Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/416

 3 So A T T E R B U R Y. married Mifs Ofborn, a diftant relation of the duke of Leeds, a great beauty, but of Jitt.'e or no fortune, who lived at or in the neighbourhood of Oxford. In February 1 690- 1, we find him relolved " to beftir himfelf in his office in the ' houfe;" that of cenfor probably, an officer (peculiar to Chrift Church) who prefides over the claflical exercifes ; he then allo held the catechetical lecture founded by Dr. Bufby. At this period precifely it muii have been that he took orders, and entered into " another fcene, and another fort of con- Bride's church in London, and preacher at Bridewell chapel. An academic lite, indeed, muft have been irkfome and in- lip;d to a perfon of his active and afpiring temper. It was hardly pollible that a clergyman of his fine genius, improved by fiudy, with a fpirit to exert his talents, fliould remain long unnoticed ; and we find that he was foon appointed chaplain to king William and queen Mary. The earlieft cf liib itrmons in print was preached before the queen at Whitehall, May 29, 1692. In Auguft 1694 he preached his celebrated fermon before the governors or Bridewell and Bedlam, " on the Power of Charity to cover Sins j" to which Mr. Hoadly (afterwards biiiiop) publiflied fome "Ex- ' ceptions ;" and in Ociober that year he preached before the Queen " The Sinner incapable of True Wifdcm ;" which was alfo warmly attacked. The fhare he took in the controverfy aga'mft Bentley '-is now very clearly afcertained. Jn one of the letters to his noble pupil, dated < Chelfea, 1698," he fays, " the matter had coft him hme time and trouble, in laying 1 reviewing a good part of the reir, in tranfcribin^ the In 1700, a ftill larger field of activity opened, in which Atterbury was engaged four years with 'Dr. Wake (after- wards Archbifriop of Canterbury) and others, concerning the Rictus, Powers, and Privileges of Convocations [E] :" in which, however the truth of the queftion may be fup- poicd to lie, he difplayed fo much learning and ingenuity, as I as zeal for the intcrefts of his order, that the Lower M The ciir : ous reaJer who may will be gratified bv referring to the Bio- tory of this remarkable graphia Briunnica. vol. i. pp. c. "X, with Ionic account of the 345. books ai.d pamphlets it occafioned, Houfe
 * ' verfation ;" for in 1691 he was elecled lecturer of St.
 * thedillgn of the book, in writing above half of it, in
 * whole, and attending the prefs," he adds, "half-year
 * ' of my life went away."