Eucharift, in the two great points of the Real Prefence and the Adoration of the Hoft. 5. A Difcourfe concerning the nature of Idolatry, in which a late Author's true and only notion of Idolatry is confidered and confuted. This was written against the "Reafons for abrogating the Teft," writ ten by bishop Parker. 6. Sure and honeft means for the Converfion of all Heretics, tranflated from the French. 7. Two Difcourfes of Purgatory, and Prayer for the Dead. 8. A continuation of the prefent ftate of the Controversy be tween the Church of England and the Church of Rome: being a full Account of the Books published on both fides.

In 1689, he took the degree of doctor in divinity; and was appointed deputy clerk of the closet, and chaplain in ordinary to King William and Queen Mary, The fame year he was made canon of Chrift-Church; and in 1694, preferred to the rectory of St. James's.

In the controverfy refpecting the rights and powers of the Convocation, Dr. Wake took a leading part. His first performance in this famous difpete was entituled "The Authority of Chriftian Princes over their Ecclefiaftical Synods afferted ith particular respect to the Convocations of the Clergy of the Realm and Church of England;" 8vo. 1697. and this book being attacked with fome afperity foon after its appearance, he defended it in "An Appeal to all the true Members of the Church of England, in behalf of the King's Ecclefiaftical Supremacy, as by law eftablished, by our Convocations appointed, and by our most eminent bishops and clergymen ftated and defended, against both the Popish and Fanatical oppofers of it;" 1698. 8vo.

This drew Dr. Atterbury into the field, in a book entituled "The Rights, Powers and Privileges of an English Convocation flated and defended;" 8vo. 1700; and a new edition coming out in 1701, with additions, which making a confiderable impreffion upon the minds of thofe who were particularly interested in the question, caused Dr. Wake to draw up his great work, "The State of the Church and Clergy of England, in their Councils, Synods, Convocations, Conventions and other public Affemblies, hiftorically deduced from the Converfion of the Saxons to the prefent times;" printed in 1703, folio. This volume evinces uncommon induftry and great ingenuity; yet perhaps the impartial reader will now, if he has patience to go through it, be difpofed to think that the learned author began his researches with a determination

determination to find every authority on his own fide of the argument.

The part he took was certainly favourable to his intereft, for it proved the means of his advancement, firft to the deanry of Exeter, and next, to the bishoprick of Lincoln, in which fituation he difplayed his eloquence and acutenefs in behalf of the ill-advised profecution of Dr. Sacheverel.

On the death of archbishop Tenifon, he was removed to the highest ftation in the church; in which he difplayed the fame zcal and vigilance which had uniformly marked his character in the preceding parts of his public life.

When the Gallican Church feemed disposed to break off its connection with Rome, the archbishop endeavoured to encourage the defign, and to that end maintained a correfpondence with fome of the beft and most learned doctors of the Sorbonne, relative to a project of union between the Church of England and that of France. The whole narrative of this affair, with the correspondence, may be seen in the last editions of Maclaine's tranflation of Mofheim's Ecclefiaftical History, and a fummary of the fame with a complete vindication of the archbishop, in Dr. Glocefter Ridley's first Letter to the author of the Confeffional; from both which publications it appears that the bigoted and fhallow author of that infidious publication, was grofely in errour, to say the leaft of it, when he charged his grace with "making conceffions in favour of the fuperftition and idolatry of the Church of Rome."

-About the fame time that the archbishop was engaged in this correfpondence, which, in fpite of his miferable calumniators redounds immortal honour to his memory; he had another with the learned profeffor Turretin of Geneva, in which alfo appear confpicuously, his great liberality, and his zeal for the interefts of truth. Yet, because in one of his letters to the profeffor, he thought proper to fpeak of the famous political Bishop Hoadley, and his doctrinēs, as became a Chriftian prelate, he was exposed to the rancorous invectives of the Diffenters and Infidels at home. Among others who attacked the archbishop on this account, was the noted Thomas Gordon, author of the "Independent Whig," and other publications of a like kind; whofe object was not only to bring the Church of England, but the Chriftian Religion itself into contempt. The archbishop, however, regarded thefe libels with a becoming filence, confcious of the rectitude of his own motives. Yet moft unaccount3 F2 ably

ably it is, he hath been accufed of a want of confiftency, and of having in fact receded from the principles which he profeffed before his elevation to the metropolitical chair. Nothing can be more unjust than this charge; for as he fet out in the reign of James II. with a manly and open fpirit in defence of the Church of England, fo he continued to dif play the fame zeal to the laft, anxious to preferve our ecclefiaftical establishment upon its true and constitutional foundation, against the encroachments of fectaries, and the treachery of pretended friends.

Befides the works already mentioned, the archbishop published several fermons and charges: an excellent Expofition of the Church Catechifm, which has been frequently reprinted in octavo and duodecimo, and a very accurate translation of "The Genuine Epiftles of the Apoftolical Fathers St. Barnabas, St. Ignatius, St. Clemens, St. Polycarp, the Shepherd of Hermas, and the Martyrdoms of St. Ignatius and Polycarp, with a large preliminary difcourfe relating thereto;" the fecond edition of which was published in 1710 in one volume octavo.

He died at Lambeth, January 24, 1736-7, and left several daughters.

Mifcellanies.

FOR THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S MAGazine.

An ESSAY on a PROPHECY in MALACHI concerning our BLESSED SAVIOUR. By the late Dr. COMBER.

MÁLACHI iii. 1-4.

"Behold, I will fend my Meffenger, and he fhall prepare the way before me: even the Meffenger of the Covenant, whom ye delight in; behold, he fhall come, faith the Lord of Hofts. But who may abide the day of his coming? And who fhall ftand when he appeareth? For he is like a Refiner's fire, and like Fuller's foap. And he shall fit as a Refiner and Purifier of Silver: and he shall purify the Sons of Levi, and purge them as Gold and Silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness."

HE above words contain a very large and particular T prophecy of fome very great perfonage delegated by God and that the whole of the defcription may be more eafily and fully comprehended, a fentence has been omitted in the first verse, viz. The Lord whom ye feek fhall fuddenly come to his temple. These words are very plainly defcriptive of Chrift, and of him only, and deferve very well to be confidered by themselves in a feparate differtation; but the others seem to be defcriptive in whole or in part, of John the Baptift, or of Chrift, or of them both. It is a fubject well worth our inquiry, which of the above fentences are defcriptive of the Baptift, and which of Christ, and how far

they

they are fo. Secondly, how ill-founded the objections of infidels are to the completion of this prophecy. And thirdly, a few appropriate reflections may be added as a pious offering to God.

With regard to the first article of our inquiry, how far fome of the fentences of the text are to be underflood of the Baptift, fome of Chrift, and some of them both; it is very clear that some of them are to be understood of the Baptift, from the circumftance of an application of this prophecy being made to him by the Evangelists St. Matt, xi. 10. St. Mark, i. 2. St. Luke, i. 76. vii. 27.

The fmalleft part of this prophecy which can be applied to the Baptift, is in the first words-" Behold, I fend my meffenger, and he fhall prepare the way before me:" that is, when I come in the perfon of my Son the promised Meffiah. The words which immediately follow, viz. "The Lord whom ye feek fhall fuddenly come to his temple,' cannot be at all underflood of the Baptift, but of Jesus Chrift alone. The next immediately following words, viz. "Even the Meffenger of the Covenant whom ye delight in," are certainly to be underfood of Chrift in the ultimate and fulleft fenfe, as he was the Meffenger, or Envoy, or Mediator of the great Covenant between God the father and mankind; the Saviour and King of Ifrael, whom the Jews were taught to delight in the expectation of, as the promised Meffiah. Yet thefe words may alfo be appiied to the Baptift in a primary and lefs perfect fenfe; as he was fent to prepare the way of the Meffiah by the preaching of repentance, and by baptifm, as a rite or ceremony expreffive thereof. The whole defcription contained in the third and fourth verfes of a Refiner, and Purifier, and Fuller, is applicable ultimately and fully only to Chrift; and yet in a primary and less per. fect fenfe is applicable only to the Baptif; for he preached repentance to all claffes of the Jews, and especially to the tribe of Levi, from which tribe our Saviour fprung, and prefcribed baptifm as the Fuller ufes foap, to cleanfe and pu rify witha!. The concluding part of this remarkable prophetic defcription, viz. that the perfon predicted of should teach Judah and Jerufalem to offer up to the Lord a pleafant offering, fuch as was offered to the Lord in the days of old, in the former years: viz. an offering of righteousness, is true ultimately only of Chrift; who by making an offering of perfelt righteousness of himself to God the father, obtained an acceptance of man's imperfect offering of righteoufnefs; yet

furely