versaries no cause to object to the style or the method of his reasoning, so that when two dissenting ministers, Mr. Craighead and Mr. Boyle, endeavoured to counteract its effects by a reply, the latter remarked that "it was written with an air of seriousness and gravity becoming the weight of the subject, as well as the dignity of his character." In 1692 he took a journey to England, to have some conferences with the London Society, respecting some lands and the fishery of the Bann, which had been in dispute between the bishops and proprietors from the very foundation and settlement of the plantation; and for which his predecessor, Bishop Hopkins, had maintained a law-suit through most of the courts, In the year 1693, he was appointed regal visitor, in commission, with Anthony Dopping, Bishop of Meath, and Capel Wiseman, Bishop of Dromore. On the 13th of March, in the same year, these visitors, by virtue of the King's commission, suspended Dr. Thomas Hacket, Bishop of Down and Connor, for the neglect of his pastoral office for twenty years, which he had chiefly spent in England; and, on the 21st of the same month, Bishop Hacket was deprived for simony in conferring ecclesiastical benefices. The same regal commissioners afterwards deprived the Archdeacon of Down and the Dean of Connor, and also censured and suspended other clergymen for neglect of their pastoral charge, and for other misdemeanours.-While Dr. King continued Bishop of Derry, he was at considerable expense in improving and adorning the episcopal palace. He purchased some advowsons, which he added to the see. Mr. Breviter, in a note at the end of his "Vindication of the Mission of the Clergy of the Established Church," says that Bishop King, imitating the example of his predecessor in the see of Derry, Dr. Bramhall, purchased. the impropriation of Fawn and the right of patronage of the parish of Donoghmore, and expended ten thousand pounds for the recovery of certain rights of the see. He contributed largely towards building five new churches, and repairing all those in his diocese which had been burned or dilapidated by King James's army. This work was greatly promoted by his application to the Earl of Nottingham, secretary of state, who procured from King William a grant of five hundred and fifty pounds, arrears of rent collected from the tenants of the bishopric during the vacancy of the see, with an order to the commissioners of the revenue to pay that sum towards the repairing the churches of the diocese, which he then filled, as vacancies happened, with a set of clergymen eminently remarkable for their learning and moderation, and exemplary in their good morals and piety. He built a capacious house in Derry, constructing the under rooms to serve for a school-house, and the upper rooms for a library; and he bought the greater part of Bishop Hopkins's books from that prelate's executors, which books, by his will, dated the 6th of May, 1726, he devised to Dr. William Nicholson then Bishop of Derry, and to his successors to remain in the said library for the use of the clergy and gentlemen of that diocese for ever. These books are still in high preservation and among them are many rare and valuable works; Dr. Stokes, rector of Desertmartin in the county of Derry, bequeathed a considerable addition to this library, and the whole has been lately removed, by the present bishop to a large and commodious room in the newly erected schoolhouse. Upon the promotion of Dr. Narcissus Marsh, archbishop of Dublin, to the primacy in the year 1702, Bishop King was elected by both chapters administrator of the spiritualities of the see of Dublin during the vacancy; and was by letters patent, dated the 11th of March following, translated to that archbishopric which he governed with a laudable zeal and great diligence for upwards of twenty-six years. Upon his translation to this see he found the Protestants greatly multiplied since the revolution, and many churches wanted in several parts of his diocese. He immediately applied himself with extraordinary assiduity to accomplish this pious work; and by the application of the impropriated forfeited tythes, (pursuant to an act passed in England in the eleventh year of King William the Third,) as well as by large benefactions collected by his discreet solicitation from well disposed persons, and by his own generous contribution, he procured nineteen churches to be erected where no divine service had been performed since the revolution, seven to be rebuilt, and fourteen repaired. To supply these new churches with ministers; as the parishes contiguous to them became vacant, consisting often of many unions, he divided them, and settled a resident clergy; and observing that most of these parishes were not accommodated with glebe-land, for the comfortable support of the incumbents, he apportioned to each, twenty acres of land belonging to the see, (pursuant to the statute of 2d Ann, sess. 1, ch. 10,) for glebe, at a very moderate reserved rent, so that most of the vicarages of his diocese were supplied with a convenient portion of land. He found the income of these resident clergymen scarcely sufficient for a decent maintenance, occasioned by the many divisions he had made of unions, which had formerly rendered these livings, very considerable; to remedy which, in some measure, he annexed the prebends of St. Patrick's as they became vacant to the vicarages, which were before separate, and vested in distinct persons. He purchased, from Lord Ross, a large parcel of inpropriated tythes in the county of Kildare for two thousand eight hundred pounds, and lodged them in the hands of trustees for augmenting small cures in his diocese, upon this especial condition, that the incumbents should constantly reside, and that the income of these parishes should not exceed one hundred pounds by the year. As a further addition to the revenues of some of these small parishes, he considered that above sixty-four pounds per annum of the estate of the see arose from appropriated tythes scattered in different parts of his diocese, which were on lease; and as these leases expired, he granted new leases to the vicars for augmenting the income arising from those parishes, out of which they were formerly demanded; by which means many vicars doubled their livings. And that his successors might be no losers, in lieu of this donation he purchased an equivalent in lands near Dublin, and annexed them to the see. About the same time he purchased forty-nine pounds per annum, arising out of the estate of Sir John Eccles, for one thousand and fifty pounds, and settled it for the support of a lecturer in St. George's chapel, Dublin.. He was four times deservedly constituted and sworn one of the Lords Justices. His zealous attachment to the interest of the illustrious HOUSE OF HANOVER, and to the succession in THAT PROTESTANT FAMILY, was well known. That settlement, on which he knew, under God, depended the welfare and security of our happy constitution in church and state, was a principle to which he was invariably stedfast to the day of his death; and it was in a great measure owing to his seasonable counsel and the weighty authority, which his known wisdom, long experience, and confessed probity had procured him, that the city of Dublin was preserved steady and united in an unshaken affection to the succession of the present royal family; and that the whole Irish nation was kept in an even and calm temper, at a season when the army was transported to suppress the rebellion in Great Britain. On the death of Primate Lindsay in July, 1724, it was expected, as was customary, that the archbishop of Dublin should succeed to the primacy; but on an application made to Lord Carteret, by some of Archbishop King's friends on this occasion, a few days after he had assumed the reins of government, his excellency answered rather peevishly," King is too old to rise." The Archbishop though, in his seventy-fifth year, was not of this opinion, and on hearing the manner in which the Lord Lieutenant had expressed it, he did not wait on him to congratulate his excellency on his arrival in Ireland. Lord Carteret however dispensed with this ceremony, and visited the archbishop, who kept his seat on the entrance of his excellency and apologized by saying, ".Excuse me, my Lord, I am too old to rise." Dr. Hugh Boulter, Bishop of Bristol, succeeded to the primacy of Ireland, and it was much regretted by the true friends of the Protestant interest, that, for the few remaining years of the archbishop of Dublin's life, that cordiality did not subsist between him and the primate, which was essentially requisite for the management of public affairs-On the indisposition of Dr. King, about three years before his death, Primate Boulter wrote a letter to the Duke of Newcastle, stating the very great importance of the archbishopric of Dublin, the necessity of a good agreement between the archbishop of that see and the primate, and praying that no steps might be taken about appointing a successor to Dr. King upon rumours of his death, till his Grace's farther representations on that subject should be considered. On the 8th of May, 1729, the Archbishop of Dublin died, after a few days indisposition, having just entered the eightieth year of his age; and was buried on the north side of the church yard of Donnybrook, near Dublin, as he had directed in his life-time. The private charities of this prelate were known to be very ample; but so cautiously and secretly dispensed, that no particular account has been preserved of them: as to his public works of munificence, the following may be added to those already mentioned. After his translation to the archbishpric of Dublin, he repaired and adorned the episcopal palace of St. Sepulcher's at his own charge, in which he expended upwards of three thousand pounds. He erected a court-house for the archiepiscopal manor, to which the annexed a prison for the confinement of debtors within the same. He recovered the demesnes of Seaton, and other lands; which had been separated from his see, and took care to have them secured by an act of parliament. He purchased the lay rectories of Crevagh in the county of Dublin, and of Ballintemple and Newcastle in the county of Wicklow, and collated incumbents to them severally; by which action he divested himself of the profits arising out of these rectories, retaining only the patronage. He devised, by his will, to the Archbishop of Tuam, and the Bishop of Clogher four hundred pounds towards purchasing glebes for one or more of such churches in the diocese of Dublin, as should seem to them and his executor, most to want augmentation. He gave in his life-time five hundred pounds to the college of Dublin, towards founding a divinity lecture for the benefit of such bachelors of the said house, as intended to enter into the sacred ministry, to the intent the better to qualify them for holy orders; and he devised five hundred pounds more to his nephew the reverend Doctor Dougat, in trust to purchase a further maintenance and endowment for the same lecture. He also devised one hundred and fifty pounds to the poor of the city of Dublin. He gave five hundred pounds in his life-time to the Blue-coat hospital in that city, and, in the year 1726, three hundred pounds to the fund arising from the application of the first fruits, for purchasing glebes and impropriate tythes for the augmentation of poor vicarages. The correctness of his ideas relative to church-government, was visible in his avowed enmity to pluralities and non-residence, in his strict and regular visitations, annual, triennial and parochial, in his constant attention to confirmation and preaching, and in the many excellent admonitions and charges he gave his clergy upon those occasions; in his pastoral care and diligence in admitting none into the sacred ministry, but persons well qualified in point of learning and good morals, who were graduates regularly educated in the universities of England or that of Dublin, and who, before their ordination were publicly examined as to their proficiency in theology, by himself, his archdeacon, and some of his chapter.- He may therefore be counted worthy of double honour, who thus not only ruled well, bat laboured in word and doctrine. His hospitality was suitable to the dignity of his station and character; and the whole course of his conversation, innocent, chearful, and improving; for he lived in the constant practice of every Christian virtue that could adorn a public or grace a private life. POPISH MISREPRESENTATIONS CORRECTED. LETTER IV. To the Editor of the Protestant Advocate. SIR,-In my second letter, (Pro. Adv. p. 32,) I laid down the distinction between error and falsehood;-and I observed, that supposing a few errors should be found in the English translation of the Bible, our church cannot be supposed to rest any point of doctrine upon them,-disdaining as she does the use of pious frauds; and I repelled with indigna. tion the charge of falsifying the scriptures.-I will now shew you a Popish translation of the New Testament into a modern tongue (the French language) by the divines of Louvain," avec approbation et permission," in which there are many absolute falsifications, in the strictest sense of the word, introduced for the purpose of making the people believe that certain NOVELTIES of the Romish church are sanctioned by holy writ; or forcing (most horrible!) the inspired writers to bear false witness to Popish corruptions. The charges brought by the Popish writers in the (so called) Orthodox |