Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/93

Rh buſineſs of his high ſtation diverted his mind from the amuſements of poetry.

The archbiſhop has written ſeveral ſermons upon the Eternity of Hell Torments, a doctrine which he has laboured to vindicate; alſo ſermons upon various other ſubjects.

HIS gentleman was deſcended from the ancient houſe of Congreve in Staffordſhire, but authors differ as to the place of his birth; ſome contend that he was born in Ireland, others that he drew his firſt breath at the village of Bardſa, near Leeds in Yorkſhire, which was the eſtate of a near relation of his by his mother’s ſide. Mr. Jacob, in his preface to the Lives of the Poets, has informed us, that he had the advice and aſſiſtance of Mr. Congreve in that work, who communicated to him many particulars of the lives of cotemporary writers, as well as of himſelf, and as Mr. Congreve can hardly be thought ignorant of the place of his own birch, and Mr. Jacob has aſſerted it to be in England, no room is left to doubt of it. The learned antiquary of Ireland, Sir James Ware, has reckoned our author amongſt his own country worthies, from the relation of