor design to have,
" any other security for settlement, than the votes
" of the committee, yet Mr. Selden intends (and I
" presume by this time it is done) to procure an
" ordinance for yours. — This ordinance, I think,
" will be sufficient, without a patent under the
" broad seal, being, for present, of equal force, of
" less charge, and less obnoxious to exception
VOL. i. I " from

I 14 THE Ml I 01

" from his Majesty ; of whose confirmation, if it
11 shall please God to restore him to his power
" and rights, I think you will have no cause to
" make a question.'' The ordinance here spoken
of by Dr. Langbainc, as certain, to what cause
soever the disappointment was owing, never was
obtained; and, I have undoubted authority for
saying, that Mr. Pocock held his preferment at
Christ Church by no other title, from the ruling
powers of that time, save from a vote of the com-
mittee.

But though these arguments and suggestions of
his friends, prevailed on him to accept the Hebrew
professorship ; yet he was much dissatisfied, that
he had not the Canonry along with it, which King.
Charles had annexed thereto, and which his pre-
decessor, Dr. Morris, enjoyed in that manner. It
is highly probable, the committee were ignorant of
any such annexation, and voted Mr. Pocock into
Dr. Payne's Prebend, for no other reason, but be-
cause it had been longest vacant; the Doctor
having been turned out by a vote, which some time
preceded that for removing Dean Fell, and the
rest that subscribed to the answer put in by him;
of which number Dr. Morris, the Hebrew Pro-
fessor, was one. However, finding that he was
voted not only into the place, but also into the-
lodgings of Dr. Payne, before the committee's
order to the visitors for putting him m possession
of those lodgings was issued, he complained to his

friend^

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 115

friends, above, of the injury thereby done to him,
and the Professorship. For, in a letter from Mr.
Greaves of the llth of May, 1648, I find these
words : " As concerning your lodgings, and the
" injury offered to you by the visitors, I mentioned
" it to the Primate and Mr. Patrick Yonge.
" Both of them will acquaint Mr. Selden with it."
But in that, and the two following months, no-
thing more was done in this business, through the
jealousies of those times. But in August, Mr.
Selden assured Dr. Langbaine, that he could find
nothing to that affair in the rolls, and that some,
who were most active in the then changes, did ex-

O *

pressly deny any such annexation. However, he
promised his best assistance, but could not assure
him of success. About the same time Mr. Greaves,
often waiting on Mr. Rous, secretary to the com-
mittee, prevailed with him, as he tells Mr. Pococky
in a letter of August 2, " That nothing should be
" done to his prejudice for the future ; but [with
" relation to what was past] all the answer he
" could get was, that the committee must observe
" their own orders." All this did not discourage

C3

Mr. Pocock, and his friends, from prosecuting a
reparation of the injury done to the Hebrew Pro-
fessorship, by disuniting it from its proper canonry.
For, upon an intimation from Mr. Greaves, that
Mr. Selden wanted to see a copy of the grant of
the Canonry to the Hebrew Professorship, and

J 2 especially

THE LJ?E OT

especially whether that individual place be an-
nexed to it; adding, if so, he (Mr. Selden) doubts
not but things may be ordered yet, if there be so
much as the name of justice left ; I say, upon this
intimation Dr. Langbaine, in a letter of Nov. 30,
this same year, mentions, that the charter concern-
ing his Prebend, was sent up by the Bedel to
Mr. Selden. But all this availed nothing. And,
therefore, after a year more spent in vain endea-
vours to get the annexation avowed, and the proper
lodgings of the annexed Canonry restored to him-
self, as Hebrew Professor, he, upon Friday, the
last day of August, Ifi49, read and entered a pro-
testation for saving the rights of his Professorship,
before Dr. Reynolds, Dean of Christ Church, and
then Vice-Chancellor of the University, as also in
presence of Ralph Button, Prebendary of that
Church, and Ralph Austen, and lastly of John
French, Notary Public and Register of the Uni-
versity : in which he set forth, " That the late
" King, in the 6th year of his reign, had given and
" granted to John Morris, B. D. and then He-
" brew Professor, a Canonry or Prebend in the
" Cathedral of Christ Church, to be held by him
" as long as he should continue Hebrew Profes-
" sor, and Lecturer of the University of Oxford,
" and no longer; with all the houses, mansions,
" profits,, &c. any way belonging, or hereafter to
" belong, to the said Canonry or Prebend. And

"

it

€(

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 117

" by the said letters patents, he further granted to
" the Vice-Chancellor, Masters, and Scholars of
" the University of Oxford, and their successors,
that, for the future, and in perpetuity, that when-
ever, by the death, resignation, deprivation, &c.
" of the said John Morris, the said Prebend should
" any way become void, that then, and so from
" time to time, the said Canonry, with its afore-
" said appurtenances, should come to every He-
" brew Professor, and Lecturer for the time be-
" ing, and should not, ira the interim, be granted
" to any other. And whereas, upon the natural
" death of the said John Morris, the Canonry
" aforesaid was become void, he, Edward Pocock,
" by the appointment and decree of the honour-
" able Committee, for regulating the University
*' of Oxford, and declared public Professor, and
" Lecturer of Hebrew in the said University of
" Oxford, in the room of the said John Morris.
" That whereas, by a very late act, for abrogat*
" ing Cathedral Churches, it was, amongst other
" things, provided, that the said Act, nor any
" thing in it contained, should in anywise extend to
" the foundation of Christ Church in Oxford, or
" to the profits or emoluments of any public Pro-
" fessor, or Lecturer, in either University ; he,
" the said Edward Pocock, Hebrew Professor
" and Lecturer in the said University of Oxford,
" did therefore (with due reverence) openly and in
*' writing protest, that by his acceptance of any

" other

118 THE LIFE OF

u
<c

(C

it

other houses and mansions, at Christ Church,
aforesaid, he did not intend any prejudice
" should be done to his right, title, or interest, or
" to that of his successors, the Hebrew Professors
" at Oxford, or of the Chancellor, Masters, and
" Scholars of the said University, to the houses
" and mansions in Christ Church, lately in pos-
" session of John Morris, Hebrew Professor, or to
any other profits, &c. So that (notwithstanding
any acceptance of mine for the time) my right,
and that of my successors, and that of the Chan-
" cellor, Masters, and Scholars of the said Uni-
" versity of Oxford, and their successors (if any
" right there be) to all and singular of these, may
" be preserved safe and unhurt, and remain so
" at present, and to all future times ; according
" to the force, form, and effect of the letters pa*
" tents, resolution and act, aforesaid."

I thought it proper to insert the substance of
this protestation, that the world may see how
clear, and how important a right Mr. Pocock and
his friends had been thus long contesting for, and
the shameful injustice of those he had to deal
Tvithal. The right in question appears to have
been founded on a grant of the King's, that was
\vithin his unquestionable prerogative, and fur-
ther guarded by a clause in an act, which had
very lately passed both houses. So that by baf-
fling so strong a claim, the committee demon-
strated, that whilst they thought the King sub-
ject

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 119

ject to his own laws, they would always be at
liberty to contradict, not only his appointments,
,but their own unrepealed ordinances. And doubt-
less Mr. Pocock had reason to stir in this affair,
not so much on account of the different goodness
of the lodgings belonging to the one or the other
canonry, as lest his utter acquiescence, in ac-
cepting a canonry, which had never been annexed
to the Hebrew professorship, should weaken his
and his successors title to that which had. But
still the honesty and spirit of the good man, on
this occasion, appears to greater advantage, when
one considers, that, through the whole course of
this affair, he, in other respects, lay perpetually
at the mercy of those whom he was teazing to do
him justice, and against whose arbitrary proceed-
ings, the above protestation was formed. For
from his first being voted into the professorship
and canonry, by the committee, he plainly fore-
saw, that as things then went, he was not -lon^ to

' . ' • -^J . 4 £j

expect any advantage from that favour, without
Such compliances as he eould, by no means yield
£o. That which he had, therefore, chiefly to de-
pend on, was absence from Oxford till better
tjmes, for which it pleased God he had a while
too just an excuse, being visited with a great
sickness, which kept him a long time very weak.
When, therefore, upon the coming of the Chan-
cellor, he received a message from one of the

visitors

120 THE T.TFE OF

visitors, who pretended to be very much his
friend, inviting him to appear, as soon as he
could, upon i.is canonry, at Christ- Church, he
was so far from any thought of going thither, that
be would not so much as write an answer ; and
the care of those in Oxford, who wished his wel-
fare, made this neglect pass indifferently well, on
the score of his indisposition.

But as the excuse of sickness could not con*
tinue always, so in no long time, his presence in
Oxford was often required in another manner :
for the next month it was decreed by the visitors,
" That all Lecturers and Professors should come
" and perform their several duties in the Univer-

' sity, which," they said, " had been neglected for
" three terms now last past." A little after they
made another order, " That whosoever claimed

' any place, either in the University or any Col-
" lege, should, within fifteen days, come and
" discharge their duties there, and also to sub-

o »

" mit themselves to the visitation." And, in a
short time, they decreed again, that, " whosoever
" came to Oxford, upon their being summoned
" thither, and yet did not appear before the visi-
" tors, should be considered as guilty of con-
" tempt." It is manifest, that such orders as
these, were directly levelled at Mr. Pocock, and
some others in the like circumstances. And what
arts he could find out to avoid the force of them

I cannot

DR. EDWARD POCOCK.

I cannot tell. And yet a very worthy person *,
who was at the pains to search the visitation
book, in the public library, at Oxford, assured
me, that he could meet with no account there of
any appearance before the visitors, made at any
time by Mr. Pocock. The greatest light I have
been able to get into this matter, has been from
some letters sent to him, during these difficulties,
by Mr. John Greaves; whose advice to him,
upon these occasions, was, " so to order his af-
" fairs in a prudential and honest way, as neither
" to provoke the visitors, nor to give them any
" advantage, by appearing before them." And this
too he tells him, in one of his letters, wras not
only his own sense, but likewise that of Mr.
Selden, whom he had consulted on his behalf,
namely, that he ought to make it his utmost en-
deavour, " to keep out of the reach of their
" quarter-staff," to use Mr. Selden's own expres-
sion, " which would," he said, " strike down all
•" before it ; and against which, there was no
" ward, but suffering or complying. A hard
" choice," adds Mr. Greaves, " either to be mar-
" tyred, or to approve of their wicked and sacrile*
" gious courses ; but surely," continues he, " the
fi former is to be taken, which, after some patience,
*' will be crowned with a just reward." How-

* The very learned Dr, Mill, lute principal of Edmund-
Pull, in Oxford.

•'

£22 THE LIFE OJ

ever, to put of}", as long as might be, so great a,
hardship, he directs him, " not to go to Oxford
" at all, if it were possible to avoid it/' But if
his affairs should absolutely require him to go
thither, as he thought they would, " to make but

i O *

" very little stay," and when obliged to lie there
a night, " not to let his lodging be known, for
" fear he should receive a summons to appear."
Moreover, he puts him in mind of consulting with
his good friends, Dr. Sheldon and Dr. Hammond,
what he had best do, who would both give him
faithful advice. And in another letter., after these
two excellent men were driven from Oxford, he
recommends to him the counsel and direction of
Dr. Langbaine, of whose friendship, as well as
skill in such affairs, he had the greatest assu-
rance.

But notwithstanding all the expedients, which
either his friends could recommend to him, or he
could think of, it was not possible for him to
keep himself wholly out of danger. For 1 find
Mr. Greaves at one time giving him notice, that
his name had been returned to the committee,
among those, that contemned their authority.
Moreover he told him, in another letter, that
upon discoursing with Mr. Selden, he found, in-
deed, the same constancy of affection in him, but
withal great complaining of " such injustice and
" shuffling of business, as made him weary of

" striving

DR. EPWARD POCOCK.

F? striving against the stream, though he despaired
" not totally of doing him good."

And, upon this opcasion, I cannot but again
do what justice 1 am able, to the memory of this
Mr. John Greaves, by saying something further
of that extraordinary degree of friendship, he
manifested, at this time, to Mr. Pocock. For,
besides what has been already mentioned in seve-
ral of his letters, which he wrote to him about
these matters, he not only assured him of his ut-
most endeavours to serve him, but also told him,
that " he was much more concerned for his pre-
" servation than his own, and should be better
" pleased if he could obtain it." And the event
was, in some sort, according to his desire. For

\ ^ "

whereas Mr. Greaves had been an instrument of
keeping Mr. Pocock's affairs in some tolerable
condition in Oxford, he himself was banished
thence, by a decree of the visitors, Nov. 9, 1648,
and so lost both his fellowship at Mcrton College,
and his place as Astronomy Professor in that
University. Not that he seems to have been ac-
tually deprived of the latter, till near a year af-
ter. For I find him, in a letter of the 23d of
August, 1649, complaining to Mr. Pocock, as
of a fresh grievance, that Mr. Rous told him
" the committee had voted him out of his leo
" ture, for not appearing, and contempt." It
was then so lately transacted, that Mr. Greaves

had

THE LIFE OF

had not, as yet, seen the order, but was to see it
tiie day after. Indeed, to add someuhat more of
this worthy person, out of these letters to IV Ir.
Pocock, since the lace of things had been so
much changed in Oxford, he seemed to have but
little inclination to spend any of his time in it for
the future. For, some months before this sen-
tence against him, giving Mr. Pocock an account
of his design to go thither from London, where
he had now been for a good while, he told him,
that, " He was resolved to do nothing, but what
" stood with a good conscience. " Yet," adds
he, " Tully somewhere, as I remember, mislikes
" Os et Front em uovce Academics. And I am cer-
" tain I shall do the same." In another, of May
17, of the same year, he tells Mr. Pocock, " He
" was then going into Kent, to his good friend,
" Mr. Marsham, not tar from Rochester. Who,"
adds he, " hath been very importunate, admitting
of no excuse, that I must make his house and
library, who hath a fair one, mine own. It
will be this fortnight e'er I return, and it may be
<c shall afterwards live with him, if I see, at my
' corning to Oxford, the same confusion which I
" hear, and which is likely, in probability, to
" continue." Several months after, going a se-
cond time to this Mr. Marsham's (afterward Sir
John Marsham, a very learned gentleman, who
had dedicated a Latin Treatise of Chronology to

him,

5

«

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 125

him, and now again invited him to make use of
his house and library) he so far despaired of any
future encouragement to learning and ingenuity in
Oxford, that he ordered Mr. Pocock to send up
his will, with the keeping of which he had in-
trusted him, that he might blot out thence the
gift of his mathematical instruments to that Uni-
versity, which had cost him, he said, more than
a hundred pounds. And a conveniency not fal-
ling out presently for transmitting it, he was so
earnest upon the matter, that, in another letter
soon after, he desired Mr. Pocock, " to open his
" will, and strike out that part of it." But seve-
ral years after his death, when the University, on
the return of King Charles II. was delivered from
her captivity, and became again what she was
before ; his brother, Mr. Nicholas Greaves, af-
terwards Dean of Dromore, in Ireland, and
another brother, Mr. Thomas Greaves, formerly
mentioned, disposed* of these instruments, accord-
ing to the first design of their dead brother ; and
they are now in the Museum Savillianum f, at
Oxford.

Mr. Pocock found means of his friends to pass
through the dangers already mentioned, without
being oppressed by them. However, a greater
difficulty began to appear, Nov, 28, 1648. For

* Vita Joannes Gravii, p. 43.
Vide Catalog. Maimscriptor. Angl. pt. I. p. 302.

then

THE LIFE Of

then, among some other orders obtained by the
visitors, from the committee of Parliament, one
\vas, that " they should strictly require of all
" members of the University, the taking the so-
" lernn league and covenant, and the negative
"oath." In their first commission, indet 1. they
had been directed to enquire after all persons
who had refused, or neglected the taking those
oaths ; but the University thereupon immediately,
with a courage truly Christian, published their
unanswerable reasons against the lawfulness of
doing it, which were solemnly voted in convoca-
tion. And, I do not find, that it had been re-
quired of any of those turned out before Novem-
ber, 1648. They being commonly dismissed
upon other pretences. But now these reformers
were resolved upon a general imposition of those
oaths in Oxford, which they well knew would ef-
fectually purge out all the remains of what they
called malignancy *. This matter gave him fresh

disquiet,

* Herein Mr. Smith follows Anth. Wood's Hist, and An-
tiqu. of Univ. of Oxf. 1. I. p. 413. But Dr. Tim. Halton,
in answer to an Inquiry upon this subject, seems, in part,
to contradict this account, He writes thus, " The visitors
'* of the University of O.xon, appointed by Parliament, never
" had the opportunity of pressing the covenant upon any
" members of the said University, nor was any one removed,
" or expelled for not taking of it. In their commission,
" An. 1647, I think the clause of tendering the covenant to

"all

DR. £rhvAiiD POCOCK. 227

disquiet, and set his friends again upon seeking
out means to preserve him. But the great dis-
order the nation was in about that time, soon took
off the minds of the visitors from going on with
that design, and opened a new scene of affairs,
in which, at length, he was to fall. For about
this time, the officers of the army took matters
out of the hands of the Parliament ; and, to all
their former oppressions and rapine, added the
murder of the King. An act, considered in all
its circumstances, so prodigiously wicked and
barbarous, that no age or country, since the
creation, that we know of, had ever afforded a
precedent for it. Hear the honest, pious, and
affecting sense of the so oft mentioned and ex-
cellent Mr. John Greaves, on that sad occasion,
in a letter to Mr. Pocock.

" O ! my good friend, my good friend ! Never
" was there sorrow like our sorrow ? What a per-

" all persons was inserted. But that commission was vacated.
" And in the next commission granted, ann. 1648, the
" clause was omitted by the interest of Mr. Seklen." Per-
haps the truth of the case is this : by Mr. Wood's account,
(ubi supra) the second commission was clandestinely ob-
tained, only six or seven of the committee being present.
Probably, therefore, Mr. Selden, one of the absent mem-
bers, upon hearing what had been done, might procure ei-
ther a revocation of the second commission, or an order
that the clause in it, which related to the solemn league,
should not be put in execution,

•5 petual

128 THE LIFE OF

" petual infamy will stick on our religion and
" nation ! And, if God be not more merciful than
" men, what a deluge of miseries will flow in
" upon us ? Excuse me now, if I am not able to
" write to you, and to answer your queries. —
" O Lord God, if it be thy blessed will, have
" mercy upon us, not according to our merits, but
" thy mercies, and remove this great sin, and thy
" judgments, from the nation.

" Your most affectionate
" And afflicted friend,

" J. GREAVES."

The original letter still testifies the sorrowful
disposition of the writer, and the many blots, es-
pecially in the latter part of it, evidence that he
\vrote on paper, for the most part bathed in tears.

Not content with this transcendent villany, they
also abolished the Upper, or House of Lords.
After which, they and their instruments, at West-
minster, passed what they called an act for sub-
scribing an engagement, whereby every man
should promise to be true and faithful to the
government then established, without a King,
and House of Lords. This new test was first im-
posed at Christ-Church, Nov. 30, 16'49. Soon
after which, endeavours were used in Oxford to
prevent the ruin of many honest and useful men,
who, it was well known, would never subscribe

to

DR. EDWARD POCOCK.

to it. To which purpose, Dr. Langbaine, in a
letter to Mr. Pocock, of Dec. 15, in the same
year, informs him, " That the day before, among
" other matters, a petition was agreed on, and
" sent in the name of the University, to the com
" mittee for regulation, &c. promising that they
" will live peaceably under the present govern-
" ment, and submit to all lawful commands, and
" desiring that this may be accepted instead of
" subscription to the engagement. This day,
" adds he, Dr. Stanton, and Proctor Maudit, are
" gone up with it, and (if they come soon enough)
" it is to be presented to-morrow." Upon this,
he consulted his faithful friend Mr. Greaves, who,
in his answer, of the 8th of the following Febru-
ary, delivers himself thus : " I wish I were able
" to direct you. If only quietness be required
" by the subscription, considering your profes-
" sion, I know not what can be objected against
" it." Mr. Pocock then intended a speedy jour-
ney to London, to which his friend, in the same
letter, answers, " that he feared it would cast
" him beyond the 20th of that month, and that
" then what may be the danger God only knows."
The 20th day of February, 1649, was the term
appointed, by an act, which passed the second of
January preceding, at or before which, whoso-
ever did not subscribe the engagement, was to
be returned to the Committee, in order to their
VOL, T, K being

130 THL LIFE 01

being removed from their places in the University-
l]y another act, which passed February CO, ifi49,
the time tor taking the engagement, \\ as prolonged
a month, viz. to the 20th of March following,
and the return to be made thereof, April 10. And
as the expedient offered, as above, by the Uni-
versity, instead of subscribing the engagement,
Avas rejected by the committee ; so it is probable,
that on or before the latest time prefixed, Mr.
Pocock either appeared, and absolutely refused to
subscribe, or else, that lie lapsed the time in absence,
and was returned accordingly. From the resolu-
tion, which passed against him in the Committee,
the 24th of October following, it should seem
probable, that the latter was really the case. For
the words of the resolution are, not, " that he
" refused to take and subscribe," but, ft that he
" hath not taken and subscribed the engagement
" prescribed by the act." This is certain, that on
the 20th of February above-mentioned, Mr. Po-
cock was gone for London, and shortly expected
to return, as appears from a letter of that very
date to Mrs. Pocock, from Mr. Sparkes, of Cor-
pus-Christi, in which she ays, " There had been
" a conference between some parliament men
" and divers ministers in London, of which the
" conclusion was, that they were to expect no
" favour,unless they did subscribe." But not-
withstanding; this. Dr. Lans;baine, and Mr.

<TJ o

Greaves,

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 131

Greaves, used all their endeavours to save Mr.
Pocock, and others of the University, from the
ruin that threatened them, for not having sub-
scribed the engagement. The former writes thus
to him, April £, 1650, " I have made as many
" friends for you as for any man ; the General
" doth enquire after you, of every one that comes
" from Oxford, of your welfare. We have stu-
" died a * pretty diversion for a month ; we shall
<c hereby gain this half year's rent. We have
" sent an express to the Lord Lieutenant of Ire-
" land, who is coming over, to desire him to in-
" tercede for the University/* I cannot find, th t
any thing was effected by this last expedient, nor
that any thing more was done in the affair, till
the 21sto f June following, when an order was
passed in the House, " That the Committee for
" regulating the Universities should examine what

o O

" officers, masters, fellows, &c. did neglect, or
" refuse to take the engagement, pursuant to the
" late act for that purpose ; and should have
" power to displace them, and place other able
" and tit persons in their room." It is probable^
that some still severer resolution, concerning the
University, was at this time expected. For, in
answer to a letter of Mr. Pocock's, in which he
desired information about the truth of such a re-

* This was the prolongation of the term for taking the
engagement.

K 2 port,

it
cc

132 THE LIFE OI-

port, Mr. Scklch writes to him, Aug. 26, " That
he was afraid some such thing \\ould pass con-
cerning the University; and he doubted it
" would not be possible to exempt any man from
" it/' He adds, " But if I can in that, or any
" thing else, do what may be advantageous to
" you, I shall, and will use my utmost endea-
" vours.'' Sept. 6, of the same year, Mr. Greaves
writes thus : " I have often conferred with our
" noble friend (who shewed me your letter, and
" much pitied your case) we both could think of
" no better course than to put off your business,
14 and to gain time. Many things in the mean
" while may happen." " It is believed," conti-
nues he, " which you may keep to yourself, that
" engagers, of what quality soever, will be re-
" moved out of the Universities. I would, there-
" fore, advise you not to quit your possession of
" vour living. For the committee here cannot
" eject you thence." His friends laboured, to the
last, for his preservation. Dr. Langbaine put
Mr. Selden in mind of the irreparable loss the
University would sustain in the removal of Mr.
Pocock. And Mr. Selden himself, in a kind let-
ter he wrote to him, had assured him of his ut-
most affection and service, telling him, " that.
" these were no more than what his excellent me-
" rit, and the many advantages he had received
" from him, highly deserved." But all their en-
deavours

u
if

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 133

deavours could defer the fatal vote of the com-
mittee against Mr. Pocock no longer than the
24th of October, at which time, the two follow-
ing resolutions passed.

1. " That it does appear to this Committee,
" that Edward Pocock, Collegiate Prebend of
" Christ Church, hath not taken and subscribed
" the enhancement prescribed by the Act.

O i J •>

2. " That the Committee will proceed on this
day fortnight to nominate another to supply the
place of Mr. Edward Pocock, Collegiate Pre-

" bend of Christ Church."

Accordingly, the 7th of the following month
the Committee resolved,

" That Mr. Peter French be Collegiate Pre-
" bend of Christ Church, in the place of Mr.
" Pocock."

And accordingly a special order of the said
Committee, for placing the said Peter French in
the place of the said Mr. Pocock, issued, recit-
ing, " that the place of the said Mr. Pocock be-

" came void for not taking and subscribing the
" encasement."

o o

Considering the person put into Mr. Pocock's
canonry, it was no wonder that all the interest of
his friends to keep him in, proved without effect.
For this Mr French had married a sister of Oli-
ver Cromwell, and therefore a vacancy must be
made to provide for him,

His

134- THE LIFE

His refusing the engagement, which thus cost
him his prebend, did not presently affect his other
preferments in Oxford. But in no long time (pro-
bably about the beginning of December) the
Committee resolving that all non-engagers should
be turned out of the University, lie was also to
quit both his lectures. This was a thing he had
reason to expect as unavoidable. And that he
looked for no other treatment, appears from a let-
ter of his, dated Nov. 30, to George Hornius, a
learned professor of history in the University of
Gueldres ; in which we see him declare his pre-
sent condition, and his apprehensions for the
future, together with the honest and prudent
maxims by which he had hitherto conducted him-
self, and conformably to which, he religiously
purposed to behave in all times to come. " My
" affairs," says he, " are reduced to such a crisis,
" that unless I meddle in things wherein I am
" resolved never to intermeddle (meaning the en-
" gagement) I shall be turned out of all profes-
" sorships in the University, or rather, am already
" (in effect) turned out. I have learnt, and
" made it the unalterable principle of my soul,
" to keep peace, as far as in me lies, with all
<c men ; to pay due reverence and obedience to
" the higher powers, and to avoid all things that
" are foreign to my profession or studies ; but to
f< do any thing that may ever so little molest the

quiet

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 135

" quiet of my conscience, would be more griev-
" ous than the loss not only of my fortunes, but
" even of my life. But please, Sir, to be as-
" sured tnat I never followed these studies with
" mercenary views ; and, therefore, when it shall
" please God (as I trust in his endless bounty
" that it will) to vouchsafe me a safe and obscure
" retirement, I will, with greater alacrity than
" ever, apply myself to these studies, and pro-
" mote them with my best endeavours." Who
can read these golden lines without secretly wish-
ing, that every votary to religion and learning was
endowed with a good portion of that spirit which
animated this excellent man ? As inattentive as
the present age is to principles, and a zeal for
literature, a few such examples would revive the
credit of both, by making them no longer consi-
dered as the scaffolding of ambition, but as the
dictates of a disinterested love of truth, and of
mankind.

In a little time after this, the expected blow
was struck, and a particular vote passed, as it
should seem, to deprive Mr. Pocock of both his
lectures, or, however, to turn him out of the
University, which, in effect, was the same thing.
When this vote passed we cannot precisely say,
but it must have been some time in December,
1650, and probably about the middle of that
month. The news of this coining to Oxford,

many

136

THE LIFE OF

many there were so sensible of the damage the

^j

University would undergo by the turning out a
person whose learning was so very useful and or-
namental to it, that, without his request or know-
ledge, they drew up a petition to t u Committee
for his continuance, in tie form lohowing.

' O

To the Right Honourable t/ie Committee of Par-
liament for regulating the Universities.

The humble Petition of several, the Governors of
Houses, Public Officers, blasters of Arts, and
other Graduates and Students of the Univer-
sity of Oxford^

SHEWETH,

That your Petitioners conceiving Mr. Edward
Pocock (late Prebend of Christ Church) to be a
man of a very ingenuous and peaceable conver-
sation, excellently learned in the Oriental lan-
guages ; and considering that there is no power
or trust of government going along with the He-
brew and Arabic lectures in this University ; that
the stipend of both is but a very small mainte-
nance, and (should they be put into several hands)
no way competent for a learned man ; that he is
able (above any we have heard of) to discharge
them both, as having travelled abroad, and been

' O *

trained up, for many years, in the midst of those
tongues and nations ; that he hath been very use-
ful

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 137

ful here, and a great ornament to this University,
where we understand he desires still, in all peace-
able manner, to continue to serve this state, and
his own country, in this employment :

We therefore humbly pray, that out of that
zeal you bear to the advancement of learning
(this part especially, so useful in itself, and
so generally this day promoted in these wes-
tern nations) and as an act of your favour
and clemency, you will be pleased to sus-
pend the execution of the late vote as to the
Arabic lecture, at least, till such time as you
shall be provided of some other person, who
in regard of his abilities, shall be thought fit
to succeed in that place with satisfaction to
the University.

And your Petitioners shall ever pray.

J. WilkinsJlfardenofWadh. Dan. Greenwood, Vice - can.

Joshua Crosse, LL. D. Oxon

Geo. Marshall, N. C. C. Paul Hood, Rector C. L.

Tho. Owen, Sen. Proc. Ecim. Staunton, C. C. C. Prest.

Henry Cornish. Ger. Langbaine, Pr. ofQii.Coll.

Ralph Bulton. Robt. Harris, Prest. Trin.

John Wallis. Phil. Stephens, Proc. Jun.

Tho. Smith. John Milwash.

Joshua North. Robt. Hancock.

Fra. Howell. C. Rogers, Prin. New-Inn Hall.

Besides these were subscribed the names of
thirty- eight Masters of Arts, and Bachelors of

2 Law.

138 TIIL LIFL 01

Law. The reader will observe, that among the

» D

principal subscribers there were but two of the
old stamp, viz. Dr. Hood, Hector ol Lincoln Col-
lege, and Dr. Langbaine, of Queen's; the rest
being, I think, except the two proctors, intruders
into the places of ejected lo)alists. Nor was it
to be wondered at, that so many new men should
join in this petition, considering how great a re-
proach it would be upon their friends the regula-
tors, and in some sort, upon themselves, to re-
move a man of such eminence for learning and

o

piety from such places as nobody was found suf-
ficiently qualified to supply. Indeed, some en-
deavours had been made use of to prevent this
reproach by procuring a proper successor to Mr.
Pocock ; but they proved ineffectual. Jt appears
from a letter written about this time by one of his
Oxford friends, that Manasseh Ben Israel had
been desired to send over a learned Jew of his
acquaintance in Holland; but that Jew being
latelv turned Christian, was more inclined to ac-

•

cept of an offer he had from some Protestants in
France, and Manasseh, being offended at his con-
version, would not concern himself any farther
with him. Christianus Ravius also, who came
into England about two years before, in hopes
that the Godly Parliament, as he called it in a
letter to Mr. Pocock, would do great things for
htm, was long encouraged by the committee, to

expect

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 139

expect their favour. And, indeed, as Mr. Greavea
gave account of the matter, he often seemed not
unwilling to accept the preferments of one, that,
as has been observed already, was formerly very
kind and helpful to him. But the representations
that w-ere made to Ravias by several of Mr. Po-
cock's friends in London, particularly by Mr.
Selden, in whom Ravius placed great confidence^
and by Archbishop Usher (who had given this
man a salary * of twenty-four pounds a year, for
the encouragement of his studies while he was iri

o

the East) withheld him, I believe, from being
guilty of a thing so infamous and ungrateful.
Possibly also the Committee itself might have seen
so much into Ravius's indiscretions as to think he
would, notwithstanding his knowledge of the lan-
guages, do no credit, in the main, to their nomi-
nation. For, as he set out at first for the East,
without the caution which common prudence
would have suggested, so he seems all along to
have acted after a weak and ridiculous manner,
Mr. John Greaves, in a letter to Mr. Pocock
about the year 1645 or 1646, discovers the notion
they both had of him, and supplies us with a
pleasant instance of his injudicious and trifling
conduct. li I send you," says he, " these pa-

* Archbishop Usher's Letters, published by Dr. Parr,
Num. 304.

" per3

t(
it

II
it

140 THE LIFK 01

<c pers (which I have lately received from Mr.
Ravius) for your perusal; i have not been so
merry since these sad distractions as upon
reading of these, and how much mirth, think
you, shall I have when he shall bless the world
" with the rest, as he promises? If I have
" laught (yet with some kind of pity of the man)
" at his Persian, how much more will you smile
" at his Persian and Arabic ? A little before I
" received a letter from him by the hands of an
" honourable friend of yours, in which he writ,
" that he had dedicated a book to me ; the first
" noise of it almost put me into a cold sweat, but
" after that I found it was dedicated to no less
" than six score besides myself, and that you and
" your friend were in the number, I recovered
" myself, and grew warm again. He is now at
" Leyden, where, when I see him, I shall give
" him the best counsel I can, and advise him to
" make his follies less public/' Upon the whole,
nobody being found of any tolerable abilities for
the discharge of the Arabic and Hebrew lectures,
the Committee for regulating the Universities, up-
on the petition before-mentioned, with so many
favourite hands to it, and doubtless, strongly se-
conded by Mr. Selden, was contented to suspend
the execution of their vote against Mr. Pocock.
I cannot certainly fix the date of that petition,
but conclude that it was in the month of Decem-
ber.

(t

((

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 14 \

ber. For Mr. Samuel Clarke, Dec. 30, answered
one of Mr. Pocock's, which acquainted him with
the petition, and the hopes of success therefrom,
though he had heard of both before from another
hand. " I was very glad," says that learned
person, " of the news, both on behalf of the
University, that now they begin to be sensible
of their loss, when they suffer themselves to be
deprived of their worthiest members, and
" something too on your behalf, that you have
" some hopes left of preserving a plank out of
" this your shipwreck." To conclude this affair,
Mr. Pocock enjoyed both these places without any
disturbance, that I can meet with any account of,
taking a chamber in Baliol College, for his resi-
dence, when obliged to be ih Oxford.

Though the troubles he had thus been in for

o

several years together were a sufficient employ-
ment for his thoughts, they did not discourage
him, however, from going on at the same time,
with a learned work, which was published at Ox-
ford in the latter end of the year 1649- This was
his Specimen Historic Arabum, containing a short
discourse in Arabic, with his Latin translation of
it, and his large and very useful notes on it. The
discourse itself is taken out of the general history
of Gregorius Abul-Farajius, being his introduc-
tion to his ninth dynasty (for into ten dynasties
that author divided his work) where, being about

to

THE LIFE OF

to treat of the empire of the Saracens, or Ara-
bians, he gives a compendious account of that
people before Mahomet, as also of that impostor
himself, aud the new religion introduced by him,
and of the several sects into which it was divided.
And Mr. Pocock's notes on this discourse are a
collection of a great variety of things, relating to
those matters, out of more than an hundred
Arabic manuscripts, a catalogue of which he adds
in the end of his book.

To give a brief account of some of the chief

o

things contained in these notes : having shewn in
them, for what reasons those people were called
Arabians and Saracens, he first sets down some of
the most considerable matters, that were to be met
i\ith concerning their most ancient tribes; and
then proceeding to those times, the history of

which is of greater certainty, he notes the several

*/ '

kingdoms into which they had been divided ; men-
tioning the kings in each that were any way fa-
mous, and the particular transactions, for which
they were remarkable. Coming to treat of the
customs both of those Arabians, which led a wan-
dering life, moving from place to place, as op-
portunities of pasturage or rapine invited them,
and of those who had settled habitations in vil-
lages and towns, he begins with a pretty large ac-
count of their gods, and idolatrous worship, parti-
cularly of their Caaba, or temple at Mecca, of the

black

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 143

black stone in one of the corners of it, which had
so much veneration, and of some other things
taken afterwards by Mahomet, as these two were,
into his new religion. And then he proceeds to
the learning they had amongst them in those days,
which was chiefly made up of skill in their own
language, poetry, oratory, and some knowledge of
the stars. Under these last heads he treats of
the dialect of Hamyar, long since lost, which he
guesses, from a few words of it, yet remaining, to
have had a much nearer agreement with the He-
brew language, at least with Syriack, than the
dialect of the Korashites, which still continues.
He shews the vast extent of this tongue, which is,
indeed, to be wondered at, since letters were but
of very late use amongst them ; being, as he ob-
serves, first invented by Moramer, the son of
Morra, a few years before Mahomet. But the
preservation of it, as also of their ancient history,
he believes to be the effect of their poetry. For it
was a custom amongst them, for many ages, to
throw all remarkable things into verses, which
being carefully learnt, supplied the place of books.
Of their oratory, he shews they had a great
opinion, and, indeed, notwithstanding their want
of letters, it was not contemptible. For some of
them, by much practice, would arrive at such a
way of making speeches, on any occasion of mo-
ment, as was very prevailing with the people.

But

144 THE LIFF OF

But as for their skill in the stars, he observes, that
it was not for any ends of useful knowledge, but
some superstitious and foolish purposes. For, as
the Chaldeans introduced a way of divining by the
planets, so the Arabians and Indians pretended to
do the like by the fixed stars.

The things already mentioned, and more which
are omitted, relate to the Arabians in their state
of ignorance ; for so they call the times before
Mahomet. Mr. Pocock's next work, in these
notes, is, to give some account of that impostor,
whose true name was Mohammed, and of the
mighty change which he made in the opinions and
affairs of that people. Keeping, therefore, to the
text of Abul-Farajius, he from thence takes occa-
sion to speak of the feigned prophecy concerning
his birth ; the genealogy from Ishmael ; the time
when he was born ; the death of Abdallah his fa-
ther; his marriage with Chadijah, and the speech
of Abu Taleb, his uncle, on that occasion ; his
flight from Mecca to Medina; his changing the

O O O

Keblah, or directing the face in prayer from Jeru-
salem to the Caaba : the institution of the fast in
the month Ramadan ; his sickness, death, and bu-
rial. Having thus considered the principal pas-
sages of Mahomet's life, and remarked some of
those things which are said concerning his many
wives, and his daughter Phatema, he shews how
some of his followers have attempted to justify the

new

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 145

new religion he established, both from the testi-
mony of Holy Scripture, and pretences to several
miracles, especially that, which the false prophet
himself would have to be esteemed the greatest
miracle of all, the inimitable elegancy of his Al-
coran. He explains the nature of that school di-
vinity, which hath been in great request amongst
them, as also of that knowledge or skill in deter-

' O

mining controversies about right and wrong, which
gives the highest reputation of learning to them,
that arrive at perfection in it, and hath some re-
semblance, he says, to the study amongst us of the
civil and canon laws. After a short view of the
chief points of their religion, which have been
subject to controversy, he hath a great deal con-
cerning the most famous of their many sects. For,
according to a pretended prophecy of Mahomet,
they reckon up no less than seventy- three. And
from the many instances he produces, of the
opinions held by the most considerable of these,
in opposition to one another, it is manifest, that
the disputes about the divine attributes, predeter-
mination, God's decrees, and some other points,
have been managed with the same warmth, and
indeed nicety, among them, as they have been
among some Christians. But that the Mahometan
faith might be known, amidst the different senti^
ments of the several parties, he sets down, out of
Al-Gazalius, a long confession of that which is
VOL, i. L held

HIE LIFE or

held for orthodox, in the original Arabic, with KM
own Latin translation ol" it. He gives particular
accounts of the lour persons of greatest fame
amongst them, for knowledge in their laws, each
of them giving name to a distinct sect, or school,
of those that study them ; he shews what their
Assonnah or tradition is, and the authority it is of
•imongst them. He explains the five fundamental
duties, which they are especially obliged to, being
cleanliness in several parts of their bodies, and
cloathing, prayers, alms, fasting, and going in pil-
grimage to Mecca. And under this last duty gf
pilgrimage, he mentions those rites of it, which
were required, they say, as instances of their obe-
dience, without having in them any moral good-
ness ; such as their running seven times between
Safa and Mar w ah ; their going as often round
the Caaba, and their throwing stones into the
valley of Mena. He speaks of their observation
of Friday, and of that rest they think themselves
obliged to on it ; as also of circumcision, as it is
used among them. Finally, he explains several
ancient customs of the Arabians, forbidden by
Mahomet, as unworthy the religion he established^
though he retained many that are not less ridicu-
lous.

And as he has thus given, in these notes, a large
• < count of the true opinions of the Mahometans :
-o he has taken care, upon proper occasions, to do

them

DR. EDWARD POCOCK, 147

them justice, by vindicating them from such
things, as have been fastened on them, without
sufficient ground ; as particularly that charge of
idolatry, brought against them by Euthymius, and
some other Greek writers ; and also those stories,
that are current in these Western parts, of the ex-
pectation they are under, of the return of Ma-
homet ; of his body's being put into an iron chest?
and suspended by a loadstone ; and of the dove,
that was taught by him to fly to his ear.

Besides the things already observed, he has,
in these notes, many critical remarks, of great
use to those that study the Arab tongue : and he
has also taken occasion to insert, in several places,
some curious things, which the author, he ex-
plained, did not directly lead him to. Thus he
gives a description of Mecca, out of Sharifoi
Edresi ; he shews what the superstition of Sabii
was, which, as Maimonides observes, had spread
itself over the greatest part of the world. He
gives an account of the Magi, who were very nu-
merous, not only in Persia, and India, but in
Arabia too, thinking it probable, that those were
of this last country, who came into Judea to wor-
ship our Saviour. He has a short discourse out
of an Arabian physician, concerning the power of
some kinds of food, to change the temper and dis=
position of those that eat them. Pie also consi-
ders the state of learning amongst the latter

L £ Arabian?,

148 THE LIFE OF

Arabians, as it had been advanced, first by Abu
Jaafar Almansor, and afterwards by Almamon,
and some following Emperors. And he seems to
agree with Sir Henry Savil, in the opinion he
quotes him for, that the progress made by them
in ingenious studies, was so great, that they hardly
came behind the Greeks themselves.

This book he dedicated to his great patron, Mr.
Selden, who had so much obliged him ; not, in-
deed, by an epistle for that purpose, but by a de-
clatation at the end of the preface, u that the fol-
" lowing work was designed by him, to be a token
" of his observance and gratitude." And this
way he chose, as he told him in a private letter,
in compliance with the custom of Arabian wri-
ters, who have no other way of dedication, that
ever he could observe amongst them : and an in-
stance he gave in Kamus, a famous Arabic dic-
tionary, which was dedicated in this manner, by
the author of it, to the honour of Ismael, a King
of those times, wherein he wrote. Mr. Selden,
upon reading the book, was, I find, extremely
pleased with it : and what reception it met with,
amongst other learned men, is manifest from the
frequent use hath been made of it, and the great
things have been said of it. It was, indeed, gene-
rally considered by them, as a convincing proof,
of what Mr. Pocock asserts in the preface to it,
" that the • Arab tongue contains such riches, in

" every

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 149

" every kind of learning, as have not yet been dis-
<c covered to the Western parts of the world.'*
And that this work was not of the nature of those
discourses, the novelty of which entertains for a
Uttle time, and then they are laid by and for-
gotten, appears by the general esteem it still has>
now, after so many years, and the commendations
that are constantly given it *, by almost all that
are any way conversant in Oriental learning.

Soon after he had finished this work, he began
to prepare another very useful book for the press.
And also, in the year 1652, by the importunity of
Mr. Selden, he began to undertake the translation
of a large Historical Discourse ; and in the very
same year began to lend his hand to one of the
noblest designs that ever was executed for the ad-
vancement of religion and learning, the Polyglott
Bible; but he received great, and long interrup-
tions in all these glorious projects, by new troubles

* Dr. Pocock's Specimen Hist. Arab, is a most accurate
and judicious collection. Dr. Prideaux, late Dean of Nor-
wich, in his Life of Mahomet, p. 190. Clarissimus Pocockius
in Specimine Hist. Arab, quo nemo carere potest,cui Literas
Arabics in Dtliciis sunt. Adrianus Relandus de Religione
Mohammedica, p. 86. Ultrajecti, A.D. 1/05. Specimen
Hist. Arab. Opus vere a lire urn, Cl. Pocockii studio elabo-
ratum. Dignus est hie Liber qui saepius legatur ; est enim
quasi clavis ad quoscunque Autores Arabicos intelligendos
perquam necessaria. Sim. Okleii Introductio ad Lingu*
Orientales, p. 147. Cantabrig. A. D. 1706,

that

150 THE LIFE OF

that befel him, before he had finished any one of
them. And though these took their rise a consi-
derable time after he embarked in the designs

C— •

above-mentioned ; yet to prevent frequent breaks
in the thread of our narrative, it seems best to give
the detail of those vexations here at once.

He had already lost the profitable part of his
preferment in the University, retaining only that,
the advantages of \vhich did not equal the bur-
then ; and now the utmost endeavours were made
use of, to deprive him also of his benefice of
Childry. Indeed, though all that he had, both in
the University and the country, before his ca-
nonry was taken from him, was no extraordinary
encouragement for a person of his uncommon
merit, whose studies too occasioned great expence,
and whose family began to be numerous; the
state of affairs, at that time, would in no wise
suffer him to hope, that he should be able to keep
the whole. At the beginning, therefore, of his
concern with the visitors, 1 find he had entertained
thoughts of lessening the envy of his preferments*
by resigning his parsonage, hoping, by that means,
to secure the enjoyment of what he had in Oxford.
But the representations made to him by Mr. John
Greaves, and some other of his friends, then in
London, prevailed with him to lay aside that de-
sign. For it was manifest to them, that a rnan of
his principles, whatever he should part with,

3 would

DR. EDWARD TOCOCK. 1,51

be still considered, as one that was fit to
lose more, even till he should be utterly ruined
and undone. And in no long time after, he was

o

fully convinced of the truth of what his friends
then suggested. For the loss of his canonry at
Christ-Church, was so far from satisfying the men
of the times, that it gave them encouragement to
hope, that his good parsonage would now also be-
come an easy prey.

That he might be dispossessed of this, some ill
people of his parish were employed to present ati
information against him, to the commissioners ap-
pointed by Oliver Cromwell, for ejecting of ig-
norant, scandalous, insufficient, and negligent mi-
nisters *. One that knows nothing of the real de-
sign of that new law, would very much wonder,
how it could be possible for those that acted by it,
to bring in question a man of such eminent piety,
learning and diligence. Dr. Brian Walton, then
writing to Mr. Pocock concerning the great work
at that time under his direction, says, " I have

heard lately (which I should wonder at, if any

thins in these times were to be wondered at)

^j f

" that some malicious persons trouble you upon
" the ordinance for ejecting of ministers. If it be
" true," adds he, "I hope God will deliver you
ff from unreasonable and absurd men." But a

* This Act was made, August 28, I(j54.

a

61

152 THE LIFE OF

great part of the Commissioners having notions
of things very different from those of other people,
they readily admitted the nine following articles,
as a charge against him, which were signed by
Thomas Bush, and one Fisher.

1. That he had frequently made use of the
idolatrous Common Prayer-book, as he performed
Divine Service.

2. That he was disaffected to the present power.

3. That he had no regard to Thanksgiving-
Days, and those of Humiliation, appointed by
Parliament; but, on the contrary, had often
prayed for the destruction of it.

4. That a certain person, who preached for
him, declared in the pulpit, when he was present,
that there were some in the nation, who had pulled
down the King, to make themselves steps to climb
higher.

5. That he, and several that officiated for him,
did rail at professors in their sermons.

6. That he had been negligent in examining

a O C3

those that came to the Lord's Table.

7- That he had countenanced the profanation
of the Lord's Day.

8. That he had refused to suffer some godly
men to preach in his pulpit. And,

9. That he had not^ read the Ordinance for the
Observation of the Sabbath.

Being summoned to give in his answers to the

particulars

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 153

particulars of this accusation, he appeared at
Abington, the place appointed for it, and very
submissively delivered to the Commissioners, his
defence against every article. The sum of which
was this : first, as to an idolatrous Common Prayer-
book, he declared, that he knew no such thing :
but if they meant that which was once established
as the Liturgy of the Church of England, it
seemed strange to him, he said, to term that
idolatrous, and thereby to accuse of idolatry, all
the Protestants since the Reformation. Of that
Liturgy too, he denied that he had made any use,
contrary to the late act for taking it away. The
second and third articles, he said, contained things
that were false ; he having discovered no dissatis-
faction under the present Government, since it
was in being ; never prayed for the destruction of
any, and taken due care for public service in his
Church, on those days, appointed by authority,
for Thanksgiving and Humiliation. As for those
words in the fourth article, pretended to have
been spoken in his pulpit, he had examined, he
said, some of the most constant hearers of ser-
mons in his parish, and they could remember no
such passage : but if any thing of that kind had
been delivered there, he that spoke it, he thought,
was accountable for it, and not he. Of the rail-
ing, mentioned in the fifth article, he mignt boldly
assert, he said, that no pulpit in the whole nation

had

54 THE LIFE OF

had been more free from that imputation, than
his; lie had never spoken against any thing in that
place, hut sin ; but he understood, indeed, that he
had been accused, on that acrount, as guilty : for,
having preaehed about just and upright dealing,
soon after Thomas Bush, one of these informers,
had fraudulently removed a land-mark on some
of his ground, a great way from its place, the said
Bush had censured him for venting his malice in
the pulpit, though, at the same time, when he thus
preached, he knew nothing of that encroachment,
his servant having not yet acquainted him with it.
He might, he said too, be, perhaps, in like manner,
offensive in some other of his sermons ; for having
often pVeached against lewdness and whoredom,
the same person might call it railing, as knowing
what was publicly objected to him, by a certain
woman, of his lewd behaviour towards her. And
the other informer might, for the like reason, be
as much offended also at some of his discourses
against profaneness and drunkenness. Ag to the
Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, it was \vell
known, he said, by all that frequented his Church,
to which his accusers never came, that before it
was celebrated, the doctrine of it was in the
plainest manner duly opened ; people warned of
the duty and danger, and earnestly exhorted to
look to their preparations ; and that some, whom
he thought unfit, were put back. Any profana-
tion

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 153

tion of the Lord's Day, he told them, he was so far
from countenancing, that, according to his power,
he had laboured to prevent it. It was known> he
said, how often he had called on the people of his
parish, at least, to send their children and their
servants to be catechized ; how often he had sent
the clerk out of the Church, after their children,
and even gone himself to them. And that the
officers were to be blamed for not doing that by
their authority, which he could not by his per-
suasions. He added too, that he had been in-
formed, by persons of good credit, that the chil-
dren of the informer, Thomas Bush, had been
chiefly guilty of such profanation ; that on the
last Lord's Day, since this complaint was made, a
son of the said Bush had made a noise in time of
reading the Scriptures, to the disturbance of the
congregation : and that the other accusant, being

O O ' o

Churchwarden, had been complained to of
people's playing on that day, and yet would take
no care to restrain them. As for his prohibiting
-godly men to preach in his Church, he owned, in-
deed, that he had once refused a man, whom the
informer, Bush, had brought thither for that pur-
pose, preaching at the same time himself. And
this, he said, he would neither deny nor be
ashamed of, when the thing should be examined
by them, to whom such matters belonged. Finally,

the last article, about the ordinance for the Obser-
vation

].)() MIL LITE 01-

vation of the Lord's Day, lie declared to be false?
it being well known, he said, that lie had read it.
And then having assured them, that the answer

C" '

he had thus made to the several things he had been

o

charged with, was true, lie desired the Commis-
sioners, that they would be pleased to question
him on such things alone, as were proper for their
eognizance, according to their commission, leav-
ing the other to such courts, as tiiey belonged to ;
and also, that they would make the persons, who,
as it was pretended, should come and witness
against him, well to be advised of, and to under-
stand, what they were to swear to.

After this answer had been put in, it was con-
cluded, by several of Mr. Pocock's friends, that
the prosecution against him would cease. But
they were mistaken in the matter : for on Fe-
bruary 12, 1654, seven or eight witnesses ap-
peared before the Commissioners at Abington, to
prove the several articles against him.

To make out the first article, several of them
deposed, that he had used part of the Common
Prayer ; for he commonly, they said, began Di-
vine Service with these words, Almighty and most
merciful Father. One of them added, that he
had made use of a part of it at a burial. Another,
that, on Easter-Day last, he had administered the
Sacrament in the old way. And a third, that a
little after those words, Almighty and most mer-
ciful

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 157

Father, he had said, Praise ye the Lord. A
fourth charged him \\ith saying the whole Confes-
sion. And a fifth, with repeating the Absolution,
or the substance of it.

For the proof of the second article, two or three
of them testified, that some persons whom he had
entertained, and some that officiated for him, had
been disaffected to the present power. And as for
Mr. Pocock himself, one of them declared, that
about the time of Naseby fight, he prayed for the
shattering and destroying of those, that rose up in
arms against the King, and that he ' had never
heard him pray for the Parliament, or any of
their forces. Another swore, that though he could
not remember the particular expressions, he was
very well satisfied, that Mr. Pocock did rail at the
government ; for which reason, he had long with-
drawn himself from hearing him. And another
zealot deposed, that upon a fast-day, appointed
about the beginning of the war, he had prayed,
that the Lord would scatter, discomfit, and de-
stroy all those that rose up against his Majesty ;
which was the cause, he said, that he then forsook
his ministry, having no freedom, or comfort, to
hear him afterward.

To the third article, about Humiliation and
Thanksgiving Days, appointed by the Parliament,
several of them testified, that he was commonly
absent on them : and that it was a kind of proverb

in

]J8 TBB LIFE or

in the parish, at such times, that now Mr. Pocock
\vas either sick or at Oxford. Some of them also-
added, that he, and those that officiated for him on
such clays, said so little of the nature of them,
that when the service was over, the people knew
nothing of the matter.

o

Of the words in the fourth article, said to be
spoken in Mr. Pocock's pulpit, no testimony was
given, by more than one person ; and he could
neither name the man that spake them, nor as-
biiin the time when.

o

As for railing against professors, the charge in
the fifth article, one of them testified, that one Mr.
Yeels, as he preached for Mr. Pocock, about four
years before, was guilty of it ; because he warned
them, as this deponent said, not to come into the
yards of sucli as did not come to the public mi-
nistry. Another deposed, that one Mr. Hall had
railed much against professors, and the people of
the nation, for not helping the King out of his
bonds: as also, that he had these words in one of
his sermons : mark these fellows : they have bibles
on their tables; but whips behind their doors ;
they lead silly women captive, who are still learn-
ing, yet never attain to knowledge of the truth.
However, most of them declared, that they could
not charge Mr. Pocock himself in this matter. Only
one of them said, that he had given hints to that
purpose; and another, that he had called profes-
sors

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 159

sors, schismatics, separatists, and deceivers ; mean-
ins;, as this deponent apprehended, such as did not
come to hear him.

To the sixth article, about his not examining
people before the Sacrament, several deposed, that
they never knew him practise it. One of them,
notwithstanding, acknowledged, that one person
had been put back. But then this deponent and
another declared, that he had admitted such as
M ere railers against professors, calling them round-
heads, and saving they would cut their throats.

About his countenancing the profanation of the
Lord's Day, in the seventh article, some of them
declared, " they could not assert any such thing;"
others said, that " he had not reproved those that
were guilty of it." But one of them could not but
confess the contrary, and that " when people were
" playing in the church-yard, Mr. Pocock had
'•' gone forth to call them in to Catechism."

That he had denied to some godly men the
liberty of preaching in his pulpit, according to the
eighth article, they endeavoured to make out, by
instancing in one Mr. Pendarves, to whom Mr.
Pocock would not give leave, a wandering Ana-
baptist preacher, author of a book called Arrows
against Babylon *. They also named one Mr.
Steed ; but he was not, as some of them acknow-

* Vid. Athen, Oxon. Vol. II. p. i?/.

ledged,

lf)0 THE LIF£ OF

ledgcd, refused by Mr. Pocock, who was absent,
but by those who had the care of his affairs at
Childry, when this Steed came to preach there.

The ninth and last article, that he had not read
the ordinance for the observation of the Sabbath,
appeared to be perfectly "groundless ; all that either
of then i could say about it being, that, " four or
" five years before, the book had been carried to
" Mr. Pococl in the midst of Divine Service, and
" that he thereupon said, it should have been
" brought to him at home, and that he could not
" then tell whether he should read it or no."

This is the sum of what those zealous and for-
ward witnesses deposed against Air. Pocock, after
a diligent inquiry into every passage of his life.
And amongst the things they thus testified, as
some were really to his honour, in the opinion of
all good men ; so others were much misrepre-
sented, and others notoriously false. The same
witnesses too being, on his demand, examined, ac-
cording to custom, on some interrogatories on his
behalf, notwithstanding all their malice, and the
little regard they had for truth, could not but own,
" that for his life and conversation, they had no-
" thing to charge him with." And one of the
most spiteful ot them all was even forced to de-
clare, that " he believed him to be as civil a man,
" as went upon the ground.'' But innocence and
goodness are not a sufficient fence against the rage

of

DR. EDWARD POCOCK, 16"!

of evil men ; some of these witnesses, therefore,
having made such steps towards his ruin, took
what further measures they could, thoroughly to
effect it; and, for that purpose, soon after, they
presented a paper to the Commissioners, a true
copy of which I shall here add. For though such
a mixture of ignorance, malice, and enthusiasm,
may prove an exercise of the reader's patience, it
will give him, however, some idea of the sad fruits
of those wretched times, and of the insults which
the best of men were then exposed to.

" An Answer to the reproachful Declaration, put
" info the Court of Godly Commissioners, by
" Mr. Pocock, at Abington, with a Proposal of
" our Desires to be granted by the Commis*
" sioners.

" First, He doth declare the godly actions of
" those magistrates, in former days, compelling
" the Common-prayer to be used, to draw the
" nation from that gross idolatry they were then
" under. But it had been a more glorious work,
" if they had proved faithful to Jesus Christ, if
" they had thrown down the traditions of men,
" rudiments of the idolatrous world, which is not
" after Christ the Head of the Church, as it hath
" pleased God our magistrates have done at this
" time, being; found in the Mass Book. And that

' Cj

" it was a literal service, in the room of spiritual
VOL. i, M " service,

t(

It

162 THE LIFE OF

" service, which is only acceptable to the Father;'
" and such a worship, and such worshippers, that
" offer up spiritual sacrifices, which are accepta-
" ble to the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore it was
* voted down five years since, being manifest it
" was the great idol of the nation, and not divine,
" but merely human. And it is manifest in the
holy Scriptures, to set up their posts by the
Lord's, is idolatry. His Highness, with his
Counsel, hath ordained this Court, therefore, to
" remove from their place all such Ministers, as
" shall at any time make use of this Service, aftec
" January last was twelvemonth.

" Secondly, He hath reproached those that have
" testified their knowledge of him, from good ex-
" perience they have had of him, ever since he
" came to Childry ; to render them and their tes-
" timony to this Court ridiculous and odious.
" Eut it is manifest Satan had instruments in his
" hand, to reproach Jesus Christ, who is the only
" way, the truth, and the life ; and by the learned
" Clergy accounted a deceiver, and used all
" means possible to delude the world after his suf-
fering, that he rose not again the third day ;
although the Almighty hand was signally seen,
" in striking their strict watch they set as dead
" men, and roiled the stone from the sepulchre,
" and raised him up by his Almighty power the
<c third day, according to the Scripture. Yet after

6 « they

u
».

DR. KDWAltD POCOCK. ' i6S

" they knew the truth, they gave the soldiers
" double money, to report he was stolen away,
" and the world believed the report, but they
" could not deceive the elect by it. If Satan,
" that old enemy, can reproach the Head, it is no
" marvel if he raise all manner of reproaches on
" his poor contemptible servants, whom the Lord
" Jesus hath chosen out of the world ; yet we
" humbly conceive it our duty, with all the people
" of God, both to the Lord Jesus Christ, to our
" godly Magistrates, and to this Court, to give in
" our knowledge, and testimony, of any truth we
" know against public Ministers, who, from our
" experience, are disaffected to the reformation
" the Lord hath wrought, with their disaffection
" to the reformers, and also their envy to all those
" that are made willing, by the day of God's
" power, to be reformed. And to this end also,
" which is not the least, that the common enemy
" may not still be encouraged and strengthened
" against his highness, his counsel, and army;
" whom the Lord hath the- only instruments in
" his hands to subdue the common enemy in the
" three nations, and a wall of defence to preserve
" the godly, from the fury and rage of the mali-
" cious, wicked world, which knows not them, be-
" cause they know not him, who alone is their
" Prince and Saviour, whose voice they know and
" follow, and know not the voice of strangers;

M 2 " therefore

it

Cl

16'4 THE LfFE OF

" therefore they hate them the more. And far-
" ther, we could answer all the particulars cast on
us, had we his copy, and could declare what
persons Satan made use of in the business ; we
" could tell you of all those that stand for him,
11 how they are affected, and speak truth from
" good experience, and of himself also; but we
" are made to hate reviling for reviling, and would
" have been silent at this time, had it been our
" cause, and not troubled the Court ; but we
" conceive it a duty incumbent upon us from the
" Lord, being a work he hath wrought, to reform
" the nation, according to truth and righteousness,
" which he labours to darken, by reproaching us
" to this Court : yet, we are not ashamed of our
" testimony and good affection to the work of the
" Lord, committed to this Court, which we trust
" they will perform with zeal and faithfulness, in
" truth and righteousness, to the glory of God,
" and the reforming those weighty things that con-
" cerns their trust, and well-being of the nation.
" Also we intreat this Court, to give us the same
liberty as he had, to cross-examine their wit-
nesses, as he did ours, and himself and wit-
" nesses exempt, the Court, in time of examina-
••' tion, calling in one by one, the door being kept
close, as was for us, that one may not hear the
" other's testimony, that truth may not go in con-
" tempt, and falshood take place ; which is our

" desires,

DR. EDWARD POCOCK.

" desires, and had rather any of our tongues
<c should cleave to the roof of our mouths, than
" maintain any falshood or witness lies. Bat for
" fear of greatness, or favour, or the like, divers
*f persons, of the forwardest actors, hath dissented
" with divers others, who engaged to clear the de-
" positions more fully, withdraws ; seeing us in
" great contempt, and under threatenings ; and
" others will not come in, although summoned
" with your warrants, which have declared, that
•" his own child, last spring, was baptized with the
" Common-prayer, with godfathers and godmo
" thers, in the presence of four or five Ministers ;
" and the Communions administered the last sum-
" mer, as it was twenty years ago. And his
" Curate, Mr. Whetstone, could not content him-
" self to make use of it at home, but also at a
" neighbouring town, and was indicted at the as-
" sizes for it; the grand jury found the bill
against him, and should have paid five pounds
to the poor could he be taken, and he had been
taken, had not his house sheltered him. Thus
" it is clear, still they labour to uphold that which
" God hath thrown down ; but it is the desires of
" our souls, according to that good prayer he left
" his disciples for a direction, that his kingdom
" may come, and his will be done on earth, as it
" is in heaven, to the glory of the great God, and
" our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and

" glory

a

tt

166 THE LIFE OF

" glory for ever and ever, and all nations come to
" the knowledge of the truth, that they may be
" saved, and all an ti- Christian ways destroyed,
" that are not found in the law and testimony^
" which is our desires.

R. Ho ARE, R. BROOKES,
W. BUNCE, T. BUSH,

R.

It may be proper here to observe, from some
scattered memorandums of Mr. Pocock's, that
the two first of these subscribing professors,
Brookes and Bush, had been used to deny and de-
tain from him corn tithes. And there is yet ex-
tant a bond, all of it written in Mr. Pocock's own

/

hand, dated November 10, 1647, in which the said
Bush, together with one Alexander Filmore, both
of the parish of Childry, do under their hands and
seals, bind themselves to pay unto Mr. Pocock,
their Rector, the harvest following, nine sheaves
of wheat, four cocks of barley, a cock and a half
of beans, and one cock of blue pease ; all which
they had detained the harvest last past.

Thus, in return to Mr. Pocock's forbearance to-
wards Bush, after he had detained part of his
tithes, did that ungrateful man, on the first oppor-
tunity that offered, endeavour to deprive him of
the whole.

I do not find that Mr. Pocock took any other

notice

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 167

notice of the answer above rehearsed, than only lo
procure an attested copy of it, from which, that
which is here inserted hath been transcribed ; but
fco their depositions against him, he delivered to
the commissioners, in a little time, a full answer in
writing, introducing it with these humble desires,
xvhich, as he told them, he craved leave to offer to
them.

1 . " That what was formerly given in by him,
" by way of answer, might be reviewed and con-
" sidered.

2. " That such things as concerned other per-
*' sons, were they true or false, might not be
" charged upon him.

3. " That the testimonies of the witnesses pro-
*' duced against him, might not be extended be-
*' yond the letter of the ordinance ; it being a
" known and undoubted rule, that no penal laws
" are to be extended beyond the strict letter of
** them. And though such as are appointed judges
" may, upon some occasions, as is usual, dispense
(t with the rigour of such laws ; yet they ought
*' not, upon any occasion, to exceed or go be-
" yond the letter of them.

4. " That where the witnesses producer! against
" him should be found to contradict themselves,
'* or one another, their testimony might not be ad-
" mitted as evidence against him.

" That the witnesses to be examined for him,

" according

168 THE LIFE OF

" according to what was allowed by the ordinance,
" might be impartially and indifferently heard,
" without prejudice; and their evidence taken on

his behalf be balanced with the testimony of his
" accusers : it being the duty of righteous judges,
" not in any case, so far to incline to the parties
" accusing, as if it were their desire and business,
" to find the party accused guilty ; but to admit
" them to an equal plea, and if there be any
" favour to be shewed, it ought to be in the be-
" half of the person accused."

In the answer itself he was very particular,
making his defence under each article, against
every thing that had been sworn, by the several
witnesses against him. It will be a work too
tedious to give an account of the whole. Omit-
ting therefore his replies to those parts of their
testimony, which were either of no consequence,
or wholly false, I will only take notice of what he
said to such as had some ground of truth, and
were intended to render him a scandalous Minister,
according to the meaning of the ordinance. And
these now were the things they testified concern-
ing his using the Common-prayer, his disaffection
to the Government, and what they called, his rail-
ing against Professors.

Ihe use of the Common-prayer, was, by this
new law, declared sufficient to render a Minister
scandalous; and Mr. Pocock, notwithstanding the

prohibition,

DR. EDWAKD POCOCK. 169

prohibition, always paid a great deal of regard to
that excellent model of true devotion ; for as he
constantly read the Psalms, and the Chapters ; so
the several Prayers he made use of were, as to the
matter of them, agreeable to the Liturgy, and
often too, he took in some of the very words of it.
But having still governed himself, with ail the pru-
dence and caution, which were necessary in such
dangerous times ; he was able, before any indif-
ferent judges, to avoid the force of the accusations
brought against him. For the defence of himself,
from the several depositions relating to this article,
he took all the advantage he could of the words
of the ordinance, by which a public and frequent
use of the Common- prayer Book, since a certain
day, were only prohibited, shewing, that if most
of the things he had been charged with, by the
witnesses, were allowed to be true, they would not
yet, by the letter of that ordinance, at all affect
him. He declared the falshood of several parti-
culars of the testimony against him, which he was
ready, he said, fully to prove by other witnesses,
both for number and quality, much more credit-
able. He made it appear, that some of his ac-
cusers had manifestly contradicted, both them-
selves and one another. And he noted the gross
ignorance of others, who, neither understood the
nature of an oath, nor what they swore to. For,
it was known, he said, that one of the witnesses,

on

((
<l

57'0 THE LIFE OF

on her return home, had told some of her

'

hours, " that she had expected to be put to swear
" some great oath, but that she did not swear at
" all, only took a book into her hand/' And they
might remember, he added, that the witness, who
had charged him with administering the Sacrament,

o o

at Easter, after the old way, being asked, Why he
thought it the old way ? Gave this reason, " Be-
cause he made a prayer before, and a prayer
alter, and gave the bread and wine to the
" people/' And also, being further asked, Whe-
ther those prayers were the same form with those
in the Common-prayer? He said, " Yes, for
" ought he knew ; for he talked in them of Peter,
" of Paul, and John."

" Disaffection to the Government then in be-
" ing," was also by the same Act made exceeding
scandalous, and indeed a man of Mr. Pocock's
principles could not be heartily free from it.
However, as formerly in his prayers for the pros-
perity of the King, while that good Prince stood
in need of them, he had not used any harsh or
unseemly expressions ; so since the new esta-
blished tyranny, he had taken a due care, upon
all occasions, to carry himself inoffensively ; and
this wariness, now qualified him for a sufficient
defence. In this article, as well as in the former,
he took hold of the words of the Act, which only
declared them guilty in this matter, who " disco-*

" verexi

DR. EDWARD 1>OCOCK. 171

" vered their disaffection, by writing, preaching,
" or otherwise publishing,'' He observed to them,
that the tilings relating to other persons, were
they indeed true, could not, with any justice, be
put on his account. And as for those words, which
were alledged against himself, if, indeed, spoken
by him, the deponents, he said, had confessed, that
it was many years ago, at the beginning of the
wars, and about the time of Naseby fight, and so
they could not reflect on the present power, which
was not then in being ; and if in themselves at
that time criminal, yet they had been discharged
by the Act of Indemnity.

The other scandalous practice, in the sense of
this law, was, what they called railing at Profes-
sors, that is, a speaking plainly of the sins of
schism, division, and the like, which many, in
those times, who pretended highly to godliness,
were manifestly guilty of: such reproof, upon
proper occasions, he had not neglected ; but still
what he spake, was in a very grave and serious
way ; for, as often as he exposed the errors of
those disorderly people, he did it in the softest
words, designing, if it were possible, not to anger,
but reform them. And under this article, there-
fore, his defence was very easy. For, whereas all
that he had been expressly charged with, was the
speaking, as he preached, of schismatics, sepa-
jf a lists, and deceivers, he supposed, he said, that

it

17C THE LIFE OT

it could not be denied, that there might be just
and necessary cause for the use of such \vords ;
and he hoped, that the misapprehension of those
M!IO might have applied them wrong, would not
be fastened on him as a crime.

But though his answer, to all the depositions
against him, was thus full and clear, and had all
the marks of truth, that could possibly be ex-
pected ; they could not, however, ease him of the
trouble of bringing witnesses for his justification.
A considerable number, therefore, appeared for
him before these Commissioners at Wantage,

O '

March 27, 1655. Amongst whom were four of
the same name, viz. John Fettiplace, of Childry,
Esq. Charles Fettiplace, of Up. Lambourn, Esq.
Edmund Fettiplace and George Fettiplace, gen-
tlemen, whom I could not but thus particu-
larly mention, in honour to a worthy family,
that in times of great difficulty, afforded so many
persons, who were not afraid to protect learning
and goodness, so unjustly persecuted. By the tes-
timony of these witnesses, who were sworn and
•j

severally examined upon all the articles against
him, not only the malice and falshood of his ac-
cusers were sufficiently manifest; but his peace-
able behaviour, his Christian temper, and un-
blameable conversation, were made evident, be-
yond exception. Several of them declared, that
upon an intimate acquaintance with him, for many
8 years,

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 173

years, they had always found him not only meek,
friendly, and obliging, but also a very religious
and godly man, of an upright life and conversa-
tion ; a constant reprover of vice and sin, and an
encoura^er of holiness. And some of them added,

o

that they verily believed, that in the whole coun-
try, wherein he dwelt, there could not be person
of a fairer character, and more unblemished repu-
tation.

And thus, at length, notwithstanding all the en-
deavours of his zealous adversaries to oppress him.,
the charge that had been managed against him fell
to the ground : it being impossible for them to
fasten any thing scandalous upon him, even ac-
cording to their own new sense of that word.
Very unwilling, however, they were, that the good
parsonage, which they thought themselves sure of
the disposal of, should continue still in his hands,
and therefore made choice of another method
whereby to dispossess him of it. As these Com-
missioners were, by the Act that established them,
to determine what was scandalous in clergymen ;
so, in conjunction with several ministers named ia
it, they were made the judges too of ignorance
and insufficiency ** ; and now, though that former
power had not served their purpose, they were

* See the Act in Scobell's Collection, An. 1654,
€ap. 43.

willing

174 IHK LIFE OP

•willing to try whether this other ini^rit not i;

O J

more successful There was nothing. indeed, in
the articles, at first exhibited against him, that led
them to this attempt; but the depositions of borne
of those forward witnesses, that swore to then),
afforded some foundation for it. For one of them
had declared, that he believed Mr. Pocock to be
destitute of the spirit, though he preached saving
truths according to the letter ; and another had
deposed, that he sometimes preached pretty well,
but at other times not so well ; and that his dead-
ness, and dullness drove people from hearing him,
But this new danger, which he was exposed to,
filled several learned men, of much fame and emi-
nence, at that time in Oxford, with a great deal of
indignation ; and they resolved to go to the place,
where the Commissioners were to meet? and ex-
postulate with them about it. In the number of
those that went, were Dr. Ward, Dr. \Vilkins, Dr,
Wallis, and Dr. Owen ; and they all laboured,
with much earnestness, to convince those men of
the strange absurdity of what thev were under-

o •/ ./

taking: particularly Dr. Owen, who endeavoured,
with some w^armth, to make them sensible of the
infinite contempt and reproach which would cer-
tainly fall upon them, when it should be said, that
they had turned out a man for insufficiency, whom
all the learned, not of England only, but of all
Europe, so justly admired for his vast knowledge,

and

DR. toWAKD POCOCK.

and extraordinary accomplishments : and being
himself one of the Commissioners appointed by
that Act, he added, that he was now come to deli*
ver himself, as well as he could, from a share in
such disgrace, by protesting against a proceeding
so strangely foolish, and unjust. The Commis-
sioners, being very much mortified at the remon-
strances of so many eminent men, especially of
Dr. Owen, in whom they had a particular confi-
dence, thought it best for them wholly to put an
end to the matter, and so discharge Mr. Pocock
from any further attendance. And, indeed, he
had been sufficiently tired with it ; this persecu-
tion, which lasted for many months, being the
most grievous to him of all that he had under-
gone. It made him, as he declared to the world
some time after *, utter uncapable of study, it be-
ing impossible for him, when he attempted it,
duly to remember what he had to do, or to apply
himself to it with any attention. And, doubtless,
the characters of the persons, under whom he suf-
fered, added not a little to the weight of his suf-
ferings ; being such as hated learning, out of zeal
for religion, and with large pretences to godliness
laboured to undermine the true supports of it.
A sort of men, as he describes themf, absurd

• Prsef. in Annales Eutychii, p. 6.

t Genus hominum plane WTWOV *J cifayov atque hujus Sa>
culi Lues, Praef. in Portam Mosis, p, I p.

and

176 THE LITE OF

and unreasonable, and the pest of the age m
which they lived. Indeed, in those times of dis-
order and confusion, amongst other strange opi-
nions, which found an easy entertainment with
great numbers of people, the contempt and even
hatred of learning prevailed to a very great de-
gree. About the year 1G.50, Mr. Pocock had com-
plained *, in the book he then published, of a sort
of men who boldly declared, all the kinds of it to
be injurious to religion ; and, therefore, that it
ought to be wholly banished from all Christian
commonwealths : particularly, that it was suffi-
cient for every one to be acquainted with his
mother tongue alone, and that the time that was

o »

employed in obtaining the knowledge of other
languages, was utterly lost; so that, as he ob-
served, the very way which Julian the apostate

made choice of, for the destruction of Christianity,

»/ '

was thought the only means of promoting it : and
how much the same opinion obtained in the Uni-
versity of Oxford itself, in a few years after this,
amongst some who had made themselves consider-

o

able men there, appears from a letter of Dr. Lang-
baine to Mr. Selden, the inserting part whereof,
may not, perhaps, be unacceptable. After he had
given in it, his sense of ancient Greek custom, in
answer to a letter he had received from that learned
man, he went on in this manner :

* Specimen Histor. Arab, p. 166.

" — Tis

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 177

Tis true, the problem might suit very
" well for the fire-side, in a winter night ; but I
*' am sorry I have occasion to say, that I fear we
" must be forced, e'er long, to bid g;ood night to our
" Noctes Attica. I was not so much troubled to
*' hear of that fellow, who lately in London main-
" tained in public, that learning is a sin, as to see
" some men (who would be accounted none of the
" meanest amongst ourselves, here at home) un-
" der pretence of piety, go about to banish it in
" the University. I cannot make any better con-
" struction of a late order made by those, whom
" we call Visitors, upon occasion of an election
" last week, at All-Souls College, to this effect :
" That, for the future, no scholar be chosen into
" any place in any College, unless he bring a tes-
" mony, under the hands of four persons, at the
" least (not electors), known to these Visitors to
" be truly godly men, that he who stands for such
a place is himself truly godly. By arrogating
to themselves this power, they sit judges of all
men's consciences, and have rejected some,
" against whom they had no other exceptions
(l (being certified by such to whom their conver-
" sations were best known, to be unblameable and
<c statuteably elected, after due examination and
" approbation of their sufficiency by that society)
" merely upon this account, that the persons, who
" testified in their behalf, are not known tf these
VOL. i. N " Visitors,

m

K

178 THE LIFE OF

(C

Visitors, to be regenerate. I intend, God will-
" ing, e'er long, to have an election in our Col-
" leije, and have professed, that I will not submit
" to this order; how I shall speed in it, I do not
" pretend to foresee ; but if I be baffled, I shall
" hardly be silent. Sir, excuse this passion of,

" Your most humble servant,

" GEK. LANGBAINE."

" Quern's College, Oxon,
Nov. 8, l6\33.''

Upon the head of Mr. Pocock's troubles I shall
only add, that one of the Commissioners, who
voted for acquitting him, Mr. Strowde, of Rus-
comb, in Berkshire, had occasion for his testimony,
after the King's Restoration, to secure a consider-
able interest of his, then in question, which was
readily, and, I believe, effectually obtained. That
gentleman desiring the renewal of a lease belong-
ing to one Mr. Chappel, as Prebendary of Sarum,
was refused, mainly because he was represented
to be a fanatic. Hereupon Dr. Owen, who in
the self-same affair had been very active and ser-
viceable to Mr. Pocock, writes to him, desiring,
" That, if he remembered who the man in former
" time hath appeared for, and manifested a respect
" unto worth, learning, and the Ministry, he
••' would be pleased to make it a ground of inter-
i{ ceding with Mr. Chappel, by his letter, that he

<s naay

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 179

" may obtain that lawful favour in the renewal of
" his lease, which an honest man may justly ex-
" pect." Mr. Pocock was, doubtless, glad of this
opportunity, to discharge a debt of gratitude to
Mr. Strowde, and Dr. Owen, at the same time;
and, therefore, wrote immediately to Mr. Chap-
pel, though then altogether a stranger to him, ex-
cusing the liberty he took, on the score of grati-
tude, which obliged him, at the desire of friends,
to attest what he knew concerning Mr. Strowde, a
suitor to him for the renewal of a lease : " It
seems, adds he, he is represented to you as a
fanatic. I am a greater stranger to him, than
" to be much acquainted with his opinions. Only
" thus much : when I was vehemently persecuted
" by fanatics, in the time of their power, and
" their chief accusations being my conformity to
" the Church of England, I found him a friend
" against them, and one who joined, with others,
" under his hand and seal to acquit me out of that
" Court ; so that they could not have their will
" against me. Out of which respect, I could not
" but in gratitude acknowledge the favour then
done me, and my desire of doing him any good
" office. If at your hands he may find that favour
" of being received as your tenant, I shall be
*' very glad, and think myself partaker of your
*' courtesy, &c." We have reason to believe,
that this interposition had the effect desired, and

N 2 this

1$0 THE LIFE OP

this event may serve as an useful admonition, at all
times to men in power, still to temper their zeal
for the ruling interest, with equity anil benevo-
lence towards men of worth and modesty, \\hose
hap it is to differ from them in religion and poli-
tics, remembering, that every exercise of so com-
mendable a moderation, may lay up in store for
them signal good offices, against the time when
an unexpected vicissitude shall lay them at the
mercy of those they have obliged.

I must now return back again to the year 16JO,
to pick up some things that occurred between
that time and the troubles above related, and
which were designedly postponed, that those re-
markable events might neither interrupt, nor re-

O *• '

ceive interruption from, the orderly course of the

history in hand.

«/

The only remarkable thing in this year, hi-
therto untouched, is, that towards the latter end
of it, Mr. Pocock bes;an his design of translating

' O O O

Maimonides's Port a Mosis ; of winch more here-
after. The year following, Mr. Abraham Whee-
lock, Arabic Professor at Cambridge, was pre-
paring his edition of the Persic Gospels, being
the first of the kind, with a Latin Translation and
Notes ; for the perfecting of which Mr. Pocock
lent him a manuscript copy so good, that Mr,
Wheelock, in a letter to him, professes, that had
it not been for his fear of oppressing his Ama-
nuensis,

'DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 18 i

tluensis, he would, upon sight thereof, have be-
<jun his work as;ain. On this occasion, Mr.

O C* '

Wheejock relates something very surprising. His
Amanuensis's name was Austin, a Fellow of
King's -College, in Cambridge. " This young
" man," says he, " in the space of two months
" time, not knowing a letter in Arabic, or Persick,
<c at the beginning, sent a letter to me in Norfolk
" of peculiar passages. So that, of his age, I
" never met with the like ; and his indefatigable
" pains, and honesty, or ingenuity, exceed, if pos-
" sible, his capacity." But much happier had it
been for himself and the world, if this extraordi-
nary person had gone on more leisurely in his
Oriental studies. For his excessive application
to them, ended in distraction and death, ann.
1654, just as he was designed to go on with the
impression of Mr. Wheelock's Persic Gospels, who
lived only to see it carried on to the 6th or 7th
verse of the xviiith chap, of St. Matthew.

In the following year, 1652, Mr. Selden, in a
letter, April 14, mentions to Mr. Pocock, that
he had written to Dr. Langbaine, touching a pre-
parative for an edition Arabico- Latin of Euty*
chius AlexandrinuS) as a thing that would be ac-
ceptable to that part of the world, which cares
for books ; adding, that whatever was necessary
to it, he would readily defray, " I beseech you,"
continues he, " advise with him about it, and

" give

182 THE LITE OF

' give us your direction and assistance." Mr.
Selden went no further at this time ; but the 1 1th
of the next month, broke the design wholly to
him, begging him, that lie would translate Euty-
chius, and promising him, upon his credit, that
it should be advantageous to him in some other
way, as that the time would not be mispent. Mr,
Selden very much feared that Mr. Pocock, for
want of time, and perhaps for other reasons,
would appear disinclined to the work, and seems
overjoyed at the receipt of his letter, the 18th of
the same month, wherein he promised a com-
pliance. But of this also, more shall be said in
due time. This year was further famous, in the
history of learning, for the first appearance of a
design which did infinite honour to our Church
and nation, as well as service to letters and reli-
gion in general; I mean the edition of the Poly-
glott Bible. A work wherein, from the beginning,
scarce a step was taken till communicated to Mr.
Pocock, and without whose assistance it must
have wanted much of that perfection which gives
it a just preference to every other work of that
kind. But intending a particular account of this
noble work, when we arrive at the era of its pub-
lication, I shall speak no more of it at present
But fruitful as this year was in giving birth to
learned designs, and in employing learned heads,
it proved fatal to a most excellent scholar, and

exemplary

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 1§3

exemplary Christian, Mr. John Greaves, Mr.
Pocock's most intimate and generous friend.
Some time in August, he and Dr. Langbaine made
a journey to Cambridge, by way of London ;
which, perhaps, was the last interview between
him and Mr. Greaves. For in October follow-
ing, he died in London. And no sooner was
Mr. Pocock returned home, but himself was
seized with a fit of sickness, which, if it did not
owe its rise to the loss of his friend, was proba-
bly much increased thereby.

Nothing else, except his troubles before the*
Committee already spoken of, happened worthy
of notice, either to Mr. Pocock, or his friends, till
the latter end of November 1654, when the
learned Mr. Selden departed this life. Of which
event, Dr. Langbaine gave him notice, from Lon-
don, in the following letter, dated London, De-
cember 2, 1054.

" SIR,

" I came here only time enough to see and
" speak with our good friend Mr. Selden, who

died on Thursday night, about eight o'clock.

He^told me on Wednesday (then very weak) in

the hearing of one of his executors, Mr. Hey-
" wood, how he had disposed of his impression
<c of Eutychius, to you and myself, (and so he did
*' by a codicil made to his will, in June, 1653,)

" I mentioned

€(

((

ft

it

THE LIFE OF

<: I mentioned to him, that he had often spoken
" of intended notes; and upon that lie i^ave order
" that all letters or notes concerning that author

o

" should be delivered to us. All other papers of his
" o\vn hand he had before peremptorily commanded
" to be burned. Yesterday I had the sight of so
<c much of his will, as concerns the University. He
has (riven to our public library all his manuscripts
of the Oriental tongues, and Greek (not other-
" wise particularly disposed of) and all his Rab-
" biuicai and Talmudical books, which are not
" there already, or not of the same editions.
" These to be taken out of his library by you and
" myself. Ite?n, all his marbles, statues, heads,
" and Greek pieces, to be conveyed to Oxford,
" at the charge of his executors, and there placed
" on the walls of the library. The executors are
" Justice Hales, Mr. Vaughan, Mr. Heywood,
" and Mr. Jeux ; who desire that you would
" speedily repair hither to view and select what
" belongs to the University before his library
" be otherwise meddled with. And to that pur-
" pose I have written to the Vice-chancellor and
" Mr. Barlow, to send up the most perfect ca-
" talogue of the public library, for our direction,
" and the executors satisfaction. To their dis-
" cretion he hath left all the remainder of his
" books, not otherwise particularly bequeathed,
" either to be divided among themselves, or to be

" sent

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 185

** sent to the University, or some College or Col-
" leges, as they shall think fit. In the same
" box, with his will, he hath left a short paper
" of inscription for his monument. He is to be
" buried in the Temple ; but when I cannot
"tell, &c."

I should have observed, that some time in the
year 1654, the famous Golius, Arabic Professor
of Leyden, published his long expected Arabic
Lexicon. He had been twice sent into the East
for his greater improvement in that language, and,
perhaps, was the only person of that age who
equalled Mr. Pocock in that part of learning.
Golius himself confessed, that Mr. Pocock had,
in this respect, no superior; as appears by his
presenting him with a copy of his Lexicon, thus
inscribed: Virtute atque Doctrina eximio ac pr<£-
claro Viro, Dno. Edv. Pocock^ Literatures Orien-
tails Peritia, nulli secundo. In return for which,
Mr. Pocock sent him a just eulogium on his per-
formance, and a present of his Specimen Hist.
Arab, for which, on the 1st of October, he re-
ceived Golius's thanks and commendations to a
high degree, which probably came to his hand
much about the time that his sufficiency was cal-
led in question, before the Berkshire Committee.
And sure there was something odd and whimsi-
cal in the circumstances and situation of the

186 Tin: LIFE OF

good man, to be one day caressed by the greatest
scholars in Europe, and set up an oracle for re-
solving difficulties in the abstrusest parts of learn-
ing, and the next, perhaps, convened to answer
the Articles exhibited against him, by his illiterate
parishioners of Childry, for ignorance and insuf-
ficiency.

His troubles, from this sort of rnen, being at
length sot over, he returned again to his studies,

cj O ' O '

and in the same year, 1655, he published his
Porta Mosis, being six prefatory discourses of
Moses Maimonides, which in the original were
Arabic, but according to the general usage of the
Jews, who have written in that language, expres-
sed in Hebrew characters, together with his own

' O

Latin translation of them, and a very large Ap-
pendix of Miscellaneous Notes. It was printed
at Oxford, and as his Specimen Historian Ara-
bum, and a small piece of his friend, Mr. John
Greaves, were the two first pieces that came from
the Arabic press of that place ; so this Porta
Mom was the first fruits of the Hebrew press
there, the letters of it having been, on the request
of Dr. Langbaine, founded at the charge of the
University, upon the assurance he gave, that
something of Mr. Pocock's should be speedily
printed with them. Maimonides was a person
of vast reputation for learning, not only amongst
his own people, but the Mahometans too ; and,

indeed,

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 1ST

indeed, by the best judges, is held to be one,
who, of all the writers of that sort, is least guilty
of trifling : wherefore Mr. Pocock could not but
think the publishing these tracts (wherein an ac-
count is given, in a very clear method, of the
history and nature of the Talmud, and the Jewish
faith and discipline) would bs very acceptable
to learned men ; especially, considering that they
had never yet been printed in the original Arabic,
but only in a Hebrew translation of them, made
from imperfect copies ; whereas the manuscripts
he now made use of, were very good, and some
of them, as he imagined, the very originals, writ-
ten by the author's own hand. But besides the
usefulness of these tracts, considered in tben>
selves, he was encouraged to the publication of
them in the manner before-mentioned, on another
view; namely; that according to his duty as a
Professor, he might promote the advantage of
those who should addict themselves to the study
of Arabic and Rabbinical learning. For there
being many Jewish manuscripts of good account^
written thus in the Arab tongue, but with He-

O '

brew letters ; he was willing to assist them with

? o

this specimen of that way of writing, M'hich, as
he declares in the preface, contained much more
of the kind than had ever yet been printed.

But of what account soever these tracts of
Moses Maimonides are, the Miscellaneous Notes

which

/S3 THE LIFE OF

which Mr. Pocock added to them, as they ex-
ceed them in length, so doubtless they do also in
usefulness. In which his chief design is to shew,
by m;my instances, ho\v much the knowledge of
Arabic, and Rabbinical learning will contribute
towards the finding out the genuine sense of
many difficult places of Holy Scripture. In the
four first chapters of these notes, he largely con-
siders and explains several texts of the New-
Testament, which, being cited from the Old, for
the most part, according to the version of the
Septuagint*, seem to be very different from the
original Hebrew. And as he gives very learned
accounts of the true meaning of them, so he
proves, that there is no sufficient reason to con-
clude from those seeming differences, that the
ancient Hebrew copies, made use of by the Se-
venty Interpreters, had, as some learned men
have thought, other readings in those places than
what are still extant. The design of the Sth
chapter is to prove, from the custom among the-
Jews of whitening the graves of their dead, to
prevent being polluted by them, that the sepul-
chres appearing beautiful, to which our Blessed
Saviour compares the Scribes and Pharisees,

* Viz. Heb. viii. t). from Jcr. xxxi. 32. Rom. ix. 33. and x.
11. and 1 Pet. ii. 6. from Isa. xxviii. 16. Matt. ii. 6. from
Mich. v. 2. Acts xiii. 41. from Hab. i, va Heb, x« 38. from
Hab. ii. 4, &c.

Matt.

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 189

Matt, xxiii. 27, are the same with the graves that
appear not, to which they are also likened by
him, Luke xi. 44. So giving a clear sense of
those two places of Scripture, which to those
who do not consider that custom, are hard to be
understood. In the 6th chapter, which is very
long, he gives a large account of the several opi-
nions of the Jews concerning the resurrection of
the dead ; and being moved thereto by the re-
semblance he had observed between these opi-
nions, and those of the followers of Mahomet,
in the next chapter he recites from the most
learned writers of that sect, the sentiments of
those people about the same matter. In the 8th
chapter, he shews the reason why the modern
Jews, who commonly so superstitiously adhere to
the doctrines of their forefathers, do yet differ

V

from them in their exposition of the second Psalm,
which was generally understood, by their ancient
writers, to be a prophecy concerning the Messiah ;
namely, that by these means they might be the
better able to answer the arguments of Christians.
Upon this occasion, by the help of two manu-
script copies of the Commentaries of Kimchi on
the latter Prophets, he restores several passages
relating to the Christians, which, in the printed
copies of that work, are now left out. And af-
terwards he vindicates that prophecy concerning
the Messiah, at Jer. xxxi. 22. which Calvin, in
1 his

190 THE LITE OF

his explication of it, so readily gave up to the
adversaries of Christianity. Finally, his business
in the ninth and last chapter is, to give an account,
from the Jewish writers, of those traditions of
their elders concerning washings and vows, for

r> o '

which our Saviour, Mark vii. 11, reproved the
Scribes and Pharisees ; whereby he brings a great
deal of light to several obscure passages of Holy
Scripture. v

The excellent learning and usefulness of this

o

performance drew upon Mr. Pocock from all
quarters, great and just commendations. From
abroad, Matthias Pasor, a professor at Gronin-
gen, and his first Arabic master at Oxford, ex-
pressed his thanks, and the great pleasure he had
in reading his learned attempts to reconcile the
Septuagint Version, which is confirmed by the
Apostle, to the Hebrew Text. Alting, another
professor, of the same University, having received
Mr. Poeock's book, as a present from Dr. Rey-
nolds, with whom he formerly lived in England,
acknowledges, in a letter to the author himself,
with whom he oft corresponded, the exquisite
learning of this work. At home, his old friend,

o

the very learned Mr. Thomas Greaves, expresses
himself to be so (It-lighted with his book and

o

learned notes, that he knew not how to be thank-
ful enough. Sir Kenelme Digby also, to whom
a copy had been presented by the author's direc-
tion,

61

te

DR. EDWARD POCOCKr 19 1

tion, writes thus to him. " It joyeth me much
to see, that one of our nation, in these unquiet
times (which condition is the greatest enemy to

" learning) hath given a piece to the world, that

" may be the envy of the learnedest ages fol-

" lowing."

o

I have only to add farther concerning this book,
that the index to the text of Maimonides was
compiled by Mr. Henry Chapman, who, in a let*
ter to Mr. Pocock, dated Jan. 3, 1653, offered
to do the same for the miscellaneous notes, and
probably his offer was accepted. I am sorry that
it is not in my power to acquaint the world with
any thing more concerning this learned gentleman,
than that his letter was dated from Battersey.

Early this year, 1655, Mr. Pocock laboured
under a severe disease at Child ry, as we learn
from two letters of Dr. Langbaine's to him, the
one dated in January, the other in March ; and
of whatever kind it was, it seems to have conti-
nued upon him more or less, till the middle of the
summer following ; after which Dr. Walton writes
to him, expressing his joy for the recovery of his
health.

The year following, i. e* 1656, affords but little
material relating to our subject, except it be, that
then Mr. Pocock entertained some thoughts of
publishing Rabbi Tanchum's Expositions on the
Old Testament. He was, as our author himself

informs

THE LIFE OF

informs us, in the Preface to the Commentary on
Micah, an Ilierosolymitan Jew. " He wrote
" notes/' continues he, " in the Arabic Ian-
" guage, on the whole Old Testament, (as him-
" self declares) though I have not had the happi-
il ness to see them on divers of the books thereof.
" On the Prophets (all but Isaiah) I have. When
" he lived, I know not; only it appears that he
" was after the time of Moses Maimonidcs,
" whom he often cites, and follows in many
" things." What hindered the execution of this
design, we cannot say; but, most probably, it
was the want of due encouragement. It must be
confessed, that at this time there were two very
great works going forward, that of the English
Polyglott, already mentioned, and Bee's edition
of the Critici Sacri ; so that there was less reason
to expect the assistance which so great a work
would require. The learned Mr. Boncle, then
fellow of Eaton College, though deeply engaged
in a great variety of business, generously offered
to correct two books after the press, desiring that
Leviticus might be one of them* He further pro-
posed to get some bookseller in London to under*
take the printing of Rabbi Tanchurn, though he
then apprehended, that the two works above-
mentioned, neither of them as then finished,
would prove an obstruction to his wishes. The
miscarriage of this design, to whatever cause it

was

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 193

was owing, was no small damage to sacred litera-
ture. For, if we may guess by the noble use our
author made of Rabbi Tanchum's Commentaries,
their publication might have been attended with
advantages equal, or rather superior to what have
been received from any other Rabbinical writings.
Besides, for ought that appears, Mr. Pocock was
the only person in Europe that possessed any
MSS. of Rabbi Tanchum. The learned Jews
were surprized to hear of this, and many other
fine things of like kind in the hands of Mr. Po-

o

cock, which were otherwise utterly unknown to
them ; as Manasseh Ben Israel himself professed
to Mr. Boncle. But notwithstanding all this, nei-
ther then, nor at any time after, had he an oppor-
tunity of communicating these Oriental treasures
to the learned world ; but they lie in the archives
of the Bodleian library, till better times shall pro-
duce a patron that will give them light and liberty.

And now we are arrived at the year 1657, in
which the English Polyglott edition of the Bible
was sent into the world : a work it was of such
immense cost and labour, as would have deterred
most men from undertaking it, in the quietest
times, and under the most prosperous circum-
stances. But, to the immortal honour of our Eng-
lish Church and Nation, it was carried on and
perfected at a season when sober religion and sound
learning were discouraged and depressed by the

VOL. i. O greatest

THE LIFE 01

greatest enemy to both, n rainpimt enthusiasm.
Tiie loyal and episcopal Clergy being all dispos-
sessed of their preferments, or, at least, having
lost the most profitable of them, eould only con-
tribute to this work by their credit, their pains
and erudition; all which were employed therein,
to a degree that almost exceeds belief.

When such a design was carrying on, in which
Oriental learning was to make its utmost efforts,

V.U

one might naturally suppose, that the undertaker
would crave the assistance of Mr. Pocock, who,
besides his superior knowledge in the eastern lan-
guages, was able to supply valuable MSS. relating
to most of the Oriental Versions of the Bible.
But our author, ever attentive to the interests of
religion and learning, prevented all application :
for he no sooner heard that such a design was on
foot, but he offered his advice upon it, by Dr.
Ashwel to Dr. Brian Walton*, who was the first

promoter,

* This most worthv person, Brian \Valton, was born in
Cleivi'land, Yorkshire, A. D. 1(>()0, \vas matriculated in the
University of Cambridge, July 4, K)l5, bring then a Sizar
of Magdalen College : But removed from thence to ret er
House, where he was admitted a Sizar, Dec. 4, 1018, under
Mr. Blake : and in that College he commenced Bachelor of
Arts, An. l6l«), Master of Arts, An. l6'23, and Doctur of
Divinity, An. 1(>.'39. lie was Prebendary of St. Paul's, but
dispossessed of that, and all his other preferments, for his
loyalty and orthodoxy. Ai the Restoration, he was made

Bfsh'op

DR. EDVVARt) £OCOCK.

promoter, the chief compiler, and the sole editor
of the Polyglott Bible. From that time Dr.
Walton and Mr. Thorndike *, his second in the

work,

Bishop of Chester ; but did not long enjoy that advance-
ment; his excessive labours having probably hastened his
end; for he died in Aldersgate-street, in the year 1 66 1,
Nov. '2$, and on the 5th of the following month was, with
great honours and solemnity, buried in the Cathedral of St.
Paul's, opposite to the Lord Hat ton's monument. The Bi-
shop of London performed the funeral service, and his
corpse was attended by the Earls of Derby and Bndgwater,
besides several more of the nobility, as also by the greatest
number of the Bishops in their rochets, and by the Deans
and Prebendaries of many Cathedral Churches, together
with a multitude of learned Clergymen, from Sadler's-hall to
the place of interment.

Besides compiling the Polyglott Bible, and writing large
and very learned Prolegomena to it, he published a Defence
of it against Dr. Owen, and another excellent Latin Treatise
introductory to the reading of thcOriental tongues.

He was also very well skilled in the common law of th«
realm, especially so far as it relates to the patrimonies and
liberties of the Church : this eminently appears from a little
book written in defence of the tythes within the City of
London, according to the proportion of two shillings and
nine-pence the pound rent.

* Mr. Herbert Thorndike, by some expressions in his
will, is conceived to have been a native of Scamblesby, in
the county of Lincoln : he was admitted of Trinity College,
in Cambridge, and as member of that Society, matriculated
Dec. 18, 1613, where he took his Bachelor's degree, An.
J6l6, and became Master of Arts in 1620; he was made
junior Fellow of that College i6lS, middle Fellow, An.

« 2 1620,

196 THL LIFE OF

work, maintained a frequent correspondence with
Mr. Pooock, giving him a punctual account how

lO'SO, and senior Fellow in the yoarlO'39; he was consti-
tuted likewise one of the University preachers in Ifi3l: he
underwent the common fate of those clergy who adhered to
the King and the Church in the long rebellion, being de-
prived of all his preferments. At the Restoration, he reco-
vered his Fellowship and Prebend of Westminster, between
\vhich two he spent the remainder of his time in retirement,
devotion and study, and dying in good old age, July 13,
l6?-» at Westminster, was buried, by his own order, in the
way from his lodgings to the Church, without any solemnity,
save of the ordinary service. He ordered these words to be
put upon his grave.stone.

Ilic jacet Corpus Herbert! Thorndike, Praebendarii hujus

Ecclesiae, qui vivus veram Reformats Ecclesiae Ratio-

nem ac Modum Precibusque Studiisque prosequebatur.

Tu, Lector, Requiem ei et beatam in Christo Resur-

rectionem precare.

In the year 1663, a mandate, the original whereof is yet
extant in the archives of the University of Cambridge,
dated April 14, l6(>3, was sent down to that University, to
confer the degree of Doctor of Divinity on him, and Barn.
Oley, A. M. which honour, though freely offered, they both
declined: But it was more for the honour of Mr. Thorn-
dike, that April 15, ]66'3, a grace past the House to this
effect.

Cum Herbcrtus Thorndike, S. Trin. Coll. Socius, ct
Westmonast. Ecclesiae Prsebendarius, ad nullos in S. Thcol.
Gradus de Industria hactenus aspiraverit, ne Vicemagistri
vcl Decani superioris onus, in praedicto Collegio, subire per
Leges neccsse haberet : Placrat vobis ut annum jam quintum
supra sexagcsimum agens, Missionem impetret, et conccssa
in posterum ah omni munere Academico vacatione (in quan-
tum per Statuta fieri possit) quasi Rude donatus, Locum in-
ter Doctorts in Exedris iiovissinmtn obtineat.

it

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 1Q7

it proceeded, asking his advice in almost every
step they took, and desiring all proper assistance
from him. By means of these letters, most of
which are still extant, we are happily able to in-
form the world of some particulars relating to
that most noble edition of the Bible, which might
otherwise be lost, or forgotten. For which rea-
son, and also on account of the share our author
had in the work, I shall here lay together such
notices concerning it, and the learned promoters
of it, as have fallen in my way, heartily wishing
I could have gratified myself and the reader with
more particulars about an affair which made the
Clergy and Church of England appear glorious
under their greatest distress.

Dr. Brian Walton, having in the long rebellion
lost all his preferments for his adherence to mo-
narchy and episcopacy, had for some years spent
part of his time in collecting and adjusting proper
materials for a Polyglott Bible. And after com-
municating his intentions to, and taking the ad-
vice of most of the English bishops then living,
in the year 1652, having already obtained private
subscriptions to the value of near 4000 pounds,
he published printed proposals, with a letter arj-
nexed to them, both which are here subjoined.
" Worthy Sir,

" It cannot be unknown to you what great
" benefit the Church of God hath reaped by the

u care

193 1IJL LIFE OF

t

care of learned men in publishing the Holy
Scriptures according to the best copies in the
u original, and other learned tongues, with the
" most ancient and approved translations, which
" have been of great authority and use. And
" although among others, thos • iamous editions
of the Complutense, Antwerp., and the late
tf Paris Bibles be justly had in high esteem and
" veneration ; yet, without any derogation from
the just praise of the publishers, it may be
truly said, that much may be added to make
" the editions more compleat and useful by the
diligence of others, and yet the price very much
" lessened, whereby they may become more com-
" nion, and fit for private libraries. To this end,
" there is a description of a more perfect edition
" than anv hitherto extant (as we conceive) drawn

*/ • \ • \ /

" up with a specimen thereof, which, as it hath
" been approved by the most judicious and learned
" men ol this Church, so, in regard the charge

™ ^J *-5

will exceed the ability of a private purse, it
" hath been thought fit to desire the assistance of
" such noble and public-spirited persons as are
" able to advance monies towards the printing,

who may receive copies according to the sums
" by them expended. Wherein, as diverse per-
" sons of worth have already subscribed and pro-
" mised considerable sums, amounting to above
°; half the charge ; so it is hoped, that others, to

" whom

DU. EDWARD POCOCK. 199

" whom it shall be offered, will be ready, both

" by their own examples, according to their abi-

" lities, and by stirring up such well-affected

" persons as they are acquainted with, to further

" a work so much tending to the glory of God,

" the public good of religion and learning, and

" the honour of our nation. To this purpose

" also propositions, which with the said descrip-

" tion, and a form of subscription, are herewith

" sent you ; to which you are desired, out of

" your zeal to the public good, to procure what

|C subscriptions you can. The form you see is

" conditional, and ties no man to the payment of

" any thing, till the full sum be subscribed, and

" care shall be taken to secure the copies to the

" subscribers in such a way, as, by the advice of

" counsel on the behalf of the subscribers, shall

" be thought reasonable and just. There are

" clivers employed to this end in divers parts of

" the land, and so hopeful a progress is made,

" that we doubt not within a few months but that

" there will be good encouragement to go on, and

" to prepare for the work ; for we cannot believe

11 anv gentleman will be backward to advance so

«/ '- —•'

" noble a work, considering that all shall be put

" in the hands of a person of known worth and

" integrity, and shall be paid by the subscribers

" only by degrees as the work goes on, and that

" they shall receive copies of a greater value

" than
4

<c

a

200 THE LITE OF

*' than what is laid out. It is desired, that the
" several subscriptions may be returned by the
" First of April next, if it may be, or otherwise
as soon as conveniently, to Dr. Walton, at Dr.
William Fuller's house, in St. Giles, Cripple-
gate, church-yard; to whom you may likewise
fc direct your letters, if there shall be any other
" occasion to send to us : we need not say to
" those tvho aim at the public good, that the work
" will recompence the pains of all that shall
" promote it ; of which, yet, we are very confi-
(i dent. Thus, hoping you will use your best
" endeavours to advance so pious a design, and
" that the author of those sacred volumes will
" bless your pains and ours with answerable suc-
" cess, we commit you to his keeping, and
" rest

" Your assured friends,

J. ARMACHANUS, BRIAN WALTON,
W. FULLER, A. WHELOCKE,

BRUNE RYVES, H. THORNDIKE.

London, this first of
March, 1652.

" To our worthy friend, Mr. John Carter, mi-
" nister of God's Word in Norwich, by him to
" be communicated to Air. Lovering and Mr.

" Sherman.

" Propositions concerning the printing of the

" Bible,

2

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 201

" Bible, in the original, and other learned Ian-
u guages.

" Whereas the former editions, though less
<c perfect, and not so fit for use, have been printed
" at the public charge of princes and great per-
" sons ; and the charge of this work will exceed
" the ability of an ordinary person ; whereupon
" divers persons of worth have expressed their
" readiness to join in the charge of the impres-
" sion : and it is hoped, that others, who wish
*' well to learning and religion, will assist in a
" work so much tending to the public good, and
" honour of the Church of England and of the
" nation, and so free from interests of all parties ;
" especially considering, that as the edition will
" be much better than any formerly made, so the
" price will be much less.

" Therefore, for the securing of all such as
" shall promote so good a work, either by free
" gift, or advancing of monies to be repaid by co-
" pies ; and for the encouraging of such as shall
" solicit and stir up others to contribute, thes$
" propositions are offered, which shall, God wil-

" ling, be performed.

I
1. " That whatsoever monies shall be raised^

" shall be paid into the hands of William Hum-
" ble, Esq. treasurer, for this purpose, who will
" be accountable for the monies received, and
" will give receipts to every one, that shall pay in

" any

202 THE LIFE OK

u
«

any money, whereby they may be assured, that
the same shall be employed no otherwise, than
" for the use intended, and not issued out, but by
" warrant of persons mentioned. The like as-
" surance shall be given under the hand of the
" publisher, and upon security of the impression,
" which shall be put into the hands of some per-
" sons interested, residing in London, for receiv-
" ing copies proportionable to the sums so paid>
" as soon as the work shall be finished, or other-
" wise, as the several volumes shall be printed.

2. " The treasurer shall not issue any monies,
" but by warrant under the hands of the Lord
" Prirpate of Armagh, Dr. William Fuller, Dr.
" Brune Ryves, Dr. Samuel Baker, Mr. Richard
" Drake, B. D. or two of them, whereof the Lord
" Primate or Dr. Fuller, to be one, and shall give
" account every six months to four persons ap-
" pointed by those that advance, to receive the
" accounts of all monies received or issued out,
" which shall be showed to all persons interested,
" who shall desire the same.

3. " Those that by free gift, or otherwise, shall
" in any considerable manner further the work,
a besides copies to be given them, shall be ac-
a knowlcdged as patrons or promoters of so
" noble a work.

4. " Those that shall collect and raise any sum
il by the free contribution of persons well af-
fected,

(I

(f

DR. fcDWARD POCOCK. 203

" fected, shall, for every 1 01. have one copy ; and
" if any lesser sum of 40s. or upwards, be so
raised by any at present, if the said sum be
made up 101. by equal payments in four six
months next following, he shall have one per-
" feet copy, and so according to that proportion,
" for any greater sum.

5. " Those that shall advance any sum out of
their own estate, shall, for every 101. have one
" copy, and for 501. six copies, and so for any
" any greater sum ; and the money so advanced
" shall, for the ease and security of the advancer,
" be paid thus : only a fifth part in hand, and the
" rest in four six months, and at every six months
" payment, account shall be given of the monies
formerly paid, and of the progress of the work,
and then they may also receive such volumes,
<4 as shall be finished, according to the number of
" copies due to them, if they please, they paying
" another fifth part towards the printing of the
" next volume.

fj. " The persons to be employed in preparing
" of copies, correcting the press, overseeing the
" managing of the work, &c. — till all be finished,
*• shall be Dr. Stokes, Mr. Whelocke, Mr. Thorn-
" dike, Mr. Edward Pocock, Mr. Greaves, Mr.
Vicars, Mr. Thomas Smith, together with Dr.

' ' O

Walton, and some other to assist in prosecution
of business, £c. And if any of them shall

happen

t(

It

(t
It

it

C04 THE LIFE OF

" happen to die, or be otherwise hindered, some
" other shall be nominated with approbation of
" the rest, for carrying on the work, wherein the
" advice of the Lord Primate, Mr. Selden, Dr.
" Sheldon, Dr. Saunderson, Dr. Sterne, Dr.
" Hammond, and other learned men, who have
11 approved the work, shall be desired, &c.

7. " The work shall not be begun, till there be
" enough paid in to finish the first volume, viz.
" the Pentateuch, viz. about 15001. ; nor the
fc' other volumes, till a proportionable sum for
" each be brought in, viz. about 12001.

8, " It is desired, that the first payment of
" monies to be advanced, may be at or before

the 1st of February, 1652, and if it shall ap-
pear, that there is enough to print the first vo-
C£ lume, viz. the Pentateuch, the work shall be
" begun, as soon as things needful shall be pre-
" pared, which is hoped will be within three
" months then next following, and within three
" years after it is hoped the whole work will be
perfected (two presses being kept at work).
5). " Whatever shall be further reasonably de-
vised or propounded for the better managing
and carrying on of the work, and securing of all
persons interested, shall be willingly assented
to.

Printed by R, Norton, for Timothy Garth-

wavt,

V *

«C

<c

(I

(t

It

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. £05

wayt, Stationer, at the lesser North Gate
of St. Paul's Church, London. 1652.
Mr. Pocock had heard something of this noble
undertaking early in this year, and probably had
written to Mr. Selden for information about the
nature of it, and the hands that would be em-
ployed in it: whether he then offered his assist-
ance, if need were, I cannot certainly learn, but
think it not improbable that he did : for in a letter
from Mr. Selden to our author, which bears date
in February 1651-2, he writes thus : "It seems not
" yet, that there is any such naming of men for
" that employment; divers are, in discourse,
41 talked of; and there be, I doubt, but a few
" fit: how to have it proceed \vithout you, I
" know not ; but I know too, that it must be
" a great diversion to your excellent studies,
" and a turning them to an illiberal attendance.
" Whatsoever you wish in it, I shall, as far as I
" have opportunity, second." Mr. Selden seems
to have apprehended, that the Editor of this great
work would call for Mr. Pocock's help in correct-
ing the Arabic, as it came from the press : nor
was he mistaken. For on the 28th of the follow-
ing July, Dr. Walton writes to him, desiring to
know, " whether his occasions would permit him
" to assist, if the impression went on, either by
" correcting ihe Arabic, the proofs being weekly

" transmitted,

THE LITE OF

" transmitted, or by comparing of copies or other-
" wise." But Mr. Pocock had too much work
upon his hands to undertake the correction of the
Arabic from the press. He had, at Mr. Selden's
most earnest solicitation, already begun to trans-
late the Arabic Annals of Eutychius into Latin.
Besides which, he was busy with Maimomdcss
Porta JMosis, and consequently had but little
time to spare for a new and laborious employment.
He consented, however, to collate the Arabic
Pentateuch, with two copies of Saadias's Trans-
lation, the one a manuscript, the other printed in
the Constantinopolitan bibles, noting the diffe-
rences of each. And he also drew up a preface
concerning the Arabic versions of that part of the
bible, and the reason of the various readings in
them ; which preface, together with the various
reading themselves, are published in the appendix
to the Polyglott bible.

It seems, from Dr. Walton's letter above-men-
tioned, that Mr. Pocock's advice related to every
part of this design, not excepting the apparatus or
prolegomena, and the appendix, all which consi-
derations the Doctor assures him he had weighed

i

and should, to his power, follow. The particular
directions are but few of them come to our know-
ledge : I find, however, that he had informed Dr.
Walton about one very necessary point, viz. the
antiquity and authority of the Arabic Version, as it

stands

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 207

stands in Michael de Jay's Heptaglott, or Paris
edition of the bible in seven languages, " He
" conceived," as he tells Mr. Pocock, " that the
" editor of this work had followed that Arabic
" Version, which the French ambassador brought
c< out of the East, which Scionita and Esronita
" were then translating into Latin, and which
" Erpenius says, is eltgans et antiqua ; but Mr.
" Pocock convinced him, that the Arabic, in Jay's
" edition, was no other than the version of
" Saadias, which ia printed in the Constantinopo-
" litan Bible."

The Doctor desired further, to know what co-
pies, or ancient manuscripts of Oriental Versions,
were in the public library at Oxford, or in Mr.
Pocock's own private collection : what the former
produced, I know not; but from the latter came
a very good supply : as first, the Gospels in Per-
sian, which had never before been printed, were
now published wholly from a copy that was sent
in by him, being a manuscript above 300 years
old, of a translation made from the Syriack, and
one therefore preferred to Mr. Wheylocke's, which
was of later date, and only a Version from the
Greek: of this, that learned gentleman was so
sensible, while he was preparing his edition of the
Persian Gospels, that, upon the lent of Mr. Po-
cock's copy, he declared in a letter to him, that
hud it not been for his fear of his oppressing his

amanuensis,

208 THE LI IE OF

amuensis, he would, upon sight thereof, have
begun his work again.

lldly, His Syriac manuscript of the whole Old
Testament, and two other manuscripts of the
Psalms in the same language ; the supply of this
was the most seasonable, because one of Primate
Usher's Syriac copies of the Pentateuch was in the
hands of Dr. Boote, then in France ; who, soon
after the beginning of this work, died there : so
that if ever this manuscript was recovered, it came
too late for the service of the Polyglott edition.
And though the Lord Primate's other copy is de-
clared by Mr. Thorndike to be more trusty than
Mr. Pocock's, yet he owns it was sometimes to
be helped thereby : and w'ith respect to that part
which corresponds with the second tome, Dr.
Walton professes, that they found his copy to be
more exactly written, than my Lord Primate's,
and therefore more useful.

3dly, An ^Ethiopic manuscript of the Psalter,
•which Dr. Walton pronounces to be so exactly
written, that they made it a rule whereby to cor-
rect the faults of the two printed copies.

But to return to Dr. Walton's first letter to our
author upon this subject. lie acquaints him,
that " the Council of State, before whom, some
" having relation to them, brought this business,
" hoping they would have borne the charge out
" of the public, have lately given their approba-

" tion

«

tl

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 200

tion and recommendation of the work, with
hopes of advancing 10001. to begin the work;
which, if they do," adds he, " I hope to get
the rest advanced by private hands, who will
" take satisfaction in copies." That the Council
of State advanced the sum here mentioned, or any
part thereof, I much question ; because I find no
more mention of it in Dr. Walton's letters, and
chiefly because not the least notice is taken by him
of any pecuniary gift, in his preface to the Poly-
glott Bible. It must, however, be confessed, to
the honour of that usurping government, that they
granted an exemption from duty to all the paper,
which was imported for the use of that edition.
This favour is owned by Dr. Walton, in the pre-
face afore-mentioned, where, among other benefac-
tors to the work, they are mentioned, Quorum Fa-
vore Chartam a Vectigalibus immunem habuimus.
But that this high piece of service to religion and
learning was the act of the grand Usurper, Crom*
well himself, I come to the knowledge of, through

o * o

the goodness of a ^ reverend and learned gentle-
man, who imparted to me a copy of Dr. Castle's
petition to the Protector for the like indulgence to
the publication of his Heptoglott Lexicon; the

* Mr. Baker, of St. John's College in Cambridge, who
likewise was pleased to impart to me the memoirs I have
given of the Cambridge writers, that were eminently con-
cerned in the Polyglott edition of the Bible.

VOL. i, P matter

210 THE J.IKE OF

matter of which petition, aflvr a preamble setting
forth the usefulness of that Lexicon, and in parti-
cular its subservience to the better undcr.standing
of the PolvHott Bible, is as follows.

»/ o

" May it please your Highness, for the countc-
€t nance and encouragement of your Petitioners,
" that they may the better be enabled to accom-
plish the undertaking, according to expectation,
to vouchsat€ them the like favour and privilege,
" that your Highness hath formerly granted to the
<( publishers of that famous work (viz. the Poly-
" glott Bible), and others, who were printing
" sonic Commentaries in relation thereunto (viz,
" Bee's Critici Majores) that your petitioners may
" have the import of five thousand reams of royal
" paper, excise and custom free."

Who or what induced Cromwell to shew so
much munificence, we know not, but surely the
act was good and laudable ; especially, consider-
ing that the design thus encouraged, was con-

O O ~ '

ducted by a set of Episcopal Divines, most of
\vhom were known enemies to his administration,
and the rest rather passive under the usurpation
than approvers of it. It may be too invidious to
inquire, how it comes to pass, that this commend-
able example has been so seldom followed by suc-
ceeding governments, that were legal, and in
other respects gracious. But great men in general
are very apt to forget, that their power extends no

farther
5

D&. EDWARD POCOCK,

farther than their own times, and that the sons of
art are the men, who must show them to posterity.
What, therefore, our Saviour said of charity to
Prophets, may, with proper alterations, be applied
to every encourager of learning. A patron of scho-
lars shall have a scholar's reward ; justice and
gratitude will oblige them to transmit to futurity,
such signal benefactions, with all due advantage,
though the authors of them were otherwise the
vilest of men.

Besides this favour from the Protector, large
private promises, and subscriptions of money,
were made early in this year, 1653, towards the
work. When the proposals were sent abroad,
viz. March 1, 1652-3, 40001. are affirmed to have
been subscribed, which sum was more than dou-
bled in about two months time : for in a letter
from Mr. Thomas Greaves, dated the 4th of May
following, he acquaints Mr. Pocock, " that Dr.
" Walton had assured him, that £0001. had then
" been promised, and that much more was likely
" to be added, and that he hoped, within three
" months to begin the printing thereof." But it
was the latter end of September, if not the begin-
ning of October, before the impression of the
first tome, containing the Pentateuch, was entered
upon : one reason of this delay was, that the Ara-
bic letters were not ready, and the Hebrew types
were mending; some defects having been observed

* £ therein

212 THE LTFt OK

therein by Mr. Pocock ; besides which, many ol
the subscribers failed the editor, neither advanc-
ing their first payment, nor one farthing alter-
wards ; and he was too circumspect to begin till
1500 pounds were paid in to defray the charges
of the first tome, according to the 7th article of
the proposals. After which, the undertakers pro-
ceeded chearfully with the work.

The first discouragement they met with was the
death of Mr. Abraham Wheelocke*, the first

professor

* Abraham \Yheelocke was born at Loppington, in Shrop-
shire, (of which county likewise was his patron and foun-
der, Sir Thomas Adams) and admitted of Trinity College^
in Cambridge : there he became Bachelor of Arts, 'Ah*
16 U ; Master of Arts, An. l6l8, and was admitted Fellow
of Clare Hall the year following j he was made one of the
University preachers, An. 1623, and commenced Bachelor
of Divinity in the year 1625 ; he was Minister of St. Sepul-
chre's Church, in Cambridge, from the year 1(522 to the year
1042.

About the same time, (viz. 1&22) he read the Arabic \ccr-
ture for Mr. (afterwards Sir Thomas) Adams, though it was
not then settled ; he receiving for the same forty pounds pej
annum, remitted to him by quarterly payments.

He read also the Saxon lecture for Sir Henry Spelman,
for which he received an annual stipend, not settled, bat
voluntary ; together with this, he gave Mr. Wheclocke th-e
Vicarage of Middleton, in Norfolk, worth fifty pounds per
annum, which was intended to be augmented out of the

O

appropriate parsonage, and to be the ground of his intended
^foundation, if Sir Henry's death, winch happened' Oct. 1,
, .bad not prevented it.

Multiplicity

DR. EDWARD POCOCK,

professor of the Arabic and Saxon tongues in the
University of Cambridge, which happened just
before the first tome was committed to the press ;
so that they had not the least use of him in that

*/

work; his province was, jointly with Mr. Castle *,

to

Multiplicity of business probably shortened this learned
man's days ; for he died at London whilst he was printing
his Persian gospels, in the month of September 1653. I
need only add, that after Sir Henry Spelman's death, his
son, and upon his death, his grandson continued to pay the
stipend of twenty pounds per annum for reading the Saxoa
lecture at Cambridge, so long as Mr. Wheelocke lived.

* Edmund Castle, or Castell, was born at East Hatley,
in the county of Cambridge, being a younger son of Robert
Castell, of East Hatley, Esq. He was matriculated a pen-
sioner (of Emmanuel College, Cambridge) July 5, 1621 ;
became Art. Bac. of the same College, 1624 ; Art. Mag.
1628 ; Theol. Bac. 1635, and S, T, P. by the Ring's LeU
ters, An. 1660.

According to Mr. Newcourt, he was Vicar of Hatfield,
Peverell, in Essex, which he resigned An. 1638, and Rector
of Wodeham-Walter, in the same county, which he also
resigned An. l6'70, and was made Prebendary of Canter-
bury, An. 1667, by the King, to whom, two years after, he
dedicated his great work, viz. Lexicon Heptaglotton, and
says of himself in his Epistle Dedicatory : Mihi vero jn,
Molendino hoc per tot annorum lustra indesinenter occu«
pato, dies ille tanquam festus et otiosus visus est, in quo tarn,
Bibliis Polyglottis, quam Lexicis hisce promovendis, sex*
decjm aut octodecim horas dietim non in-m-iavi. An ac-
count almost incredible, had it not come from a man of
great veracity, as well as modesty. He farther assures that

Prince,

THE LIFE Of

to correct the Syriac and Arabic at the pre«s, but
Lis room was filled hv Mr. Hvde, at the recom-

«. »

inrndation oi Mr. Pocock, who was desired by
Dr. Walton to procure a fit person tor that work.

By the 30th of October this year, Mr. Pocock
sent back to Dr. Walton the first sheet of the
Pentateuch, with his own various readings upon
it, of which the Doctor owns the receipt in a let-
ter, dated the first of the following December,
and acknowledges them to be very useful. In
the close of the same letter, he adds, " I have
*' some hopes from a friend at Rome, to get the

Prince, that in the work then presented to him, he had en-
tirely spent both a competent patrimonial fortune, and all
that he had been able to acquire himself, who was then in
the 63d year of his age.

Together with the Prebend, the King gave him a dispen-
sation of absence in order to attend his Arabic lecture at
Cambridge, where he became the first settled Arabic lec-
turer, b) an instrument under the hand of Sir Tho. Adams,
the founder, dated June 20, ]666, after a thirteen years va-
cancy of that lecture, which, during Mr. Wheelocke's life,
had been voluntarily only. His lectures was heard at first
\vjth great applause, but in a few years were so much ne-
glected, that being then easy, and disposed to be pleasant,
he put up this affix upon the school-gates ; Arabicse Linguae
Praei cti r eras ibit in de^ertum. During this period he was
a member of St. John's College, being admitted there Octo-
ber 27, 167 1.

He died at Higham-Gobyon, in Bedfordshire, An. lG85,
whertof he was then rector, where he lies buried, with a
jnodest epitaph,

*' Armenia^

"
"

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 215

Armenian Bible, and the Coptick Pentateuch
and New Testament, which are in the Vatican,
transcribed ; which, if it can be had in any rea-
" sonable time, may be added to these we have,
" and may make the last tome." That these
pieces did not come in time, is certain, because
they are not extant in the present Polyglott ; and
whether they ever came at all, I have not been
able to learn.

About this time, Mr. Pocock wrote to Dr.
Walton and Mr. Thorndike, or both, upon two
points of importance relating to the edition in
hand ; the first was, a proposal to have his own
copy of the Syriac Gospels, of another translation,
printed together with that of the Paris edition ;
the other concerned the Latin of the Arabic Ver-
sion, its uncorrectness, and a motion to have it
mended. In answer to the former of these, Dr.
Walton replies, Feb. 22, 1653-4, " Your Syriac
" Gospels may be of use for the various readings,
" especially in the most material places ; but my
" Lord Primate thinks it not necessary to print
" both the translations at large : if they be of
" any antiquity, of which none can better judge
" than yourself, they will be the more acceptable :
" if the difference from the other translation be
" not great, they may be printed at the end of
" every column, as we have done with Tecla's
-" and the Roman Septuagint." The truth of the

case

((
<(

fi

THK MIT. OF

case was, that two Syriac translations of the
pels would have increased the ex pence of the
work, whirli, without any addition to the first de-
sign, was like to fall very heavy ; and this Mr.
Thorndike, in effect, says in a letter to Mr. Po-
cock, dated only two days after Dr. Walton's;
" I have conferred," says he, " with my Lord
" Primate and Dr. Walton about your motion of
the other Syriac in the Gospels, as, perhaps,
Dr. Walton may write to you about it here-
after, upon consideration of the charge which
" lies upon him, and makes a difference in the
" business." Notwithstanding all which, Dr.
Walton, two years after, offered, that if Mr. Po*
cock's Syriac Gospels should, in his own judg-
ment, be fit to be translated, and joined with the
other translation, he would publish it with the
rest in the New Testament ; but, after the inti-
mation above given by Mr. Thorndike, our author
had too much candour and modesty to press the
matter any further. And thus it fell out, that no
manner of use was made of Mr. Pocock's Syriac
Gospels in the Polyglott, they not having been so
much as collated for various readings. The other

D

motion for mending the Latin of the Arabic Ver-
sion was certainly of much more importance, and
a proposal truly worthy of Mr. Pocock's sound
judgment and good sense. For the Latin of an
Arabic Version could be of no service but to such

as

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 217

'fcs were ignorant of that copious language, and
so long as it was incorrect, must often greatly
deceive them ; and accordingly in fact, if we may
believe Pere Simon *, the Latin of the Arabic
-and other eastern Versions, led Mr. Pool, in his
Synopsis, into frequent and grievous mistakes.
To this last proposal, only Mr. Thorndike made
a reply, which inclines me to think that Mr. Po-
cock mentioned it only to Mr. Thorndike, who
seems never to have imparted it to Dr. Walton,
for reasons, which I think evidently appear in his
letter to Mr, Pocock on this subject, in which he
says :

" As to the Latin of the Arabic, I conceive
?' the like might be said of the Syriac; but 1 do
•" not hear you advise that any thing be done to
" rectify it; that is a work that would be pro-
ff fitable, but troublesome ; and I know not how
" plausible in another man's work : and truly I
" am of advice, that the business of this work is,
-* rather to settle the originals, resting contented
• l with giving the translations anciently printed ;
" it would be too much to undertake to do that,
" for all, which were fit to be done, in time:5'

True it is, that the motion was made too late,
Otherwise the complying with it would have been
highly serviceable to the world, particularly had

? See his Critical History of the CL T. 1. iii. c. 15,

the

21 S THE LIFE OF

the Latin of the Oriental versions of the New
Testament been exaet and literal, it \vould let us
into the reading of those ancient copies, from
which those versions were made, of \\hich, by
reason of its present laxness and inaccuracy, no
certain judgment can be formed, but by such as
competently understand the originals. The same
advantage would have arisen from a true and ser-

O

vile Latin version of such Eastern translations of
the Old Testament, as were made from the Sep-
tuagint, towards ascertaining the ancient rea-
dings of it : but such is the infelicity of all hu-
man counsels and undertakings; that those which
seem nearest to perfection, appear still capable
of improvement, and no sooner is one defect
supplied, but others immediately discover them-
selves.

In the year 1654, Dr. Walton acquaints Mr.
Pocock, that after the text of the Pentateuch
should be printed off, which, he supposes, would
be about Bartholomew-tide, they had some thoughts
(if all things could be got ready in time) of print-
ing the New Testament next, " both because it
" is the principal part, and would give satisfaction
" to the most: so," adds he, " Erpenius did with
" his Arabic, and so I perceive they did by the
" Parisian : that so, if any thins should inter-

«•* O

" vene, the chief parts of the Bible might be
" first done.'1 He concludes: " By your next, I

" pray

DR. EDWARD POCOCK.

•" pray you let me have your opinion. " What
Mr. Pocock's judgment was, concerning this
point, no where appears ; but soon after Dr.
Walton saw cause to alter his purpose, as he

afterwards writes to our author. " I find." savs

»/

he, " though much desired by many, this is so
" much distated by Mr. Selden, and some others,
" whose judgments I value, that, I think, we
" shall go on now with the other books in order,
" and the rather, because I find I shall hardly
" get all things ready for the New Testament in
" in so short a time."

And now they were preparing for the second
tome of the Polyglott Bible, which contains the
historical, books ; at which time Dr. Walton was
put upon a fruitless inquiry after the Chaldee
Paraphrase upon the Chronicles, which Ravius
affirmed he had seen in the Bodleian Library at
Oxford ; but he was soon convinced, that Ravius
was mistaken, there being no such Targum at
Oxford, " Nor," adds he, " in Cambridge, though
" some of Erpenius's books be there." How-
ever, it appeared afterwards, that they were both
in an error, as to this Targum on the Chronicles ;
Ravius, in affirming he had seen it at Oxford,
and Dr. Walton, in supposing it was not at
Cambridge, where Mi\ Samuel Clarke afterwards
-found, and transcribed it ; of which more in its
proper place. In October this year, the first

tome

TJ1L LIFE Oi'

tome was iinishcd, manure the malicious surmises
of some envious and disaffected persons, ot whom
Dr. Walton complains. It seems, the zealots ot
those dav-, not contented with getting into the
\\anii places of the ejected Clergy, envied them,
even while they were starving in the cause of re-
ligion and loyalty : they had effectually excluded
them irom serving God, and promoting his holy
truths, as Churchmen, and they were uneasy at
their iilorious efforts to do this as scholars,

o

In July, I6o5, they entered on the third vo-
lume of the Bible, which contained the writings
of David, Solomon, ancl the Prophets, and finished
the second tome before the end of that month;
from which time, we are unable to give a particu-
lar detail of the progress of this great work, or
to say any more,' than that it was entirely finished
towards the close of the year 1657, and that on
the JCth of May 1658, Dr. Walton sent Mr.
Pocock the remaining parts of the Polyglott Bible,
which he had not before presented him withal,
as also those manuscripts and books which he had
lent them, except the JEthiopic Psalter, whictji
Mr. Castle desired either to buy or borrow.

And thus, in ^bout four years, was finished
the English Polyglott Bible, the glory of that age,
and of the English Church and nation, a work
vastly exceeding all former attempts of that kind,
that came so near perfection, as to discou-
rage

DR. EDWARD POCOCK.

/ i

rage all future ones. One would therefore think,
that, at home at least, it should have been well
entertained by all, that had any regard for reli-
gion and learning ; and yet, no sooner was it
published, than some principal men among the
prevailing party were very much offended at it;
fearing, perhaps, the indignation of foreigners
against them, for having, with little merit, and
against all law and title, taken the places of such
prodigies for learning and industry, as Dr. Wai-
.ton, Mr. Pocock, and Mr. Thorndike, £c.

Amongst these was Dr. Owen, who, the ne^t
year, together with a Latin Tract against the
Quakers, I know not by what rules of congruity,
was pleased to publish one in English against
the Polyglott Bible : many things injurious to the
Reformation, and even to Christianity itself, he
pretended to discover in it, especially in the Pro-
legomena and Appendix ; and, accordingly, made
no small outcry against it : but how far envy en-
gaged him to meddle with things above his
knowledge, how frequently he contradicted him-
self, and really fell into those crimes, which he
-only fancied others to be guilty of; and particu-
larly, how he misrepresented and misapplied
some things asserted by Mr, Pocock, in his Pre-
face to the Arabic various readings before-men-
tioned, was, in a short time, unanswerably shewn
by Dr, Walton, in a discourse he published for
- - that

22C5 THE LIFE 0?

that purpose *. Indeed, it is not easy to conceive,
how sad the case was of the true sons of the
Church of England in those times. As a great
variety of means were made use of to oppress
and ruin them, so they were treated with all
kinds of calumny and reviling ; yea, those very
performances, which were of the greatest service
to the Church of God, and will be monuments
of their piety and zeal for Divine truth as long
as the world shall last, their unreasonable perse-
cutors were not ashamed to charge with a design
to promote Atheism or Popery. A much later
and more learned person has censured Mr. Po-
cock, for something in his preface to the Arabick
various readings, so often mentioned, viz. Abbe

O ' '

Renaudot : He (Hist. Patriarch. Alexandr. p.

77, (§• seq.} charges Abulfeda with ignorance, in
not knowing that the Old Testament had been

o

translated into Arabic [in his time] which, adds
he, deceived the learned Pocock, when he grounded
his conjecture, as to the antiquity of the Arabic
version on his testimony. But that learned per-
son appears herein to have committed a double
mistake : For, first, Abulfeda, in the place refer-
red to by Renaudot, says nothing of the antiquity
of the Arabic version, but only that the version

* The Considerator considered, printed at London, A. Do
1659.

into

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 223

into that language had not then been written in

o o

Arabic characters. 2dly, Even in this Mr. Po-
cock does not follow Abulfeda, declaring, in that
very Preface, that he would not rashly affirm,
what the other did, that the said version was at
that time first put into a Saracenic dress, since
Aben Ezra asserts of Saadias himself, that he

turned the law into the Ismaelitic tongue and cha-

\j

racter. But this Saadias died above 300 years be-
fore the time of Abulfeda *.

The pleasure Mr. Pocock received from seeing
so useful a wrork, and in which himself had so
great a share, brought to a happy conclusion, was
sadly abated towards the end of the same year,
by the death of Dr. Gerard Langbaine, the very
learned and ingenious Provost of Queen's Col-

o

lege, in Oxford. Our author, in very moving
terms, laments this loss to himself and the public,
writing thus to Ludovicus Eorgius, Doctor of
Physic, at Saumur. Oxonium trlsti admodum
nuntlo ad Funus Amid (vel si quod sanctius No-
men est) charissiml Gerardi Langbami, mogni
Academic? twstra Luminis ei inq-uo res lit era-
ria irreparabilem passa est jacturam, rure evo-
cat us , lit eras a te accepi. Indeed, the loss

* See for this whole Matter Gassier in Pr£ef. ad Abnlfed,

O

Vit. Mohammedis, and Sale's Notes on Bayle, uader the
word Abulfeda, p. 1 16.

Mr,

£24 THE LIFE OF

Mr. Pocock sustained, by the death of this ex*
celient nun, was very great: lor, by his prudence,
activity, ami interest, lie had beui .supported and
encouraged throughout those diiiicult times, which,
without such assistance, must have overwhelmed
a man so little practised in the affairs oi' the
world, as our author. And as he greatly needed
such friends, so the <^ood Providence of God still
supplied him with them, from time to time, till the
Restoration brought peace and settlement, and
ordinary prudence was sufficient to secure an ho-
nest man from violence and vexation. The Po-
lyglott was scarce finished, before two other pro-
jects appeared, that were grafts upon that noble
undertaking, and carried on by some learned as-

vJ' »/

sistants to it. The first was, an additional or
seventh tome of the Polyglott Bible, containing
many pieces not taken into the former six ; among
which was, Mr. Pocock's Syriac Gospels, of a
different translation, from that followed by Dr.
Walton : this was finished, but, for what reason
I know not, never published, and is, by the Ox-
ford historian, reckoned among Mr. Samuel
Clark's works, with this title, Septimum Biblio-
rum PolyglottM Volumen, cum versioriibus anti*
quissimis, non Chaldaica tantum, sed Synods,
JEthiopiciS) Copticis, Arabicis, Persicis contex-
ium. The other was a Lexicon to the Oriental
languages of the Polyglott edition, known by the
1 name

DR. EDWARD POCOCK.

name of the Heptaglott Lexicon, carried on chiefly
by the very learned and indefatigable Dr. Castel,
and published by him several years after. In
both these learned designs Mr. Pocock's assist-
ance was desired, and readily granted.

It has been already observed, page 149, that,
in the year 1652, Mr. Pocock, at the importu-
nity of Mr. Selden, began the translation of a
large historical discourse, viz. the Annals of
Eutychius, Melchite Patriarch of Alexandria,
out of Arabic into Latin, which translation was
published, together with the original, in two vo-
lumes, at Oxford, in the year 1658. And though
this had been considered by learned men abroad
as a very useful work, and as such was recom-
mended to Erpenius, by Isaac Casaubon*, with
all imaginable earnestness ; yet, Mr. Pocock de-
clares in the Preface, that it was not undertaken
by him from his own inclination ; but upon the
persuasion and importunity of Mr. Selden. Doubt-
less he did in no sort affect that cause, for the
sake of which Mr. Selden was so fond of Euty-
chius, and therefore was unwilling to give any
seeming ground for being thought a partner in
it. That learned man, having been censured by
the High Commission for some offensive passages

* Isaaci Casauboni Epistolae, ni^ra,. 732.

YOL, i. Q in

Til* I 1 i'E OF

in liis Ilixtan/ c>J' 7V///<.v, became not a littic dis-
plrii-ed \\itli some Bishops of the ( 'iiurch of Eng-
land : And though afterwards, tor several years,
ho met \vitli a great deal of respect from them,
on account of his very great learning, yet the re-
sentment of that former usage lay deep in his
mind, and was at length sufficiently discovered by
him, as he found an opportunity for it. For in
the year 16412, to bear down Episcopacy, which
ivas then sinking in this nation, he published, what
he would have to be thought, a mighty argument
against it ; namely, the account which this Euty-
chius gives of the Church of Alexandria, during
the three first centuries : but though Mr. Selden,
in a large Preface to that paragraph of Eutychius,
and a large commentary upon it, did all he could
to make it serve his design, it hath been fully
proved to be in no sort sufficient for it. Abra-
ham Echellensis, a learned Maronite, in a book
for this purpose, published some time after at
Rome*, shewed, among other things, that Mr.
Selden was no fair translator of Eutychius's Ara-
bic, and appealed to Mr. Pocock and Mr. John
Greaves for the truth of what he asserted: but,
supposing the translation just; that the whole
passage is a perfect fable, hath been abundantly

* Eutych. Vind. Autore Ab. Echcllcu-si, Roma?, A. D.

, Par. I. c. ix, u. 29.
'

made

DR. EDWARD JPOCOCK.

made out by several learned men*. It was oo
wonder therefore, that a man of Mr. Poccck's
temper and principles should need the most im-
portunate persuasions to translate and publish a
book, which Mr. Selden had made such use of:
however, by performing that work, he hath been
very far from doing any disservice to the cause of
Episcopacy : for, as he hath put that paragraph
in a truer light f ; so, by his Latin version of the
whole book, he has enabled those, who before
could be no judges of the matter, fully to per-
ceive, how little credit is due to an author, who,
as Mr. Pocock declares in the Preface to him ;£,
has many fabulous things relating to ancient his-

«/ **^ C3

tory, and gives us absurd accounts of the trans-
actions in the Western parts of the world, as our
writers commonly do in those of the Eastern. Mr,
Selden, indeed, speaks very magnificently of this
Arabian ; he esteems him, he says, as an Egyp-
tian Bede§, and makes no doubt at all, but that
his Annals were for the most part taken out of the
archives of the Church of Alexandria : but that
learned man did not consider what another Ara-

* Morinus de Ordinationibus, Par. III. c. 7« Hammond!
Diasertatio tertia contra Blondellum, c. x. Walton! Pro-
legomena in Bib. Polygl. Prol. 14. Sect. 10. Pearson!
Vindiciae Ignat. Par. I. c. x. f Vid. Pearson! Vin-

diciae, par. I. p. 180. ed. Cantab. 1672. I Prsef. in

Annal. Eutych. p. 3. § Praef. ad Grig. Eutych. p, 23.

Q 2 bian

THE LIFE OF

bian writer * (whose history Mr. Pocock afterward
translated and published) hath made manifest,
namely, that in the tenth age, wherein Eutychius
lived, there were no archives of that Church ; for
when that city was taken by the Saracens, many
•years before in the reign of Sultan Omar, his
General, Amrus Ebnol As, by a particular order
from his master, commanded all the books and
writings in it to be sent to the baths, as fuel for

^2

heating them, where they were all consumed.
Indeed, he that hath read these Annals of Euty-
chius, cannot but be fully sensible, how igno-
rant he was of the antiquities of his own Church.
Nobody was more famous within the time, which
the paragraph published by Mr. Selden relates
to, than Origen : Now this man, who lived in the
former part of the third century, Eutychius
thrusts down to the middle of the sixth, makes
a Bishop of him, and brings him to the Council
of Constantinople, called by the Emperor Jus-
tinian, to be there condemned f. Of what use,
therefore, soever these Annals may be, either in

some chronological points J3 about which other

writers

* Greg. Abul. Pharagii Hist. Dynast, p. 114.
f Eutychii Annales, torn. II. p. 171. J See Bishop Pearson,
de Successione primorum Romans Episcoporum Dissert. I,
c. 14, ct Pracf. Annales Eutych. p. 3. N. B. Bishop .Pear-
son, who, oa another occasion, (in his Vimlic. Ignat.) had
rejected the authority of Eutychius, as not to be credited,

even

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 229

writers are silent or defective, or in the historical
account he gives of the Persians and other
Oriental nations, it is certain, his bare authority
cannot be sufficient in any matter to overthrow
the general consent of the Greek and Latin fa-
thers, and church historians.

This edition of Eutychius was carried on at the
sole charge of Mr. Selden, as appears by several
letters sent to him by Dr. Langbaine, in one of
which the Doctor, upon Mr. Pocock's disliking one
of the characters of the Arabic fount at Oxford,
desiring him to procure, at London, a new pun-
chion and mattrice, with five or six pounds of
letter thus pleasantly addressed him in the words
of the Friar in Chaucer, who begged money for
compleating their cloister.

Now help Thomas, for him that harrow'd heft,
Or else mote we all our books sell.

But what puts it more out of dispute, that the im-
pression of Eutychius was entirely made at Mr.
Selden's expence is, that, by a codicil made to his

even i:n the affairs of his own church, is taxed by the learned
uud ingenious author of Reflections upon Learning, for allow-
ing his authority in the affairs of the Church of Rome, and
with forsaking our Greek and Latin authors, to follow his
footsteps, in his posihumous piece, just now referred to. Re-
ject, upon Learning, p. 158, 159,

will

'0 TtlE LI1L .

\\ill the year before his death, he bequeathed it as
his sole property to Dr. Langbaine, and Mr. Po-
cock.

In justice, therefore, to Mr. Scldcn's memory,
v ho died three or four yrar> before this book was
published, his picture was put before it, and the
following words, on Dr. Langbaine's request, were
added in the title page, Illustrisa. Joanne Scldcno T«
uxxzffiTx Chorago : and though nothing more was

s O <.. C?

meant by them, than that Mr. Selden was at the
expence of this chargeable work, the Choragus in
the play being, as a very learned man : hath ob-
served on the occasion, the person who was at the
charges of exhibiting the scenes f ; yet it hath
given some ground to several persons (and parti-
cularly to the compiler of the catalogue of printed
books in the Bodleian Library, published in the
year 1674) to imagine, that Mr. Selden began his
translation, and that Mr. Pocock only finished it :

*/

whereas, the former never translated any other
part of Eutychius, than that short paragraph al-
ready mentioned, which he published many years
before, and which Mr. Pocock hath corrected. To
this mistake concerning the translation, it may not
be improper to add another about the author him-
self: his name, at first, was Said Ibn Ijatnck,

* Dean Prideaux, in his Life of Mahomet.
t Sec Plaut. in Pcrsa. Act 1, Seen. 3. Satur. IIo&*» Orna-
mcnta r Tox. Abs. Chorago sumito.

which,,

DR. EDWARD FOCOCK. 231

which, when he was made patriarch, he changed
into that ofEutychius, as expressive in the Greek
language of what he was called in the Arabic * :
and this Greek name, I believe, was that which
gave occasion to Dr. Heylyn, in his life of Arch-
bishop Laud, to mention this Eutychius, as a
Greek writer f. The Doctor is followed in this
error by Mr. Ant. Wood, in the account he gives
of Mr. Selden's life, where he also falls into some
others; for, in the catalogue of Mr. Selden's
works, having mentioned Versio et Comment arius
ad Eutychii Eccksice Alexandrine Origines,
Lond. 1(542, he goes on saying, to which are
added, the said Eutychius's Annals, with Com-
ments thereon, by Edward Pocock, of Corpus
Christ! College, Oxon.

Nothing else, particularly relating to our au-
thor, occurs to us, till March 1659-60, when, the
secluded Members of the House of Commons be-
ing restored to their seats in Parliament, had ap-
pointed a Committee to consider of Dr. Rey-
nolds (afterwards Bishop of Norwich) his re-
stitution to the Deanery of Christ Church, from
whence he was removed, for not taking the
engagement; Dr. Wallis, the ever-memorable
Savilian Professor at Oxford, hearing this, and

* Seldom Prsef. ad Orig. Eutych. p. 7.
-j- Cyprianus Anglic, par. II. lib* iv, p, 303,

that

•

THE LIFE OF

that Dr. Mills's case removed from a ca-
nonry in that Chnrch on the same account, lay
also before the same Committee, and thinking Mr.
Pocock's case, who lost his canonry on the like
score, fairer than cither of theirs was, recom-
mended it to Major Fincher, probably a Member
ot that Parliament. This he did unknown to our
author, who was then at Childry, and whom, in.
that exigence, he had no time to consult : and be-
cause Dr. Vuliis's representation of Mr. Pocock's
case contains many facts worthy of the curious
reader's notice, I shall give it in the Doctor's owa
words.

" The disposal of the Deanery and Canonship
" in Christ Church were heretofore reputed to be-
" long to the King, who did accordingly from
" to time to time dispose of them. In the time of
King James, he did, by his charter, annex
one of the Canonships to the Divinity Profes-
" sor, and his successors for ever : and Kin^

' ' r>

" Charles another of them to the Hebrew Profes-
" sor, and a third to the University Orator, which
<c were accordingly enjoyed. Upon the death of
" Dr. Morris, Hebrew Professor, the Committee
" of both Houses (who did then manage the af-
" fairs of the University) did put Mr. Pocock into
his place and Canonship, who did accordingly
" enjoy it for some time, till, for refusing to sub-
" scribe the engagement, he was (at the same time
" with Dr. Reynolds and D;\ Mills) put out of

" Hebrew

it

tl

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 233

" Canonship; but remained (as still he doth)
" Hebrew Professor. Upon the death of Dr.
" French (who was put into his place), the en-
" gagement being before that time taken off, it
" was thought that Mr. Pocock's right did again
" revive, and that he ought to be restored to that
" Canonship, as Hebrew Professor for the time
" being, there being now no bar in the way. And
" while there were motions in the University to
" petition for it, Dr. Owen (then Vice-Chancel-
" lor, and in favour with the Protector) under-
" took to manage that business himself, and went
" up to London about it. But thereupon, in-
" stead of Mr. Pocock, Mr. Pointer was put into
" that place by the Protector, who was supposed
" to have no power to dispose of it to any other
" person, than the Hebrew Professor for the time
" being : and beside this, by an Act of the Par-
" liament before the last interruption, all grants
" of the Protector were made void, and therefore
" this among the rest : and before that Act they
" were yet presumed so weak, that Dr. Wilkins
" and others got new grants (to the places which
" the Protector had bestowed on them) from the
" Parliament, and the like was endeavoured for
" Mr. Pointer, but could not be obtained ; so
that, upon the whole matter, there seems very
little to be said, why Mr. Pocock should not be
" restored. That which is to be done in order to
" it, is, that a motion be made in the House, for

" this

u
il

£34 TIIL LITE OF

" this biiMM'Ns to be referred to the same Com-
" mittee with that of Dr. Reynolds, and that (if
" need he) summons be sent to Mr. Pointer to
" appear, if ho have any thing to say, why Mr.
" Pocock should not be restored." This letter
was dated March 6, 16,59-60."

Whether the House would have hearkened to
this remonstrance or no, there was no time to
judge : for in ten days after the date of Dr.
Wallis's letter, this long Parliament passed an
Act for its o\vn dissolution, and for calling a new

' O

one, to meet on the 26th of the following month.
They met accordingly ; and God having now suf-

J C? J O

ficiently tried the faith and patience of his suffer-
ing Church of England, was pleased to put into
the hearts of this Convention to invite the King to
his throne. And thus, by a turn of Providence,
never enough to be adored and acknowledged,
our ancient constitution was restored to us, at a
time too, when that blessing was thought very dis-
tant, if not utterly despaired of.

SECTION

. EDWARD POCOCK.

SECTION IV.

THE year 1660 was auspicious to Mr. Pocock
on more accounts than one : for I find him con-
gratulated by a friend at this time, upon his reco-
very from a fit of sickness, which he calls the pro-
drome to the public restau ration. In the month
of June he attended the Vice-Chancellor, when he
waited on the King to present him with the Ox-
ford verses on that happy occasion ; nor was it
long before our author, among ether oppressed
loyalists, felt the benefit of that national deliver-
ance : for the Canonry of Christ Church, annexed
to the Hebrew Lecture at Oxford, by Knw

«• O

Charles the First, and from which he had ROW
been removed, for refusal of the engagement,

about ten years, was restored to him : the intruder

j

having been turned out by the delegates, ap-
pointed to visit that University, presently after the
Restoration. It has been already said, that Mr. PG-
cock, on the death of Dr. Morris, was, upon the
recommendation of Dr. Sheldon and Dr. Ham-
mond, nominated to the Hebrew Lecture, and the
Canonry thereto annexed, by King Charles trie
First, then (1648) a prisoner in the Isle of Might,
but that he was not constituted by patent, the
King not having the Great Seal then in his power :
but Dr. Sheldon, then Dean of the Chapel Royal,

and

'256 THE LIFE OF

and soon after Bishop of London, took care to
have that detect supplied the very month after the
Kind's return : for this purnose, Letters Patent

were granted (bear* 113 date June 20. An. Diwdcc.

~ . >

Car. Zndi) constituting Mr. Porock Hebrew Pro-
fes or, and Canon of Christ Church, by virtue
\vhereoi", he was solemnly installed on the 27th of
the month following. The difficulties also that

o

formerly attended degrees, being no\v removed by
the late happy change, he took that of Doctor of
Divinity on the 20th day of December, in the
same year.

It has already been observed, that Mr. Pocock,
though he succeeded Dr. Morris in the Hebrew
Lecture at Oxford, by order of the Committee of
Parliament, was not promoted to his Canonry,
which had been annexed to that Lecture, but to
the Canonry of Dr. Payne, who, together with
Dr. Fell, the Dean of Christ Church, and some
others of the Prebendaries, was removed by the
said Committee, for a pretended high contempt of
the authority of Parliament. By these means it
came to pass, that Mr. Pocock was forced to ac-
cept of another house or mansion, and not that
which belonged to the Canonry, that had been an-
nexed to the Hebrew Lecture by King Charles
the First. It has been related likewise, how he
and his friends laboured to set him admission to

o

his proper House and Canonry, and upon

failure

DR. EDWARD POCOCK.

failure of success, how he entered his protest,
with a salvo to the rights of the Hebrew Profes-
sorship. I need not repeat the little regard that
was paid., in those times, to Royal Grants, nor
how the same Committee afterwards deprived
him of his Canonry, while they suffered him to
retain the Lecture, to which a Canonryhad been
inseparably annexed. And though at the Resto-
ration, as hath been already said, he was again
installed a Canon of that Church, he had yet the
mortification to see another in possession of those
lodgings, which belonged to his predecessor in the
Hebrew Professorship, Dr. Morris. The intruder
at this time was John Mills, Doctor of Law, and
then Member of the House of Commons : this
Dr. Mills, though most evidently a lay-man, had
been Canon of Christ Church *, and was removed
thence at the same time with Dr. Reynolds and
Mr. Pocock, and on the same pretence ; namely,
for refusing the engagement. At the Restoration

* Mr. Ant. Wood, in his Hist, and Antiq. of the Univ. of
Oxford, accounts for the whole matter : he acquaints us,
that Dr. Mills was put into the Canonry of Dr. Morris, the
Hebrew Professor, by the Committee of the two Houses, who
probably had no scruples about the legality of a lay-canon of
Christ Church. Being, therefore, restored by the long Par.
liament, just before they dissolved themselves, to that Ca-
nonry, which he afterwards lost by refusing the engagement,
he came again of course into the lodgings belonging to it.

he

£3S THE LIFE 01

he got possession of Dr. Morris's house, and de-
tained it from Mr. (now Dr.) Pocock, in right of
his prctenbicn to the canonry, out of which he had
formerly been ejected. In order to the recovery
of these lodgings, the Univcr-ity of Oxford joined
\vith Dr. Pocock in a petition to the Delegates,
appointed by the King, soon after his return, to
visit that University, fora hearing before them, or

before anv of the Judges, to whom their Honours

j '

might think lit to refer the consideration of it.

o

The result of this ail air was, that the Delegates
first removed Dr. Mills from the Canonry for
"which he was unqualified, and put Dr. Pocock
into the lodgings proper to the stall that was an-
nexed to the Hebrew Professorship, and into which
he was put, by virtue of the Letters Patent he had
so lately obtained.

And now the remaining part of Dr. Pocock's
life being of one tenor or way, spent in study, and
doing good, without those travels or sufferings,
which have so much lengthened this discourse,
what we have further to do, will, for the most part
be, to give some account of those other books he
published, according to the order of time in which
they were printed, and then, to lay those things
together, which may serve to some imperfect idea
of his very great worth.

Jn this year 1 660, he printed his Arabic Ver-
sion of Hugo Grotius's Treatise concerning the

o o

Truth

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 239

Truth of the Christian Religion : that excellent
book, which deservedly met with the highest ap^
plause from the learned men, had been already
translated into several languages, particularly
English, Dutch, French, Swedish and Greek ; but
in no tongue could it be thought more useful,
than in the Arabic, bein^ a language understood,

' O O O *

not only in the Ottoman empire, but in Persia,
Tartary, and all those parts of India and Africa,
where Mahometism has prevailed. Among the
professors of that superstition, doubtless there are
some well-meaning people who would entertain
favourable thoughts of Christianity, were they suf-
ficiently made acquainted with the reasonableness
and excellency of it. The conversion of such,
Dr. Pocock had in view, when he first resolved
upon this work ; and not only that, but the in-
struction and better establishment of the Chris-
tians, that are very numerous in some of those
countries, who, by reason of the bondage they are
under, know but little of the holy religion they
profess, and the evidence on which it is built ; and
therefore, to mend their worldly condition, are too
often tempted into apostasy. And to make this
translation more fit for these purposes, he took the
liberty, which the learned author allowed him (in
a visit he made to him at Paris, when he returned
the last time out of the East) of making such alter-
ations as he thought necessary : Grotius's intro-
duction

240 THE LIFE O*

duction being only an account addressed on a par-1
ticular occasion to Hieron. Bignonius, of a work
of the like nature, which he had formerly pub-
lished in Dutch, and also containing in it, some
expressions relating to the Mahometans, which in
the entrance might, perhaps, discourage those
people from perusing the book, Dr. Pocock
thought fit to leave out, and instead thereof, he in-
serted a Preface entirely new. In this Preface he
proposes the design of the whole treatise, which
was, he says, to inquire concerning the true wor-
ship of God, and the arguments of its truth ; shews
the vast importance of such researches ; prays for
the divine illumination, which is necessary to
render them effectual. He gives some account of
the persons to whom this work would be especially
serviceable, which are not only those, who are
mistaken in religious matters, but such also to
whom God, in his mercy, hath shewn the way of
truth, who, if of competent understandings, might
be furnished by it, with proper weapons to con-
quer error ; but, if of meaner capacities, would yet
be enabled, by the perusal of it, to continue sted-
fast. resisting the assaults of those, who should la-

» O '

bour to pervert them. Moreover, he shews of
what kind t\ e arguments made use of in it, are ;
namely, such as, being collected from the books
both of ancient and modern authors, who have
written on this subject, are sure and convincing,

and

DR. KD^AItD POCOCK. 241

and also easy to be understood. Besides this
new Preface, he also made several changes in the
6th book, wherein the author applies himself to
the confutation of Mahometism, amending some

' o

things, and leaving out others, both in the 5th and
10th sections of it, and particularly the pretended
miracle of the flying of the dove to Mahomet's
ear, as having no foundation, either in the wri-
tings or opinions of his followers : about which,
when he discoursed with Grotius, that learned
man freely acknowledged : : his taking the story
only from our own writers, especially from Sca-
liger, in his notes on Manilius.

This version, as I have formerly shewn, Dr.
Pocock had intended to publish many years be-
fore, and the reason of his delaying it so very long,
undoubtedly was, the cost of printing it: for the
copies of it being not for sale, but charitable uses,
a sum was required for this, much beyond his own
ability : but this difficulty was now removed by
the generous offer of the Honourable Robert
Boyle, Esq. ; that great promoter of all useful
knowledge, both divine and human, who, as soon
as he understood this design of Dr. Pocock, as-
sured him, that he would bear the whole charge
of it. Indeed, that pious and learned gentleman,
on whom God had bestowed a double blessing, a

* Spec. Hist, Arab. p. 186,

VOL, i. R plentiful

THE LIFE OF

plentiful estate, and therewith a heart to use u
well, never omitted any opportunity, that pre-
sented itself, of doing service to the interests of true
religion. At his cost, the Irish New Testament
was reprinted, and he was chiefly at the expence
also of reprinting the old. Upon his desire, and
by his encouragement, that Catechism, which the
learned Mr. William Seaman translated into
Turkish, was printed ; and, as appears by a letter
of Mr. Seaman's to Dr. Pocock, the same honour-
able person gave 601. towards printing the New
Testament turned by him into the same language :
and at this time, the zeal he had for the propaga-
tion of Christianity, engaged him to all the ex-
pence, which was necessary, that Grotius's ad-
mirable defence of it might be read in a tongue ge-
nerally studied in all those countries, which have
embraced the superstition of Mahomet.

It is heartily to be wished, that the success of a
work so truly Christian, had been answerable to
the zeal, with which it was both undertaken and
promoted : but of that, indeed, after all possible
inquiry, we are able to give but a slender account.
Mr. Boyle writes to Dr. Pocock, January 24,
1660-1, that " he had discoursed with a very un-
" derstanding and religious gentleman, a chief
" member of the council for trade and the plan-
61 tations, and one that had a great interest in the
" merchants, who promised his assistance in get-

ting

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 243

f< ting this translation properly dispersed.5' I
find likewise, by the same letter, that- Mr. Baxter
strenuously employed his interest with the Turkey
Company to the same purpose ; that it was pro-
posed at a meeting of the merchants trading to
those parts, who well liked it, and readily offered
to disperse, as discreetly as they could, as many
books as should be put into their hands. By
another letter of the same honourable person to
Dr. Pbcock, we likewise learn, that a quarter of a
hundred of these books had been already deli-
vered to some merchants, and that a much greater
number would be committed to their care, as soon
as it should be determined at Oxford, what sort of
binding would be most proper for the East. But
for what particular places these were intended, or
in what manner they were to be disposed of, I
cannot find : that very few were distributed at
Constantinople, the very learned Dr. Thomas
Smith, who went to reside there in the year 1 66S,
had reason to believe. He affirmed, "that he did
" not know of so much as one single copy in that
" place, except that, which he carried out of Eng-
" land himself, and which he presented there to a
" Turkish Imam, or priest of his acquaintance,
" who was well-skilled in the language of his pro-
" phet." And, indeed, the same learned person
gives but little hopes of success from that, or any
the like books, among such Turks, as he converged

R 2 with

244 THE LIFE OF

Tvith in that city : " for, generally speaking," he
says, " tlicir unreasonable prejudices, their gross
" stupidity in matters of speculation, and their
" equally prodigious, and intolerable obstinacy
and pride, had hardened them against all con-
<f viction, and rendered them impenetrable to any

argument.'

I cannot, on this occasion, avoid delivering it as
my opinion, that the sight of these Arabic transla-
tions of Grotius without his own, the translator's,
or any other F.uropean name prefixed to them,
was \vhat, in great measure, deceived Mr. Wat-
son, the Scotch gentleman mentioned in Wheeler's
Travels, p. 200, who seriously affirmed, " That
" Hugo Grotius had stolen all his principal argu-
" mentsfor the truth of the Christian religion out

o

" of Arabian authors." Whoever considers,
\vhat little acquaintance Grotius had with such
Arabic books, as have not yet been translated into
other languages, and how diligent Dr. Pocock was
in inquiring out, what the East afforded before he
engaged in that version, can hardly think of any
likelier ground for such a declaration, than what
has been above assigned.

At Aleppo, and the parts about it, I find a con-
siderable number of these books were disposed of;
and yet, certain it is, that either Grotius's Latin
tract, DC Veritate Rdigionis Christiana, or that
ether work of his of like nature, which he for-

*• /

marly

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 245

merly published in Dutch (mentioned in his in-
troduction to Hieion. Bignonius above-mentioned)
it is certain, I say, that one of these two tracts,
many years before the printing of this Arabic
translation, had °ot into the East : for the dervise

' O

Ahmed, writing to our author, soon after his re-
turn, home from Aleppo, promises, among some
Oriental manuscripts which he had bought for
him, to send him a book concerning the embracing

' O ^5

the Christian religion, the work of Groot, the bro-
ther of Goie. Mr. Smith, whether by conjecture
from the dervise's mention of Gole, or from better
authority, I cannot say, sets it down as fact, that
Golius had sent thither some copies of Grotius,
which is not improbable : but it seems to me,
from the dervise's mention of that learned man's
Dutch name, Groot, most likely that he had
lighted on the Dutch, and not the Latin treatise,
concerning the truth of the Christian religion. Many
copies of this Arabic Version were likewise after-
wards sent to Dr. Huntington, whilst chaplain to
the English factory at Aleppo, and yet these were
not sufficient: for having disposed of them, he de-
sired another parcel, in a letter written by him to
Dr. Pocock, which were accordingly sent to him :
it appears from one of his epistles, published toge-
ther with his life (Hunt ing toni Epistolce, No. 2),
that he presented one of these copies to Stephanus
Petrus, Maronite Patriarch at Antioch, to whom

also

246 THK LIFE Of

also he gave assurance, that if lie approved of it,
and thought a good number of them of use, they
should be speedily sent to him ; and doubtless he
did not neglect to make the like overture to Mose,
another bishop of the East, with whom he corres-
ponded. But it is too manifest, that he met with
no small difficulty in this matter, from some Ro-
manists in those parts, who envied the honour of a
design so truly Christian, to those of a different
communion from themselves : for though the Doc-
tors of the Sorbonne, who read this treatise of Gro-
tius, before he published it, disapproved nothing
in it, but that one passage [lib. ii. sect 7, concern-
ing things which imply a contradiction] which
bears, as they thought, too hard upon transubs-tan-
tiation ; and though some Papists had such an
opinion of it, that they undertook a translation of
it into Persian, for making converts in those coun-
tries, where that language is spoken ; yet, Dr.
Huntington now found, " that the most innocent
" and useful attempt will be disliked by some
" persons, when made by such instruments, as
" they do not approve of." Notwithstanding all
the kindness, which (as appears from his printed
epistles) passed between him, and the fathers re-
siding in those countries, and the offices of friend-
ship they mutually performed, he complained to
Dr. Pocock, <f That as he dispersed this treatise,
" he had much greater apprehensions from their

"•malice,

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 247

*c malice, than from the unprompted accusations
" of the Turks themselves." He told him fur-
ther, that upon this account he was obliged, for
his own safety, to cut the last book, wherein Ma-
hometism is confuted, out of some copies, before
he distributed them. And, if ever the Society
for Propagating Christian Knowledge in Foreign
Parts shall think of another edition of this work
in Arabic, it may, perhaps, be found expedient to
have some copies of it printed without the last
book, to be disposed of in such places, as will
not endure a direct opposition to the tenets of
Mahomet : for though it is much to be wished,
that his followers might have that part of this
treatise especially put into their hands, which was
so particularly intended for them ; yet, where that
cannot be attempted, with any prospect of safety,
the other parts of it alone may prove, by God's
blessing, of considerable advantage to them.
And, indeed, if they shall but once perceive the
certainty of the truths, which are in the other parts
so fully made out, they will, probably, begin to
make some serious reflections on their own super-
stition, and, at length, discern the follies and ab-
surdities of so gross an imposture.

The next thing that Dr. Pocock published, was
an Arabic poem, intitled, Lamiato'1-Ajam, or
Carmen Abu Ismaelis Tograi, with his Latin tran-
slation of it; and large notes upon it; a poem

which

24$ Tin-, [ii ;

which is held to be of the great* >t elegancy, an-
swerable to the lame of its author, who, as the
1 ' ;-'tor gives his character, wns eminent for learn-

anil virtue, and esteemed the Phoenix of the

~* *

a^c in \vhich lie lived, for poetry and eloquence:
Dr. Pocock's design in this work was, not only to
give a specimen of Arabian poetry, but also to
make the attainment of the Arabic tongue more
easy to those that study it; for his notes, contain-
ing a grammatical explanation of all the words of
this author, arc very serviceable for promoting the
knowledge of that language. These notes, being
the sum of many lectures which he read on this

*/

poem ; the speech that he delivered when he be-
gan to explain it, is prefixed to it, which perhaps
contains, though a succinct, yet as accurate an
account of the Arabic tongue, as is any where
extant. After the general history of it, he there
speaks of the things that recommend it, and par-
ticularly of these four; perspicuity, elegance, co-
piousness and usefulness ; an instance of the first
of these, he gives in that prompt way the Ara-
bians have of expressing many things clearly in a
very few words, which is hardly to be imitated in
any other language; and the second, he says,
appears both from the care employed in it, either
by the adding, taking away, or change of letters,
to suit words to the nature of the things they sig-
nify, and also from the sweetness or softness of

the

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. £49

the whole language, in which there never is a col-
lision of two or more consonants, but the sound
of a vowel always intervenes. As to the copious-
ness of this tongue, he shews that there is no
comparison between it and any other: the strange
variety it has of synonymous words being such as
one would stand amazed at : there are in it 200
names for a serpent, which he there gives us, 500
for a lion, and, to omit some other instances, so
many for calamity, that, as he observes out of an
Arabic writer, who endeavoured to make a catar
logue of them, it is no small calamity to recite
them. The whole number of words that make
up this language, is reckoned, as he assures us, by
Hamezah Aspahanensis, from an eminent lexico-
grapher at twelve millions, three hundred and
fifty thousand, fifty and two : but that which
chiefly recommends any language, is the usefulness
of it, which, for the most part, consists in the
valuable things that are written in it; and in this
respect he shews it to be very considerable, and
but little short of the most celebrated languages.

The ancient Arabians, Ions before the days of

f <_> «/

Mahomet, were not altogether ignorant of some

J O O

parts of learning; several of them had skill ii)
astronomy, several in physic, and not a few in
poetry; which last was in such request among
them, that when any one began to be eminent for
it in any tribe, it was matter of public congratula-
tion,

THE LIFE Of

tion, and all the kindred and friends of it met
together to rejoice, in the most solemn manner,
as for the greatest happiness in the world. In-
deed, whatsoever knowledge they then had, it
could not be very useful for want of letters, which
was an invention so late amongst them, that when
the Alcoran began to be published some time after
Mahomet's death, there was not found in all
Arabia Felix a person sufficiently qualified to read
or write it : however, somewhat more than a hun-
dred years after, when the empire of the Saracens
came to the Abbasidae, all the Grecian learning
found a ready entertainment with them, and began
to be cultivated; and within the compass of a
few ages, infinite books were written by them in
philosophy, astronomy, geometry, medicine, and
all kinds of sciences : and that we may not make
a judgment of these books from the barbarous
translations of some of them, which were made
-when ignorance so much prevailed in Europe, the
Doctor tells us, that whosoever shall read the
writings of Alfarabius, Avicenna, Avenpace, and
many others, will soon find reason for a very dif-
ferent opinion of them from that which is now
commonly received amongst us. In short, he
asserts with much assurance, that "with respect to
human learning, the Arabians do not more want
the knowledge of other languages, than other na-
tions do that of theirs, and that there are as many

things

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 251

things which they can teach others, as there are
which they can learn from them ; particularly for
the study of divinity, he proves, that it may receive
great aids from this language ; for by the help of
this, divines will be able to know the true opi-
nions of Mahometism, that they may confute them.
The Arabic also will very much contribute to
their skill in Hebrew, and consequently, to the
knowledge of the sacred text of the Old Testa-
ment, as appears from the books of Aben Ezra,
Maimonides, Kimchi, and others of the wiser
Rabbins, who, upon every difficulty, refer their
readers to the Arabic language : by this too, they
will be able to peruse the greatest part of those
things which are worth reading amongst the Jews,
such as the writings of Maimonides, Cozari, Cho-
bath Lebaboth, Emunoth, Saadias, and several
more, which are for the most part in Arabic;
and also to consult the several Versions of the
Holy Scriptures made into this language, both by
Jews and Christians, together with many Chris-
tian books of good account that are written in it.
Finally, by means of this language, the piety of
those who are zealous for the promotion of divine
knowledge, may make some provision against the
ignorance of the eastern Christians, who are so

O '

miserably oppressed under Turkish bondage.

I have been more particular in this detail of the
uses of Arabism, from the greatest master of it

that
9

Tin LH i. or

that our European world could ever boast of, in
hopes that such a discourse may incite the young
and studious among our candidates for holy order?,
io apply themselves thereto, and to revive a branch
of learning that seems to have been gradually de-
caying for many years among us.

This book, Carmen Tograi, was printed at Ox-
ford in the year lo'O'l, by the particular care and
direction of the very learned Air. Samuel Clarke,
Architypographus of that University, who not
only made a Preface to it, but also added a suit-
able treatise of his own. concerning the Arabic

' o

Prosodia : the treatise he dedicated to Dr. Pocock
in an epistle for that purpose; which he did, as
he told him, not only because he thought him the
properest judge of the work, but also because it

was he alone that first encouraged him to the un-

~

dertaking, that supplied him abundantly out of
his vast store with materials to carry it on, and
that constantly set him riidit when involved in

•/ Cv

such difficulties as he knew not how to pass
through.

It is intimated by Mr. Clarke, in the Preface
before- mentioned, that Gregorius Abul Phara-
jius's history of the Dynasties, translated by Dr.
Pocock, was at that time in, or ready for the Ox-
ford press, the edition of which was finished in
the year 1663 : that part of this book which gives
an account of the rise of Mahomet, the Doctor

had

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. £53

had published, as it has been shewn, several years
before; and, upon the importunity of several
learned men, \vho were much pleased \vith that
specimen (more particularly of his great friend,
Dr. Langbaine, who had earnestly pressed him to
it before his death) the whole was now printed in
the original Arabic, with his Latin Version of it.

This Abul Pharajius was a Christian of the
Jacobite sect, of great fame for learning, not
only among those of his own religion, but among
the Jews too, and Mahometans ; and this work of
his is a compendium of the general history of the
world from the creation to his own time : it is di-
vided by him into ten dynasties or governments ;
for so many he reckons up, which are these follow-
ing : the first is that of the holy Patriarchs, from
Adam the first man ; the second, of the judges in
Israel ; the third, of the kings thereof; the fourth,
of the Chaldeans ; the fifth, of the M agi or Per-
sians; the sixth, of the Greeks that were idola-
ters ; the seventh, that of the Franks, for so he
calls the Romans ; the eighth, of the Greeks,
A\ho were Christians ; the ninth, of the Saracens;
and tenth, of the Mogul Tartars.

This work, as is noted above, was published
An. \663, and dedicated to his Majesty King
Charles the Second ; but the love of Arabic learn-
ing was now waxed cold, and the entire piece of
Abul Pharai in the year 1663, met With small en-
1 couragement,

THE LIFE OF

couragcment, whilst a specimen of it, An. 1649,
had ^iven pleasure to all the learned world. But
sucn is the weakness and instability of the human
mind, even when improved by education and let-
ters, that custom and fashion shall, in a few years,
be able to sway it from one extreme to another :
and, perhaps, this inconstancy may, in some mea-
sure, also be imputed 10 the indiscretion of learned
men themselves, who are too apt immoderately to
cry up their own favourite course of studies ; and
when this once comes to be observed, the world
is with difficulty prevailed upon to allow the idol
even its just commendation.

Of this change in the public taste no one was
more sensible than Dr. Pocock himself, as appears
l>y a letter of his to Dr. Thomas Greaves, which
attended a copy of his Abul Pharagii Hist. Dy-
nastiarum, and which, at that learned person's
request, he forced, as he tells him, from his prin-
ter's before the index was wrought off. " If you
" find," adds Dr. Pocock, " any thing in it
" worth the publishing, you must be fain to speak
" for it; for I perceive it will be much slighted :
the genius of the times, as for these studies, is
much altered since you and I first set about
" them ; and few will be persuaded they are wor-
" thy taking notice of. My Lord of London
" asked me if there were any remarkable pas-
" sages in the book ? I answered him only in

" general

<c

e.f
tf

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. £55

" general that I thought there were many ; if you
" should fall into any discourse with him about
" it, I pray note some particulars, as, I think,
" you may that of the first rise of Mahomet's
" religion, p. 100, £c. and that of the rise and
spreading of the Tartars empire, and their in-
cursions, which is in the Latin, p. 280, &c. or
any other passages that you shall think worthy.
" And if you speak with any of your acquaint-
" ance concerning the book, your good word may
" help bear up its credit." Dr. Greaves, in his
answer to this letter, dated from Fulham, writes
thus upon the unfashionableness of Arabic stu-
dies ; " how these studies are esteemed in the
" Universities I know not; in these parts, for
ought I observe, they are not much followed or
regarded> and receive small encouragement
" from those, who, I thought, would have been
" fautors and promoters of them." Nor was
Arabic learning then out of vogue in England
only ; but beginning to decline in Holland also.
In the year 166.9, Mr. afterwards Dr. Bernard,
complains in a letter to Dr. Pocock from Leyden,
that Harder, of that place, who, says he, speaks
Arabic readily, had translated the history of Sa-
ladine, but could not find a bookseller, that
would venture to undertake the work, because
Oriental learning decays here, and books of that
nature will turn to no advantage ; neither, adds

he,

£56 THE LIFE of

he, can Mr. Thcvenot find a bookseller either
here or at Amsterdam, to undertake his Abul-
feda.

The declension of these studies in the esteem
of the public may, in some measure, account for
our author's rising no higher in Church prefer-
ments at the Restoration, when such numbers of
vacant dignities were filled. Barely to be restored
to what he had so many years been deprived of
for his religion and loyalty, and to have no other
reward for his losses, oppressions and persecu-
tions, besides his uncommon learning, and un-
spotted sanctity of manners, but what was due
to him in equity, was a hardship which reflects
more dishonour upon those times than any one
case of the like nature that has come to my know-
ledge: for, in iustice to the men that were then

O ' «J

intrusted with the disposal of Church prefer-
ments, it must be owned that there were very few
eminent ecclesiastics, who, upon that blessed
change of things, were not called up to advance-
ment ; some were not so early preferred as others ,
but, perhaps, our author is almost the only in-
stance of a clergyman, then at the highest pitch
of eminence for learning, and every other merit
proper to his profession, who lived throughout the
reign of Charles the Second, without the least
regard from the court, except the favour some-
times done him of being called upon to translate

Arabic

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 257

Arabic letters from the princes of the Levant, or
the credential letters of ambassadors coming from
those parts ; for which, yet I do not find he had
any recom pence, besides good words and com-
pliments : but he was as modest as he was de-
serving, and probably after presenting his Abul
Pharagius to the King, he never put himself in
the way of royal regards any more.

Before I take my leave of Dr. Pocock's History
of the Dynasties, I shall observe something,
which, though it more properly belongs to this
specimen of this larger work, may not incommo-
diously find a place here : the reader, then, is to
observe, that the celebrated Monsieur Bayle, p.
37, * of his critical and historical dictionary, has
observed a wide difference between Dr. Pocock
and Mr. John Greaves, about the time in which
Abulfeda was advanced to the government of
Hamah, in Syria: the former of these, in his
Specimen Historian Arabum, p. 363, makes this
to have happened Anno Hegirae 710; whereas Mr,
John Greaves, in his preface to Binae Abulfedae
Tabulae, p. 7, 8, places Abulfeda's advancement
thirty-three years later, viz. Anno Hegirse 743.
This difference Monsieur Bayle complains of, as
irreconcileable, and thinks it most reasonable to
suppose Mr. Greaves's account the true one, be-

* Ed. 4. Rotterdam. 1702,

VOL. i. S cause

THE LIFfc OK

cause Abtilfeda is his principal subject, whereas
Dr. Pocock speaks of him only, comme (Fun fort
petit accessoire ; upon which he proceeds thus:
" But is it not very vexatious, that one of Po-
" cock's consequence should not be safely to be
" followed in a point of Oriental learning, and
" that, whilst he published a thing, a colleague of
" his should be making it appear to be false ?'
Not content with this, he repeats the same cen-
sure in his index, under the word Pocock, // est
etonnant, quil ne soit un guide sur en fait c£ Eru-
dition Orientate. But against this confident

' D

charge, Dr. Pocock has been thorougly defended,
by the learned Mr. Gagnier of Oxford, in his pre-
face to the Life of Mohammed, p. 5. For there he
affirms, that what our author, whom he calls Virum
mtegerrimum et solide doctum, has said, concern-
ing the time of Abulfeda's advancement, is per-
fectly right, as being exactly agreeable to the ac-
count, which Abulfeda himself gives of that event ;
and that Mr. Greaves had committed a mon-
strous mistake in his chronology, having con-
founded this Abulfeda with another of that name,
who was the sixteenth of the Mamaluck Kings of

Egypt- .

The ground of the mistake, as the learned Mr.
Sale informs us *, was this : " Mr. Greaves, in

* Notes on Bayle's Dictionary printed at London, Ann.
1734, vol. i. p. 115.

an

<c

«

a
t(

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 259

" an Arabic manuscript, entitled, Al Sacerdan (or
" rather Al Sukkerdan, which is a Persian word,
and signifies a sugar-dish) found the following
passage, as it stands in his Latin translation :
Rex Justus, Columna Religionis, al Soltdn,
" Abulfeda Ismael, Filius Al Melee al Naser,
te sedit super Thronum Regni [in Hamah] post
" amotionem Fratris ipsius Al Malec al Naser
" Ahmed, Ferid quint a xxn Die [Mensis\ al
*' Moharram, Anno DCCXLIII [Hegir<E\ et reg-
navit donee obiit vi Die [Mensis] Rabice poste-
rioris, Anno [Hegirce'] DCCXLVI. That is,
" Al Malec al Sdleh Omadoddin Abulfeda Ismael,
" Son of Al Malec al Naser ascended the Throne
" [of Hamah^l after the deposition of his brother
" Al Malec al Naser Ahmed on Thursday the %2d
" of al Moharram, in the year 743, and reigned
" till he died, the 6th of the latter Rabia in t/ie
<c year 746. This passage Greaves, from a si-
" militude of names (a most deceitful guide), im-
" mediately, and without further examination,
" concluded, must belong to our Abulfeda, and
" no other, and therefore made no scruple to in-
" sert the words [in Hamah] which were not in
" his author, as a thing of course : but had he
" looked into what precedes, and what follows,
" he would have found, that the author is there
" giving the succession of the Ma mine Soltans of

" Egypt."

s 2 1 would

THE LIFE OF

I would not detract from the praises due to
Monsieur Bayle's industry and parts ; but, I be-
lieve, after what has been said, the world will give
me leave, in this partieular instance, to tax him
with a defect, both of judgment and candour.
When, indeed, two writers, equally skilled in the
matter they treat of, differ in their accounts, Mr.
Bayle's rule seems reasonable, and we ought ra-
ther to assent to him, who writes professedly on
the subject, than to him, that speaks of it only by
the by ; though, even in this case, a modest critic
would hardly think his point so secure, as to brand
the author he dissents from, in the manner Mr.
Bayle has done by Dr. Pocock. But then, he
ought to have very good grounds for thinking the
writers equally conversant in the matter they treat
of ; otherwise his determination, though it should
happen to be right, is rash and uncharitable :
whereas, had Mr. Bayle known any thing of Dr.
Pocock and Mr. Greaves, he must have known,
that the former was incomparably superior to the
other, in the knowledge of Eastern writers : he

' O '

had greater opportunities of acquiring this kind of
knowledge, having spent more than twice the time
in the Levant, with the sole view of improving
himself in Oriental learning, than Mr. Greaves
did for that, and various other purposes. Mr.
Bayle's rule, therefore, had no room in the pre-
sent case ; and Dr. Pocock, though speaking of

Abulfeda's

DR. EDWARD POCOCK.

Abulfeda's advancement to be Prince of Hamah,
by the by only, was more likely to assign the true
time of that event, than Mr. Greaves, though it
was his principal subject. It was, indeed, a very
great and grievous mistake in him to conclude, at
first sight, from the bare mention of a prince, in
an Arabic writer, one of whose names was Abul-
feda, that he must mean the Prince of Hamah, in
Syria, without looking at all into that writer's sub-
ject and design, but taking that for granted, which
a little inquiry would have convinced him, was an
utter mistake.

That Mr. Greaves, who, otherwise, was a cau-
tious and accurate scholar, should be prone to an
error, that might easily have been avoided, is the
more surprising, when we reflect, that but the
year before, Dr. Pocock, in his notes on his Spe-
cimen Historiae Arabum, had set down the true
dateof Abulfeda's advancement; that Mr. Greaves
had this piece of his friend's, and highly admired
it, as indeed, he did every thing, that came from
him : but he had, probably, forgot that particular,
and, being then at a distance from his oracle,
could not consult him on every emergency. And
yet it appears, from the letters, that passed be-
tween those two dear friends, about this time, that
Mr. Greaves had consulted Dr. Pocock, and re-
ceived solution from him of several doubts con-
cerning Abulfeda ; but then, these concerned only

the

liih LIU, OF

the readings of the various copies, he uas to print
from; we further find, that he proposes to him
intended vei^ions of Arabic passages that occur in
that very Preface, wherein the grand mistake
stands; and which is more, the very passage from
Al Sacerdan, which misled Mr. Greaves, and his
designed translation of it, is extant in a letter of
his to Dr. Pocock, though without naming the
writer, or the use he intended to make of the pas-
sage from him.

" This following Arabic," says he, " I ( think,
" may be thus rendered into Latin ;" then, after
giving the Arabic, comes his Latin rendering, viz.
11 Finitum est opus Feria 5} ZZndo Die Abno-
" harram."

After another Arabic sentence, nothing to the
present purpose, and its version, we have the other
part of Al Sacerdan's sentence, which he proposes
to translate thus : " Sedit super Thronum Regni
" post amotionem Fratris ipsius ;" how easy had
it been to add one more query, viz. whether the
Abulfeda of Al Sacerdan was the same with the
Prince of Hamah, whose tables he was then pub-
lishing. But of this he seems not to have enter-
tained the least suspicion, though his only autho-
rity for the affirmative side of the question, was
that slender one of agreement in name : so weak
and unguarded against deception are the wisest
and best of .men, at certain hours ! For my part,

I think,

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 263

I think, we should do well to look up to God's
permissive Providence on all such occasions, and
to consider the slips of learned rnen, as documents
to them, and to the rest of mankind, how imperfect
human prudence and sagacity is even when most
improved by study and exercise, that they may not
think of themselves higher than they ought to
think, and learn thence, what constant need they
have to beg his blessing and direction in their stu-
dies, who is the " Father of Lights." But was I
to account, humanly speaking, for this grievous
negligence in Mr. Greaves, or to offer any excuse
for him, it should be the hurry and distraction of
his affairs, for those many years, in which ^he was
preparing the edition of Abulleda : the truth of
this fact, we have under his own hand ; for wri-
ting to Dr. Pocock, about a year after that piece
came abroad, he uses the following expressions :
" I may say for myself, that these five years I
" have been so encumbered with law-suits, and
" diverted from my studies, that, having this year
" found some ease (I know not how) 1 am unwil-
" ling to take those pains I have formerly under-
" gone." Having, therefore, when he wrote his
Preface to Abulfeda neither time, nor inclination
for exact researches, he too easily trusted to ap-
pearances, and, as commonly happens in such
cases, was grossly deceived by so doing.

But to return to our author : after so many and

great

26'4 THE LIFE OT

great proofs of his abilities in the writings and lan-
guages of the East, he began to be esteemed all
over Europe, a kind of oracle in that branch of
karning : such as entered on those studies, ear-
nestly applied for directions from him, and the
Professors themselves sought his advice, with a
deference and submission that is hardly to he
conceived, but by those, who have seen and read
their letters to him. Foreigners, who came into
England, with a design of improving their stock
of Oriental learning, never failed to provide them-
selves with letters of recommendation to him ;
and such, as curiosity alone brought amongst us,
were glad, by the same means, of an occasion to
see, and converse with a person, who was the pro-
digy of his times, for Eastern learning. Those
who had a taste for that part of literature, never
returned without the deepest sense of his mighty

abilities therein : and even thev, who could form

* «/ y

no judgment of Dr. Pocock's peculiar excellencies,
as a scholar, must, doubtless, have carried home
xvith them, the most advantageous sentiments of
his modesty and humanity : in him, they saw a
man, who could preserve his native humility,
amidst the daily caresses and compliments, that
were bestowed upon him by the whole learned
world; one who had contracted no moroseness
from study and retirement ; but who, as well as
he loved books, could leave them to discharge the

offices

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 265

of humanity, and answer the call of his friends
and correspondents : not that the period of his
life, we are now speaking of, was the beginning of
applications to him in this way.

The first of this kind was, a letter from James
Alting, afterwards Professor of Divinity at Gro-
ningen, then a young man, and in England,
written in the year 1641. In this letter he de-
sires to have Mr. Pocock's opinion about the
meaning of the word tD'ltf, Isa. xxiv. 15, ren-
dered Ignes, in the English, and Convalles, in the
Dutch translation. N. B. Valleys is also our
English marginal version.

January the 25th of the next year, Mr, Pocock
had a letter from another learned Orientalist, viz.
Jo. Hen. Hottinger, then a Professor at Gronin-
gen, and after that at Zurich, and lastly at Hei-
delberg : the subject of it was, an account of the
progress he (Hottinger) had made in translating
the Chronicon Samaritanurn into Latin ; a piece
which Hottinger had brought with him from Hol-
land into England, and at the desire of Primate
Usher, had undertaken to translate. He further
certifies Mr. Pocock of a design he had in hand,
of turniner the Helvetic Confession into Arabic,

o *

requesting his direction and assistance in the
work. Lastly, he begs our author's advice, where
he might collect Arabic books and MSS. for his
Schola, where he was strenuous in cultivating Ara-

bic learning,

On

266 THE LIFE OF

On the first of March, 1648-9, Sir Simon
D'Ewes, the collector of Parliamentary Antiqui-
ties, wrote him a letter of thanks, for having, at
his request, translated into Latin certain Arabic
transcripts.

In the year 1652-3, February 26, Dr. Arnold
Boate, then at Paris, employed in collating Pri-
mate Usher's Syriac Penateuch, with copies of the
same version at that place, consults Mr. Pocock
concerning the extent of Mount Libanus in
breadth and length, putting other geographical
queries to him.

The same year, September 30, Mr. John Jacob
Stocker, resident from the Protestant Cantons of
Swisserland to the Parliament of England, desires
Mr. Pocock to procure a catalogue of the Arabic
MSS. in the public library at Oxford, for the use
of Mr. Hottinger, then Professor of the Eastern
languages at Zurich, who was collecting a library
in that way, and erecting a press for those lan-
guages. And, to the same effect, Hottinger him-
self wrote on the 1 1 th of the month following.

o

In October, 16.54, our author was favoured
with a letter from the famous Golius, Arabic Pro-
fessor at Leyden, the only man, perhaps, in
Europe, that was nearly equal to Mr. Pocock
in the knowledge of that tongue : he thanks
bim for his present [viz. Specimen Hist. Arabum]

and

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 267

and for his commendation of the Arabic Lexicon,
which he [Golius] had lately published, acquaints
him, that he intended to publish a second edition
with improvements ; that he had also a Persic
Lexicon, already finished ; but, finding the printer
afraid of the expence, he designed first to send an
Abridgment of it into the world. He also thanks
Mr. Pocock for having recommended to him Mr.
Nicholas Stanley, whom he greatly commends for
his parts and learning. In the conclusion, he begs
Mr. Pocock's judgment on two questions; the
first, about the religious principles of Averroes ;
the second, about the Chatsei, who they were, and
what their religion, language, and customs.

On the Calends of August, 1655, Alting writes
again to Mr. Pocock, recommending to him the
bearer "of his letter, an inhabitant of Berne, in
Swisserland.

The same year, in November, Mr. Thorndike
returns our author thanks in my Lord Primate of
Armagh's name, for his resolution of past quaeries,
relating to opinions of the Rabbi's on a certain
point, and proposes fresh ones.

In February, 1655-6, Matthias Pasor, formerly
instructor to Mr. Pocock, in Arabic, writes his
thanks to Mr. Pocock, for the present of his Porta
Mosis, and offers a conjecture of his own for re-
conciling the Septuagint, as cited by the Apostle,
with the Hebrew of Hab. ii. 4.

On

268 THK LIFE OF

On the 26th of the same month, Mr. John
Toinbes, then engaged in controversy with Dr.
Hammond, upon the subject of Infant Pmptism,
writes about a distinction fathered, as it should
seem, by Mr. Selden, upon the Rabbins, and de-
nied by Dr. Hammond, desiring his resolusion of
the question between them.

The month following. Mr. Alting recommends,
by letter to our author, a person whom he calls
Reverend. Joannem Zolikoferurn, Sangallensem,
Helvetium.

In August, 1^57, Claudius Legendre, of Paris,
who write? himself Conseilleur du Roy, Control-
ler-General des Restes en sa Chambre des Ac-
compts, sent a letter to Mr. Pocock, in which
he recommends to him a poor blind Arabian, then
at Paris, and very skilful in the Arabic language
and customs, and also in the Turkish, as one that
might be useful to him.

In December or January following, Ludovicus
Forgius, Doctor of Physic at Saumur, writes to Mr.
Pocock, desiring his permission to be his disciple,
and that he would explain such difficult passages,
as he (Forgius) should hereafter meet with in
reading Arabic books : which Mr. Pocock an-

o

swered, with a promise of his best services.

Dr. Ralph Cud worth, of Cambridge, the cele-
brated author of the Intellectual System, ad-
dressed himself by letter to our author, March 14,

V /

1657-8.

DR. EDWARD TOCOCK.

1657-8, desiring an extract out of Emir Chond,
concerning the Persian Kings from Cyrus, to Alex-
ander, their number, names, years of reign, and
chiefest actions ; especially, if any thing be found
there, that is agreeable to what is recorded in
Scripture or Greek Histories.

In the same month of the following year, Ja-
cobus Alting, by letter, recommends to Mr. Po-
cock's good offices, two Hungarian youths, who
were travelling for improvement of their studies,
he says, they are pii, cruditi, honest i.

Again, in the same month of the next year,
Alting sends to our author two copies of his book
de Schilo, which he had dedicated to him, and to
his landlord, Dr. Reynolds, and withal, recom-
mends to him the bearer D. Pauli, whom he calls
a most excellent youth, and the son of an orthodox
Divine at Dantzic.

May 17, 1660, Mr. William Seaman, who, at
the request, and by the encouragement of the Ho-
nourable Gentleman so oft mentioned for his
noble zeal to promote and propagate the Christian
religion, Robert Boyle, Esq. consults Mr. Pocock,
as he had before done in this work, about the
propriety of some Turkish words : by which it ap-
pears, that our Professor was looked on, as an
oracle in that, as well as the Arabic tongue.

Theodore Haack, a Dutch gentleman, who had
for some years resided in London, on the ac-
count

9

270 THE LIFE OJ

count of a religious and learned design, wrote to
Mr. Pocock, June 18, 1(760, recommending to
him two gentlemen, the younger a Baron of Seltz,
of near relation to his Highness, the Prince, Elec-
tor Palatine, the other Mr. Fabricius, who was
like to succeed Dr. Hottinger at Zurich : at the
same time he acquaints him, that Theodorus Pe-
trsBiis was printing, in Holland, his Psalterium
Copticum. About the same time also this gen-
tleman recommended t\vo Germans, one of Hes-
sia, a Civilian, the other of Tburingia, Student in
Physic.

March 16, 1660-1, Hottinger writes to Dr.
Pocock from Heidelberg, to acquaint him,
that he had dedicated a book to him, which he
sends by one * Horneck, a Palatine, one, for his
age, well acquainted with the Oriental languages,
who was coming over to learn English, and to
make an acquaintance with our connoiseurs.

The latter end of the month following, the Ho-
nourable Robert Boyle, Esq. desires Dr. Po-
cock to favour, with his advice and directions,
Elzevir the Leyden printer, who was coming into
England, and he thinks going to Oxford, to see
what he can get out of our books and MSS. touch-
ing a new edition of Josephus. Which however,
I think, he did not publish.

* He was afterwards an eminent preacher at the Savoy,
and author of several books in the devotional way.

2 August

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 271

August the 1 6th of this year, Alting, in a letter
proposes a difficulty in the prophecy of Balaam,
and recoinmends the bearer of it, Joh. Jacob de
Losse, of Berne. In a postscript, dated August
the 26th, he owns the receipt of a letter, since the
finishing of this, in answer to a former one, in which
Alting had proposed his opinion of the word WlD,
which same opinion the Doctor tells him, he him-
self had formerly defended, which Alting be-
seeches him to believe, he had not before observed ;
otherwise he should not have propounded it.

On the 10th of May, 1662, his Serene Highness
Charles Lewis, Elector Palatine, did Dr. Pocock
the honour of a letter, signed with his own hand,
desiring him to favour with free access to him,

O '

Frederick Miege, son to his Vice- Chancellor, who
was desirous of improving his knowledge in theo-
logy, and the Oriental languages, at Oxford. And
to the same purpose Hottinger wrote likewise, tel-
ling Dr. Pocock, that this gentleman having seen
the Universities of Germany, was now going for
England, which he calls Abstrusioris Literature
Sedem.

In the end of the same month, Mr. Thorndike,
in a letter to our author, recommends a Jew of
Amsterdam to him, whose business at Oxford
was, the vending of a book, which he had printed,
and which Mr. Thorndike conceives to be a fit
entrance into the reading of the Rabbins. He

also

272 THE LIFE OF

also expresses some hopes, that this Jew might be
converted to the Christian religion.

June 3, of this year, Isaac Avandano (the same,
I presume, who afterwards taught Hebrew in Ox-
ford) brought letters recommendatory from Dr.
Caste! to Dr. Pocock, in which that learned person
calls him an oracle, unto which, all those who
travel with public designs, are wont to make their
resort.

Dr. Morley, Bishop of Winchester, wrote to our
author, May, 16', 1663, in favour of the bearer, to
whom he desires he would extend his care and
kindness, and directions for learning the Hebrew,
and other Oriental languages; adding, that, if he
was not much deceived, that person would make
very good use of them. He does not name the
party on whose behalf he writes ; but, by com-
paring the time, and some other circumstances, I
am induced to conjecture, that it was Mr. George
Hooper *, afterwards Dean of Canterbury, and

* He was first, Chaplain to Bishop Morley, whe presented
him to the Living of Havant, near Portsmouth, and after-
wards to the Ptectory of East- Wood- Hay, in Hants: after
that, he became Chaplain to Archbishop Sheldon. This very
year he commenced Master of Arts at Christ Church. In short,
it is fact, and certain, that Mr. Hooper, in the former part
of his life, was both encouraged and assisted by Dr. Pocock,
in the prosecution of his Oriental studios, and in the applica-
tion of Arabic learning, towards clearing up difficulties in the
Holy Scriptures, and more especially in the Book of Job.

then

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 273

then successively Bishop of St. Asaph, and Bath
and Wells : and, if I guess right, Bishop Morley
presaged of him very justly ! For he lived, till he
had not his superior for piety, extent of learning,
and every good quality, that could adorn a bishop,
a gentleman, or a scholar*

On the 28th of the same month, Mr. Boyle sent
a paper to Dr. Pocock, wherein Mr. Oldenburg,
ihen Secretary to the Royal Society, begs, on the
behalf of an ingenious French Gentleman, his
correspondent our Professor's thoughts upon a
certain inscription, found at Persepolis, among
some ruins, " which," adds Mr. Boyle, " intelli-
" gent travellers of my acquaintance, that have
" visited him, profess to be the noblest and most
" worthy of observation they ever met with in
" Europe or Asia."

July the 25th of this year, Mr. Oldenburg
writes a Latin answer, to that of Dr. Pocock,
which gave an account of the Persepoiitan in-
scription, thanking him for it, and promising to
transmit it to his correspondent. He further ac-
quaints the Doctor, that a friend of his correspond-
ent was about publishing Petrus Blesensis, a writer
of the 12th century, who had freely taxed the
manners of the Court and Clergy of Rome, de-
siring, if any dAxfaroc, of that writer should be
found in the libraries "of either University, to have
them procured, and requesting the Doctor to
VOL. i, T make

274 THE LIFE OF

make proper inquiries at Oxford. Certain it i5,
that four ycar^ alter this, viz. 1667, the works of
Fetrus Blesensis were published at Paris, by Pe.
trus de Gussan villa, in lolio, with notes and va-
rious lections, who, therefore, most probably,
Avas the friend of Mr. Oldenburgh's correspond-
ent abovementioned.

The 6th of the following month, Golius writes
to our author, recommending to him a Transyl-
vanian of an illustrious family, named John Na-
danyi.

•*

And thus, at one view, the reader has the his-
tory of the applications made to Dr. Pocock, af-
ter his second return from the East, and the va-
rious recommendations of foreigners to him, down
to the year 1663 ; which, I think, will be com-
pleat, after I have told him, that the pious and
learned Dr. Hammond frequently consulted him
by letter, whilst he was preparing his excellent
Annotations on the New Testament, and also on
the Psalms ; that with respect to the latter, the
books into which that work was divided, were con-
stantly submitted to our Author's animadversions,
before they saw the press ; which stood still, so
long as Dr. Pocock's urgent affairs withheld him
from surveying what copy was sent to him. So
great deference did even the most learned of his
contemporaries pay to the judgment and erudition
of this humble and excellent man !

I bare

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 275

I have nothing to add under the present year,
(1663) but that our Author, about the middle of
it, was visited with sickness, which, as I take it,
proved a very severe one, being that, which ended
in lameness, that continued to the day of his
death. After he had contracted this lameness, he
could not walk for exercise, as before he was
wont to do, twice a day ; but was obliged to sub-
stitute, instead of walking, the exercise of pul-
ling at a dumb-bell. Dr. Pocock's eldest and
very learned son Edward, in a letter to Mr.
Smith, of Dartmouth, places this sickness two
years later, viz. an. 1665, which was the year of
the plague, and in which, consequently, was an
entire cessation of correspondence. But this is
certain, that the first compliments we meet with
on Dr. Pocock's recovery, are in a letter of Mr.
Boyle's, dated June 18, 16*68, and then he only
rejoices, that Dr. Pocock had recovered a great
measure of strength. Dr. Narcissus Marsh,
some time ago Primate of Ireland, in a letter
written by him, when Archbishop of Dublin,
speaks of this long sickness, and of our Profes-
sor's eminent patience and resignation under it,
but gives us not the year in which it happened ;
only says, it was many years before his death ;
that it was occasioned by a humour, which fell
into his thigh, and that thereby he became lame,
continuing so to his dying-day.

T 2 After

£76 THE LIFE 0?

After till?, we meet \vith nothing remarkable in
the series of our Author's correspondence, till the
vear ]666, when Mr. William Seaman* pub-
lished his Turkish New Testament, undertaken at
the desire of the Honourable Mr. Boyle, and
greatly forwarded by his liberality. A copy of
this he begs Dr. Pocock to accept of, in a letter,
dated July 17.

In April, 1668, Dr. Pocock had a letter from
Sir Joseph Williamson, with an Arabic letter in-
closed, from the Emperor of Morocco to King
Charles the Second, desiring from him a transla-
tion of it, they having nobody in town masters
enough of that language, to give the contents
of it.

In June following, Mr. Boyle, writing to Mr.
Samuel Clarke, after the expression of his joy at
Dr. Pocock's recovery, desires him to put him in
mind of the promise he made him, [Mr. Boyle]
that he would extract some unusual explications of
Hebrew texts out of his ancient grammarians :
but I cannot find, that our Author ever perfected
any such design, nor that he left the appearance
of it behind him.

This learned person had been Chaplain to an English
Ambassador at the Porte, and was a Non-conformist, but a
moderate one : by his letters he appears a sober, discreet, and
modest man.

The

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 277

, The year following, Mr. Seaman published his
Turkish Grammar and Turkish History, concern-
ing which, several letters passed between him and
our Professor, who bestowed great care and pains
in correcting it, and in putting the Preface into
better Latin, as Mr. Seaman himself freely and
thankfully acknowledges : the same he did by the
Epistle dedicatory to Mr. Boyle, who advanced
twenty pounds towards the work, to be paid in
books.

Some time this year, or the latter end of the
foregoing one, Peter Clauston, a learned Dane,
as I take it, visited Oxford, and became ac-
quainted with our Professor : in his return home
he was accompanied, as far as Leyden, by Mr.
Edward Pocock, the Doctor's eldest son, then
Student of Christ-Church ; and from thence, Mr.
Clauston writes to Dr. Pocock, giving him an
account of his son's kind reception from all the
learned of that place, on the account of his fa-
ther's great learning and humanity. He takes this
opportunity to recommend two of his countrymen,
travelling to England, unto the Professor's notice,

o o * *

the one a son of the celebrated Antiquary Wor-
mius, the other Mr. Borneman, whose father had
been Secretary to the King [of Denmark,] and
each of whom had brothers that were Professors
in the University of their country.

Hierouymus Harder, May the first of this

year

•J78 THE LIFE OF

year, consults our Author on several difficulties,
relating to the History of Sultan Saladine, which
he was then preparing to publish with a Latin
translation.

June the 17th, Alting writes from Groningen,
laments, that he could not see Dr. Pocock's son
in those parts, congratulates him on his recovery
of health ; complains, that his colleague Maresius,
out of envy, had charged him with Heresy and
Sociniaism; that he had given much the same
treatment to the Leyden Divines, and particularly
to the famous Cocceius ; because they would not
come into his censure, upon an appeal to them.

Mr. Francis Vernon, then at Paris, in a letter,
dated Sept. the 5th of this year, at the request of
Mr. Justel, acquaints Dr. Pocock, that a friend
of his [Mr. Justel's] intended to publish the
works of St. Leo Papa, and of Prosper Aquita-
uus, and desires the Bodleian Library might be
consulted, to see if any MSS. could be found
there, that would be useful to his design *.

.1 March

* Father Quesnel actually published these works at Paris,
in 1670, and therefore, probably, \\as Mr. Justel's friend,
here spoken of: I am the more confirmed in this, because in
the following December, Mr. Vernon owns the receipt of a let-
ter from Mr. Bernard, inclosed in one from Dr. Pocock, which
had given him great satisfaction, and because another of Mr.
Vernon's letters, after this, mentions a present of books sent
by Father Qucsnel to Mr. Bernard. Lastly, Father Ques-

neL

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. &

March the 3d, 1669-70, Mr. Bernard, from
Leyden, writes, that Gronovius and his son were
preparing a new edition of Polybius, with the
Notes of Casaubon, Valesius, and their own, and
corrected by some manuscript copies, and that
they desired to have that in the Bodleian Library
collated with the printed copy, and transmitted
to them.

The 19th of the same month he writes again,
and says, that Harder, having translated the His-
tory of Saladine, cannot find a bookseller to un-
dertake the printing of it, so great was the decay
of Oriental learning ; for which reason also he
adds, that Mr. Thevenot cannot find a bookseller,
either there, or at Amsterdam, to undertake his
Abulfeda.

This year was farther remarkable for the publi-
cation of Dr. Castel's Lexicon in seven lan-
guages, after ten years immense labour : towards
which, Dr. Pocock had contributed, by lending
three jEthiopic MSS. and ten JEthiopic MS. li-

( ?

turgies. We shall hear him hereafter complain-
ing, how ill rewarded all his learned pains were,
which he had expended on this Lexicon. I shall
only add, that, at the time of his death, he had a

* ' * » *

large number of the copies on his hands ; as ap-

nel, in his 12th Dissertation upon St. Leo's Works, pays a
compliment to Mr. Bernard, on his indefatigable zeal for
the promotion of Literature.

pears

280 THE LIFE OF

pears from this circumstance, that in his last will,
he bequeathed 100 sets of them to Dr. Compton,
then Lord Bishop of London.

April the 110th, of the year following, Lud.
Ferrandus, a most surprising young Frenchman,
of whom more by and by, made his application
from Paris, by letter, to Dr. Pocock, acquaint-
ing him, that he had undertaken to translate the
annals of the Kings of France, and the Ottoman
Emperors, a MS. in the Royal Library, written
formerly in Hebrew, by Joseph the Priest, the
son of Jehossua, and intending to illustrate this

o

History with Notes likewise taken principally from
Arabic writers, he humbly desires the Doctor to
supply him with what such Arabic books, as he has
read, say of the French history, and chiefly of
the expeditions by them made into the Last, or at
least, to direct him to the books wherein memoirs
of this sort are to be found.

This year, Mr. Huntingdon, a great friend and
future correspondent of our Professor, set out for
Aleppo, to officiate there, as Chaplain to the
English Factory.

Mr. Yernon, from Paris, dates a letter No-
vember 12, of the year we are now in, the chief
design of which was to entertain Dr. Pocock with
the History of Monsieur Ferrand, above spoken
of, to whom he had just delivered the Doctor's
answer to his letter. His story is as follows :

" Monsieur

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 281

" Monsieur Ferrand is by birth a Provencal,
" a native of the t-wn of Thoulon, of some 25
" years of age : from his infancy he was always
*c addicted to the study and admiration of Oriental
"languages; to which, besides the dispositions
" which nature had given him, fortune adminis-
" tered some accidental helps : for being born in a
" maritime town, where was a great concourse
" of strangers, and particularly of Levantines,
" brought thither by the allurements of trade and
" riches, which they hope to acquire by a corres-
t( pondence in France ; among much other ac-
" quaintance with those foreigners, he says, he
" made one very intimate with an Arabian mer-
" chant, a person as well furnished in his mind
" as he was rich in his fortunes. This man he
" represents, as one the most abounding with
" courtesy, the most obliging in behaviour, and
" the most learned of any he had seen or con-
" versed with before ; nay, he questions, whether
" he ought to prefer any that he has seen since.
" This man" he says, " if he had not had na-
" tural longings after Eastern fashions and writ*
" ings, which, he professes to have had, would
" have inspired him with a love and esteem for
" them ; so extremely did his person seem to re-
" commend and grace, what Mr. Ferrand's fancy
?* had given him great inclinations to before. To

" this

282 THE LIFE OF

" this Arabian, then, he made his constant resort;
" with him he spent all those hours which were
" in his own disposal, and none of his studies or
" recreations were pleasant to him, except such
" as he took in his company. This Arabian had
: great store of manuscripts, and these he taught
: him to read ; many of these were historical,
" and with these he diverted himself. Thus he
" spent, what he calls the happiest part of his
" life, till the style of the world, and the com-
" mands of his friends, brought him to Paris,
" where they intend he shall complete his studies :
" he hath his residence in the University, in the
" College des Thresoriers, where his friends de-
" signed him for physic ; but his own genius ir-
" resistibly carries him another way, viz. to
" Oriental studies, to which, for the most part,
" he applies himself. The main of his time he
spends in the King's library ; where his great
assiduity and eminent parts have brought him
acquainted with the learned persons that resort
" thither : so that now he is not only known for
" a prodigious proficient in Oriental learning,
among men of science, but is also taken notice
of by Monsieur Colbert, who hath the care and
' superintendence/ of learning, as well as of
" what else contributes to the honour and ad-
" vantage of the French nation. This able mi-

" nister

«

«

tl

t(
tt

DR. EBWARD POCOCK. 283

<c nister looks upon Monsieur Ferrand, not only
" as an accomplished scholar, but also as an useful
" member, and ornament of the state."

On the 28th of the same month, Harder,
shortly after Professor of Oriental Languages at
Leyden, probably, in the room of the great Go-
lius, writes to Dr, Pocock, and gives him a most
melancholy account of the neglect of Arabic lite-
rature in that University, or rather of the con-
tempt it lay under there : two causes he assigns
for it ; first, Golius, he thinks, did not exercise
the students, not even those that were maintained
at the public expence, in these studies, nor use
his {authority to make them take pains therein :
fidly. He blames the avarice of the age, which
gave no attention to any sciences, that were not
greatly lucrative.

In the beginning of the following year, Hieron.
Harder writes, that he was very lately made
reader of the Oriental tongues by the Curators
of Leyden : in which employment, his hopes of
giving them satisfaction were founded on our Pro-
fessor's direction and assistance, which, he flat-
tered himself, would not be wanting to him upon
any emergent difficulty.

Another letter from the same hand, dated
]May 23, 1671, brought a recommendation of
Mr. Furcardus, a licentiate in law, and a man of
good learning, who was going for England.

In

CSi THE LIFE Of

In this year, the Professor's eldest son, Mr.
Edward Pocock published, with a Latin transla-
tion of his own, an Arabic piece of Ebn TophaiJ,
the title of which was, Philosophus Autodidactus,
sivc Epistola A hi Jaafer Ebn Tophail de Hai Ebn
Yokdhan. In qua ostenditur, quomodo ex Itifc-
rionun Contemplatione ad Superiorum Notitiam
ratio humana axcendere possit. It is an ingenious
fiction, giving the History of Ebn Yokdhan, who,
the Author tells us, according to some, was pro-
duced in one of the Indian islands under the
Equinoctial, where men come into the world
without father or mother. Others relate his be-
ginning in this manner : over against that wonder-
ful island was another large one, under the sove-
reignty of a proud and jealous prince, who, hav-
ing a beautiful sister, strictly guarded her from
marrying, because he despaired of finding her a
husband of suitable quality : but a relation of
his, by name Yokdhan, nevertheless privately
married her, and by him she had the hero of
this fable, Ebn Joe kd ban : as soon as he was
born, and his mother had suckled him, for fear
her marriage should be discovered, she exposed
him to the sea, in a chest properly contrived, at
high water, which carried him to the opposite
island abovementioned ; where his cries brought
a she-goat, which had lately lost her kid, and
which suckled and brought him up. He proved

afterwards

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 283

afterwards of a discerning and contemplative spi-
rit, and by progressive reasonings with himself,
from what he saw, formed a system of Natural
Philosophy, Morality, and Metaphysics. In the
50th year of his age, Asal, a person of a con-
templative disposition, who came thither from a
neighbouring island, for the sake of retirement,
found Yokdhan, taught him language, and got
from him all the account he was able to give of
his original, and the history of his gradual ap-
proaches to a knowledge of, and intimate conjunc-
tion with God. Dr. Pocock prefixed a learned
Preface to his son's book, concerning the name
and age of the Arabian, that wrote the original,
\vhich led foreigners, especially those of France,
to consider the whole as the Father's performance.
Mr. Vernon, writing to Dr. Pocock from Paris,
Sept. 7, of this year, tells him that he had deli-
vered a copy of this book to Monsieur Capel-
lain, of the Sorbonne, for which he was very
thankful, being much delighted with it ; he ac-
quaints him that his own copy he had presented
to Mr. Huygens, of the Pcoyal Academy; that
Mr. Herbelote, and Mr. De la Croix, both emi-
nent Oriental scholars had read and approved it :
he adds that Mr. Thevenot had Abn Tophail (the
Arabic author, translated by Mr. Pocock) his
life in manuscript ; that he informs him he was a
philosopher of great note and eminence in his age,
5 that

28G THE LIFE OT

that he was Averroes's master, and that he had
like to have made a new sect among the Maho-
metans, being withal of an active spirit.

In September this year, 1671, the learned Mr.
Beveridge, afterwards Bishop of St. Asaph, writes
his thanks to Dr. Pocock, for having perused the
Arabic paraphrase of the canons, with his (Mr.
Beveridge's) translation, desiring the continuance
of his care, and submitting himself wholly to his
judgment.

Mr. Vernon, in November of the same year,
writes again to our author from Paris, acquainting
him, that, together with his, would come two
more letters, one from Dr. Capellain, the other
from Monsieur Ferrand, to both of whom he had,
by the Doctor's own direction, .presented his son's
book ; he is sorry he had not begged a copy for
Mr. Thevenot, who was much taken with the
fancy of the piece, and intended to make the Pro-
fessor a present of the life of its author, Abn
Tophail, in Arabic. He adds, that Abbot Pan-
ciatichi by that time arrived at Florence would
make the value of it known there, and that he
perceived they every where made account of it.
Mr. Ferrand's letter is yet extant; he gives a
handsome compliment to the piece, declaring him-
self at a loss which to admire most, the author's
elegance, or his interpreter's exactness. Mr. Ca-
peliairf s letter did not accompany Mr. Vernon's,

as

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 5237

as will appear from the date of it in the next ar-
ticle.

Monsieur la Grange le Capellain, a Sorbonist,
and author of Mare Rabbinicum Infidum against
Chavigny, to whom Dr. Pocock, as above, sent
a present of his son's book, and thanked the
Doctor for it; having received a letter since from
him, writes, in answer to it, one, dated Feb. 17,
Iff72, in which he recommends the bearer Ottsius,
a Swiss, a person well skilled in biblical and rab-
binical Hebrew, and now going for England to
learn Arabic, tanquam ad font em unde J'dicius et
uberius hauriri possit. He inquires about Rabbi
Tanchum, mentioned in the Professor's letter,
whether it was a printed book, or only a manu-
script : so little known was that most excellent
commentator till Dr. Pocock apprized the world
of him.

Ottsius, the learned Swiss above-mentioned, was
also at the same time commended to Dr. Pocock's
regards, by Mr. Ferrand : herein also he desires
to purchase a copy of the Philosophus Autodi-
dactus for the famous Francis Bosquet, first Bi-
shop of Lodeve, and afterwards of Montpellier,
who, hearing of the book, by letter from Mon-
sieur Ferrand, earnestly desired him to procure
one, and impatiently expected it.

From two of Mr. Bernard's letters this year, I
find the Professor was much uro;ed bv his friends

o •>

to

288 THE I.IFE or

to publish his chiliads of Arabic proverbs which
had lain by him, finished for the press between
thirty and forty years : the encouragement he had
to proceed in it seemed, at this time, not incon-
siderable. Dr. Castel had promised to secure a
hundred books for Cambridge, and a still greater
proportion might be depended upon in Oxford,
besides what the assiduity of his good friends in
London, such as Mr. Boyle, Dr. Gale, Mr.
Haack, &c. might get off: but for reasons, of
which we can give no account, nothing was done
in the business either then, or at any time after-
wards.

Mr. Huntington, in February, 1671, wrote to
Dr. Pocock, desiring, if any yet remained undis-
posed of, some copies of his Arabic Grotius de
Veritate, which Mr. Boyle readily and thankfully
supplied, to the number of thirty, and with them
twelve copies of Mr. Seaman's Turkish Cate-
chism : of these our Author gave Mr. IJuntington
notice, in a letter, dated the 23d of August fol-
lowing: to accompany these, he sent three dozen
of our Church Catechisms rendered into Arabic,
which he had just then printed for the use of the
young Christians in the East, intending that more
should follow if God permit. He tells his friend
he was at a loss out of what copy to take the
Commandments, which, at last, he determined
to do out of the Polyglott Bible. At the end, he

farther

DR. KDWARD POCOCK. 289

farther tells him, are added some places of Scrip*
ture, containing the most general principles of
religion : to which should have been added, the
institution of the Lord's Supper, from 1 Cor. XL
but their haste to have it out of the press soon
enough for the present opportunity of sending
them prevented it. He proceeds to express his
wishes, that the chief Prayers of our English Li-
turgy were in Arabic, and his astonishment that
he never found the divine hymn of Te Deum in
the eastern languages: the reason of which pro-
bably was, that this hymn was the composition of
a Latin father, (St. Ambrose) whereas, 1 think,
the eastern Liturgies were made agreeably to the
formularies used in the Greek Church, How-
ever, Dr. Pocock, as his son informs us, added
this hymn to his Arabic catechism. He repeats
his former request to procure him the books of
which Mr. Huntington had a catalogue, such as
were written by Jews in the Arab language.
" But," continues he, " my chief longing is for
" the first part of Rabbi Tanchum's book, which
" he calls JtfO^tf StfrQ, Cetab ol Bian, which
" are his notes on the whole Old Testament.
" That first part he calls DN'VDbtf, Al Coliyat,
" i. e. Generalia, wherein he treats of all things
" necessary to the interpretation of Scripture, as
" metaphors, parabolical expressions and words,
" either unusual, or of divers acceptions and dif-
VOL. i, U " ficulties

TMTC LIVE OF

ficulties in chronology, divers readings, and
" the like." lie recommends to him the me-

thods by whu-h, when he was 'n the east, he got
all the pieces he then had of lauchum, viz. Jo-
shua, Judges, Samuel, and the Kings, and Je-
remy, Ezekiel, and the twelve minor Prophets.

On the 17th of August this year, Mr. Olden-
burg, before- mentioned, wrote to Dr. Pocock on
the behalf of Dr. Fogelius, one of the chief phy-
sicians of Hamburgh, desiring the professor to
give him the meaning of some Turkish names of
medicines, and also to inform him, whether the
book de Voluptate Animi, of Badroddini, be at
.Oxford or Cambridge, and whether it be a MS.
or a printed book.

By several letters written from Dr. Castel, in
March of the next year, I find that our Professor
•intended then an edition of his Arabic Chiliads
-of Proverbs, and that in order thereto, he printed
and dispersed a specimen of. the work. Dr. Cas-
•tel earnestly pressed the perfecting of that piece,
and, to encourage it, frequently repeated his
promise of becoming responsible for one hundred
copies. From one of his letters it appears also,
that Dr. Pocock was then thought to be preparing
something of Rabbi Tan chum and Maimonides's

L >

More Nebochim, for the public : as to the former
of these, the reality of it is intimated by himself
in a letter to Mr, Huntington this year, and that

it

DR. EDWARD POCOCK, 291

it was the desire of a learned Sorbonist (De la
Grange le Capellain) as likewise of some at
home : but for the latter, 1 rather take it to have
been the design of the Doctor's eldest son, Mr.
Edward Pocock. For about this time, Mr. Locke,
since that so well known to the world, in a letter
to the father, mentions his having engaged his son
at Salisbury, in translating and printing a part of
Maimonides, and that he had spoken with Mr.
Boyle about it: he desired also to have it printed
just as that piece translated by Mr. Prideaux *
was. He further assured Dr. Pocock, that it
would greatly encourage those who wished well ta
the work, if he could assure them that it should
be done under the father's direction. But of all
the.e, Dr. Castel urged most the publication of
the Arabic Chiliads, as most grateful to all the
truly learned, offering to leave no stone unturned
to effect the vending of the edition: " Not/'
adds he, " of the Proverbs only, but as to the
" other Jewish authors also, having a very high
" esteem and value for them, especially Rabbi
" Tanchum, offering, at the same tinxe, himself
" carefully to correct the errata." The same
learned Arabic professor of Cambridge was at
this time labouring to purchase the Golian library
for his University ; a private person of his ac-

* Afterwards Dr. Prideaux, the learned Dean of Norwich,

u 52 quaintance

THI: I.JIE OF

quaintance l>eing willing to venture abou! sever
hundred pounds for it. But the executors hopinr
to make a more advantageous sale, refused the
offer, of Mhich they dearly repented afterward,
being compelled more than twenty years after to
sell them by auction, and probably to less advan-
tage; at which time, Dr. Edward Bernard made
a journey into Holland, and bought the choicest
of them for Dr. Narcissus March, then Arch-
bishop of Dublin. See Dr. Smith's Life of Dr.
Bernard, pp. oO, 51.

This year Mr. Iluntington travelled to Mount
Libanus, in order to make some learned discove-
ries there, but was prevented by some infirmity,
which, when he was within tuo hours of the pa-
triarch, came upon him, and disabled him from
walking. However, he procured R. Tanchum's
Morshed, in three volumes, and some imperfect
pieces of his upon the Scripture, which he sent*
as a present, to our Professor: a better copy of
Al Morshed was afterwards transmitted to Mr.
Huntington, from Damascus, of which he offered
Dr. Pocock his choice. He had likewise found,
to his great joy, Cozari in Arabic, the whole dis-
putation.

In March, lo/3. Dr. Martin Fogelius, of Ham-
burgh, before-mentioned, having received our
Professor's answer to his queries concerning the
Narcoticks of the Turks, by the means of Mr.

6 Oldenburg;

DR. ED \7ARD POCOCK. 293

Oldenburg: to some of which he replied from the
Lexicons, to others from his own use and obser-
vation, whilst he lived amongst them : he now de-
sires a morn distinct account what quantities, how
oft, to what end, and with what effect lie took
them. He further consults him about a difficulty
in the Nubian geographer: to which Dr. Pocock

"

obligingly and fully replied. Dr. Fogelius had
then a Tract by him ready for the press, De Tur-
carum Nepenthe, which made him more particu-
larly inquisitive on these subjects.

In September of the present year, Mr. Hun-
tington wrote a long epistle to Dr. Pocock, which
produced his next public performance, viz. the
Arabic Version of our English Liturgy: it may
be remembered, that the Professor, writing to Mre
Huntington more than a year before, liad wished
that the chief Prayers of our English Liturgy
were in Arabic : taking occasion from hence, and
from his Arabic Catechism, he represents ;to the
Doctor what excellent service our Liturgy wouJd
do in the east, if it were universally translated
into the same language. " Undoubtedly," adds
he, " this (the Catechism) is but a specimen of
" your further design, and that thereby JQU.
" would guess how it might be accepted before
41 you accomplished the whole." " Really," con-
tinues he, " if you will believe the people, they
" wonder a Frank should understand their tongue

" better

THE LIFE OF

" better than the most learned among them : and
" they see the two tables once more intire and
" perfect, not abused and broken, as in all the
<c methods and systems of divinity, that the Ho-
" manists have hitherto conveyed, for ought I
" know, into these places " *' And," pro-
ceeds he, <c if this be so acceptable, what womd
" the whole service be when the people here shall

read it so fully expressed in the language where-
" in they are born ? No one is, nor ever will be,

(besides yourself) fit for the employment : for
" it well becomes the best Liturgy in the world
" to be best translated ; and in this case, every
" one that knows your name, knows where alone
" to rest his expectation."

Another inducement he offers, which is, that it
"will convince a sort of men who have brought a
fancy out of Europe, and which they would have
believed here, that we have little or no religion in
England, and that what we have, is quite over-
spread with errors and heresy : this he thinks the
natives more apt to credit, because (which is a
thing very unhappy) we do not punctually observe
the solemn days and times in which their religion
chiefly consists. To this he adds the need that
the Greek Christians have of devotional books ;
their. esteem for the Church of England above all
others; their agreement with it in doctrine, ex-
cepting the points of the procession of the Holy

Ghost

DR. EDWARD KJCOtK.

Gho&t and Transu Instantiation; concerning the
latter of which they talk Very differently, neither'
agreeing with one another, nor yet,, at different
times, with themselves.

Towards the expence of this translation, Mr.
Huntington generously offered twenty pounds at
present, for procuring of paper, intimating that he '
would readily advance the whole charge, if he
lived to be worth so much, if it should happen
that no other benefactors offered their assistance.

Before our author could receive this proposal,
he had written a^ain to Mr. Huntiriizton, still re-

fj v5 '

minding him of Rabbi Tanchum's works, for get-

O f?

ting of uhich intire, he was at present the more
solicitous, because the learned world, both at
home and abroad, desired that something of that
author might be published. He likewise recom-
mends to him an enquiry after what is to be had
or known from the Samaritans, and from the
Karrairn Jews, if any such were in those parts.
Lastly, he begs that he would examine the Sy-
rians what creature is by them called Yoruro,
whether it be not a jackall : hereby he hoped to
correct a mistake in the usual rendering of the
Hebrew Tannim, by dragons, which neither howl,
nor have breasts, both which are attributed to the ..
animals called Tannim in the Hebrew Scriptures.
At the same time, he desires Mr. Huntintfton

^^

would inform himself concerning the noise which

gstriches

THE LIFE

ostriches make. Whoever recollects vrhat Drv
Pocock has written on both these subjects in his
commentary on Micah i. 8, which was made pub-
lic four years after this, will think it no improba-
ble conjecture that he had now begun that \vork,
or, at least, was laying together an apparatus
for it.

In November of this year, 1673, Monsieur le
Capellain paid his respects to the Professor, in a
letter, the bearer of wrhich was a studious and
noble youth, his name not mentioned, who came
into England to see, and be acquainted with, our
men of letters, and more particularly with Dr.
Pocock.

The next year, L e. 1674, appeared the fruits
of Mr. Huntington's instances with Dr. Pocock
for translating our English Common Prayer into
Arabic : he did not render the whole of it into
that language, but only the chief Prayers, Hymns,
&c. agreeably to what himself had some years
before wished to see done. The title of this
piece, as left with us by bis eldest son, in the ca-
talogue of his father's works, is Partes praecipua3
Liturgiae Ecclesiae Angiicanae, Lingua Arabica.
1674. Mr. Edward Pocock's more particular
account of this Version of his father's is, that it
contained the daily Morning and Evening Prayers,
the order of administering Baptism, and the
Lord's Supper : to which he likewise added, the

doctrine

DR. FDWAKD POCOCK, 297

doctrine of the Church of England, compre-
hended in the thirty-nine Articles, and the argu-
ments of our Humilies. Mr. Huntmgton had
not, as he expected, the honour of defraying the
expence of these useful labours of his friend: for
the University of Oxford most worthily supplied
the entire expences of the book ; thereby preclud-
ing ail private benefactions ; of which more here-
alfcer.

On the 20th of March, peace being then con-
cluded between the English and Dutch, and the
literary correspondence once more open between
Dr. Pocock and his friends in the low countries,
Mr. Alting, of Groningen, took the first oppor-
tunity of saluting the Professor, congratulating
the happy change of affairs between the two na-
tions, and recommending the bearer of the epistle,
Anthony Kiingler, of Zurich, a student in divi-
nity, who, having spent a year at Groningen, and,
after that, a winter at Leyden, was going thence to
England.

In the same month Dr. Thomas Greaves, in a
letter to our author, expresses his wishes that some
one would publish the life of the pious Cyril, Pa*
triarch of Constantinople, together with the occa-
sion and manner of his death : " I have," says
Dr, Greaves, " moved Sir Cyril Wyche to under-
" take it, and have offered to contribute some
" assistance." The reader, perhaps, may remem-
ber

THE LIFE Of

ber the account given of this excellent and illus-
trious person towards the beginning of the present
history, and particularly how he honoured Sir
Peter Wyche, then ambassador from King Charles
the l;ir.-t, at the Porte, with standing surety to his
kon at his baptism there, and giving him the name
of Cyril : and this will sufficiently explain how it
came to pass that Dr. Greaves applied to that
gentleman, and thought him the fittest to write the
Patriarch's story.

This year also Dr. Pocock had the agreeable
news from Aleppo, that his friend Iluntington
bad, alter long enquiry, procured for him Abu
"VTallids Allama.

It was May in the year following, before the
translation of the English Liturgy into Arabic
reached Mr. Huntington at Aleppo; who, upon
the first hearing that so acceptable a present was
in its way to him, wrote a most pious and thank-
ful letter to the Professor, dated May 13, l6?5.
" I find," says he in it, " the University envied
" me the honour of being a benefactor to so good
" a cause — — — However, I'll recover what I
ei can by the religious distribution of the books."
He proceeds thus : " I have several of the Gro-
" tius's, yet by me, rather out of the apprehen-
" sion I have of the malice of some Christians
" (who will hardly allow that a man of a diff'e-
" rent opinion should be instrumental to the pro-

" pagation

DR, EDWARD POCOCK,

•*' pagation of the right faith) than from the un-
" prompted accusation and downright danger by
" the Turks. I did cut out the last book in two
41 or three copies."

Upon the actual receipt of the Common Prayer
made Arabic, which happened before the end of
May, Mr. Huntington wrote again with a profu-
sion of religious joy to Dr. Pocock for his labour
of love, as he calls that work, and the pledge of
his affection to those people, among which he for-
merly lived : " I expect," adds he, " it should
" meet with the greatest hindrance from the Latin

o

" fathers: for they are unwilling the people should
" know too much, that is, more than they think
" fit to teach them; nor is this a needless suspi-
" cion : for if they were so much aggrieved, as I
" heard they were, because you printed the Second
" Commandment at length in yours, which very
" impudently they have expunged out of their
" Catechisms, how must they be concerned to
" find their doctrines, some of them thwarted
" and positively denied ? Neither is it reason-
" able to expect they should allow the articles,
" though of a whole church, when they contra-
" diet their opinions and interests, since, upon the
" same account, they dare renounce an express
" law of God !" The good man proceeds in own-
ing his obligations, not only to the Professor, but
to the Vice Chancellor and the University,

praying

-1HL LllL OF

praying for their happiness and prosperity, and
successful progress in the like good works : nay,
such was his zeal for the promotion of true reli-
gion, by the means then put into his hands, that
he wishes to have borne some small share in the
cxpcnce, though only in the binding of the books
in marbled paper, which he calls the most taking
and proper dress for-them in those countries.
In July of this vear, our author received from

•/ v'

Dr. Castel his thanks and compliments for the
present of our English Liturgy, most elegantly
transfused, as he expresses himself, into Arabic.
The reader will pardon me for observing on this
occasion, that this very learned gentleman, by
conversing almost constantly with the eastern wri-
ters, seems to have made their lofty ways of ex-
pression habitual to him, so as not to have been
able to forbear them, even in his Epistolary style.
Mr. Huntington writes again the following No-
vember, and acquaints Dr. Pocock concerning his
old acquaintance father Celestine, the Carmelite,
and brother to the great Golius, that he was then
gone in mission, with three others, to the coasts of
Malabar, to confirm the Christians of St. Thomas
there, and to convert infidels; that he enquired
most affectionately after him (Dr. Pocock) and
made Mr. Huntington a visit, on purpose to un-
derstand the Doctor's welfare, and to convey his
respects unto him : " Very glad he was," adds

he.

«u
(.1
«
a
(t

tc
t(

DK. EDWARD POCOCK. 301

he, " to hear of your performance in Eytychius,
" whom Selden, he said, had injured, and in Abul
" Pharai. a book he commends mightily, but had

* O •/ '

not seen them in print. Your specimen he had
perused, and gives it due applause : he had
heard of your Version of Grotius, and was won-
derfully pleased with some copies of it, which
I presented him, in your name, and promised
" me a Thomas a Kempis, de Imitatione Christi,
" by him translated into the same language, some
" few of which he brought with him from Rome.
He hath left a little poem of St. Ephrem there
ready for the press, with his translation into
" Arabic, Turkish, Latin, £c. lie renews his
<c age, he saith, and although seventy- two is healthy
" and vigorous, and walks as nimbly as ever,
" One reason why he was chosen for this employ-
" ment, may be his skill in Syriac, the holy tongue
" of those Christians to whom he is gone. From
" him I could not have expected a fair account of
" your late undertaking ; nor is it in the service
" itself, but the Articles and Homilies, where such
" people find fault : and though it was not de-
" signed for them, they are ready to keep others
" from esteeming it ; and to raise the reputation
"• of their own doctrine, they are in interest bound
" to decry ours.

I send hereby two letters from the Samaritans
" in answer to Dr. Marshal's, though in both of

" them

t»

44

41

THE LI Ft

them there is but one passage properly an
swered : they arc in a strange amazuiuenl,
know not what to think ; but mighty willing
they are to believe they have such brethren,
because they would fain be the better for them.
" And if ever you hope to get any of their few
*' books, it must be upon some such considcra-
" tion, wherein, as care should be taken not to
" abuse them, so neither to cheat yourselves."

The history of this correspondence between Dr.
Marshal and the Samaritans of Sichem, and of
what gave rise to it, not being in every one's
hand, I shall he-re briefly lay the whole matter be-
fore the reader out of Dr. Huntington's epistles to
the famous Job Ludolphus, author of the JEthio-
pic history. Whilst the former of these was chap-
lain to the English factory at Aleppo, he took
Galilee and Samaria in his way to Jerusalem. At
Sichem, where, and at Gaza, the small remains of
the Samaritans are found, he visited them in order
to get information, and, if possible, some books
from them. The Samaritans asked the Doctor if
there were any Hebrews in his country, not mean-
ing Jews, as he afterwards perceived, whom they
hate, but Samaritans, to whom only they allow the
name of Israelites and Hebrews : the doctor, sup-
posing they asked about Jews, innocently answered
in the atflrmative ; and, at the same time, read
some sentences out of their sacred books, and
5 written

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 303

h

written in their own character. Hereupon they
cried out with transports of joy, these are truly
Israelites, and our dearest bretiiren. The Doctor
took pains to undeceive them, affirming that the
persons to whom his answer related were unques-
tionably Jews; but they hugged their mistake,
and would bv no means be set ri^ht. After this,

tr O '

the Doctor told them, that thev would do well to

* *

send a book of their law, with an account of their
religion, times of prayer, sacrifices, high priests,
feasts, fasts, and all their books, from which it

•

would certainly appear whether they were of the
same faith or not. Accordingly they sent a copy
of their law, and such letters as he described,
\vhich were transmitted to Dr. Marshal, Rector
of Lincoln College in Oxford, and answered by
him; and to this they again replied, the corres-
pondence continuing many years, and not ending,
but with the death of that very learned person.
See Huntington'i Epist. Lond. Edit. & Th. Smith,
S. T. P. An. 1704, p. 55, 56.

Henningus Witte, who, more than ten years be-
fore, had seen and conversed with Dr. Pocock in
England, wrote to him, May 24, \6j6, on the
following occasion, from Riga in Livonia, his own
country : he had for some time been engaged in a
design of writing encomiums on all the most fa-
mous writers of that age, in each part of literature,
and had already published some Decads, contain-

304 THE LIPE OF

ing Memoirs of Divines, Civilians, and Physicians.
He was now collecting Panegyrics on the most
illustrious Philologers, Historians, Orators, and
Philosophers ; but wanted Memoirs of the chief
Englishmen, that, in the present century, have
cultivated these Sciences, Laving no relation of
this sort in his possession, except of Mr. Camb-
den : he begs, therefore, that our author would, by
the bearer, transmit to him, whatever he had to
communicate in this way.

This year also began a correspondence between
Dr. Pocock and Dr. Dudley Loftus, of Dublin, a
clergyman of a noble family in the kingdom of
Ireland, and famous for his skill in the Oriental
languages : he had been assisting to Dr. Walton,
in the Polyglott Bible, having translated the
JEthiopic New Testament into Latin, and was
useful to Dr. Castel, in his Heptaglott Lexicon,
as is owned by each of them in the Prefaces to
their several works. It is somewhat wonderful,
that this correspondence had not commenced
sooner, considering the nearness of these learned
persons, and the alliance of their respective stu-
dies : nor had it, perhaps, begun so soon, but for
the accident of a Chaldee priest, who desired Dr.
Loftus's letter to our author, signifying his good
behaviour in Ireland, and the success of his jour-
ney, to which, place Dr. Pocock, among others,
had given him commendatory letters. Having

this

DR. EDWARD POeoCK. 305

J.i;!s opportunity, he desires the Professor to in-
form him, \vhat Oriental writers say concerning
Dionysius, the compiler of a Catena upon the
Bible, from Oriental interpreters; and whether
any of this Dicnysius's works be extant in Ox-
ford. Dr. Loftus had already published a Tran-
slation of this Catena, upon the Gospel of St.
Mark, into English, and intended an edition of
him upon the four Gospels, which was all he had
of him. There are also some other learned and
curious quaeries in this letter, too long to be tran-
scribed here.

Much about this time also, I conceive, there
was a literary commerce between Dr. Pocock, and
Christian Noldius, of Copenhagen, author of the
Concordantiae Particularum Hebraeo-Chaldaica-
ruin, printed in the year 1 679 : such a thing is
spoken of by that learned person, in his Vindicise,
wherein, upon all occasions, he makes very ho-
nourable mention of our author.

Towards the end of this year, or rather early
in the year following, viz. 1677, was published
Dr. Pocock's Commentary on the Prophecy of
Micah : what induced him to write on this, and
afterwards on .three more of the lesser Prophets,
rather than on others, is not easy to determine :
the general opinion is, that it was pursuant to a
scheme of Dr. Fell, then Dean of Christ Church,
and afterwards Bishop of Oxford, who, intending

VOL. T, X to

306 THL LIFE O*

to oblige the world with a Commentary on the en-
tire Bible, or, at least, of the Old Testament,
made by the learned hands of that University, had
divided the task among a set number of them, and
that the Books of Micah, Malachi, Hosea, and
Joel, fell to the share of our Professor. I should
be the more ready to give into this account, be-
cause it comes confirmed by his eldest son ; and
yet it seems strange, allowing this to be true, that,
in his Dedication of his Commentary on Hosea to
Bishop Fell, he should particularly mention the
encouragement he had from him, to put that
work to the press, and not take the least notice,
that either this, or the two preceding Commenta-
ries, owed their first conception to him. All that
Dr. Pocock himself has let us into, in his Preface
to his first Commentary, that on Micah, is, that
his chief endeavour in those Annotations, was to
settle the genuine and literal meaning of the text,
i. e. of the Hebrew original : he had observed,
that interpreters often rendered this very diffe-
rently from what we read in our English Bibles,
and that in them also we have various readings,
or rather renderings in the margin. He further
acquaints the reader, what methods he used to
come at this literal meaning : and translations be-
ing a principal help, he is hence led to speak of
them, especially such as are less generally known,
viz. the Syriac and Arabic, But, because it

would

DR. EDWARD POCOCK, 307

would be in vain to look after the literal meaning
of the Hebrew Text, so long as it was presumed
to be corrupt (a prejudice that then increased
much through the writings of Capellus and others,
against the antiquity of vowel points in the He-
brew Bible) Dr. Pocock labours to shew, first,
the improbability of such a surmise, and how un-
likely it was, that the Jews should have corrupted
their own Scriptures, either before or after the
time of Christ : as to the argument for this sup-
posed corruption, arising from the difference there
is at present between the Seventy translation made
from the Hebrew some centuries before the com-
ing of Christ, and the Hebrew copies now extant,
he shows, that it will prove nothing, till it shall
appear, 1st, That the copy, used by the Seventy,
was truer, than any preserved among the Jews,
and derived from them to us. 2dly, That the
Seventy Interpreters always followed the letter of
their Hebrew copy, never venturing to give us
their sense of it in different words, or had not some
notions of the words, which are not now so
usually known. 3dly, That the Version of those
Interpreters has been transmitted to us pure, as
they made it, and free from alteration or mixture :
but none of these things, he thinks, has been, or
can be sufficiently proved. In a word, as the
English Version of the Bible, at present used, ge-
nerally follows the letter of the Hebrew text,

x % which

308 THE LIU: or

which was the main object of our author's inquiry-,
so it heenme but one labour to give us the literal
meaning of the original, and to defend our autho-

o O

rized translation; which last he somewhere de-
clares to have been the main end of these com-
mentaries *.

Besides this, he had, probably, a design to shew
the usefulness of Rabbinical learning towards un-

o

derstanding the Old Testament ; and particularly
to give the learned world such a taste of Rabbi
Tanchum, as might induce them to encourage the
publications of him, which the Professor had
much at heart, though he could never effect it.

13ut the predominant view of this great and
good n'^in, in commenting on the Prophets, was
to rescue many noble predictions, concerning
Christ and the times of the Gospel, from that
artful confusion into which they had been brought
by the Jewish Doctors, who seldom leave the
letter of Scripture, but when it serves the cause of
Christianity : in all such cases, grammar is no
longer with them the rule of interpretation, but
the tradition of their forefathers, set up at h'rst out
of mere opposition to the Christian religion, is
their sole guide. To encounter, therefore, with
these, scarce any one was so well qualified, as

His words are : to adjust that of our last deservedly
approved translation with the original, I look on as my main
business. Comm. on Hos. chap. v. ver. 2. p. 218,

Dr.

DR. EDWARD POCOCK.

Dr. Pocock, who had all their Oriental learning,
and knew their writers better than themselves did.
Here then was a glorious field for one of his at-
tainments to display himself in. And was therq
nothing else to recommend his Commentaries, the
vast service done therein to the argument for

o

Christianity from prophecy, will give them im-
mortality.

In the end of his Preface to the Commentary on
Micah, our author informs us, that the thing first
proposed was, to have given the meaning of the
text in brief marginal notes, but this was laid aside,
lest the method should be deemed too magisterial :
and, indeed, nothing has contributed to render
Dr. Pocock's Commentaries less perfect, than his
insuperable modesty, which sometimes hindered
him, in very material points, from giving his
judgment upon differing expositions. This, he
apprehended, would be objected to his perform-
ance ; but at the same time declares, he dared not
do otherwise. The generality of readers, finding
this now and then to be the case, have taken up
an opinion, that Dr. Pocock was generally, if not
universally, thus indeterminate : but how much
they have wronged him herein, will be shewn
hereafter, when we come to form a judgment of his
Commentaries at large.

This same year also Dr. Pocock published his
Commentary on- Malachi, which, proceeding on

the

THE LIFE OF

the same principles, and being directed to the
same ends with that on Micah, requires not a dis-
tinct consideration. Something, however, muj-t
be said concerning the Appendix to this second
Commentary, which seems to have been a Latin
Sermon, or rather a part of one preached before
the University of Oxford, upon the Messiah of the
Jews, whom they call Ben Joseph, of the Tribe of
Ephraim : an invention of theirs, long after our
Saviour's days, to answer such predictions in the
Old Testament, as will not agree with him, whom
they call Messiah Ben David. In this discourse,
our Professor shews the novelty and absurdity of
this notion of a two-fold Messiah, and that Mai-
inonidcs, one of their most learned Rabbins,
seems to have been ashamed of it, never once
mentioning the name of Ben Joseph when he ex-
pounds the Prophecies concerning Messiah, but
adapting them either to David, or the Messiah,
who was to spring from him.

It was some allay to Dr. Pocock's satisfaction,
in having finished the above-mentioned Commen-
taries, that he had an account of the death of two
friends : one, and the principal of them, was the
learned Dr. Thomas Greaves, brother to our au-
thor's dear friend, Mr. John Greaves, and often
mentioned in this history ; the other, Mr. Francis
Vernon, of Christ Church, between whom and Dr.
Pocock many letters passed, whilst the former re-
sided

DR. EDWAKD POCOCK. 311

sided at Paris. This unhappy gentleman after-
wards travelling into Persia, just before he entered
Spahan, was hurt in a rencounter, upon a very
trifling occasion, and died of his \vounds in that

O '

city, two days after. Intelligence of this came in
a letter from Mr. Huntington, dated at Aleppo,
June 1, 1677-

The same learned and pious gentleman writes
again to our author, July the 4th of the following
year, thanking him for the present of his Com-
mentaries on Micah and Malachi. He adds,
that he got the Samaritan Chronological History
from them with much ado, and hoped likewise for
a comment on their law; of which affair he had
wrote at large to Dr. Marshal. He concludes
with an account of the dreadful havoc made at
that time in the Levant by the plague ; at Smyrna
there died 400 in a day, and some places were said
to be depopulated by it.

Henry William Ludolph, nephew to the famous
Job Ludolph, author of the ./Ethiopia History,
then upon his return from England to his uncle
in Germany, desires, by letter, to carry what
commands Dr. Pocock had for that country.
Mr. Boyle had told him of the correspondence
they had at Oxford with the Samaritans, at
Sichem : of which he desires to carry some ac-
count to his uncle ; and therefore prays an an-
swer

1HK IIl'K OP

*wer to the following queries ; Whether there was
an answer sent from Oxford? Of what contents?
Who manured the correspondence? In what

lan<rna«re J:.v what means it was conveyed, and

j

if there came since a second letter from the Sama-
ritan^ ? To all these he received satisfactory an-
swers, which encouraged the uncle afterwards to

' O

address letters to the same Sichemites, by a Portu-
guese Jew, that lived in their neighbourhood, to
\\hich he received answers, which he printed in
•the year 1688, uith a Latin translation and notes^
adding thereto a Latin version of the letters from
the same people to Oxford. Soon after the ar-
rival of the younger Ludolph at Franckfort, his
uncle wrote to Dr. Pocock a letter of thanks, for
the favours he had done his nephew, during his
late residence in England : and taking this oppor-
tunity, he desires some Arabic transcripts from
Oxford, relating to the /Ethiopia History, which
he [Job Ludolph] was then preparing, and begs
an explanation of some passages in the Doctor's
Abul-Farai, and his notes thereupon, pertinent to
the same purpose. And lest this letter should
have miscarried, he sent another about a month
after, repeating the principal matters contained in
the former, and adding thereto, one more request,
viz. to have an Arabic manuscript in the Bodleian
Library, mentioned by Mr. Selden, in his Uxor

Hebraica^

DR. EDWARD POCOCK, 313

Hebraica, transcribed and transmitted to him, for
which, as well as the other Arabic extracts, lie
-would thankfully pay the transcriber.

About this time, Dr. Narcissus Marsh, first
Fellow of Exeter College, and afterwards Prin-
cipal of Alban Hall in Oxford, and an intimate
friend of our author's, was preferred to be Provost
of the College of Dublin, the same who became
Bishop of Leighlin and Fernz, and afterwards sue*
cessively Archbishop of Cashiels, Dublin, and
Armagh. He was himself eminently learned, and
a great encourager of learning in others : after his
settlement at Dublin College, he wrote to Dr.
Pocock, who either wanted leisure to write, or else
a good opportunity to send his answer, till Fe-
bruary in the year 3679-80, at which time, he ex-
pressed his great want of Dr. Marsh's good con-
verse and eomnany. As to literary news, Dr.

* » */ /

Pocock writes to his friend in the following
manner: " I look not abroad among the new
•" books; I have not so much as seen Vossius's
" Tract of his Sybils, and such others as are with
•" it ; but I am told, that he speaks therein things
" that are derogatory to Rabbinical learning (but
*' that matters not much, as for other things) and
". particularly (which is mctgis dolendum) to bring
i: disrespect and contempt on the Hebrew Bible;
a and all authoritative, without good proof or
^ reason: and I hear, that by some at coffee

" meetings,

JU THE LITE

4< meetings, it is cried up. It may be suspected,
" that the intention is to bring it into doubt, whe-
" ther we have any such thing, as a true Bible at
" all, which we may confide in, as God's word.
" It is, 1 see, by some wished, that the verity of
" the original text might be vindicated from such
" sceptical arguments, by some of learning and
" vigour, such as yourself. However, I doubt
" not, but that, by God's Providence, as the He-
" brew text hath hitherto stood firm, so it will
" still stand on its own bottom to wear out all as-
" saults against it, and be, what it always was,
" received as the undoubted word of God, when
" all the arguments and objections against it are
" vanished into smoke."

I have been the larger in this transcript for
reasons, which will appear hereafter.

The same letter gives us reason to believe, that
Dr. Pocock had no sooner published his Com-
mentaries on Micah and Malachi, but he turned
his thoughts upon that of Hosea, in which, at this
time, he appears to have made a considerable
progress. •'*' If you ask," adds he, " what I am
" doing, I am now in the press with the conclu-
4* sion of the fifth chapter of Hosea; and, per-
" haps, the beginning of the sixth must be joined
" with it, to make up the entire N n in the second
" alphabet; so that what is already done, is
" longer than those other Commentaries of Micah

and

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 315

*k and Malachi together, and, perhaps, is too long.
'* I must be forced for a while to make a pause,
" and hope, if God give life and leave, to go
" over the other chapters in a shorter way." But
the Doctor found himself in the end mistaken:
for the remaining chapters take up as much room,
in proportion, as the five first did.

To this letter, Dr. Marsh wrote an answer,
dated April 17, 1680; in which he complains
of the want of new books, occasioned by the
ignorance and obstinacy of the Dublin booksel-
lers. As to Dr. Pocock's complaints against
Isaac Vossius, and his abettors, " I am very
" much grieved,5' replies Dr. Marsh, " at what
you say concerning some inens design to inva-
lidate the authority of the Hebrew text, and
thereby of all the Old Testament. And cer-
tainly, it would not be hard to make them sen-
i: sible of their error (if not ignorance therein)
" and retract : but such a work will never be
41 undertaken by any man of ordinary modesty,
*' whilst you live, if you do it not yourself: and
et certainly, were it not for the other work,
" wherein you are engaged, you would find it a
" hard matter to resist all the importunity that
" would be made use of to that purpose." After
this, he proposes a Critical Exposition of his own
upon James v. 12. desiring our Author's opinion
about it : he also puts a qucrie to him, what might

be

U
it

ii

310 THE LltE OP

be the ground of the Rabbins (Ben Gerson espe-
cially) supposing Phinehas to be Elias.

On the 2iytti of this same month, Dr. Marsh
writes again to our Professor, chiefly on the same
subject, but more largely than in the former :
and as I trust the reader will not be displeased
to have the sedate thoughts of so great a man,
on a subject of great importance, I will lay the
whole of it here before him.

" I find, Dr. Vossius's last, as well as former
11 books, have not done much good (I wish they
" have not done the contrary) here: we have not
" many that can judge of the original ; but I hope
" to breed up good store that way, since ue have
%c an Hebrew Professor's place lately settled on
" the College, to which Lecture I make all the
" Bachelors of Arts attend, and be examined
" thrice every week, and they are likewise to be
" publicly examined in Hebrew, before they can
" take their degree of Master in Arts, which I
" sometimes do myself. I say. I think, we have

V *, '

" not many in the whole kingdom, that can judge
" of the original Hebrew; and therefore, what-
" soever Dr. Vossius says, because his name is
" Vossius, ipse dixit, is enough to make it be-
" lieved ; which seems to me the more insuffer-
" able, because they cannot, or else will not make
" any distinction between Gerard arid Isaac Vos-
" sius, nor consider which way a man's talent lies,

" and

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 3J7

€C and whether he deals in a subject which he can
" master, or in one that masters him : if they would
" do but thus much, I believe, ipse dLrif, would
" quickly stand for nothing, and that Isaac would
" not long pride himself with the plumes, where-
" with Gerard's fame has adorned him. Sir, I
" make the same wishes and prayers with you,
" and have the self-same hope, that God will
" raise up some able man to vindicate (I may
" say) his own cause : but I must add, that all
" mens eyes are fixed upon you ; and I dare say?
" none will have the confidence to think of putting
" pen to paper on such a design, whilst you live."
To both these letters, the Professor made
answer, the first of the following September, hav-
ing then just returned to Oxford, after an ab-
sence of some weeks, at his son-in-law Emes's,
in Surrey. To Dr. Marsh's Pcabbinical Queries
he replies very particularly ; but as to his Expo-
sition of James v. 12, he only says, that it seems
very ingenious, but that he dare not interpose his
judgment concerning it. He greatly approves,
both in this and his next letter, of Dr. Marsh's
designs for promoting religion and learning in
Ireland ; but takes not the least notice in either,
of his intimation, that the world expected from
him an answer to Vossius de Sibyllis, unless he
intended, as a tacit excuse from that service,
what he says of the slow progress he made in

commenting

318 THE LIKE OF

commenting on Hosea, owing to what he call?
the laziness of his age, and other inabilities.

On the 24th of May, 1681, Mr. Huntington,
from Aleppo, acquaints Dr. Pocock, that he had
been in Egypt, where he had in vain searched
after Rabbi Tanchum's pieces. Abu-Walid's dic-
tionary he had met with, under his own hand, as
was pretended, which was transcribing ; as also
a book of the Karaim Jews, which he hoped to
receive from Cairo. It should seem, that our
Professor, in his last letter to Mr. Huntington,
had given an account to him of Vossius de Si-
byllis ; concerning which, in the conclusion of
the letter before us, he answers thus :

" I have not seen Vossius de Sibyllis ; but to
" decry the Hebrew text has long been his de-
" sign and practice : and it is a great while since
" Hulsius and Home have taken notice of it ;
" but I am no judge of the controversy. Whilst
" men speak and fight too not for truth, but vic-
" tory, we may well expect heterodox opinions
" and seditious actions."

After what has been said of Dr. Pocock's and
his friends indignation against the abovementioned
piece of Isaac Vossius, and the expectation of
mankind, that the Professor, being the first man
in the world for knowledge in these matters,
would appear an advocate for the Hebrew Text,
against the confident sssaults of that writer, it

may

DR. EDWARD FOCOCK. 319

may seetn wonderful, that he neither undertook
the service, nor excused himself to his friends,
who modestly incited him thereto, but at the same
time earnestly wished to see him engaged in the
controversy : but for his conduct in both these re-
spects, many reasons may be assigned. As to his
not entering avowedly into this dispute, his na-
tural aversion to polemic writing, had there been
no other hindrance, would alone account for it :
and when to this we add his great age, (being then
not more than three years short of eighty) it will
hardly be deemed a wonder, that he, who in his
youth and vigour had always avoided controversy,
should not chuse to begin such troublesome work
in his old age. His close attention to the Com-
mentary on Hosea might be urged, as a third im-
pediment to an engagement of this kind : he had
then but half finished that design, and his time of
life admonished him to avoid every interruption
thereto. What he had hitherto done in it cost
him three or four years, and the usual course of
nature forbad him to hope for more than so many
to come : common prudence, therefore, would re-
strain a man, under all these circumstances, from
digressing into new employment. Besides this, I
am of opinion, that if none of these reasons had
stood in Dr. Pocock's way, there were discou-
ragements arising from the person, he must have

opposed, and the nature of the cause he was to

defend.

320 THE LIFE OF

defend, which would have deterred him from
being directly concerned therein. Isaac \rossius,
though very learned in his way, was a man of
strong passions, and not over-patient ot contra-
diction. Could, therefore, Dr. Pocock have pre-
vailed on himself to debate publicly a point of
great importance, both to religion and learning,
with a cool and candid adversary, he knew himslf
too well to enter the lists, on any occasion, against
one of a different disposition. Besides, the warmth
and honesty of his grateful mind would at any
time hilve made him loth to put on the unfriendly
appearance of a declared adversary to the son of
his old and infinitely esteemed patron, Gerard
Vossius ; for whose sake he preserved a great re-
gard to his son Isaac, though greatly disapprov-
ing many of his sentiments : insomuch, that when

O «< '

Dr. Pocock's eldest son visited Ley den, he had
his father's express commands to wait on Dr. Vos-
sius there, as we have it under his own hand, in
a letter to Mr. Smith. Lastly, the controversy
itself, through the prejudices and passions of men,
on both sides, became of so delicate a nature,
that it was difficult even for a man of judgment
and temper to enter into it, without displeasing
all parties. On the one hand, the men of Vos-
sius's sentiments could be satisfied with nothing
short of giving up the Hebrew text, as corrupt^
and setting up the Septuagint Translation as the.

only

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 321

only pure Canon of the Old Testament Scripture ;
which, it appears. Dr. Pocock could by no means
approve of, having declared against it, as an hy-
pothesis, that would destroy the certainty of the
Jewish Scriptures. On the other hand, the parti-
sans for the Hebrew Verity were not to be satis-
fied with a defence of the Hebrew Text, in a rea-
sonable sort, as to all its essentials : to please
them, even the accents in the Masoretick Text must
be insisted on, as of Divine appointment, and
coeval with the text itself; whilst the Greek of
the LXX was to have no mercy nor quarter, but
to be deemed a translation originally bad, and,
by frequent transcribing, become so corrupted, as
to be of no certainty nor use. But our Author was
not disposed to give into either of these points;
he rightly judged it, therefore, most expedient not
directly to engage in a dispute, wherein, after in-
finite disquiet to himself, he found no way to
please either side ; and yet, as we shall find anon,
he took a course to apprize the world of his sen-
timents in the main parts of this controversy, and
to convince Vossius and his adherents, if they
were not hardened against all conviction, that the
Hebrew Text was fairly defensible, and not at so
so great a distance from their favourite Greek
translation, as they were wont to imagine. In
order thereto, in his Commentaries on Hosea and
Joel, he entered more largely and more frequently
VOL, i. Y into

-(J5 THE LIFE OF

into the discussion of the seeming differences be-

o

tween the Hebrew Text and the Septuagint Trans-
lation, than he had done in his two former Com-
mentaries, reconciling them, without prejudice
done to either. Happy had it been for the truth,
if others, who opposed the extravagancies of Vos-
sius, had observed the same decorum and judg-
ment with our Author ; if, like him, they had de-
fended the Masoretick Text, without giving up the
LXX Version: particularly Father Simon*, who,
whether from secret scepticism, or a design of
reducing us to a necessity of admitting the autho-
rity cf his Church, as the basis of revealed re-
ligion, made free with all the originals of the Bible
in their turn, the authorized Latin Version not
excepted, and opposed the translation of the
Seventy, without defending the Hebrew Text from
any other, save wilful corruption, Among others,
who have given our Professor his just praises, for
conciliating the Hebrew and the Septuagint, in
his Porta Mosis and his Commentaries, I must
have leave to make particular mention of the very
learned Dr. Lee, in his admirable Prolegomena
to that tome of Dr. Grabe's Septuagint, which
contains the Historical Books, chapter the first.
There, proceeding upon the moderate sentiments
of -Bishop Walton, Bishop Pearson, and Dr. Po-

* In the Critical Hiftory of the Old Tefatraent.

cock,

DR. EDWARD POCOCK.

cock, he has laid down rules, by the due obser-
vance of which, all controversies between the
zealots for Hebrew verity, on the one hand, and
the Septuagint Version on the other, may be hap-
pily extinguished, and those sacred treasures may
be rendered each beneficial to the other, and to
the cause of Christianity in general.

In July this year, 1681, Dr. Pocock, in a let-
ter to Dr. Marsh, acknowledges the receipt of
his Letter and Book of Logic, then published by
him, continuing to complain of the slow progress
of his Commentary on Hosea, and of its prolix-
ity, neither of which, as things stood with him,
would admit of a remedy.

In October following, Andreas Arnoldus, a
German, then in London, writes to our Profes-
sor a particular account of a work printed at
Vienna, the year before, by Francis a Mesgnien
Meninski, Knight of the Holy Sepulchre at Je-
rusalem, Counsellor, and first Interpreter to his
Imperial Majesty: it was partly a Lexicon of the
Turkish, Arabic, and Persic Languages, and
partly Grammars to all those tongues.

The next year Mr. Huntington returned from
Aleppo, and gave Dr. Pocock the good news of
his safe arrival at Paris, in a letter dated thence,
June the 27th, where he had the pleasure to meet
two old friends, Sir Richard Graham, then
created Lord Preston, and Ambassador at the

r 2 French

5-4 TH1? LI IT. OF

French Court from the King of England, and

~ o '

Mr. \Vi»an, his Lordship's Chaplain, a very
good, as well as a very learned man. lie re-
counts, \vith a truly Christian concern, the per-
secution then begun against the Protestants of
that country, and adds, that he foresaw some un-
toward resolutions would be taken about them,
from an agreement made among the Bishops, to
summon all the Ministers in their several Dio-
ceses, and exact an account of them, for their
refusing the Catholic assemblies ; though by se-
veral edicts they have been exempted from all
episcopal visitations and jurisdiction.

In this same month Dr. George Hooper,
formerly mentioned, wrote to the Professor on
the following occasion : he had formed some learn-

o

ed and curious conjectures concerning the blessing
of the Patriarchs, in the 49th chapter of Genesis;
wherein chiefly, by the help of the Arabic tongue,
he discovered the blessing bestowed on each Pa-

o

triarch, to be couched in his name : desirous he
was to have Dr. Pocock's judgment on his per-
formance, which, according to his usual modesty,
he himself held in small esteem : nor did he pre-
vail on himself to have it published, till a little
before his death, which happened in the year
1727, forty-five years after the date of this letter;
then he put it into the hands of the reverend and
learned Air. Hunt, now the worthy Professor of

Arabic

DR. EDWARD POCOCiC. 325

Arabic in the University of Oxford, who, accord-
ing to the Bishop's directions, printed it with a
Preface and Notes, collected out of the Arabic
Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, The whole
impression consisted but of 300 copies, designed
chiefly for friends, and the expence of it was de-
frayed by Mrs. Prowse, the Bishop's daughter.
I shall only add, that, in this letter, Dr. Hooper
owns the Professor's favour to him, whilst he
was learning the Arabic tongue, and modestly
takes shame to himself, for not having made a
suitable proficiency therein : a particular, which
strengthens the probability of my former conjec-
ture, that this was the anonymous young man
whom Bishop Morley recommended to Dr. Po-
cock's direction, in the study of the Oriental
languages.

Dr. Loftus, of Ireland, wrote to our Profes-
sor, April 19, 1683, acquainting him, that he
had lately met with a panegyrical oration upon
Abul-Pharaji (whose History of the Dynasties
Dr. Pocock had published twenty years before)
written by Dioscorus, Bishop of Gacarto, and a
contemporary of his, which clears him from the
imputation of apostacy ; that in this panegyric
was recited a catalogue of Abul-Pharaji's works,
which he sends inclosed. He adds, that he was
now translating this panegyric, with an intent to
publish it.

In

TliK. Lll-r: OF

In the monlh iullf;uing, I\Ir. Strype (Vmce, well
known to the world, by having written the Lives
of the four first Protestant Archbi-hup?, and the
Annals of the twelve first years oi Queen Eliza-
beth's reign) acquaints Dr. Pocock by letter, with
the design of reprinting Dr. Lightfoot's English
Works in one volume, in folio ; and that they
waited only for some manuscript pieces and let-
ters of his, which were to be joined therewith,
beseeching him, if any such were in his hands, to
communicate them to him.

About this time Dr. Huntington, through the
recommendation of Bishop Fell to the Duke of
Ormond, was preferred to the Provostship of
Dublin College, which was become vacant by Dr.
Marsh's promotion to the See of Leighlin and
Ferns : and from thence, on the 29th of May, in
the next year, he answered a letter of Dr. Po-
* cock's, dated the 13th of the foregoing February.
He informs his old and dear friend, that P. Aga-
thangelo, his correspondent at Bassora, had pur-
chased for him, the two Books of the Sabians or
Mendaeans : one of which, according to the fabu-

1 ' O

lous tradition of that country, \vas given by God
to Adam ; the other, to John the son of Zecha-
riah ; that there was a third paid for, but not yet
received, which was given to the Angels 33,000
years before the creation of Adam. " But/'
adds Dr. Huntington, c( to what purpose am I

" at

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 327

" at all this expence, if none of you will make
"out the language? Therefore, pray, Doctor,
" think of it once again ; for I will send Dr.
" Piques's papers to you once more, because I
" know not a likelier (Edipus to unriddle this
" Sphinx." This Dr. Piques was a learned Sor-
bonist, who, the year before, had wrote a long
letter to Dr. Huntington upon the subject of the
Sabian or Mend SB an language, and his conjectures
about it *.

January

* In two of F. Agathangelo's Letters to Dr. Huntington,
we have the following account of these Sabians or Men d sc-
ans : That they unjustly assume to themselves the name of
Christian, deserving rather to be esteemed a tribe of uncir-
cumcised Jews : that if ever the equivocal denomination of
Christian belonged to them, on the account of some Chris-
tian Symbols and Observances, they are now degenerated
from all appearance of Christianity. Their principal books
are three : the first they call Sahaf Adam, which our first
Father Adam, according to them, received immediately
from God ; the second, Sahaf Hieahie, i. e. the son of Ze-
chariah, which he received of God ; the third they call Di-
van, which exceeds the others much in bulk, but is equally
esteemed by the sect. They are jealous of these books get-
ting into other hands, and, though extremely covetous, are
hardly prevailed on to have them transcribed, or to part
with them for money, unless driven thereto by the most pres-
sing want. They have no written Grammar, and their Pres-
byters teach the knowledge of these books by word of mouth.
only : their idiom differs not much from the Hebrew and the

Syriac,

32$ THE LIFE OF

January the 3d, of this same year, Dr. John
Moore, then Chaplain to Lord Chancellor Not-
tingham, and afterwards successively Bishop of
Norwich and Ely, desired, by letter, of Dr. Po-
cock, the resolution of a question (which, he says,
he mi'st hope for from him, or from nobody),
viz. Whether there be more evidence, than the
affirmation of the Arabian in Dr. Wallis's Arith-
metic, by Dr. Pocock translated, that the Egyp-
tian (Eba, which is believed to be the Epha, was
the sixth part of the Egyptian Ardob, which was
the cube of their cubit ?

Dr. Loftus, of Dublin, in September, 1685,
having compared the variations of Dr. Hunting-
don's Syriac Abul Pharaji from Dr. Pocock's
Arabic, gave him some particulars of them, in a
letter, and at the same time acquaints him, that
he had lately met with that Arabic writer's Ec-
clesiastical History, which he had translated, and
put to the press in Dublin.

This year also was made public Dr. Pocock's
large and laborious commentary on the Prophecy
of Hosea, which he dedicated to his old friend
Bishop Fell, being, as he tells him in the Epistle
Dedicatory, first committed to the press by his

Syriac. The remains of this Sect are found at or near Bas-
sora, a populous and trading port, at the mouth of the Eu-
phrates, in the Persjan Gulph. See Huntingdon's Ep. p,
82, 83, &c.

Lordship's

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 329

Lordship's encouragement. He prefixed likewise
a Preface to this Commentary, the chief design
whereof was to account for and excuse the ex~
traordinary length of it : certain it is, that no one
thing contributed so much to swell the work, as

o •

the defence therein made, for the purity of the
Hebrew text, against the objections raised from
the disagreement of the Greek or Septuagint, the
vulgar Latin, and the Chaldee Paraphrase, there-
with. He had in the former Commentaries, as
well as in this on Hosca, left no particular pas-
sage unexplained ; he had taken in every help for
literal exposition from Jewish and Christian Com-
mentators and Grammarians ; he had quoted
translations, as well ancient as modem ; but he
had not therein so frequently, and with such set
purpose, considered the differences between the
Chaldee, the vulgar Latin, and more especially
between the Septuagint and the Hebrew text.
The late repeated attempts of Isaac Vossius to
depreciate, or rather to decry that venerable ori-
ginal, as well as those of Capellus, now made it
necessary to be large and special in guarding the
Masoretick Text from the charge of various read-
ings, which those learned men were readv and

O ' "

glad to suggest, upon every seeming difference
between it and the ancient Translations and Para-
phrases. Some may think our Author went too
far, in supposing, that the Hebrew text was al-

6 way*

550 'iH/-. LIFE OF

*

ways, and in every particular, read as it is at pic-
sent ; but it' lie erred in this, he certainly erred
on the rnht side, it being safer to supj ;se the
original Hebrew utterly uncorrupt, than to call
its purity in question so oft as Ca pell us and Vos-
sius did. Besides, the obstinacy and unreason-
ableness of gainsayers often drive even wise and
good men into too great lengths of opposition,
and the ill use that is made of just concessions,
tthen we have to do with contentious adversaries,
makes it seem advisable to forbear them, and to
put the proof of some things upon them, which
we should never dispute with more candid and
better-minded opponents. To this we may add,
that the knowledge of Biblical Hebrew being that

o o

part of literature, in which Dr. Pocock chiefly
excelled, and in which he most delighted, it is the
less to be wondered at, if he was prejudiced in
favour of it, especially, considering likewise, that
Hebrew verity was the prevailing opinion of the
times in which he was educated, and was then
thought by most Protestants, essential to the in-
terests of the Reformation. But after all, per-
haps he needs no apology in this respect. The
great success of his attempts to reconcile the He-
brew and the Septuagint Version, without recourse
to the supposition of various readings in the ori-
ginal text, manifest in the Notes on the Porto,
Mosis, and his Commentaries, especially the two

Iast3

DR. EDWARD POCOCK.

last, would make one hope, that no seeming dif-
ference between those venerable books would
have been too hard for him and his conciliatory
scheme, had he been at leisure to pursue it through
the whole Old Testament.

It has been matter of great pleasure to me, and,
I doubt not, to others also, to observe, that Dr.
Pocock's zeal for the purity of the present He-
brew Text, even when most stirred by the intem-
perate opposition of Isaac Vossius, never pro-
voked him to depreciate the Septuagint, to which
that learned man showed so violent a partiality.
He well knew the regard that was on many ac-
counts due to that famous Version : its great
antiquity, and the nearness of its authors to the
times when Hebrew was a living language, should,
at least, screen it from hasty and contemptuous
censure. But above all, the use made of it in the
Scriptures of the New Testament, and the first
ages of the Church, ought to make every learned
Christian treat it with decency 5 if not with reve-
rence. Had it been originally so vicious a trans-
lation, as some writers, even in cool blood, have
delighted to call it, how came it to pass, that
the Apostles and Evangelists so often argue for
the connection of the Gospel with the Old Tes-
tament, as it stands in the Septuagint Version.
Jerome's salvo, that the Version of the LXX, with
all its faults, was therefore used, because it was al-
ready

332 THE LIFL OF

ready in the hands of the Hellenistic Jews, though
it has been a thousand times urged in disputes
of this kind, is far from satisfying this important
query: for St. Matthew, in his Gospel, without
regard to the circumstances of the Hellenists, oft
makes a Greek Translation of his own, and so,
doubtless, would all the other sacred penmen have
done, if the Greek of the LXX had been so cor-
rupt as some pretend. How easy had it been,
when the gift of tongues was so common in the
Church, for one or more inspired persons to have
drawn up a new Verson for the use of such as did
not understand the original language of the Old
Testament, which was the case of the generality
of Christians, both in the Apostolical and suc-
ceeding ages, and not to have left an important
part of the Scripture Canon to them in so bad a
condition, as the Greek of the LXX is by some
represented to be. They had little to fear from
the fondness of the Hellenist Jeus, for their ac-
customed Version, it being absurd to suppose,
that the same authority which reconciled them to
the abrogation of the law, would be insufficient
to recommend a new Version of it. In a word,
the seeming differences between the Hebrew Text
and the Translation we are speaking of, are scarce
wider any where, than in some passages cited
thence in the New Testament : which should in-
us to be sparing of our censures, on ac-
count

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 333

count of such variations, and to think the LXX,
at least in general, a sound and useful Version.
For these and such like reasons, Dr. Pocock la-
boured, in his two latter Commentaries, to recon-
cile the Hebrew Text with that anciently-received
Translation, as the most effectual means to vindi-
cate the purity of the former, and to remove the
dangerous prejudices, that too many had enter-
tained against the latter. The principles on which
he proceeded in this attempt, were of incontestable
truth in themselves, and applied by him with great
learning and judgment ; and they were chiefly
these three: First, That the present LXX Trans-
lation is in many places corrupted : 2dly, That
the Authors of that Version did not always de-
sign it to be literal : 3dly, That they often followed
such acceptations of Hebrew words as are now no
longer known, and are irretrievable, without the
help of the Arabic and Syriac tongues, between
which and the Hebrew there is a manifest affinity.
Happy would it have been for the Christian and
learned world, if Dr. Pocock had been at leisure
to execute this conciliatory scheme on the other
parts of the Old Testament. Scarce any one ever
was, or perhaps ever will be, so completely qua-
lified for the work as he was : but whosoever shall
undertake, and in good measure succeed therein,
will deserve the thanks and blessings of all sober

and intelligent men.

But

.; j THE LIFE OF

But to return from this long digression : no
sooner was our Author's Commentary on Iiosea
seen by his Iricnds, but he received their most
am pic thanks and encomiums. Two Letters
more especially, from Ireland, were filled with
commendations of the performance; the first
came from Dr. Huntingdon, who, after acquaint-
ing Dr. Pocock, that he had received his learned
Commentary on Hosea, and delivered presents of
the same to the Eishoo of Ferns and Lei^hlin, and

» O '

Dr. Loftus, writes thus : " Each man speaks for
" himself, but none of us so much as it deserves;
" no, not the Doctor himself, [Dr. Loftus] though
" he should employ all his tongues (and 1 think
" they talk of twenty) in its commendation." In
a Postscript to his Letter, Dr. Huntingdon writes
thus : : I hear nothing of your son's Arabic His-
" tory, which you once told me he had put into
" the press, with his Version of the same. If it
" be confined there, let me know what will bring
" it forth into the open air, and you shall have
the money, as soon as you let me know the
sum/' This performance of Mr. Edward Po-
cock, our Author's eldest son, was unfinished at
the press, when his father died ; and was with-
drawn thence by him, some little time after, upon
a disgust at his being disappointed of succeeding
his father in the Hebrew Professorship : the copy,
as much of it as was then printed, and the Ma-
nuscript

ti

tc

it
fi

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 335

nuscript History, is now in the hands of Mr. Po-
cock's son, the present Rector of Minall, in Wilt-
shire. Dr. Loftus in fuller terms expresses his
gratitude for the present of what he calls Dr.
Pocock's most learned and elaborate Commentary
on the difficult Prophecy of Hosea; he adds as
follows : " Never did criticism more triumph in
" its grandeur and utility, than in your Expo-
sition of that Prophecy, which you handle in
so accurate a manner, as to avoid the pro-
ic verbial censure on vulgar commentators, who,
" when they come to an hard place, skip it over,
" or by too largely handling the text, become te-
" clious : whereas you, omitting nothing that is
ic requisite, nor enlarging upon any thing so as
" to be burdensome, are not to be taxed with ei-
" ther of the extremes: for there seems to be no-
" thing in that Prophecy which you do not give
very good account of, nor is there any thing in
the account you give of it, but what is excel-
" lently profitable, and no way tedious; for after
" your examination of all various opinions touch-
" ing each part of that Prophecy, you conclude
" with your own, in a perfect certainty, or in the
" greatest probability, seldom omitting a recital
s( of the opinions of other great authors, or your
"judgment of them, to the plenary satisfaction
" of all those who are masters in criticism," I
have transcribed thus much from Dr. Loftus, to

let

<c

ei

TH£ LIFE OF

let the world see, what so great a master of lan-
guages and sacred philology thought of the Com-
mentary of llosea, and ho\v little room there is for

^

the censure, which some have passed on it, that
the Author seldom gives us his own judgment,
after reciting the various opinions of other exposi-
tors; whereas, I think, I may safely pronounce,
that to one instance of thi? kind, throughout his

' O

Commentary, there are twenty of the contrary,
viz. in which he either absolutely gives his own
judgment, or at least manifestly inclines to one
exposition or interpretation, rather than another.
In June of the following vear, Mr. Samuel

O «/ '

Thomas, from Chard, writes his thanks to Dr.
Pocock for his present of the Commentary on
Ilosea, and at the same time proposes a new tran-
slation of Jer. xxiii. 6, the famous passage orf
which the notion of imputed righteousness, is
chiefly founded by those, who espouse it: instead
of his name shall be called the Lord our Righte-
ousness, Mr. Thomas would have it rendered,
And this is the name, which the Lord shall call
him, our Righteousness : for which change he

o o

there also gives his reason.

From this time forward, Dr. Pocock's corres-
pondence grew more contracted, which was owing
to several causes; one and the principal was, that
writing became exceeding troublesome to him,
through a palsy in his hand, which drinking of

coffee,

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 357

coffee, to which he had used himself ever since his
residence in the East, first brought upon him, and
which increased, as he advanced more in vears :

ff

this made his friends sparing in their letters, be-
cause they knew his civility was such, as would
not suffer him to be behind hand with his learned
correspondents, whatever pain or trouble it cost
him to answer their queries. Another cause was,
the troubles which soon followed in Ireland, the
hurry of the revolution at home, with the war that
broke out abroad in consequence of it; all which
brought on an interruption of correspondence be-
tween Dr. Pocock and his friends in Ireland, and
in foreign parts. Some letters however passed,
between the present time, and that of our author's
death, the most considerable of which are as fol-
lows.

In the year 1687, Dr. Pocock wrote to his old
friend the Provost of Dublin, Dr. Huntington,
and from this letter it appears, that he had begun
his comment on Joel, and that he then enjoyed a
good measure of health.

In the following January, 1687-8, Dr. Whitby,
then engaged in the Popish controversy, consulted
the Professor upon the priests and judges spoken
of in Deuteronomy, chap. xvii. who were to de-
termine hard controversies, and to whose judg-
ment the people were to stand under pain of

VOL. i» Z death,

338 THE LIFE OF

death, putting several questions to him thereupon ;
all which were learnedly answered by our author.

In April the same year, John Betts, of Lime-
street in London, desired of Dr. Pocock the solu-
tion of a difficulty from Avcnzor, as he is cited by
Shenkius, in his Collections de Febribus.

From this time to the 14th of October, 1690,
we see no traces of that correspondence, which
had now for 60 years been held between our au-
thor and his learned friends, both at home and
abroad ; and the last we have of this sort was one
of the date above-mentioned, from Dr. Dudley
Loftus, of Dublin. In this letter, that learned
and noble person, on occasion of Sixtus Senensis's
saying in his Bibliotheca, that the whole last
chapter of St. Mark was an addition to the Gos-
pel, shows how the Armenian copy concluded that
Gospel, which took in the last chapter to the end
of the 8th verse, and he affirms, that by the best
search he could make, no more of that chapter was
ever wanting in any copy, than from the 8th verse
exclusive. He further acquaints our author, how
he had spent his time, during their late troubles in
Ireland, viz. in translating emht Svriac Liturgies,

O J O

each of which they call Anaphora, into Latin. He
adds, that he had also translated the /Ethiopic Li-
turgy into Latin, though already translated by a
Romanist, that he might shew what abominable

falsities

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 339

falsities those of that religion endeavour to im-
pose upon this ignorant world : besides these, he
had translated the ancient form of prayer, used in
the primitive Church, for the cure of diseases;
which, though printed at Rome, in the time of
Pope Paul the Third, had not hitherto been tran-
slated. All these he intended to print shortly,
with an elucidary upon them.

Much about the same time, if I conjecture
right, Etisebius Renaudot entertained a design not
much unlike this, which some years after he exe-
cuted, of publishing a collection of all the Oriental
Liturgies, as also a distinct work, De Fide, Mo-
ribus et Institutis Orientalium Christianorum : of
this intention of his, Renaudot informed Dr. Po-
cock, in a letter to him without a date, but as ap-
pears from some circumstances in it, not long be-
fore his death. In this epistle the writer professes
a very high esteem for our author, desires the li-
berty of consulting him in all the doubts, that
should occur in preparing the works above-men-
tined, and promises, in return for this favour, to
make a public acknowledgment of it, and to pre-
serve a perpetual memory of the obligation. It is
highly probable, that death prevented Dr. Pocock
from giving any assistance to Renaudot in these
designs; but I am sorry to say, that the treat-
ment that learned person has given to the me-
mory of our author has not been consistent with

z & the

340 THE LIFE OF

the expressions of respect for him, \\iih which thjg
letter abounds. For when he came to publish his
Collection of Eastern Liturgies, forgetting his own
professions, and the duty of a gentleman, a
scholar, and, above all, of a Christian, he goes
out of his way, in the end of his preface, to re-
proach him with a mistake, which, perhaps, was
the only one which could be fastened upon his
writings, though Renaudot, as above-mentioned,
had, without good grounds, charged him with
another; but the Abbot's zeal against the Pro-
testants got the better of his candour, and though
he could treat the learned amongst them with ci-

CD

vility in a private way, it was not, as it should
seem, adviseable to observe such measures with
them in the eye of the world.

The next year, 1GQ1, Dr. Pocock published his
Commentary on the Prophecy of Joel, to which,
besides the Dedication to the then Bishop of
Exeter, Sir Jonathan Trelawney, he prefixed a
Preface, the chief design of which was, to give an
account of the draught or scheme of the area of

o

the Temple, and the different parts thereof, which
he had procured to be engraven, and which im-
mediately follows the Preface : it was taken from
an ancient MS. of Maimonides, as old as that
Rabbi's own times.

The method of this Commentary being the same
with that on Hosea, I have no occasion to speak

particularly

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 341

particularly to it. One thing more it may be
proper to observe, that though the chief intention
of our author, in these Commentaries, was to as-
sert the purity of the Hebrew text, and the just-
ness of our authorized English translation, yet he
was not inflexibly rigid in either of these points :
with respect to the former, though he seems in ge-
neral unwilling to admit that, at the time when
the Seventy made their Version, there * were va-
rious readings in the Hebrew text, yet he some-
times allows it to be a probable, though not a ne-
cessary supposition. And I am much mistaken,
if the places referred to in the notes * will not jus-
tify this assertion. As to the latter, the justness
of our authorized English translation, his good

o ' o

opinion of it, as representing the literal sense of
the original text, does not always hinder him from
owning, that better renditions might have been
found. The references at the bottom will direct
the reader to two places f , where such conces-
sions are to be met with ; and probably there are
more, which have escaped my observation.

* See Comm. on Hosea, chap. x. 12, towards the end of
the verse, and on chap. xi. 7, the latter part of the notes on
that verse. See also chap. xii. i, at the beginning, and
chap, xii. 8, towards the conclusion of the notes upon that
verse.

t Ibid. chap. xiii. 11, and again ver. 13th of the same
chapter.

Whether

" V: THh LIFE OF

Whether Dr. Pocock intended a Commentary
on any other of the lesser Prophets, I cannot
learn ; hut if he did, death prevented him, which
happened on the 10th ol September in this year.
A gradual decrease of strength and bouiiv vigour,
for some time before, were sure indications of a
dissolution; but his parts continued sound, and
his memory but little impaired, to the very last.
His only distemper was great old age, which hin-
dered him not, even the night before he died, from
praying with his family, as his custom had always
been, in the excellent forms of our Church.

Thus died this most pious, learned, and vener-
able man, when he wanted but two months of com-
pleting the 87th year of his age, after having been
for maiiy years confessedly the first person in Eu-
rope for Eastern learning, and not less remarkable
for humanity and modesty, than for profoundness
of erudition. How it came to pass, that merit so
great and so conspicuous met with no higher re-
wards, has already in part been accounted for.
Dr. Pocock was a stranger to those arts, by which
the ambitious wind themselves into the affections
of princes and ministers of state, choosing no
other way to be known to the world, but by being
useful and exemplary in his profession ; and it is
seldom found, that merit and modesty are forced
out of their retirements into dignities and distinc-
tion. Indeed, the preferments he died possessed

of,

DR. EDWARD POCOCK, 34$

pf, either fell to him by course of seniority, or
were procured for him, without his seeking, by
the interest of friends ; nor was he otherwise in-
strumental in his own advancement, than by de-

serving it.

As to Dr. Pocock's person, he was of a middle
stature, or rather tall and slender; his hair was
inclining to black, so were his eyes ; he was of a
fresh complexion, had a lively and cheerful look, a
sound and healthy constitution.

In his ordinary conversation, he was free, open3
and affable, retaining, even to the last, the brisk-
ness and facetiousness of youth : he was ex-
tremely civil to all, who applied for directions in
the study of those languages wherein he excelled,
and his courteous reception of foreigners, who in
great numbers resorted to him, spread the fame of
his humanity, as well as learning, throughout Eu-
rope. His temper was naturally modest, humble,
and sincere, abhorrent of every thing that had the
appearance of hypocrisy and falsehood ; but with-
out the least mixture of sourness or morosity, be-
ing very observant of all common duties of civi-
lity, such as returning visits, answering letters?
and the like.

As for his intellectual abilities and acquirementSj
he was of a quick apprehension, great memory,
and unwearied industry; his skill in the sciences,
if we may believe his contemporaries, was not in-

considerable^

S44 THE LIFE OF

considerable, but his knowledge of languages was

' O v

vastly extensive, anil in many of UK in was inure
accurate than any could boast of, who lived be~
fore, in, or since his time. He was profoundly
skilled in the Hebrew, Arabic and Syriac tongues,
•\\as well acquainted with the Persic, Samaritan,
yKthiopic, Coptic, and Turkish ; besides which,
lu understood Italian, and something of Spanish.
In Greek and Latin his friends say he was criti*
cally conversant, and his writings and letters bear

testimony to his abilities in both. His style, in

«/ «/

English, Mas clear and expressive, but was never
cultivated, even from his youth ; whereas, in Latin
lie wrote not only with propriety and perspicuity,
but also with a good degree of elegance : the rea-
son of which difference probably was, that he read
but few English books in his youth, and wrote no-
thing in that language for the public, till he was
far advanced in years.

But the most meritorious part of this great
man's character is still behind, that which con-
cerns his moral and religious endowments ; and
surely he was one of the most uniform and steady
exemplars of Christian perfection, that has blessed
these latter a^es.

o

All his words and actions carried in them a deep
and unfeigned sense of religion and true piety;
God was the beginning and the end of his studies
and undertakings; to his glory they were de-

votedj

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 345

voted, and professedly finished by his help, as ap-
pears by expressions, sometimes in Arabic and
Hebrew, and at other times in English, which we
find not only in his printed works, but also in his
note-books, and writings of any account.

In the public duties of religion he was very
punctual ; all the time he resided at Christ
Church, which was more than thirty years, he was
seldom absent from Cathedral Prayers, oft fre-
quenting them, when he was not thought well
enough to go abroad upon any other occasion.

In his pastoral capacity, so long as he resided
constantly at Childrv, he shewed the greatest dili-

*/ V ^^

gence and faithfulness, preaching twice every
Lord's Day, and catechizing likewise, when the
length of days would permit him. Nor was he
less exact in discharging the private duties of his
function, such as visiting sick and ancient people,
and the like; and during that part of his life in
which his attendance upon his Professorships and
Canonical Residence called him to Oxford for the
greatest part of the year, he took a most con-
scientious care to supply his absence by an able
Curate, of whom he strictly required the same la-
borious course of duty, and for his encourage-
ment, allowed him fifty pounds per annum, besides
surplice fees, all which amounted to more than a
fourth part of the then value of that rectory,
As a member and a minister of the Church of

*

England,

34(5 THE LIFE Of

England, though with all due charity to those,
who, on the score of conscience, dissented from
her, he steadily conformed to her appointments,
highly reverenced and approved every part of her
constitution. In subscribing to her articles his
band and his heart went together, being an enemy
to all prevarication, however coloured or palliated
by subtle distinctions. He seemed from his
youth to have imbibed, among other eminent Di-
vines of those times, an opinion of the illegality of
usury, or at least to have entertained scruples
about its lawfulness ; but this appeared rather
from his constant practice of lending money freely,
than from any open avowal of his sentiments in
that point : his friends could never get from him
his reasons against usury, and the cause of his re-
servedness was, that the thing being allowed by
our laws, and not disapproved by the Church, he
would disturb neither by his private opinion.
How many uncharitable disputes would be pre-
vented, if every Christain was endued with this
laudable moderation ! But so long as it is fa-
shionable to have no concern for the peace of the*
Church, nor reverence for authority, controversies
about religion will increase till, without some gra-
cious interposition of Providence, they eat out
the vitals of it.

It would be endless to enumerate all the vir-
tues of this excellent man, or to be particular

about

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 347

about the constancy and frequency of his devo-
votion, with his family, and in his closet; his
strict manner of observing public fasts, his undis-
sembled grief at hearing God's name profaned, or
the Lord's Day unhallowed, or the recital of any
gross immorality : but above all, his charity under
each branch of it, giving and forgiving, was so ex-
emplary, that a more special mention must be
made of it.

The largeness of a family was, in his judgment,
no excuse for scanty alms-giving : but besides the
poor, whom he daily relieved at his door, he gave
to others quarterly allowances. His charitable
disposition was so notorious, and brought such-
numbers of necessitous objects to him, that Dean
Fell, himself a most munificent person, used com-
plainingly to tell Dr. Pocock, that he drew all the
poor of Oxford into the college.

A noble instance of his readiness to forgive in-
juries was his behaviour to those parishioners of
his, who in the Usurpation had laboured to have
him ejected and starved; for he treated them
with his accustomed humanity, did their families
particular kindnesses, and to keep them as much
concealed as possible from the knowledge and re-
sentment of his friends, would never mention any
thing of the trouble they had given him ; but on
the other hand, industriously secreted the papers
of their depositions against him, as long as he

lived :

348 THE LITE OF

lived : scarce any of his friends or children having
seen them before his death.

In a word, such was the uniformity of his
moral and religions character, that his friends ge-
nerally esteemed him to be as much above the

*

common level for goodness, as he was for learning.

" Should I begin," says Dr. Marsh*, (some

time ago Primate of Ireland) " to speak any

" thin" of the rare endowments of this admirable

3

" man (Dr. Pocock) with whom I had the honour
" to be- very intimately acquainted for many
" years, I should not be able to end his character
" under a volume : his rare learning appears in
" his writings; his exemplary piety, meekness,
" self-denial and candour, were visible to all that
" conversed with him ; his patience and resigna-
14 tion to God's will were discernable to all, who
" visited him in the time of his long and painful
<c sickness ; and his profound humility was well
" known and admired by all his acquaintance."

But of all the encomiums bestowed on our au-
thor, after his death, none was so full, as that
which was drawn up by the celebrated Mr. Locke,
in a letter to Mr. Smith of Dartmouth, dated
July 23, 1703, f who was then collecting mate-

* In a letter written by him at the desire of a friend, for
Mr. Smith's use, and daied from Dublin, May 5, 1702.

f This letter, (the original of which is now in my hands)
or a copy of it, was communicated to Mr. Curll, the book.

rials,

DR. EDWARD POCOCK.1 349

rials for writing the History of Dr. Pocock's
Life. And with some extracts from thence I
shall conclude his character.

" So extraordinary an example in so degenerate
" an age, deserves, for the rarity, and I was go-
" ing to say, for the incredibility of it, the attes-
" tation of all that knew him, and considered his
" worth. The Christian world is a witness of his
" great learning, that the works he published
'•' would not suffer to be concealed, nor could his
" devotion and piety be hid, and be unobserved
<c in a College, where his constant and regular
" assisting at the Cathedral service, never inter-.

O '

rupted by sharpness of weather, and scarce re-.
strained by downright want of health, shewed
the temper and disposition of his mind : but
his other virtues and excellent qualities had so
strong and close a covering of modesty and un-
affected humility, that, though they shone the
" brighter to those who had the opportunities to
" be more intimately acquainted with him, and
" eyes to discern and distinguish solidity from
" shew, and esteem virtue that sought not repu-
" tation, yet they were the less taken notice of,
" and talked of by the generality of those to
whom he was not wholly unknown; not that

"
"
"

"
"

(l

(t

seller, who printed it anyrog other letters of Mr. Locke's,
in the^year 17 H,

" he

Till: LT?E OK

" he was at all close and reserved, but, on the
<k contrary, the readiest to communicate to any
" one that consulted him. Indeed he was not
" forward to talk, nor ever would be the leading
" man in the discourse, though it were on a sub-
" ject that he understood better than any of the
*' company, and would often content himself to
" sit still and hear others debate in matters which
<e he himself was more a master of. * He had
" often the silence of a learner where he had the
" knowledge of a master, and that not with a de-
" sign, as is often, that the ignorance any one
" betrayed might give him the opportunity to
" display his own knowledge with the more lustre
" and advantage, to their shame, or censure them
" when they were gone ; but these arts of triumph
" and ostentation, frequently practised by men of
" skill and ability, were utterly unknown to him :
" it was very seldom that he contradicted any one,
" or if it were necessary at any time to inform any
" one better, who was in a mistake, it was in so
" soft and gentle a manner, that it had nothing of

O ' C*

* Much to the same purpose is Primate Marsh's Obser-
vation, which he makes an instance of Dr. Pocock's pro-
found humility ; " Though his learning/' says he, " and
** judgment were very great, yet, whenever any difficult
" point in matters of learning happened to arise in discourse,
" he would, to my wonder, constantly ask him he conversed
u with, what his opinion was of that matter before he would
" give his own, This I found by long experience.

" the

15 R. .EDWARD POCQCK. 351

u the air of dispute or correction, and seemed to
" have little of opposition in it. I never heard
" him say any thing that put any one that was
" present the least out of countenance, nor ever
" censure, or so much as speak diminishingly of
any one that was absent. He was a man of no
irregular appetites :• Though he was a

" man of the greatest temperance in himself, and
4< the farthest from ostentation and vanity in his
" way of living, yet he was of a liberal mind,
" and given to hospitality ; which, considering the
*' smallness of his preferments, and the numerous
** family of children he had to provide for, might
" be thought to have out-done those who made
" more noise and shew. His name, which was
" in great esteem beyond sea, and that deserv-
" edly, drew on him visits from all foreigners of
" learning who came to Oxford to see that Uni-
'* versity: they never failed to be highly satisfied
" with his great knowledge and civility, which was
" not always without expence. Though, at the

" Restoration of King Charles • • his merits

" were so overlooked or forgotten, that he was
*c barely restored to what was his before, without
" receiving any new preferment then, or at any
" time after, yet I never heard him take any the
" least notice of it, or make any the least com-
c< plaint in a case that would have sorely grated
" on some mens' patience, and have filled their

" mouths

II

(t

THE LIFE OF

" mouths with murmuring) and their 1;\ - with
" discontent: but he was always umtioctedly
" chearful ; no marks of any thing that lay heavy
" at his heart, for being ncglc-ctcd, ever broke
from him ; he was so far from having any dis-
pleasure lie concealed there, that whenever
any expressions of dissatisfaction for what they
" thought hard usa?Te, broke from others in his

o o 7

" presence, he always diverted the discourse;

" and if it were any body witli whom he might

" take that liberty, he silenced it with visible

" marks of dislike.

" Though he was not a forward, much less an

" assuming talker, yet he was the farthest in the

" world from sullen or morose ; he would talk

" very freely and very well of all parts of learn- .

" ing, besides that wherein he was known to ex-

" eel: but this was not all; he could discourse

" very well of other things. He was not unac-

" quainted with the world, though he made no

" shew of it. His backwardness to meddle in

" other people's matters, or to enter into debates,

" where names and persons were brought upon

" the stage, and judgments and censures were

" hardly avoided, concealed his abilities in mat*

" ters of business and conduct from most people.

" But yet I can truly say, that I knew not any

" one in that University whom I would more

" willingly consult in any affair that required

I " consi-

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. 353

consideration, nor whose opinion I thought bet-
ter worth the hearing than his, if he could be
" drawn to enter into it, and give his advice.

Though in company he never used himself,
" nor willingly heard from others, any personal
" reflections on other men, though set off with a
" sharpness that usually tickles, and by most men
" is mistaken for the best, if not the only season-
" ing of pleasant conversation, yet he would often
" bear his part in innocent mirth, and by some
" apposite and diverting story continue and heigh-
" ten the good humour.

" I do not remember, that in all my conversa-
" tion with him, I ever saw him once angry, or to
" be so far provoked as to change colour or coun-
" tenance, or tone of voice ; displeasing accidents
" and actions would sometimes occur, ther.e is no
" help for that; but nothing of that kind moved
" him, that I saw, to any passionate words, much
" less to chiding or clamour. His life appeared
" to me one constant calm. To conclude, I can
" say of him what few men can say of any friend
" of theirs, nor I of any other of my acquaint-
" ance, that I do not remember I ever saw in him
" any one action that I did, or could in my own
" mind blarne, or thought amiss in him."

I shall only subjoin, at the desire of some judi-
cious friends, the famed Ode of Mr, Edmund
Smith, of Christ Church, made immediately upon
our author's death.

VOL. i. A a D.CIK

3,54 THE LI IE OF

DUM caede tellus luxuriat ducum,
Meum, Pococki, barbiton exigis,

Manesque musam fastuosam

Sollicitant pretiosiores.
Alter virentum proruat agmina
Sonora Thracum, donaque Phillids

Agat puellas, heu decoris

Virginibus nimis invidenti.
Te nuda virtus, te ridei plus
Ardor serendae, sanctaque veritas

Per saxa, per pontum, per hostes

Praecipitant Asiae misertum :
Cohors catenis, qua pia stridulis
Gemunt onusti, vel sude trans sinum

Luctantur acta, pendulive

Sanguineis trepidant in uncis.
Sentis, ut edunt sibila, ut ardui
Micant dracones, tigris ut horridus

Intorquet ungues, ejulatque

In madido crocodilus antro.
Vides lacunas sulphure lividos
Ardere fluctus, qua stetit impia?

Moles Gomorrhse, mox procell^

Hausta rubra, pluviisque ftammis ;
Quod ista tellus si similes tibi
Si forte denos nutrierat viros,

Adhuc stetisset, nee vibrato

Dextra Dei tonuisset igne.

Quin

DR. EDWARD POCOCK. S55

Quin nunc requiris tecta virentia
Nini ferocis, nunc Babel arduum,

Immane opus, crescentibusque

Vertice sideribus propinquum,
Nequicquam : amici disparibus sonis
Eludit aures nescius artifex,

Linguasque miratur recentes

In patriis peregrinus oris.
Vestitur hinc tot sermo coloribus,
Quot tu, Pococki, dissimilis tui

Orator effers, quot vicissim

Te memores celebrare gaudent.
Hi non tacebunt quo Syriam senex
Percurrit asstu raptus, ut arcibus

Jam non superbis et verendis

Indoluit Solym03 ruinis.
Quis corda pulsans tune pavor hauserat!
Dolor quis arsit non sine gaudio,

Cum busta Christi provolutis

Ambiguis lachrymis rigaret 1
Sacratus arbos multa Pocockio,
Locosque monstrans inquiet accola,

Msec quercus Hoseam supinum,

Haec Britonem recreavit ornus,
Hie audierunt gens venerabilem
Ebrea Mosen, inde Pocockium

Non ore non annis minorefti,

Atque suam didicere linguam.
Ac sicut albens perpetua nive
Simul favillas et cineres sintf

A a % iTructat

356 THE LIFE, &C.

Eructat ardenti et pruinis
Contiguas rotat /Etna flammas ;
Sic te trementem, te nive candidum
Mens intus urget, inens agit ignea
Sequi reluctantem Joelem
Per tonitru, aeriasque nubes.
Annon p£vescis, dum tuba pallidurn
Ciet Sionem, dum tremulum polo
Caligat astrum, atque incubanti
Terra nigrans tegitur sub umbra ?
Quod agraen ! heu quse turma sequacibus
Tremenda flammis ! quis strepitantium
Flictus rotarum est ! O Pococki
Egregie, O animose vatis
Interpres abstrusi, O simili fere
Correpte flamma, te, quot imagine
Crucis notantur, te, subacto
Christicolae gravis Ottomannus
Gemens requirit, te Babylonii
Narrant poetae, te pharetris Arabs
Plorat revulsis, et fragosos
Jam gravior ferit horror agros.
Qua gesta nondum cognita Caesaris,
Qua nee Maronis scripta, Pocockiiis
Ploratur ingens, et dolenda
Nestoreee brevitas senectae.

-

LIFE

OF

DR. ZACHARY PEARCE,

I. \TELORD BISHOP OF ROCHESTER,

THE

LIFE

OP

DR. ZACHARY PEARCE,

LATE LORD BISHOP OF ROCHESTER.

JL HE curiosity of mankind seems naturally to
require that a posthumous work should be accom-
panied with an account of its Author : because he
that leaves behind him what is worthy to be pub-
lished, must be supposed to have lived with a
character worthy to be known. It has been
therefore considered by the Editor of the follow-
ing Commentary, &c. as an important part of his
duty, to communicate some memorial of the
learned Prelate, by whose friendship they were
intrusted to his care.

Dr. Zachary Pearce, late Lord Bishop of Ro-
chester, was born the 8th of September, 1690,
in the parish of St. Giles, in High Holborn,
where his father followed the business of a dis-
tiller,

360 THE LIFE OF

tiller, with great success ; and, hnving at about
the age of forty, acquired a competent fortune, he
purchased an estate at Little Ealin^, in the county
of Middlesex, to which he retired, and which he
enjoyed to his eighty-fifth year.

The family, as far as it has been traced, was
eminent fur longevity, so that our author entered

ClJ »/ '

the world with an hereditary claim to length of
days, which it is evident he did not defeat by neg-
ligence, intemperance, or vice.

The first part of his literary education he re-
ceived in a private school at Great Ealing, from
whence, having, undoubtedly, attained a consider-
able proficiency in the learned languages, he was,
on the 12th of February, 1704, removed to West-
minster School, where he was soon distinguished
by his merit, and elected one of the forty King's
scholars. He seems, in the latter part of his life,
to have recollected this distinction with pleasure;
for, in a collection of minute memorials written by
himself, not long before his death, he has inserted
an epigram spoken by him in praise of Dr. Sprat,
who was then Dean of Westminster.

After six years spent at Westminster, he was
elected to Trinity College, in Cambridge, in the
year 1710, having endured the constraint of a
grammar-school to the twentieth year of his age.
Why his removal was so long delayed, no other
reason can be given, than that Doctor Busby used

to

DR. ZACHARY FEARCE. 36l

to detain those boys longest under his discipline,
of wliose future eminence he had most expecta-
tion ; considering the fundamental knowledge
which grammar-schools inculcate, as that which is
least likely to be supplied by future diligence, if
the student be sent deficient to the University.
To this long continuance of his initiatory studies,
he was perhaps indebted for the philological re-
putation by which he was afterwards so happily
distinguished.

Of his life, from the year 1710 to 1768, he has
left a short narrative written by himself in No-
vember, 1769, the seventy-ninth year of his age;
in which he has related principally his public
transactions; and the series of his preferments.
This narrative, for whatever purpose it was left,
has been thought necessary to be published,
without any alteration, as being more satisfactory,
at least of more authority, than any other account
that could be given of him.

" Zachary Pearce had his education in the
" Royal School at Westminster, from the founda-
tion part of which he was in the year 1710
elected to Trinity College in Cambridge, and in
" the year 1716, he caused his first edition of
(( Cicero de Oratore, with notes and emendations,
" to be printed at the press of that University.
" When that work was almost finished, a friend
*( of his, and fellow of the college, asked him,

i? whom

u
<c

362 THE LIFE 07

" ' whom he designed to dedicate that edition to ?'

" His answer was, ' that he had not the happi-

" ness to be acquainted with any of those great

" men, to whom such things are usually dedi-

" cated.'

" His friend immediately replied, * I have the
" honour to be so well known to Lord Parker
" (the then Chief Justice of the King's Bench),
" that I will undertake to ask his Lordship's
" leave for your dedicating it to him, if you will
" give your consent for my doing so.' Mr,
" Pearce returned the gentleman his thanks, and
" readily consented to it. His friend soon after
" went to London, and from thence wrote a letter
" to Mr. Pearce acquainting him, that Lord
" Parker gave leave, and the edition was soon
" finished with a dedication to that Lord, and
" a copy of the edition was sent to him from
" Cambridge, where Mr. Pearce was obliged to
" stay on account of the near approach of the
" time (October) for the annual election of fel-
" lows at Trinity College, for which he was then
" one of the candidates. This, Mr. Pearce, in a
" letter sent with the book to Lord Parker, as-
" signed as a reason for his not waiting upon his
€t Lordship in person with his present of the
11 book. Dr. Bentley, the master of that college,
" went soon afterwards to Westminster ; and at a
" visit which he made to Lord Parker, his Lord-

" ship

u
It

DR. ZACHARY PEARCE. 363

" ship mentioned to the Doctor, that he was
" pleased with Mr. Pearce's performance, and
" that he hoped he would elect Mr. Pearce to
" fill up one of the vacancies among the Fel-
" lows, which were then six in number. This
" the Doctor promised to do ; and this circuin-
" stance is here mentioned, chiefly with a view to
" something in the sequel of this account.

" When Mr. Pearce had been elected one of
" the Fellows of the College, and had made an
Oration in the College-hall on November 5, in
that year, to which exercise he was appointed,
he went up to town, and made a visit to his
patron Lord Parker, who received him in a
very obliging manner, invited him to dine with
" him the next day, at Kensington, and there put
" into his hands a purse which contained fifty
" guineas. Mr. Pearce, at times, renewed his
" visits to his Lordship, and was always very
" kindly received by him/'

In the edition of the book De Oratore, he has
never departed from Gruter's edition, which he
considers as the current reading, but when he is
supported by the authority of some manuscripts ;
for though he declares his opinion to be, that
many passages must be amended by conjecture,
he thought nothing of his own could be worthy
of insertion into the text. He has endeavoured
only to rectify depravations^ but to clear ob-

It

3(74 THE LIFE OF

scuritics; but has written with great brevity, hav-
ing, he says, no design to make a shew of his li-
terature, though others take a different method;
Video nonmdlos editor es alia. Ion gk alia > voluisse ;
sed is mihi in veteribus script is edendis vidctur rei
literaricE optimb comukre, qui quam paucisximis
verbis dart doceat> quid suus autor et senserit et
scripserit.

The regard shown by the learned to this edition
appears by the frequency of its re-impression. It
is however not useless to add the testimony of

*/

Olivet from a letter v- jinen in 1739, which those
who are engaged in studies of the same kind will
read with pleasure.

" Zachariae Pearcio, Regi a sacris domesticis,
" Josephus Olivetus, S. P. D.

" Quae tua sit eruditio; Pearci praestantissime,
" quod judicium, jam ex editionibus perspexe-
" ram, quibus Ciceronem ac Longinum, unaque
" tunm nomen iilustrasti. Itaque in illis te me-
" rito numerabam excellentibus viris, quales or-
" nandis natos tuendisque literis, nulla astas
" multos habuit, nostra vix paucos. Nunc vero
<4 sic ad me scripsisti, ut facile intelligam, cum in
" te summa sit doctrine laus atque copia, non
" minorem humanitatis esse atque urbanitatis.
" Quam ego sane tandem eruditis hominibus esse
" arbitror apprime propriam ; imo neque eruditi
" nomen ei convenire, quern non librorum usus et

" traetatio

DR. ZACHARY PEARCE. 36\5

" tractatio in viam induxerit bene ut de civibus,
" sic de studiosis merendi. Quag tu in libros
" Ciceronis philosophicos promittis, ego ver6 et
" gratus accipiarn, et impatienter expecto, et, si
" fas est, etiam atque etiam flagito : maximum
" enim editionis mea? ornate .v turn. Rhetorica
" sub proelo sudant. Pbilosopbicorum partem
" priorem turn committam typograpbo, cum id
" accepero unde commendari potissimum pos-
" sunt, id est, annotationes tuas. Pars posterior
" in operarum manus veniet mense Octobri, si
" mod6 tuis turn animadversionibus suprema
" manus accesserit. Nihil enim nisi te volente,
" uti decet atque aequum est, faciam. Jn anno-
" tatis ad rhetoricos libros, quas mittis, unum
" atqua? alterum est, de quo asqui, opinor, bonique

" consules, si admoneam. —

" Orat. cap. xxiv. aid translation, aut factum
" aliunde ut mutato] Lambinus edidit : Sumptum
" aliunde, ut inutuum.

" Ibid, aut factum ab Ipso, aut ?wvum] Lamb.
" edidit : ut novum. Has lectiones £, Lambino
tc probatae, atque in contexum admissaj; ut prox-
" ime ad eas accedunt emendationes quas pro-
ponis, vide annon cum tuis animadversis Lam-
biniana quoque commemorari deceat. Fieri
san& videmus, ut quod criticus quispium scrip-
a serit, alteri nascatur non ab altero acceptuoi,
i( et cum eadem dicant ambo, nemo alteii de-

" beat,

te
u
,.

566 THE LIFE OF

" beat. Velut quod emendandum vidisti in
14 libro de Optimo gcnere Orat. et palmaris sane
M emend atio est, Muretus jam Romae cogita-
" verat, et hie Lutetiae Fredericus Morelius.
" Sed quid in marginem sui Ciceronis conjecisset
" Romae Muretus, potuit nescire Morelius Lu-
*' tetiae : et quod hie publicarat, mirum non in*
" notuisse Petro Fabro, qui emendationem ean-
" dem, uti domi sibi natam, suo in Lucullum
" commentario inseruit Sed haec levia sunt, de
" quibus in mea editione nee verbum: neque
" enim cuiquam molestus, sed bonis esse utilis
" studeo."

January, 1739.

In the first years of his residence in Cambridge,
he sometimes amused himself with lighter compo-
sitions. The diurnal papers of that time af-
forded to men, at once ambitious and timorous,
very tempting opportunities of trying their power
of writing without hazard of reputation. A
letter to the Spectator or Guardian stole upon the
public with great advantage, being certain to be
read, and if it deserved praise certain to be
praised ; at least it was secure of candid perusal
and impartial criticism, by which the writer might
be pleased without envy or corrected without
shame.

Mr. Pearce did not omit to make the experi-
ment.

DR. ZACHARY PEARCE. 367

ment. He wrote in the eighth volume of the
Spectator, No. £72, a Humorous Essay upon
Quacks, and No. 633, a Serious Dissertation on
the Eloquence of the Pulpit, of which the hint is
taken from a fragment of Longinus, where Paul of
Tarsus is numbered among the gre t masters of
oratory. In the ludicrous pape • the Editor con-
fesses that he has made addi !ois and retrench-
ments, but the other is printed as it came to his
hand without variation. A year before (1713) he
had sent a letter to the Guardian signed Ned
Mum, which gives a sprightly and fanciful account
of a silent club. In two of these little pieces there
is humour and gaiety, which might perhaps have
been much advanced by cultivation, had not they
been thrown aside in pursuit of more important
truths, and application to higher studies.

" In the year 1717, Mr. Pearce was ordained
" a Deacon by Dr. Fleetwood, the Bishop of
" Ely, and in 1718 was ordained a Priest by the
" same Bishop? he having always had in his in-
" tention to devote himself to that holy profession,
" which he delayed to do till he was twenty-
" seven years of age ; and, as he thought, taken
" time enough to prepare himself, and attain to
" so much knowledge of that sacred office, as
" should be sufficient to answer all the good pur-
" poses for which it is designed.

" On the 12th of May, in 1718, the Lord

7 " Chief

ft
ti

1C

<c

«c

a

THE LIFE OF

" Chief Justice Parker was appointed Loul

" Chancellor of Great Britain; and Mr. Pearce
" having been the next morning informed, that
" the Great Seal had been the day before deli-
vered to his Lordship by King George the
First, and that a great number of the nobility
and gentry were then at his chambers in Ser-
" jeant's Inn, in Fleet-street, congratulating him
" upon the occasion, he went thither, and his
" name being carried to him, in an inner room,
where his Lordship received the company one
after another, his Secretary came soon out to
Mr. Pearce, and said, that his Lordship de-
sired him to stay till all the company was gone,
'* and that then he would see him. He did so,
" and being brought to the Lord Chancellor, he,
amono; other things, said, that ' he should now

O O ' '

want a chaplain to live with him in his house ;
" and he asked Mr. Pearce, if it would suit with
" his convenience to live with him in that ca-
" pacity.' With this Mr. Pearce very readily,
" and with thanks, complied ; and, as soon as his
il Lordship had provided himself with a proper
" house, he went into his family as his chaplain,
" and there continued three years.1'

In December, 1?19> Mr. Pearce was instituted
into the Rectory of Stapleford Abbots, in Essex/

" In 1720, the Rectory of St. Bartholomew,

behind the Royal Exchange, becoming vacant

«c
<c

"

cc
«c

DR. ZACHARY PEARCE,

" by the death of Doctor Adams, the Provost of
" King's College Cambridge, of the yearly value
" of 400). the Lord Chancellor, in whose gift it
" was, presented him to that living, which was
then supposed to be the most valuable of any
in the city of London. And when Mr. Pearce
" made his acknowledgement of thanks to the
" Lord Chancellor for this favour, his Lordship
" said, ' you are not to thank me so much as
" Doctor Bentley for this benefice.' f How is
" that, my Lord,' said Mr. Pearce? ' Why,'
" added his Lordship, ' when I asked Doctor
" Bentley to make you a Fellow of Trinity Col-
" lege, he consented so to do, but on this condi-
" tion, that I would promise to unmake you again
" as soon as it lay in my power, and now he, by
" having performed his promise, has bound me
" to give you this living.'

" He was inducted into the Rectory of St.
" Bartholomew, March 10, 1719-20.

" In the same year, the Ministers of State

" dining one day with the Lord Chancellor, Mr.

" Pearce being called in to say grace to them be-

*' fore they sat down to dinner, the Duke of New-

" castle, then Lord Chamberlain, and one of the

" company, was pleased to take notice of Mr.

" Pearce, as he had known him at Westminster

if School, and at Cambridge, in which places they

had both beeu educated together, and after he

VOL, i, B b " was

S70 THE MI'E OF

was withdrawn, the Duke expressed to the Lord
" Chancellor a favourable opinion of him. Upon
11 which the Lord Chancellor said, ' then, Lord
" Chamberlain, I hope, that, as you think so well
" of him, you will make him one of his Majesty's
" chaplains, when there is a vacancy.' * Yes,
11 my Lord,' replied he, ' I will do so, when I have
" an opportunity,' and accordingly Mr. Pearce
" received soon this the said Chamberlain's war-
" rant for that honour."

In the year 1722, the plague at Marseilles
filled Europe with terror. A fast was appointed
for the deprecation of divine vengeance, which
was observed throughout the kingdom with parti-
cular seriousness and devotion. We escaped the
dreadful visitation, and when the day of Thanks-
giving for the deliverance was set apart in the
year following, Mr. Pearce preached before the
Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London, and after-
wards published the sermon.

In February 1721-22, he married Mrs. Mary
Adams, the daughter of Mr. Benjamin Adams, an
eminent distiller in Holborn, with a considerable
fortune. It is always pleasing to be told, that
wen who deserve well of the public, are happy in
domestic life. He lived with her fifty-two years
in the highest degree of connubial happiness.
The fiftieth year of their union they celebrated
as-- a year of -jubilee; on which occasion they

were

DR. fcACHARY 2EARCE. 3"/l

frere complimented by a friend in the following
Stanzas.

No more let calamity complain,
That Hymen binds in cruel chain,

And makes his subjects slaves \
Supported by the good and wise,
Her keenest slander he defies,

Her utmost malice braves.

To-day — he triumphs o'er his foes,
And to the \torld a pair he shews,

Tho' long his subjects — free :
Who happy in his bands appear,
And joyful call the fiftieth year,

A year of jubilee.

" The Vicarage of St. Martin's in the f ield's/
c* Westminster, which Dr. Green the Vicar of it
41 had held In commendam with the See of Nor-
" wich, having become vacant, September the
24th, 1723, by his being translated to the See
of Ely, the Lord Chancellor, in 1723-4, pre-
" sented Mr. Pearce to that Vicarage, in virtue of
" the King's prerogative, as he had promoted the
" Vicar to a Bishopric, and as it was in his dis-
" posal as Chancellor ; the Vicarage being rated
" at no more than I2l. a- year in the Kingfs

J O

books, though that benefice was then 7001. per

«

11

g

572 riM'. LIFE Of

(I
it
<c
(t

it

(C

annum, and so coo tinned, till the Parish of t^.
George, Hauover-square was, by an Act (rf
Parliament, taken out of it, and made a distinct
parish from that of St. Martin's.
" It should have be<jn mentioned before thatj
" when the benefice of St. Martin's became va-
" cant, his Majesty King George the First was at
" Hanover; the Lord Carteret, afterwards Eaii
" of Granviilc, \vasabroad with him, as Secretary
" of State, and that Dr. Clagget, afterwards Bi-
" shop of Exeter, was likewise with him as his-
" English chaplain. Dr. Gibson, Bishop of Lon-
don, upon this occasion, wrote to Lord Carteret,
recommending very strongly Doctor Clagget as
" a proper person to succeed Doctor Green in
*' that benefice. The Secretary communicated
u the letter to his Majesty, and Dr. Clagget
" ktesed his hand as a token of the King's in-
" tended favour, and came to England a month

o

ci or five weeks before his Majesty, to wait upon
" the Chancellor, and acquaint him with his Ma-
" jesty's nomination of him, and to request that

he might be presented to the Vicarage of St.

Martin's by a royal presentation. The Chan-
" cellar informed him, that it was his ridit as

D

<( Chancellor to present a Clerk to it, and that
" his Majesty must have been misinformed in
{< the matter. He wrote likewise on this sub-
" ject to Lord Carteret, informing him how the

<(

<(

" right

DR. ZACHAHY PEARCE. 373

" right of presenting to the Vicarage stood ; that
" it was his right, and that he had promised it
" to Mr. Pearce, one of his Majesty's chaplains,
" who had formerly been his own chaplain, had
" lived in his family, and whose merit and beha-
" viour Mras therefore well known to him. To
6' this letter an answer was given by Lord Car-
" teret, and the Lord Chancellor shewed both of
" them to Mr. Pearce ; but the answer was made
" in r.uch an ambiguous or unmeaning a manner,
" that Lord Macelesfield determined to let the
" matter rest till his Majesty returned from Ha-
" nover to England ; and then in a conference
" which Lord Macelesfield had with him, the
" King was satisfied with the justice of his claim,
" gave up the point, and permitted Lord Maccles-
" field to present Mr. Pearce to the benefice, as
" above-mentioned.

" N.B. Pie was inducted into the Vicarage of
" St. Martin's, January the 10th, 1723-24.

" Soon after Mr. Pearce was in possession of
<c the Vicarage, the Lord Chancellor told him
" that he thought it proper for him to take a de-
" gree of Doctor in Divinity, as he was now the
" Vicar of a Parish which was large and eminent,

^j /

^ and which was honoured with the residence of
" the Royal Family in it, at St. James's House.
" Mr. Pearce replied, that * he would willingly
'? do it; but that by the rules of the University^

" no

1*71 SUE LIFE OF

(l no such degree was given, except to thope who
" had been admitted nineteen years, and that he
*' was only of fourteen years standing.' Upon
this the Lord Chancellor said, that ' he would
try to get a royal mandate for the University's
(i conferring that degree upon him.' To \\hich
" Mr. Pearce, with many expressions of grati-
tude, replied that ' there was no doubt, but that
" the University would 9bey hjs Majesty's com-
" in and ; but that it was always a disagreeable
*' thing to that body to receive such mandates,
•' though they obeyed them.' Then said Lord
" Chancellor, * the Archbishop of Canterbury,
'•' Doctor Wake, has the power of conferring a
" Doctor's degree in Divinity, and I will ask him
** to bestow that favour on you,' I thanked his
il Lordship, and he spoke to the Archbishop some
" few days after, who readily consented to it, and
" the degree was conferred accordingly, June 1st,
1724."

In 1724, he dedicated to the Karl of Maccles-
field his edition of Longinus on the Sublime, with
a new Latin Version, and notes. Longinus,
\vhose name had been long known only to men of
abstruse erudition, till he was introduced by his
translator Boileau, among the witty and the ele-
gant, had now for about half a century enjoyed
great popularity, quoted by every poet and every
critic, and deciding upon faults and beauties of
iUyle with authority contested only by liuetius

and

DR. ZACIIARY PEARCE. 375

and Le Clerc. But it was the opinion of Doctor
Pearce, that something was wanting, which ge-
neral admiration had not yet supplied.

The work was originally published by Robertel-
lus and Manutius, who each used his own manu-
scripts without knowledge of the other's under-
taking. The texts of the two editions did not al-

o

ways agree, and to which the preference was dud
had not been decided. It had been four time*
translated into Latin ; one of the three former
Versions, that of Gabriel de Petra was considered
as the best, and had accordingly been adopted by
Tanaquillus Faber, and, I think, by our Lang-
baine in their editions. After Boileau's transla-
tion it was again turned into Latin by Tollius, but
with such paraphrastical luxuriance as seemed in-
tended rather to display his own copiousness of
diction than to explain the original. Doctor
Pearce undertook to adjust the readings, and,
what was of far greater difficulty, to write a new
Latin Version, which should approach as near as
is possible to the Greek, without violating its own
purity. To play round the text of an author, and
to recede and approach as convenience may dic-
tate, is no very arduous work, but to attend it
'without deviation, and measure step with step,
requires at once vigour and caution. By what
method he proceeded in this work may be known
from his preface and his notes. Some of his first

thoughts

376 THE LIFE OF

thoughts were retracted in the subsequent edi-
tions ; but Dr. Pearce has generally pleased the
public, though he found it difficult to please him-
self.

" At the latter end of 1724, the Commissioners
" for rebuilding St. Martin's Church found, that
" by the inaccu'rate estimate of the expcnces of
" it, made by the architect, Mr. Gibbs, a consi-
cc derable sum of money was wanted to finish the
" inside and the outside of that noble building,
" according to the plan which had been approved
" by the Commissioners, Two and twenty thou-
*e sand pounds had, by virtue of an Act of Parlia-
" ment, been already raised upon the Parishioners
" (the tenant rated at three-pence in the pound,
" and the landlord at one shilling), and it was
" judged, that ten thousand pounds more were
" necessarily wanted for the finishing of the
" whole ; but for raising this sum another Act of
" Parliament was to be procured, and it was the
" more difficult to get such a second Act, as the
" upper part of the Parish, where the greatest
" number of the Members of both Hpuses of
" Parliament then lived, was by an Act, which
*e had then passed, to be separated from tne
" Parish of St. Martin's, and to be a distinct
" Parish of itself in a very short time. It was

w

" necessary therefore for some of the Commis-
" sioners, among whom was Doctor Pearce, to

" wait

"

it
t'.

DR. ZACHARY PEARCE. 377

wait upon such of the Members of the House
of Commons especially, as had large property
in that district, and were of most weight in the
" House, to lay before them the state of the case,
" and to induce them, by such reasons as they
" had to offer, to consent and assist the Commis-
" sioners in obtaining a second Act, to enable
" them to raise 10,0001. more, after the same
" manner as the former 22,0001. had been raised.
** For this purpose, after they had obtained the
" consent of Sir Robert Wai pole, then esteemed
" the first Minister of State, they waited upon
Mr. Pulteney, as one who had a large property
there, and who, if he could be brought to give
" his consent, could be more assistant than most
" other men to give success to what was re-
" quested.

" They waited upon him accordingly, Doctor
" Pearce being in company with them, and
" Mr. Pulteney having, at three different confe-
(t rences, been convinced of the necessity of their
tl requests, engaged such a number of his friends
" in the House of Commons, that, concurring
" with the Ministerial influence, a Bill was
" brought into the House, and an Act for that
" end, soon afterwards received the Royal sanc-
'* tion.

" Mr, Pulteney, at the last of those confe-

" ranees,

J7S THE LIFE OF

" rences, took notice of Doctor Pearcc as having
" been educated at Westminster School, where he
" himself had likewise been educated, and for
" which he always retained a great affection; he
" invited him to come, on a day named, to dine
" with him ; and from that day not only an ac-
" quaintance began, but a friendship between
" tween them, which lasted and improved for
" very near forty years, and till the death of that

truly great man, who sat then in the House of
fc Lords as Earl of Batb."

When the Church of St. Martin's was built, Dr.
Pearce preached a Sermon at the consecration,
which he afterwards printed, and accompanied
with an Essav on the Origin and Progress of

* o o

Temples, traced from the rude stones which were
first used for altars, to the noble structure of So-
lomon, which he considers as the first temple com-
pletely covered.

In this Dissertation he declares his conviction
of the genuineness of the relation attributed to
Sanchoniatho, and clears the difficulties that em-
barass his opinion, by solutions drawn from the
Newtonian Chronology, of which only an abstract
had been then published. Yet he does not think
Sanchoniatho of much authority, but imputes his
inaccuracy and barrenness to misinformation and
want of materials, and regards his book as one of

the

DR. ZACHARY PEARCE. 379

the venerable relicjues of rude antiquity, and the
work of one who had missed the truth rather than
concealed it.

His observation on that building, which is
called the Temple of Dagon, removes part of the
difficulty which presents itself in the narration of
the manner in which Sampson destroyed it.

" In the year 1725, the Lord Chancellor, then
** Earl of Macclesfield, resigned the Great Seal to
<f his Majesty, King George the First ; which re-
*' signation was soon followed with an impeach*
*' of his Lordship by the House of Commons,
41 sent up to the Lords. The ground of this,
<c upon the best information which Dr. Pearce
• " could get, and which he believes to have been
i( the true one, was as follows :

" In the unhappy year 1720, commonly called
si the South Sea year, the money of the suitors in
" Chancery was, by ancient custom, ordered by
" the Lord Chancellor to be paid into the hands
" of the Master in Chancery, whose turn it was

to be in the court, when an order was made by
" the Lord Chancellor to depgsit any sum of
" money for the security of the suitors. This
" custom is now altered, a better ^nd more se-
(t cure manner of lodging the money being now
" estaolisued ; but the former custom then pre-
tc vailed, and one of the Masters in Chancery,
" Mr. Dormer, having ia 1720 trafficked wi

"

380 THE LIFE OP

" the suitor's money in 'Change-Alley, and dying

" soon after, it was found out, that he was defi-

" cient in his accounts of the suitors money to

" near the value of (>0,000l. This raised a

" mighty commotion among the suitors, and all

" who were any way interested in the Court of

" Chancery, either as suitors or as pleaders and

" practitioners there ; some of the last sort having

" personal resentments against that Lord from

" motives which were unworthy (as it might have

" been expected) of operating so far to the pre-

" judice, as they did, of a Chancellor generally

<c well esteemed for his great abilities and inte-

" grity in that important office. But operate

" thus they did, as he found by fatal experience ;

" for when the fire was once kindled, there wanted

" not those who contributed their assistance to

tc raise it up to a flame. The late King George

" the Second was then Prince of Wales, and had

" lived separately from his father, as he had been

" ordered to do ; and the education of his chil-

" dren, had been detained from him, upon an

" opinion then given by ten of the twelve Judges,

" called together at his Majesty's command by

" Lord Macclesfield then Chancellor, upon this

" question ; c whether the education of the grand-

" children did belong to their grandfather, as So-

" vereign, or to the Prince of Wales, as father ?'

" This meeting of the Judges having been called

by

DR. ZACHARV PEARCE. !

the Chancellor, and the question having been
" put to them by him upon his- Majesty's order
" for so doing, and the answer of the Judges be-
" ing not pleasing to the Prince of Wales, he bore
" it with some resentment ; and when the House
cc of Commons took the affair of the lost suitors
" money into consideration, all the Members of
" the House of Commons, who were servants of
" the Prince's court, at Leicester House, and all
" others of them who paid their addresses there,
u very readily joined in the outcry against Lord
" Macclesfield, and came into the impeachment.
" Sir Robert Walpole was at first unwilling to
" encourage such a precedent as the impeach-
c< meat of a Minister of State, though he had
" some degree of ill-will to that Lord on former
" ministerial motives : however, when he found,
" that it could not be easily stopped, became.
" into the design, and as far concurred as he
" safely could with it, well knowiug, that the
" King looked upon Lord Macclesfield with a
" gracious eye, and thought that his son, the
" Prince of Wales, had too much contributed to
" increase the flame for his being concerned in,
" doing what wras so much to his mind, and so

O '

" much against his son's.

o

" Lord Macclesfield Ts trial before the House of
" Lords is in print, and to Dr. Pearce, who was
every day present at it, it appears, that the

judgment

SI

41

it

THF. LIF£ or*

*' judgment of that Mouse was a severe one. He
«/ c?

" was unanimously declared guilty, and was lined
" 30,0001. though he had some time before paii*
" 10,0001. into the Court of Chancery, which
" was the whole sum received by him from tht
two last whom he had appointed to be Mas-
ters there, and which two largest sums were
J< the most clamoured against. And the House
" of Lords directed, that he should be confined in
" the Tower till that fine of 30,0001. was paid.
" This judgment was given upon a statute so long
" ago made as in the reign of Richard the Sc-
" ccnd, which forbade the selling of the office of

* CT*

" a Master in the Chancery. That statute had
" never been repealed, but a contrary custom
" had prevailed beyond the memory of man.
" Lord Macclesneld could have proved the fact
" to be so with regard to several of his more im-
<c mediate predecessors ; but when he called upon
" his witnesses, who were then present, to prove/
<; the fact, Lord Townsend stood up, and ob-
4{ jected to it, saying, ' My Lords, I hope that you
" will not suffu witnesses to be produced for this
" purpose ; for that will only snew, that this sort
*' of corruption is hereditary,' using the word he-
" reditary, on this occasion, by a very ridkulous-
*' mistake. Lord Macclesfield was, as I said,
" declared to be guilty, and a tine of 30,0001.
" was laid upon him ; but, as he was then un-

" able

({
tl

DR. 2ACIIARY FEARCE.

" able to pay it, he borrowed it all of his son-in-
<f law, Sir William Heathcote, mortgaging a paft
" of his small estate of 31001. per annum; and
" the money was all, by degrees, repaid to Sir
" William by Lord Macclesfield's son after his
" father's death.

The knowledge of two circumstances, which
" not many persons are informed of, may contri-
" bute not a little to take off much of the odium
of the charge brought against the Noble Earl,
and of that of the sentence given upon in the
" House of Lords. The one was, that before
" Lord King, who succeeded him as Chancellor,
" accepted of that high post, an additional salary
" of 15001. or £0001. a-year was annexed, it was
" creditably said, to the post out of the Hanaper-
" office, by way of recompence for the loss which
" would arise to the Chancellor for the time-
" being, by that judgment of the House of Lards ;
" tkough he was still allowed to dispose of the
" Masterships to his friends and relations, or to
" the recommendations of men in power, who
" could in another way serve his friends and re*
" lations.

" The other circumstance was, that, when some
" Bill was brought before the Lords, it is not
" remembered what the Bill was, and a Lord, ob^
" jecting to some clause of it, or expression in it,
" said, c that in time pejhaps the Masterships m

*f Chancerv

M

5

,1

84 'I HE UFE Or*

tl

tl

" Chancery might come again to be sold/ the
" Lord Chancellor King acquainted the House,
that it appeared on their journals, that, in
King William's reign, when a Bill for prevent-

" ing the Lord Lieutenants of Counties from sel-
~

" ling the office of Clerk of the Peace in those

o

" Counties, was brought from the Commons to
" the Lords, a motion was made by one of the
" Lords for a clause to be added, that the Lord
" Chancellor should be restrained from selling
" the Masterships in Chancery ; but that the
" Lords, after a debate, rejected the clause, and
" passed the Bill without it.

" King George the First being fully sensible
<c that the Earl's case was hard, and that he had
" suffered chiefly upon his account, sent him
" word, that he intended to repay the ^0,0001.
" to him out of his privy purse, as fast as he
" could spare the money. Sir Robert Walpole
11 delivered this message to Lord Macclesfield,
" with some gracious expressions of the King in
" in his favour. And accordingly, within twelve
" months, Sir Robert paid him 10001. by his
" Majesty's order. In the next year, Sir Robert
" sent him word, that he had received his Ma-
jesty's farther order to pay to him 20001. more,
wiien his Lordship was pleased to send for it.
4 '.Lord Macclesfield, thinking it not so genteel to
" send for it immediately, let a month or five

" weeks

u

Cl

DR. ZACHARY PEARCE. 385

" weeks pass, and then his Majesty went towards
Hanover, and died at Osnaburgh in his )vay
" thither, in 1727. Upon the news of his death,
Lord Macclesfield's son waited upon Sir Ro-
bert by his father's order to receive the money ;
" but he was then told by him, ' that his late
Majesty and he had a running account, and
that at present he could not tell on whose side
the balance was, and that therefore he could
tc not venture to pay the 20001.' So that the sum
" of lOQOl. was all that Lord Macclesfield ever
" received from the intended bounty of his gra-
" cious master.

" Lord MacclesfieM lived after that till the
" year 1732, during all which time Dr. Pearce
" was so favourably received by him, that their
" acquaintance might be called strict friendship,
and they frequently dined and supped each at
the other's house: and upon the Doctor's com-
<c ing to visit him one day, he found him walking
in one of his rooms in great pain by a suppres-
sion of urine, which had, as he said, come upon
" him in the night before : he then told the Doctor,
" ' that his mother had died of the same disorder,
" on the eighth day of it,' and added, ' and so
" shall I ;' which accordingly happened ; for on
" the eighth day Doctor Pearce came to him, as
" he had done on all the preceding days, and
" found him beyond all hopes of life and assist-
VOL. i, C c " ance

so nil LITE or

" ance of ins physicians. He was drowning in-
wardly, and felt himself dying from his feet up-
" wards. He retained all his senses to the last:
" lie received the Holy Communion in company
" with his son and Lady Parker, Doctor Pcarce
and Mr. Clark, afterwards Sir Thomas and
" Master of the Rolls, which three last left him
" at eight o'clock, and about ten that night he
" asked, if his Physician was gone. Being told
il that he was, he replied, ' and I am going too ;
" but I will close my eyelids myself/ which ac-
cordingly he did, and died in a few moments
" afterwards, on April 22, 1732, JEt. 64.

" This was the end of this great and good

o ~

" man, who, during all the time that Doctor
" Pearce had the happiness of knowing him,
" seemed to him to live under a constant sense of
" religion as a Christian : at his hours of leisure,
tfc reading and studying the holy Scriptures, more
especially after his misfortunes had removed
" him from the business and fatigues of his of-
fice as Chancellor."

But it is time to return to Dr. Pearce. " When
he was Vicar of St. Martin's, Lord Sundon was
one of his Parishioners, and one of the Mem-
bers of Parliament for Westminster. These
two circumstances brought them acquainted
together, and that Lord sometimes invited him
to dinner. This produced an acquaintance

" likewise

DR. ZACHARY PEARCE. 387

" likewise with Lady Sundon, at that time thought
" to be the great favourite of Queen Caroline, the
" wife of King George the Second. Doctor
" Pearce had the good luck to be soon in the good
" graces of Lady Sundon, and she often men-
" tioned her good opinion of him to the Queen,
" who, upon that recommendation, had designed
" him for a Deanery. In the year 1737, Doctor
" Herring, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury,
" was nominated to the See of Bangor, and it was
" intended he should quit his Deanery of Roches-
" ter and hold his Rectory of Blechingley in com-
" mendam with his Bishopric, and that Doctor
" Pearce should succeed him in the Deanery.
" Sir Robert told this to Doctor Hare, then Bi-
" shop of Chichester, and he came immediately
*< from Sir Robert to Dr. Pearce's house, in St.
" Martin's Church-yard, and informed him of
" what Sir Robert had said, and very kindly ex-
pressed his satisfaction in being able to be the
bearer of the news. Doctor Pearce was ready
to accept it, and accordingly thought that he
might depend npon his being promoted to that
" dignity ; but the scene was soon changed, and
" Doctor Herring obtained leave to hold the

o

" Deanery instead of the Rectory, in commcndam^
<l with the Bishopric of Bangor.

" The gracious Queen also honoured him with
" her conversation at her Drawing-room. One

w

c c 2 " day

<c

<c

(I

388 THE LIFE OF

" day at that place, in the above-mentioned year,

" 1737, she asked him, if he had read the pam-

" phlets published by Dr. Stebbing and Mr.

" Forster upon the sort of heretics meant by St.

" Paul, whom, in Titus iii. 10, 11, he represents

" as self-condemned. ' Yes, Madam,' replied

" the Doctor, i I have read all the pamphlets

" written by them on both sides of the question.'

" ' Well,' said the Queen, ' which of the two do

" you think to be in that right?' The Doctor re-

" plied, ' I cannot say, Madam, which of the two

" is in the right; but I think that both of them

" are in the wrong.' She smiled and said, ' then

" what is your opinion of that text?' 'Madam/

" said the Doctor, ' it would take up more time

" than your Majesty can spare at this Drawing-

" room, for me to give my opinion and the rea-

" sons of it ; but if your Majesty should be

" pleased to lay your commands upon me, you

" shall know my sentiments of the matter in the

" next Sermon which I shall have the honour to

" preach before his Majesty.' ' Pray do then/

" said the Queen, and Doctor Pearce accord*
" ingly made a Sermon on that text; but the

" Queen died in the November following, which

" was a month before his turn of preaching came

" about.

" Soon after this discourse with her, and on
" one of her Drawing-room days, she inquired of

" Doctor
1

(f

€(

DR. ZACHARY PEARCE. 389

Doctor Pearce, how Doctor Lockyer, the
then Dean of Peterborough, did ; for she
" had heard, that he was dying. Doctor Pearce

' */ tJ

" told her, that all his danger was over, and that
" he was now upon the recovery. ' Well/ said
" she, * if he had died, I can tell you, that his Ma-
" jesty intended you to be his successor.' I
" thanked her Majesty, and there was an end of

*/ «/ *

<e that conversation. She afterwards, as Doctor
" Pearce was well informed, recommended the
" Doctor to be thought of by Sir Robert, when-
" ever a Deanery should become vacant, which
" should be worth his acceptance ; and Sir Ro-
" bert remembered her recommendation accord-
" ingly, though she was dead before such a va-
" cancy happened.

" In the year 173.9, the Deanery of Wells be-
" came vacant, and Doctor Pearce, who knew
" that Sir Robert had expressed his inclinations to
" serve him in such a way, waited upon him one
" day at his Levee to put himself in the way, and
" in the thoughts of that Minister of State. He

O

" there came up to him, and said, ' Doctor
" Pearce, what brings you here ?' He might well

t( sav so : for it was the first time that he had ever

j *

" appeared at his Levee. 'Sir,' said the Doctor, ' I
" come to pay my respects to you.' ' Then,' said
;< Sir Robert, 'don't come any more here, for I
" will see you at any other time.' Accordingly
" Doctor Pearce went to no more of his Levees ;

66 but

II
It

THE LIFE OF

" but about a fortnight afterwards, he waited upon

" him at his house between eight and nine o'clock

" in the morning, was admitted to him, and told

" him that the Deanery of Wells being vacant, he

~ o

" hoped for his favour to recommend him to his
" Majesty. Sir Robert expressed his good
" opinion of him in a kind manner; but added,
" ' that the "Members of Parliament for Wells,
and several others of the town, had been with
with him ; that nothing but election-work ran
" in their heads, and that they had pressed him
" not to give that Deanery, except to one who
" would assist them at elections/ He then
" stopped and looked stedfastly at Doctor Pearce,
" who replied, ' that he must leave it wholly to
" him/ ' Well,' said he, ' I will then consider fur-
" ther of it/

" About this time Mr. Pulteney spoke to Sir
" Robert in the House of Commons, where,
" though he was then in the height of opposition
" to him and his measures, he always sat upon
" the same bench, and the very next to him. * Sir
" Robert/ said he, l I have a favour to ask of
" you/ c O my good friend, Pulteney/ re-
" plied Sir Robert, ' what favour can you have to
" ask of me?' ' It is/ said Mr. Pulteney, ' that
" Doctor Pearce may not suffer in his prefer-
" ment for being my friend/ * I promise you,'
" said Sir Robert, c that he shall not/ c Why
4< then,' said Mr. Pulteney, ; I hope, that you will

" give

"

DR. ZACHARY PEARCE. 391

" him the Deanery of Wells, which is now va-
" cant.' * No,' replied Sir Robert, ' I cannot pro-
" mise you that for him.' This generous regard,
on both sides, for Doctor Pearce, did not come
" to his knowledge till some years afterwards.

" The Deanery of Wells was however kept va-
" cant five or six months, and, before it was be-
" stowed upon any Clergyman, the Deanery of
" Winchester became vacant, by the death of
" Doctor Nailor ; and almost as soon as it was
known, Sir Robert acquainted Archbishop
Potter, who was on a visit to him at his house,
the next morning, that his Majesty had named
Doctor Pearce for that Deanery. The Arch-
bishop, out of his great good will to Dr. Pearce,
came directly to him in St. Martin's Church-
" yard, and informed him of what Sir Robert had
" said to him, and congratulated him upon the
" occasion.

11 In the year 1739, Doctor Pearce was ap-
" pointed Dean of Winchester, and instituted
" into it August the 4th, of that year. Till that
<c Deanery was disposed of, the Deanery of Wells
s( was not given away ; and by this means, what-
*' ever promise Sir Robert had made to the
" Queen, he had made it in some degree good, as
Dr. Pearce had the first Deanery bestowed
upon him, the vacancy of which had been filled

« up

t(

<e

t(

ti

"

cc

cc

(C
1C

2 THE LIFE OF

" up on Sir Robert's recommendation after her
" Majesty's death.

" As soon as it was known that Dr, Pearce
was to be the Dean of Winchester, his friend
Mr. Pulteney came to congratulate him on that
" occasion ; and among other things which he
then said, one was, c Doctor Pearce, though
you may think that others besides Sir Robert
" have contributed to get you this dignity, yet
" you may depend upon it, that he is all in all,
" and that you owe it entirely to his good will to-
a wards you. And therefore as I am now so en-
gaged in opposition to him, it may happen that
some who are of our party, may, if there should
be any opposition for Members of Parliament
" at Winchester, prevail upon me to desire you
61 to act there in assistance of some friend of ours ;
" and Sir Robert, at the same time, may ask
Ci your assistance in the election for a friend of his
cc own against one whom we recommend. I tell
" you, therefore, before-hand, that if you comply
" with my request rather than with Sir Robert's,
*£ to whom you are so very much obliged, I shall
" have the worse opinion of you/ Could any
" thing be more generous to the Dean, as a friend,
ic or to Sir Robert, to \\hom, in other respects, he
" was a declared opponent ?

" In the year 174 1,. Mr, Pulteney, with those

<;oT

a

a

£
it

DR. ZACHARY PEARCE. 393

" of his party, had so far prevailed in the House
" of Commons, that Sir Robert frankly declared
to his Majesty, that he could no longer be of
sufficient service to his Majesty in that House,
" and therefore desired a dismission from all his
" State employments. In consequence of this a
" message was brought to Mr. Pulteney by the
" late Duke of Newcastle and the Lord Chancel-
" lor Hardwicke from the King, signifying,
" l that he was willing to place all Sir Robert's

O i

" employments and powers in his hands \ but
" with this condition only, that Sir Robert should
" be screened from all future resentments on ac-
" count of the share which he had in the public
" affairs.' This condition Mr. Pulteney utterly
" rejected, and in two or three days the same
" noble persons came to Mr. Pulteney again with
" a second message from the King, signifying,
" that ' the offer made to him, as mentioned be-
" fore, should be made good without that condi-
t( tion.' He consulted his friends, and by their
" advice he accepted of what his Majesty had so
" graciously offered to him, declaring at the same
" that he was determined to fill no post himself,
" but to serve his friends in recommending to his
" Majesty such of them as he thought proper to
" be placed in the great departments of the admi-
" nistration. Only he desired to have the ho*
(i aour of being one of the Cabinet Council. Ac-

" cordingly

394 THE LIFE OF

*' cordmgly Sir Robert resigned all. and some of
" Mr. Pulteney *s friends were nominated to the
*' chief of the great employments in Government,
#< he himself being contented to be one of the Ca-
ft binet Counril. It is well known how he lost all
" his weight as a ]\linister of State within a few
*' months.

" But the Dean of Winchester was from the
beginning of his short Ministry very frequently
with him. Dining with him one day, he met
Colonel Grimes there, who said, when they three
were alone, ' now, Mr. Pulteney, I hope that
you will make your friend Doctor Pearce a

•j •*

Bishop.' ' Pray, Colonel, 'said the Dean, 'ask
favours for yourself, I trouble Mr. Pulteney for
" none.' Mr. Pulteney made no answer to the
" Colonel; but a Bishopric being soon become
" vacant, Mr. Pulteney, as has since been made
known to the Dean, proposed to the Cabinet
Council, that the Dean should be recommended
to his Majesty. To this the Duke of New-
castle objected, saying, c that it was already
*4 engaged ; but that upon another vacancy, the
" Dean should be considered ;' but that consi-
" deration did not take place till some years
41 after.

" December the 7th, 1774, Dean Pearce was
<c elected Prolocutor of the Lower House of Con»
" vocation for the province of Canterbury ; the

<( Archbishop

(C

ft

tl
tt

if

«

u
ft

li

<t
It

«

(C

ZACIIARY <PEARCF.

<J Archbishop having signified to some of its
" Members, that the choice of him would be
" agreeable to his Grace. All the while he was

o

41 Prolocutor, he attended the House in King
<c Henry the Seventh's Chapel every day, to which
" it stood prorogued. He always gave previous
" notice of the day of meeting in the Daily Ad-
vertiser, and engaged some of his acquaintance
among the Members, who lived in or near town,
to be present there : he read the Latin Litany
as soon as they were met ; and while he waited
with them in the Chapel till the Archbishop's
Schedule came down for proroguing the Convo-
cation to another day, he invited all who were
" present, with the two Actuaries, to dine with him
" at his house in St. Martin's Church-yard, which
" they generally did. If this method had been
<{ observed by the Prolocutors since, more of the
" face of a Convocation would have been seen.

" In the year 1 746, Archbishop Potter being
" then alone with Dean Pearce one day at Lam-
" beth, said to him, ' Mr. Dean, why do net you
" to try engage your friend, Lord Bath, to get you
" made a Bishop ?' ' My Lord,' said the Dean,
" ' I am extremely obliged to your Grace for your
" good opinion of me, and for your kind intentions
" in my favour ; but I have never spoken to him
*< on that subject, nor ever thought of doing so,
*' though, I believe, that he would do what lies in

" his

7

t.

II

ti
tc

396 THE LIFE OF

" his power; but I will tell your Grace very
frankly, that 1 have no thoughts of any Bi-
shopric. All that I have in view is this; I am

" now Dean of Winchester, and that Deanery is

" worth upwards of 6001. a year; my Vicarage
of St. Martin's is about 5001. a-year, and this
last I should be glad of an opportunity of re-

" signing, on account of the great trouble and

v~^ ^^ C-?

" little leisure which so large a Parish gives me :

" but if I should out-live my father, who is up-

" wards of eighty years old, I shall come to his

" estate, being his eldest son, which will enable

" me to resign my Vicarage ; and the profits of

" the Deanery alone, with my father's estate will

" make me quite contented.' The Archbishop

" smiled and said, ' Well, if you will not help

" yourself, your friends must do it for you.' Ac-

" cordingly he spoke to the Earl of Bath, and

tc they two, as Dean Pearce has heard since,

" agreed to try what they could do to make the

" Dean of Winchester a Bishop. A Bishopric

" becoming vacant soon after, while King George

" the Second was at Hanover, his Grace wrote a

" Letter to the Secretary of State, who was there

" with his Majesty, recommending Dr. Pearce

" with four others, as proper persons for his Ma-

" jesty to nominate one of them to the vacancy ;

" but this recommendation had no effect in favour

" of any one of them, nor was this application of

"the

iC
iC

DR. ZACHARY FEARCE.

" the Archbishop known to Dean Pearce, till after
" the death of the Archbishop, who died in 1747,
" let. 74.

" In 1748, the Bishopric of Bangor became
" vacant by the translation of Dr. Hntton from
" the See of Bangor to that of York. The Dean

o

" was then at Winchester, and received there a
" letter from Mr. Clark, afterwards Sir Thomas
" and Master of the Rolls, informing him, that
" Lord Chancellor Hardw?icke wished to see Dean
" Pearce thought of on that occasion, and that
he hoped the Dean would answer Mr. Clarke's
letter in such a way as when seen, might be ap-
" proved of by the Ministry. Dean Pearce an-
" swered the letter with acknowledgments of the
" favour thought of for him ; but assuring Mr,
" Clark, who, as he perceived, was to com-
" municate the answer to Lord Hardwicke, that
" ' he had long had no thoughts of desiring a
" Bishopric, and that he was fully satisfied with
" his situation in the Church; and that as to the
" Ministry, he was always used to think as fa-
" vourably of them as they could wish him to do,
" having never opposed any of the public mea-
" sures, nor designing so to do.' In truth
" the Dean had then fixed upon a resolu-
e( tion to act no otherwise than as he had told the
" Archbishop he should do, upon his father's
" death. The Dean received no answer to this
€t letter written to Mr, Clark, and he thought,

" that

«

«;

<c

«
<(

a
tl

3<)S THE LIFE OF

*' that there was an end of that matter. Ahout a
fortnight after this, the Dean went up to his

O *

" Parish in Westminster; but in his way thither,
" lay one night at his father's house, in Little
" Ealing, near Brentford ; where the next morn-
" ing early, a letter was brought to him from the
Duke of Newcastle by one of his Grace's ser-
vants, signifying, that his Grace had his Ma-
jesty's order to make the Dean of Winchester
an offer of the Bishopric of Bangor, and desir-
ing to see him at the Cockpit the next day at
twelve o'clock. The Dean sent by the servant
a proper answer to the letter, promising to at-
" tend him at the place and time appointed.
<c Accordingly he waited upon him, when with
" many kind expressions to the Dean, the Duke
" signified the gracious offer of his Majesty which
" he had the order to make to him. The Dean
" asked his Grace whether he might be permitted
" to hold his Deanery of Winchester in com-
" mendam with Bangor, to which the answer was,
" c no ;' but that he might hold the Vicarage of
" St. Martin's with it. The Dean said, £ that he
" was desirous to quit the Living, which was
" troublesome to him, and would be more so,' as
" he was growing in years ; but if that could not
" be indulged him, he rather chose to continue in
" his present situation/ The Duke used some
" arguments to persuade the Dean to accept of
" the offer with a commendam to hold the Living.

« He

ft
<c

DR. ZACHARY PEARCE. 399

fi He could not however prevail with the Dean
4i any farther, than that he would take three days
" time to consider of it. During that time the
'* Dean had brought his father and Lord Bath to
" consent, that he might decline to accept of that
" Bishopric without their displeasure; but be-
fore the Dean saw the Duke a second time,
Lord Hardwicke, then Chancellor sent for him,
" and desired him to be, without fail, at his house
" that evening. He went, and Lord Hardwicke told
" him, that he found by the Duke of Newcastle,
" that he had made difficulties about accepting
" the Bishopric which was so graciously offered
" him, The Dean gave his Lordship an account
" of all that had passed between the Duke and
" him ; upon which his Lordship used many ar-
" guments with the Dean to induce him to accept
" the offer, as intended. Among other things, he
" said; ' if Clergymen of learning and merit will
" not accept of the Bishoprics, how can the Mi-
" nisters of State be blamed, if they are forced to
" fill them with others less deserving?' The
" Dean was struck with that question, and had
" nothing ready in his thoughts to reply to it. He
*c therefore promised Lord Hardwicke to consent
" the next day, when he was to see the Duke of
" Newcastle. ' Well then,' said Lord Hard-
" wicke, ' when you consent, do it with a good
" grace.' The Dean promised to do that too,

" and

i
u

1C

c:
tc

400 THE LJIK or

" and accordingly he declared to the Duke, the
next day, his ready acceptance of his Majesty's
offer, with such acknowledgments of the Royal
goodness as are proper on the occasion; and on
" February ijl, 17-18, lie was consecrated Bishop
11 of Bangor. He has since been well informed,
" that Lord Bath, upon the first news of Dr. Hut-
" ton's being designed to be removed from
" Bangor to York, wrote a letter to the Duke of

O '

Newcastle, reminding him of his promise in
1741, that Doctor Pearce should be considered
upon another vacancy of a Bishopric, and pres-
sing him to make good his promise now. What
effect, or whether any, that letter had to bring
the event about, can never be known.

In the year 175.5, the Bishop of Bangor be-
ing with Archbishop Herring at Croydon, and
walking with him in his garden, he said, ' my
Lord, you know, that the Bishop of Rochester,
" Dr. Wilcocks, is very ill and probably will not
" live long : will you accept of his Bishopric and
u the Deanery of Westminster, in exchange for
" your's of Bangor?' The Bishop excused him-
11 self, and told him plainly, ' that his father being
" dead, and his estate come to him, he had now
" nothing in view, but to beg his Majesty's leave
€c to resign the See of Bangor, and to retire to a
" private life, in the year 1757; that so long he
" was contented to continue in the possession of

" the

•6
u

It

(t
tc

it
ft

SI
(C

DR. ZACHARY PEARGE 401

" the Bishopric of Bangor ; but that then he de-
signed to try if he could obtain leave to re-
sign, and live upon his private fortune.' The
" Archbishop replied; ' I doubt whether the
" King will grant it, or that it can be done.' A
" second time, at another visit there, he men-
" tioned the same thing, and a second time the
" Bishop gave much the same answer. But in a
" short time after, upon another visit, when the
" Archbishop mentioned it a third time, he added,
" ' my Lord, if you will give me leave to try
" what I can do to procure you this exchange, I
" promise you not to take it amiss of you, if you
refuse it, though I should obtain the offer for
you.' * This is very generous in your Grace,'
" said the Bishop, ( and I cannot refuse to con-
* sent to what you propose to do.'

" Sometime after, in the same year (the Bishop
" of Rochester declining very fast) the Duke of
" Newcastle sent to the Bishop of Bangor, and
" desired to see him the next day. He went to
" him, and the Duke informed him, that he was
" told, that the Chancellorship of Bangor was
" then vacant, and he pressed the Bishop so much
" to bestow it upon whom he had to recommend,
" that the Bishop consented to comply with his
" request' ' Well, my Lord,' said the Duke,
" now, I have another favor to ask of you.'
" ' Pray, my Lord Duke,' said the Bishop ;
" what is that?' J Why,' said the Duke, c it
VOL. i. D d " « is.

'.(
.'i

a

t:
it

THE LIKK OK

is, that you will accept of the Bishopric of Ro-
chester and Deinu ry of Westminster in ex-
change for Bailor, in case the present Bishop of
Rochester should die?' ' My Lord,' said the
Bishop, if I had thoughts of exchanging my
Bishopric, I should prefer what you mention
before any other dignities/ ' That is not,' said
the Duke,' ' an answer to my question : will you
accept them in exchange, if they are offered to
you?' Your Grace offers them to me,' said
the Bishop/ ' in so generous and friendly a
manner, that I promise you to accept them.'

Here the conversation ended, and Doctor
Wilcocks dying in the beginning of the year
" 175(5, the Bishop of Bangor was promoted to
<k the Bishopric of Rochester and Deanery of
" Westminster very soon after in 1756.

" October the £5th, in 1760, his Majesty King
" George the Second died, and his present Ma-
f< jesty King George the Third succeeded him :
'•' he had been from a child familiarized to the
" conversation of Lord Bath (his father, Frede-
" ric Prince of Wales, having always been fond
" of that Earl) and at his coming to the Crown
" on his grandfather's decease, he always allowed
li the Earl access to him, and was pleased with
<' his visits, his conferences with him in his closet,
and the advices which he gave to him on cer-
" tain occasions, even to the time of the Earl's
" death; being sensible that no one, though he

was

Dtt> 2ACHARY PEARCE. 403

" was in no employment under his Majesty, was
(c me to have been your competitor for the Bi-
<f better able, or more free from all party bias, to
C( instruct and direct him what steps to take upon
" important occurrences.

" In the latter end of the year 1761, died Dr*
<l Sherlock, Bishop of London, and upon his
" death, Lord Bath spoke to the Bishop of Ro
" Chester, and offered to use his endeavours with
" his Majesty for appointing the Bishop of Ro-
" Chester to succeed him; and many thought,
" that he had lon^ had a view to that eminent

o

" See, as he had for seven years before that Pre-
" late's death ordained all candidates for holy or-
" ders in his diocese, and done other business for
" him, who, through age and bodily infirmities,
" was wholly disabled to do most parts of his
" office in person. The Bishop thanked Lord
" Bath for his kind intentions, but told him, that
" from the earliest time that he could remember
" himself to have considered about Bishoprics, he
" had determined never to accept of the Bi-
" shopric of London or the Archbishopric of Can*
" terbury ; and that he begged his Lordship not
*( to make any application on his behalf for the
" vacant See of London. It was soon afterwards
" filled by Dr. Hayter, translated to it from Nor-
" wich ; to whom, when he was one day upon
" a visit at the Bishop of Rochester's, the Biahqp
" said, ( I hope, my Lord, that you don't think

D d 2 "me

n

(C

<t

1C

: i .n • K OF

" me to have been your competitor fur the I3i-
" shopric of London/ lie replied, 'No; my
" Lord Bath has told me, that he offered you his
" inten.st towards getting it, but that you would
" not permit him to try it.' Dr. Ilayter died in
" l?o\\ and Dr. OsbaWistoti succeeded him;
" but he died too in about a twelvemonth after-
" wards ; and then Lord Bath said to the Bishop
of Rochester, ' I desire to know whether you
will or not accept of London, if offered to you?
<c If you w ill I believe that I can get it for you."

•* O v

" What reason he had for believing, he never ex-
plained to the Bishop of Rochester ; but the
Bishop's reply was this; ' my Lord, I thank
" you very heartily for this instance of your kind-
" ness ; but I desire you net to apply for my
having it ; because I shall certainly decline to
" accept it, and in that case the offer will be
" deemed a favour granted to you, though it will
" have no effect with me.'

" In the year 1763, the Bishop of Rochester
<( being then seventy-three years old, and finding
" himself less fit for the business of his station, as
<( Bishop and Dean, informed his friend Lord
" Bath of his intention to resign both, and live in
a retired manner upon his own private fortune,
And after much discourse upon that subject, at
different times, he prevailed upon his Lordship
c< at last to acquaint his Majesty with his inten-
tention, and to desire, in the Bishop's name,

«' the

t(
ft
t(

if

tf,

DR. Z A CHARY PEARCE. 405

the honour of a private audience from his Ma-
jesty for that purpose. Lord Bath did so, and
" his Majesty named a day and hour, when the
" Bishop went and was admitted alone into his
" closet. He there made known his request to
" his Majesty, and acquainted him with the
grounds of it, telling him, that he had no mo-
tive for resigning his Bishopric and Deanery
" from di -likes which he had to any thing in the
" Church or State; that being of the age before
" mentioned, he found the business belonging to
" those two stations too much for him, and that
" he was afraid, that it would still grow much
" more so, as he advanced in years ; that he was
" desirous to retire for the opportunity of spend-
" ing more time in his devotions and studies, and
" that he was in the same way of thinking with a
" General Officer of the Emperor Charles the
" Fifth, who, when he desired a dismission from
" that Monarch's service, and the Emperor asking
" the reason of it, answered, ' Sir, every wise
" man would, at the latter end of life, wish to
M have an interval between the fatigues of busi-
*' ness and 'eternity.' The Bishop then shewed
" him in a written paper instances of its having
t( been done at several times; and concluded
" with telling his Majesty, that he did not expect
<c or desire an immediate answer to his request;
" but rather that his Majesty would first consult

" some

THK LIFE OT

" some proper persons among his servants about
<c the propriety and legality of it. This the Kin<:
" consented to do, and told the Bishop, that he
li would send for him again, \\hen he was come
" to a determination. About two months after-
" wards lie sent for the Bishop and told him, that
" he had consulted about it \uth two of his law-
" yers ; that one of them, Lord Mansfield, saw no
4* objeclion to the resignation of the Bishopric and
" Deanery ; but that the other said, he was doubt-
" ful about the practicability of resigning a Bi-
" shopric ; but that however the same lawyer,
*' Lord Northington, soon afterwards had told
*• him, that upon farther considering the matter,
" he thought the request might be complied with.
** * Am I then, Sir,' said the Bishop, ( to suppose
" that I have your Majesty's consent?' 'Yes,'
i: said the King. ' May I then Sir/ said the Bi-
" shop, ' have the honour of kissing your hand as
" a token of your consent:' Upon that the King
<c held out his hand, and the Bishop kissed it.

" So far all went agreeably to the Bishop's in-
" clination. Consept was given, and in such a
" manner as is seldom recalled ; it being, as Lord
" Bath expressed it, a sort of engagement.

" But unfortunately for the Bishop, Lord Bath,

as soon as he heard of the King's consent be*

ing given, requested him to give the Bishopric

" and Deanery, which were to be resigned, to

" Doctor Newton, then Bishop of Bristol. This

" alarmed

DR. ZACHAUY PEARCE. 407

" alarmed the Ministry, who thought, as other
" Ministers had clone before them, that no digni-
41 ties in the Church should be obtained from the

Crown ; but through their hands. They there-
" fore resolved to oppose the resignation, as the
" shortest way of keeping the Bishopric from be-
" ing disposed of otherwise than they liked : and
" the lawyer, who had been doubtful, and who
" soon after had been clear, was employed to in-
" form his Majesty that he was then again doubt-
" fill, and that the Bishops generally disliked the
" design. His Majesty upon this sent again, but
" at some distance of time, to the Bishop of Ro-
" Chester, and at a third audience in his closet
" told him, that he must think no more about re-
" signing the Bishopric ; but that he would have
" all the merit of having done it. The Bishop
" replied, * Sir, I am all duty and submission/
ts and then withdrew.

" Jn the year 1764, Lord Bath, about ten
" days before his death, had the last discourse
" with the Bishop on this subject, and he seemed
" to be much concerned about the Ministerial
" usage, which his Majesty, his Lordship, and the
" Bishop had met with. That Lord had then a
" great cold upon him. The Bishop dined with
" him however, and it was the last time that he
" saw him ; his cold bringing on a fever, which
" soon made him delirious, in which state he lay
" till he expired, July the 7th, 176*4.

403 THE LIFE OF

"
"

N. B. He was born March the £i2d, h>54, a-
appears by the Register of St. Martin's Parish.
" If it was UiSi-o, then he died in the eightieth
year of his age ; but his funeral ring says eighty-

" one.

cc
II

<c
<(

" Thus died that great and worthy man, Wil-
liam Pulteney Earl of Bath, descended from a
very ancient family (the De Pulteney 's, who, I
" think, came to England with the Norman Duke,
William). He was by inheritance and prudent
ceconomy possessed of a very large estate, out
" of which he yearly bestowed, contrary to the
" opinion of those who were less acquainted with
" him, in charities and benefactions more than a
" tenth part of his whole income. He was a firm
" friend to the established religion of his country,
" and free from all the vices of the age even in
" his youth. He constantly attended the public
<c worship of God, and all the offices of it in his
" Parish Church, while his health permitted it;
" and when his great age and infirmities pre-
" vented him from so doing, he supplied that de-
" feet by daily reading over the Morning Service
<f of the Church before he came out of his bed-
" chamber. That he had quick and lively parts,
<c a fine head and sound judgment, the many
" things, which he published occasionally, suffi-
" ciently testify. He had twice, chiefly by his

" own

DR. ZACHARY PEARCE. 409

" own personal weight, overturned the Ministry,
" viz. 1741, 1745, though he kept not in power
" long at each of those great events, which was
" occasioned by has adhering to his resolution of
" not filling any place of profit or honour in the
" Administration ; and by some other means less
" creditable, to his associates than to himself,
" which the writer of this account is well ac-
" quainted with. The Bishop of Rochester had
" lived near forty years in friendship with him ;
" and, for a great part of those years, in an inti-
" macy with him. In his life time he made him,
" among other presents, that of a very fine por-
" trait of him, drawn by Mr. Hoare of Bath, and,
" at his death, he bequeathed to him an emerald
" ring of considerable value, in the following
" words : ' I bequeath to the Bishop of Rochester
" my emerald ring, which I desire him to wear in
" memory of a friend who truly esteemed him."

This ring was bequeathed by Bishop Pearce,
with the same affection, and in the very same
words, to Doctor John Thomas, who, on his resig-
nation, succeeded him in the Deanery ; and, at
his death, according to his most earnest wish, in
the Bishoprick.

" In the year 1768, the Bishop of Rochester,
" having first obtained his Majesty's consent, re-
" signed his Deanery of Westminster upon Mid-

" summer-

410 THE LIFE OP

" summer-day, which he had held for

years, and which was nearly double in point of
" income to liis Bishopric, which he was obliged
" to retain. As Dean of that Church, he had
" installed twelve Knights of the Bath in 11 Gl :
" he had the honour of assisting in the ceremonies
*w of crowning his present Majesty, and the me-
t( lancholy office of performing the Funeral Ser-
<f vice over King George the Second, and six others
of the Royal Family. He had always given more
attention to the interests of that Society, where
he was the Dean, than to his own ; and when
" he quitted it, which was without any conditions
" attending it, he was succeeded in the Deanery
" by Dr. Thomas, who had been for many years
" his Sub- Dean there, and whom he favoured no
" farther towards his getting it, than by acquaint-
him some months before with his intention

"

"

" of resigning it."

Thus far the course of his public and visible
life has been related by himself, and of a man ar-
rived at his seventy-eighth year much cannot re-
main to be told. Being disengaged from his
Deanery he seemed to consider himself as freed

J

from half his burthen, and with such vigour as time
had left him, and such alacrity as religious hope
continued to supply, he prosecuted his episcopal
functions and private studies.

In

DR. 2ACHARY PEARCE. 411

In 1773, on the 23d of October, in her seven-
tieth year, died his wife, with whom he had lived
in great concord fifty-one years. The children
they had died very young, and her departure made
a void in his life, which it was not possible to sup-
ply. About a fortnight after her funeral he came
down into his hall, and lamented his loss in proper
expressions of sorrow and respect, he spoke of her
again in the evening, and from that time men*
tioned her no more in his family.

A separation suffered at eighty-three is not
likely to be long felt. The Bishop, in the same
year, by too much diligence in his office, ex-
hausted his strength beyond recovery. Having
confirmed at Greenwich (October 1), seven hun-
dred persons, he found himself next day unable
to speak, and never regained his former readiness
of utterance. He languished from that time, his
animal strength gradually deserted him, his para-
lytic complaint increased, and his power of swal-
lowing was almost lost. Being asked by one of
his family, who constantly attended him, how he
could live with so little nutriment, " I live," said
he, " upon the recollection of an innocent and well
" spent life, which is my only sustenance.'' After
some months of lingering decay, he died at Little
Ealing, the 29th of June, 1774, in his eighty-
fourth year, and was buried by his wife in the

" Church

iC

tl

412 THE LIKE OF

Church of Bromley, in Kent, where a monument
is erected to his memory, with the following epitaph
written by himself:

" In the South aisle lieth the body of Zachary
" Pearce, 1). D. who was made Rector of St.
" Bartholomew's behind the Royal Exchange,
" London, March 10, 1719-20; Vicar of St. Mar-
tin's in the Fields, Westminster, January 10,
1723-4; Dean of Winchester, August 4, 1739,"
" Prolocutor of the Lower House of Convocation,
" December 7, 1 744 ; Bishop of Bangor, Fe-
" bruary21, 1747-8; Dean of Westminster, May
" 4, 1756, and Bishop of Rochester, June 4<t
11 17-56. He resigned the Deanery of West-
u minster June 24, 1768; and died in a comfort-
" able hope of (what was the chief aim of all his
" labours upon earth) the being promoted to a
" happier place in Heaven.

" He was born September 8, 1690, and died
1 June 29, aged 84, 1774."

A Cenotaph

DR. ZACHARY PEARCE. 413

A Cenotaph likewise has been erected, on the
South side, in Westminster Abbey, with the fol-
lowing Inscription :

M. S.

Viri admodum Reverendi

Zachariae Pearce, S. T. P.

Episcopi Roffensis, huj usque Eccleske Collegiate,

Nee non Honoratissimi Ordinis de Balneo,

Decani.

Pueritia, in Schola Westmonasteriensi, bene acta,

Uberiorem Sciential Fructuni

Apud Cantabrigiensis collegit.

Quantus inde et Criticus prodiit, et Theologus,

Testantur Scripta ipsius jamdudum Edita,

Testabuntur et mox edenda.

Secessus, tandem, ac Otij impense cupidus ;

Qu6 Sacris Literis elucidandis vacaret,

Decanatum hunc abdicavit ;
Episcopatum, insuper, modo Licuisset,

Abdicaturus.

Absolute, demum, Quod pr^ecipue in Votis erat,

In Sacrosancta Evangelia, et Acta Apostolorum,

Limatissimo Commentario,

A Laboribus requievit,
xxix Juny A.D. MDCCLXXIV.^tat LXXXIV.

W. Tyler, Sculpsit.

Having no children, he naturally made his bro-
ther, William Pearce, Esq. his Heir and Executor.

He

THE LIFP: OF

lie bequeathed his Library to the Dean and
Chapter of Westminster, except sncli books as
they had already. His manuscripts, with the
Looks which should be left, he gave to his Chaplain
the Reverend John Derby.

He left, by his will, several legacies to private
persons and to public charities; but his principal
legacy claims particular mention. There is at
Bromley in Kent, where the Bishops of Rochester
have their Palace, a College founded by Bishop
Warner in 1666', for Twenty Widows of Clergy-
men in ufticiently provided for; they are chosen,
first, from the Diocese of Rochester, and, next to
them, the widows of incumbents in the Deanery
of Shoreham, which is within the peculiar jurisdic-
tion of the Archbishop of Canterbury, are always
to have the preference in every election. The
fabric is neat, the apartments are commodious,
and the condition of the inhabitants such as infers
no degradation of civil rank. The revenue as*

(<

signed by the founder was in his time perhaps not
only competent but liberal ; yet, by the alterations
which the last century has produced in the modes
of life and the system of expence, what was then
ample is now become scanty, and Bishop Pearce
left five thousand pounds not to increase the
number, but to advance the happiness of the so-
ciety, by such an augmentation of revenue, as
might rescue them from penury. In this charity

there

DR. ZACHARY PEARCE, 415

tiiere is no ostentation ; his benefaction scarcely
continues his name, but sinks silently into the an-
cient fund, and those who shall enjoy the plenty
which it restores, will, in a few years, hardly know
to whom they owe it.

It may likewise be observed, that finding the
Records of the Diocese of Rochester less cornmo-
diously, and perhaps less safely kept for want of a
proper Repository; he, in 1768, built a Registry
in that city at his own expence. This was done at a
time of life, at which many men survive their pub-
lic spirit, but it did not appear from his conduct,
that age had at all weakened his natural and con-

o

stant benevolence.

Such was the end of a man, who, in every part
of his life, distinguished himself by the virtues
proper to his station. The diligence of his early
studies appeared by its effects ; he was first known
to the' public by philological learning, which,
he continued to cultivate in his advanced age.
Cicero de Oratore was published by him when he
was Bachelor of Arts, and Cicero de Officiis when
he was Dean of Winchester. The edition of Ci-
cero undertaken by Olivet produced a correspon-
dence between him and Dr. Pearce, in which
Olivet expresses ia terms of great respect his
esteem of his learning, and his confidence in his
criticism. One of his letters has been already in-
serted,

Cl
(C

416 THE LIFE or

serted, and it may be proper to add a passage from
his Preface.

" Zucharias Pearcius, anglus : qui tres de
" Oratore libros emendavit, notisque illustravit
" anno MDCCXVI. Hie vero laude dignissimus,
" quod facere cum bonis temperantibusque criticis
" maluit, quam cum iis, qui Tullium Cantabrigian
" turn decorare voluerunt. Quamvis enim Bent-

leium suum laudibus videatur ad ccelum, extollere,

non imitatur tamcn, neque unquam verecundiac
" fines transit: homo excellentis ut ingenii, sic
" judicii, et a quo non nisi magna expectes."

He did not confine his attention to the learned
languages : he was particularly studious of Mil-
ton's Poetry, and when Dr. Bentley published his
Imaginary Emendations of the Paradise Lost, wrote
in opposition to them a full Vindication of the
established Text. The book was published in
octavo, ] 733 — it is now become scarce ; but many,
both of the conjectures and refutations, are pre-
served, in the correct and very elegant edition of
his learned and much esteemed friend, Dr, New-
ton.

In his domestic life he was quiet and placid, not
difficult to be pleased, nor inclined to harass his
attendants or inferiors by peevishness or caprice.
This calmness of mind appeared in his whole
manner and deportment. His stature was tall,

his

DR. ZACHARY PEARCE. 417

bis appearance venerable, and his countenance
expressive of benevolence.

In his Parochial Cure he was punctually dili-
gent, and very seldom omitted to preach. But his
Sermons had not all the effect which he desired
for his voice was low and feeble, and could no^
reach the whole of a numerous Congregation,
Those whom it did reach were both pleased and
edified with the good sense and sound doctrine

o

which he never failed to deliver.

He published nine occasional Sermons and one
against Self-murder, and a Concio ad Clerum ; and
though he was far from being inclined to contro-

o o

versy, he was, notwithstanding, provoked to en-
gase at one time with a violent, and at another

<o *—> *

with an artful and designing adversary.

In 1727 and 1728 appeared the infamous Pam-
phlet of Woolston, in which, says Dr. Pearce, he
treated the miracles without regard to truth and
even the appearance of it, either in his criticisms,
or his reasonings, or his quotations. Against this
writer, of whom charity must hope, that his ma-
lignity was inflamed by madness, Dr. Pearce stood
fortli in defence of our holy religion. His per-
formance has been often reprinted, and he was
placed amongst the highest of those Divines, by
whose labours Woolston's book was so evidently
confuted, that infidelity itself seems now ashamed
of it.

VOL. i. E e In

4li| THE 1.1 IK OF

In 1731 ho had a short rc-ntest with Dr. Mid-
dleton, A Ti-uiti calk i Scripture Abdicated
had Urn written by Dr. AValcrkind, a man with

*

who^c: merit the Church of England is well ac-
quainted. This performance was censured by
Dr. Middleton in a Letter to Dr. AYaterland,
Avhom he names for the sake of offending him ;
though he had not put his name to Scriptuie Ab-
dicated, and though Middletoa did not put his
own name to the Letter.

This Letter falling under the eve of Dr. Pearce,

•/

was examined by him with critical care, and found
to abound wilh many falsehoods both in the quo-
tations and historical facts, so many as to extort
this severe reprehension : " the reader will judge
" how inconsistent such a proceeding is in one,
" who declares, as you do, page 46, that ' it is the
" business and study of your life in every inquiry,
*' whether civil, natural, or religious, to search for
" and embrace the truth ; or, where that is not
" certainly to be had, what comes the next to it,
" probability.' If this be true, you have the bu-
" siness of your life to go over again ; for I hope
" to convince you, that you have hardly made one
" original quotation of an author in his true
" sense, very often in the sense most opposite to
" his true one; and have represented not only
** passages but facts too in so wrong a light, that

" whatever

t(

(C

DR. ZACHARY PEARCE. 419

(t whatever you searched for, it is plain you have
"missed of truth."

Against this charge Dr. Middleton made a de-
fence, by which Dr. Pearce was so little satisfied
or discouraged, that in his reply he writes with that
confidence of victory which truth and justice na*
tu rally assume. " The reply, which I formerly
" made to your Letter, charged it with containing
ft ( many falsehoods Doth in the quotations and
" historical facts, by which you endeavoured to

weaken the authority of Moses.' To prove this

charge I produced fifteen quotations and two
*' historical facts as falsely reported by you : to
" each of these you have answered distinctly, de-
" nying the accusation to be well grounded in any
" instance, except one, to which you have pleaded
" guilty. But I insist, Sir, upon it, that there is
" nothing rashly advanced against you in my
" reply to your Letter; and if in the following
" sheets I do not clearly shew, that, notwithstand-
" ing all the skill of your defence, every single in-
" stance of falsehood charged upon you is made
" good ; if I do not shew that the new quotations,

which you have produced in the course of your
" defence, are commonly of the same stamp with

the former ; if I do not shew that you generally
" misrepresent the very words of my reply, and
" then form an answer to what I never said or
" intended; I am content to pass for as low a

E e Q " creature

4'20 'i UL MI- t OK

i

creature in learning ;md reasoning, as you, in

aid of your arguments, have ail along cndca-
" voured to represent me !"

When he was advanced to the honours of epis-
copacy, he did not consider himself as placed in a
state, that allowed him any remission from the la-
bours of his Ministry. He was not hindered by
the distance of Bangor from annually resorting to
that Diocese (one year only excepted), and dis-
charging his Episcopal duties there, to 17.53; after
•which, having suffered greatly from the fatigue of
his last journey, he was advised, by his Physician
and Friend, the eminent and learned Dr. Heber-
den, and prevailed upon not to attempt another.

When he accepted the Bishopric of Bangor, he
established in himself a resolution of conferring
Welch Preferments or Benefices only on Welch-
men ; to this resolution he adhered in defiance of
influence or importunity. He twice gave away
the Deanery, and bestowed many Benefices ; but
always chose for his patronage the natives of the
country, whatever might be the murmurs of his
relations, or the disappointment of his Chaplains.

The Diocese of Rochester, whieh he obtained
about nine years afterwards, conjoined, as has
been for some time usual, with the Deanery oi
Westminster, afforded him a course of duty more
commodious. He divided his time between his
public offices and hi? solitary studies. He preached

at

it
(t
tl
(t
it

DR. ZACHARY PEARCE. 421

at Bromley or Ealing, as he was at either place ;
and by many years labour in the Explication of
the New Testament, produced the Commentary,
&c. here offered to the public, which he be-
queathed to the care of the Editor in the following
words :

I give and bequeath to the Rev. John Derby
my right to the copies of what I have caused to
be printed, that of Longinus excepted, the copy
" of which I sold to Mr. Tonson ; and also all
my manuscript sermons, and all my other ma-
" nuscripts in loose papers, or in bound books,
"• particularly what I have drawn up on St. Paul's
" First Epistle to the Corinthians, and caused to
" be printed many years ago, though it was never
" yet published, and what I have been for many
" years past preparing upon the four Gospels and
" the Acts of the Apostles, both which works I
" intend to publish, if it shall please God to give
" me life and health to perform the same : but, if
" not, I recommend the care and printing of both
" those works to the said J. Derby. And my
" will is, that what I have prepared with regard to
" both of them be delivered to him for the print-
" ing of them, if thought proper, he advising with
" and consulting on that head the said Dr. Tho-
" mas, Dean of Westminster, and having in what
" he shall do therein a strict regard to my re put a-
*' tion and to the interest of our holy religion,

The

4l THE LIFE OF

The Tianslation and Paraphrase on the First
Epistle to the Corinthians, is part of a. work ori-
ginally intended to have been performed by the
joint labour of learned men, \vho were used to
meet weekly at the house of Dr. Pearcc, when
be was Vicar of St. Martin's. The conversation
was commonly on sacred and learned subjects.
One evening Dr. Pearce proposed, that each
should undertake for himself to explain and illus-
trate one of St. Paul's Epistles. Being pressed
to choose his own part, he selected the First
Epistle to the Corinthians, and was (as far as we
know) the only person who proceeded to execute
the intended plan.

In the administration of his Episcopal Charge,
I know not that he raised more than one com-
plaint against him. The Rectory of Stone, a
Living of very considerable value fell to his dis-
posal, and he conferred it on the Reverend
Thomas Heathcote, a young man indeed, but of
sufficient qualifications, and a most amiable cha-
racter, and Great Grandson of his Patron,
Thomas Earl of Macclesfield, whose favours,
conferred forty years before, his gratitude did not
suffer him to forget. This appointment however
gave so much offence to one, named by himself
Clericus Rojffensis, who seemed to think the
rights of seniority violated, that he wrote against
his Diocesan, a Pamphlet filled with the acri-
mony

DR. ZACHARY PEARCE. 423

mony of disappointment ; but which must con-
duce more to raise the character of the man at-
tacked, than many panegyricks ; because it shews,
that he who desired to say evil, had at last
nothing to say.

No part of Doctor Pearce's life gave occasion
to so much disquisition and conjecture as his de-
sire of resigning his preferments, which in oppo-
sition to almost all opinions, secular and clerical,
he urged with great vehemence, and enforced
with much importunity. A wish for degradation
and diminution is a passion of which so few ex-
amples are found, that it was perhaps at first
hardly thought serious, and afterwards hardly
thought sane and sober. It was to act against
the common course of human practice, to contend
for the loss of things, which all the rest of the
world is contending to gain.

Of a resolution so uncommon, curiosity was
naturally diligent to enquire the motive. As it
could not be founded in avarice, it was sought in
vanity, and Doctor Pearce was suspected of as-
piring to the antiquated praise of contempt of
wealth, and desire of retirement. Of this wish,
how much he obtained, and how much was re-
fused him, with the reasons which he supposed to
produce the refusal, he lias already related. The
heart cannot be completely known-; but the
nearest approach which can be made is by

42-* THE LITE OF

tunitics of examining the thoughts when they ope-
rate in secret, without the influence of auditors
and beholders. That the intended resignation
proceeded from the causes publickly alledged, a
desire of dismission from public cares, and of
opportunity for more continued study, there is in
one of his miscellaneous Manuscripts a testimony
not easily refuted. In a short Poem, which can
be supposed to be only a Soliloquy, nothing more
than his own thoughts, written down for his own
gratification, he expresses his content in vacating
his Deanery. The verses perhaps will gain no
great applause, having not been written for the
inspection of Longinus; but they afford a pleasing
image of a learned Bishop at seventy-eight,
looking back to his juvenile amusements, and,
now and then, entertaining himself with poetical
composition. He seems indeed never to have
lost his love of Poetry, for he has left many short
compositions both in Latin and English verse.

THE WISH, 1768,

WHEN I RESIGNED THE DEANERY OF WESTMINSTER,

From all Decanal cares at last set free,
(O could that freedom still more perfect be)
My sun's meridian hour, long past and gone ;
Dim night, unfit for work, comes hastening on;
In life's late ev'ning, thro' a length of day,
I find me gently tending to decay:

How

DR. ZACHARY PEAECE. 425

How shall I then ray fated exit make ?

How best secure my great eternal stake ?

This my prime wish, to see thy glorious face,

O gracious God, in some more happy place ;

Till then, to spend my short remains of time

In thoughts, which raise the soul to truths sublime ;

To live with innocence, with peace and love,

As do those saints who dwell in bliss above:

By prayers, the wings which faith to reason lends,

O now my soul to HeavVs high throne ascends :

While here on earth, thus on my bended knee,

O Power divine, I supplicate to thee;

May 1 meet Death, when his approach is made,

Not fond of life, nor of his dart afraid ;

Feel that my gain, which I esteem'd a loss :

Heav'n is the gold refin'd, earth but the dross.

After this imperfect release from pubiick da-
ties, he lived and laboured six years, and then
passed to that state where no virtue is unre-
warded.

A CATALOGUE OF DOCTOR PEARCE'S

WORKS.

My SERMONS printed.

In 1723. A thanksgiving Sermon for Preser-
vation from the Plague; preached before the
Lord Mayor and Aldermen, April 25, 1723.

1724. A farewell Sermon ; preached at quitting
the Rectory of St. Bartholomew's, Jan. 26,
1723-4.

1727. A Sermon; preached at the Conse-
cration

4£(5 THE LIFE OF

cration of St. Martin's Church, Westminster,
Oct. 120, 17rJfi.

1730. A Sermon on the Propagation of the
Gospel ; at Bow Church, on Friday, Feb. 20,
i 729-30.

1734. A Sermon on Self-murder.

1735. A Sermon on the Subject of the Charity-
schools ; preached at St. Sepulchre's, April 17,
173.5.

1741. Concio ad Synodum Cleri in Provincia,
Cant, habita, 2 edit. Dec. 2, 1741.

1743. A Spittal Sermon, at St. Bride's, on
Tuesday, in Easter Week, 1743.

1749- A Sermon before the Lords, in West-
minster Abbey, Jan. 30, 1748-9.

1760. A Fast Sermon before the Lords, in
Wesminster Abbey, on Friday, March 14, 1760.
1760. A Jubilee Sermon, preached in ditto,
on Tuesday, June 3, 1760.

Zachary Pearce wrote the No. 572. in the 8th
vol. of the Spectator, upon Quacks.

And the No. 633. in the same volume, upon
Eloquence.

And the letter signed Ned Mum, being in
No. 121. in the 2d vol. of the Guardian.

CICERO DE ORATORE.

Doctor Pearce's First Edition of it was in 17 1£,

Second in 1732,

Third in 1746,

Fourth in - - 1771.

LON-

DR. ZACHARY PEARCE; 427
LONGINUS DE SUBLIMITATE.

His First Edition was in 1724,

Second in - - 1732,

Third (at Amst.) in 1733,

Fourth in - 1752,

Fifth in--------- 1752,

Sixth in--------- 1 773.

CICERO DE OFFICIIS.

His First Edition was in - 1745,

Second in - 1761.

An Account of Trinity College in Cam-
bridge, Pamph. - 1720,
Epistolae Duse -------- 1721,

A Letter to the Clergy of the Church of
England ; on Occasion of the Bishop
of Rochester's Commitment to the
Tower, 2d edit. ------ -. 1722,

The same in French.

Miracles of Jesus vindicated in 1727 and 1728,
A Review of the Text of Milton - - 1733,
Two Letters against Dr. Middleton,

3d edit, .-.----*- 1752.

The following Letter, though it contains
nothing theological or connected tilth the contents
of this Volume, is yet inserted as it may gratify
the curiosity of mankind, by some account of the
great Newton ; and as it reflects some honour on

Doctor

4V-S TIIF LIFE OF

Doctor Peartt, In/ shewing that his friendship
re as i\i/iti'd, and his conversation sought, by the
Jirst man of his age and country.

An ACCOUNT of what related to the publishing
of Sir Isaac Newton's CHRONOLOGY OF
ANCIENT KINGDOMS, 1728. In a Letter
from the Right Rev. Zachary Pearce, Bishop of
Rochester, (then Bangor.) Written in 1754,
to the Rev. Dr. Hunt, Hebrew Professor, at
Oxford.

In the Philosophical Transactions, vol. xlviii.
part i. page 19, it is said by the ingenious and
karned Mr. Costard, " that Treatise (meaning
" the Treatise above-mentioned) never had the
" finishing hand of its great author, and it is
" well known now in what manner it came
** abroad-

This occasioned the Bishop of Bangor (now
Bishop of Rochester) in 175 4, to write a Letter
to the Reverend and Eminent Dr. Hunt, Hebrew
Professor of Oxford and Canon of Christ Church ;
whom the Bishop knew to be acquainted with
Mr. Costard; desiring him to ask as a favour,
that that Reverend Gentleman would inform the
Bishop of the particulars, to which tfte above
written words had a reference.

In answer to the Bishop's Letter, Dr. Hunt,
by one dated August 1, 1754, gave the follow-
account:

I DID

DR. ZACHARY PEARCE.

I DID not see Mr. Costard till the day before
yesterday. He says, " the reason, why he ima-
" gined, that Sir Isaac Newton's Chronology had
" never received the finishing hand of its author,
" was, because he had been credibly informed,
" that, after Sir Isaac's death, fifteen copies of
" that work were found in his hand-writing; of

<j

" no one of which it could be affirmed that it

" was so perfect, as net to have received further

** corrections and improvements, if Sir Isaac

" himself had lived to have published it. And,

" as to the manner of its coming abroad, he has

" been informed, that it was thus : the late Queea

" had prevailed upon Sir Isaac, a little before his

" death, to let her have a sight of a Copy of it,

" This Copy her Majesty happened to lend to

" the French Ambassador, who then resided here,
" and who privately employed a great number

" of hands, and in one night's time got it

" transcribed ; and so sent it into his own country,

" where it was immediately translated into

" French, and animadverted on by Souciet.

" This alarmed Sir Isaac's Executors, and put

" them on printing an authentic Edition of it

" here: who might otherwise perhaps (for this

" Mr. Costard's stricture should seem to intimate)

" never have thought of publishing it at all."
Thus far Mr. Costard. " I went, added Dr.

" Hunt, soon after Sir Isaac's death into Lord

^ Macclesfield's family, where I heard much talk

" about

430 THE LIFE OF

" about th'/.t great man : and I think, I remem-

" her - tfriething of both the circumstances, which

" Mr. Costard mentions; I am sure I saw

" Souciefs Book soon after it was printed/'

Upon the Receipt of this Letter from the Pro-
fessor Dr. Hunt, the Bishop wrote the following
Letter to him, dated August 10, 1754.

I AM able to give a very different and a much
truer Account of this matter, which is as follows :
In the year 1 725, and about five months before
Sir Isaac died, I had the honour of a vi^it from
him at my house in St. Martin's Church-yard,
to which he walked, at his great age, from his
house near Leicester-fields.

He staid with me near two hours, and our con-
versation chiefly turned upon his Chronology of
Ancient Kingdoms, and upon the fate which his
Short Chronicle had met with. Among other
things he said, " that the late Queen, ivhen
" Princess of Wales, had about the year 1720,
" (if I remember the year aright) sent to him,
" and desired him to let her see what he had
written upon Chronology; and that, to oblige
the Princess, he had drawn up his Short Chro-
nicle, as thinking it in that shape the propercst
" for her Perusal ; that he sent it to Her, and that
11 She, after some time, lent it to the Abbe Conti,
a Venetian gentleman of distinction, then in Eng-
land, and frequenting her court; that the Abb6,

* " without

cc

€(

<c

DR. ZACHAIIY PEARCE. 431

fe without the Princess's consent (as he believed)
" took a Copy of it ; and that some time after,
" when he was in France, to which he went from
" England, a Translation of it in French was
" published at Paris, without Sir Isaac's appro-
" bation or knowledge."

o

The Princess favoured other persons likewise
with a sight of this Short Chronicle, who with,
or perhaps without, Her leave, took Copies of it ;
for I had one, at the time of this visit, taken by
me from another in the possession of the late earl
of Macciesfield, then Lord Chancellor.

Sir Isaac, at the same visit, informed me,
" that he had spent thirty years at intervals in
" reading over all the Authors, or parts of
" Authors, which could furnish him with any
Materials for forming a just Account of the
Ancient Chronology ; that he had in his Read-
" ing made Collections from those Authors, and
" had, at the end of thirty years, laid together
all his Materials, and composed from thence
his Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms; and
that he had written it over several times (it
appeared afterwards, I think, sixteen times)
making few alterations in it, but what were for
the sake of shortening it (as I gathered from
his discourse) and leaving out in every latter
Copy some of the authorities and references,
upon which he had grounded his opinions."
It is a pity, that he took so much of the same

method

a

45C THE LIFI: or

method in his Chronology which he took in his
Principal, &c. concealing his proofs, and leaving
it to the sagacity of others to discover them.
For \vant of these, in sonic instances, what he
says on Chronology docs not sufiiciently appear
at present to rest upon any thing but his asser-
tions : and the want of these was thought so great
by the editors (Martin Folkes, Esq. and Dr.
Pellet) that they or one of them, as I have been
informed, did in some places put References to
Authors in the margin of the Work ; which are
printed now as Sir Isaac's References, though not
his, and not perhaps always referring to the very
same places, upon which be founded his asser-
tions. I mention this the rather because two or
three of the places referred to in the margin of
bis Work have been thought, by good Juges, not
to speak fully to the point for which they are
brought, and therefore Sir Isaac's credit in this
particular has suffered with some persons : but
proofs he may have had, which he chose to con-
ceal, though what now stands in the Margin in
those few places may have come from another
hand, and may not amount to a full proof, as it
pretends to do. In the same Conversation I took
the liberty of desiring, that he would think of
publishing his Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms
in his life time ; representing to him, that what
had been published in France, had not done 'jus-
tice

DR. ZACHARY PEARCE. 433

tice to 'him, as being at best a Translation of what
is an epitome only of his work, and was never
designed for the press ; and that there was the
greater necessity (as I thought) of his publishing
it, as it was unattended with any part of his
proofs, and as the Translator had sometimes mis-
taken his meaning. ' He was pleased to hear me
with attention, and said, *c that at his time of
" life it was too late to enter into a controversy,
which might perhaps arise from his publishing
" his thoughts on Ancient Chronology, as they
" differed so much from the common opinion ;
" and that he had often met with ill usage from
" some of the learned abroad (one or two in-
" stances of which, though they never appeared
" to the world, he then mentioned to me) and
" that he did not care to give them any further
" handle for repeating the same ill usage

again."

Notwithstanding this I continued to press his
publishing what he had prepared, and I ventured
to advise him to give to the reader, in a short
Preface to the Work, an account (the same with
what he had given to me, and which I before men-
tioned) of the steps taken by him in the composing
it; and to add, that this appeared to him to be
the truth, after all his time and labour spent upon
Ancient Chronology; and that he now left his

VOL, i, F f

434- THJ* I IFF. OF

judgment upon the u hole to the reader, being de-
termined not to enter into controversy with any
man about any of the particulars of it, at his
time of Hie, when he was so far advanced in
years.

To this advice he gave no positive answer:
but upon his return home he told Mr. Conduit,
who had married his niece, and was then at his
house, " that I had been persuading him to pub-
" lish his Chronology, and that he believed he
" should do it." Of this Mr. Conduit informed
me soon after, and I found it true in what
follows.

A few days before he died, I made him a visit
at Kensington, where he was then for his health,
and where I found Mr. Innys the bookseller with
him : he withdrew as soon as I came in, and went
away; and I mention this, only for confirming
my account by one circumstance, which I shall
mention before I conclude.

I dined with Sir Isaac on that day, and we
were alone all the time of my stay with him : I
found him writing over his Chronology of Ancient
Kingdoms, without the help of spectacles, at the
greatest distance of the room from the windows,
and with a parcel of books on the table casting
a shade upon his paper. Seeing this, on my en-
tering the room, I said to him, " Sir, you seem

.2 " to

DR. ZACHABY PEARCE. 435

to be writing in a place where you cannot so
" well see." His answer was, " A little ;light

f • * o

serves me." He then told me, " that he was pre-
paring his Chronology for the press, and tljat he
had written the greatest part of it over again for
that purpose." He read to me two or three
sheets of what he had written, (about the middle, I
think, of the work) on occasion of some points
in Chronology, which had been mentioned in our
conversation. I believe, that he continued read-
ing to me, and talking about what he had read,

~ ' O *

for near an hour, before the dinner was brought

' c^

up. And one particular I well remember, viz.
that, speaking of some fact, he couid not recol-
lect the name of the King, in whose reign it had
happened (and therefore he complained of his me-
mory's beginning to fail him ;) but he added im-
mediately, that it was in such a year of such an
Olympiad, naming them both very exactly. A
circumstance which I thought very observable, as
the ready mention of such chronological dates
seemed to me a greater proof of his memory's
not failing; him, than the naming of the King

O * CD Cj

would have been.

Agreeably to this account of mine, as to Sir
Isaac's intention of publishing his Treatise on the
Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms, the Advertise-
ment prefixed to the first edition of it in 172s,

F f 2 says,

It
u

it
a
it

K

436" Till. T i: E OF

says, " that he lately revised it, and was actually
" preparing it for the pre.>? at the time of his
*c death; that the Short Chronicle was never in-
tended to be published by him, and therefore
was not so lately corrected by him ; and that
" the sixth chapter (of the Chronology) was not
copied out with the other five, which makes it
doubtful, whether he intended to print it ; but
that being found among his papers, ande vi~
dently appearing to be a continuation of the
" same work, and, (as such) abridged in the
" Short Chronicle, it was thought proper to be
" added."

This is the account given by the publishers, and
it agrees with mine, as far as it eroes: if this then

o o

be the true account, it appears, that the five first
chapters of the Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms
had the finishing hand of the great author : and it
is most probable, that his death only prevented
his writing over the sixth chapter, and adding it
to the others. It appears likewise, that Sir Isaac
intended his Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms for
the press, and that the executors did not take an
alarm from any thing which passed in France, and
thereupon cause an authentic edition of it to be
printed here. What was printed abroad, waa
only a Translation of the Short Chronicle: thr

Chrc-

DR. ZACHARY PEARCE. 437

Chronology of. Ancient Kingdoms was never, I
believe., out of Sir Isaac's hands till the day qf
his death.

Mr. Innys I saw, (as I said before) at Sir
Isaac's a few days before his death : and after his
death Mr. Innys came to me, and told me, that,
before I came in, Sir Isaac had been talking to
hitii about his design of printing his Chronology,
and had promised him, that he should have the
printing of it; but that upon his application to
the executors, they seemed to have no regard to
what he said about such a promise, because
nothing appeared for it, but his own word only.
He desired therefore to know from me, whether
Sir Isaac, while I was with him, had said any
thin» about his intention, that he should have the

O '

printing it. But as Sir Isaac had said nothing to
me on that head, I could not give him the satis-
faction which he wanted ; though, I believe, from
Mr. Innys's discourse, that Sir Isaac had talked
to him about his intention to print it, and pro-
bably had given him hopes, that he should be the
printer, as he then printed all the Philosophical
Transactions for the Royal Society, of which Sir
Isaac was President.

This, to the best of my remembrance, is the
truth ; and I remember the particulars the better

for

438 THE LIFE, &C.

for my having frequently in conversation men-
tioned them to my acquaintance.

I am, Reverend SIR, &c.
August 10th, 1754.

ZY. BAXGOR.

N. B. Sir Isaac die:l March 20th, 1726,
in the 8.5th year of his age, as appears by a
mourning ring given to me at his funeral which I
attended.

•THZ END OJ VOU F,

Panted by R. & R. Gilbert, 3t, Join's Square > Lo'nao a.