20, 1900 DEI LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. WILLIAM ROMAINE, an English divine and writer of great popularity, was born at Hartlepool in the county of Durham, Sept. 25, 1714. His father, one of the French Protestants, who took refuge in England upon the revocation of the edict of Nantz, resided at Hartlepool as a merchant, and particularly as a dealer in corn. He had two sons and three daughters, whom he educated in the strict doctrines and discipline of the church of England, and lived to see well settled in the world before he left it in 1757. His second son, William, gave indication, at a very early age, of considerable talents, and a laudable eagerness to improve them. This induced his father to send him to the grammar-school, at Houghton-le-Spring, a village in the road from Durham to Sunderland. This school was founded by the celebrated Bernard Gilpin, rector of that parish at the memorable era of the Reformation. At this seminary Mr. Romaine continued seven years, and in 1730 or 1731 was sent to Oxford, where he was entered first at Hertford college, and thence removed to Christ-church. He resided principally at Oxford till he took his degree of master of arts, Oct. 15, 1737, having been ordained a deacon at Hereford, a year before, by Dr. Egerton, bishop of that diocess. His first engagement was the curacy of Loe Trenchard, near Lidford, in Devonshire. In the year following he appears to have been resident at Epsom, in Surry, from the date of a letter from him, Oct. 4, 1738, to Rev. William Warburton, upon the publication of his Divine Legation of Moses.' In the same year he was ordained a priest by Dr. Hoadly, bishop of Winchester. His title for orders was probably a nomination to the church of Banstead, which he served some years, together with that of Horton, near Epsom, being curate to Mr. Edwards, who had both these livings. At Banstead he became acquainted with Sir Daniel Lambert, lord mayor of London in 1741, who had a country-house in this parish, and appointed Mr. Romaine to be chaplain during his mayoralty. The first sermon which he printed had been preached before the university at Oxford, March 4, 1739. It was entitled, 'The Divine Legation of Moses demonstrated, from his having made express mention of, and insisted so much on, the doctrine of a future state; whereby Mr. Warburton's attempt to prove the Divine Legation of Moses, from the omission of a future state, is proved to be absurd, and destructive of all revelation.' This was followed by a second sermon, preached also before the university, entitled, Future rewards and punishments proved to be the sanctions of the Mosaic dispensation.' These sermons and the letter above mentioned to Mr. Warburton involved him in a personal dispute* with that gentleman; Mr. Romaine in his letter attempted to be witty and sarcastic; Warburton used the same weapons, and could handle them better. The controversy, however, did not last long. Mr. Romaine appeared to more advantage in 1742, in another sermon before the university, entitled, 'Jepthah's Vow fulfilled, and his daughter not sacrificed.' The ingenuity with which he proved this opinion obtained him much credit, and was by many looked upon as a new discovery; which it certainly was not, as the same point was contended for in a * See an account of it in 'The Works of the Learned,' for August 1739 |