appropriated to the clergy, authority to ordain, baptize, preach, preside in church-prayer, and consecrate the Lord's supper. Wherein also the pretended divine right of the laity to elect either the persons to be ordained, or their own particular pastors, is examined and disproved," London, 1711, 8vo. He had begun a second part of this work, but it was never published, in which he intended to shew, that the clergy are, under Christ, the sole spiritual governors of the Christian church, and that God has given and appropriated to them authority to enact laws, determine controversies, inflict censures, and absolve from them. The pretended divine institution of lay elders was also disproved, and the succession of the present clergy of the established church vindicated. And to this was annexed a "Discourse of the Independency of the Church on the State, with an account of the sense of our English laws, and the judgment of archbishop Cranmer touching that point." About this time he took the degree of D.D. In 1714 he published "Directions for studying, 1. A general system or body of divinity; II. The thirty-nine articles of religion. To which is added St. Jerom's epistle to Nepotianus," London, 8vo. The year following was published his "Essay on the thirty-nine articles of Religion, agreed on in 1562, and revised in 1571, wherein (the text being first exhibited in Latin and English, and the minutest variations of eighteen the most ancient and authentic copies carefully noted) an account is given of the proceedings of convocation in framing and settling the text of the articles, the controverted clause of the twentieth article is demonstrated to be genuine, and the case of subscription to the articles is considered in point of law, history, and conscience; with a prefatory epistie to Anthony Collins, esq. wherein the egregious falsehoods and calumnies of the author of Priestcraft in perfection,' are exposed," London, 1713, 8vo. Before the publication of this book, he found it necessary to leave Colchester; for, the other livings being filled up with persons of good reputation and learning, his large congregation and subscriptions fell off, and his income fell to threescore pounds ayear, on which account, by the advice of his friends, he accepted the place of deputy-chaplain to Chelsea hospital, under Dr. Cannon. Soon after, preaching the funeral sermon of his friend Mr. Erington, lecturer of St. Olave's in Southwark, it was so highly approved of by that parish, that he was unanimously chosen lecturer in the next vestry,

without the least canvassing. Upon that he entirely left Colchester, in January 1715-16, and fixed himself in London, where he was likewise appointed morning preacher at St. Lawrence Jewry, under Dr. Mapletoft. In 1716 he published a pamphlet entitled "The Nonjuror's separation from the public assemblies of the church of England examined, and proved to be schismatical upon their own principles," London, 8vo. And "The case of the Reformed Episcopal Churches in Great Poland, and Polish Prussia, considered in a sermon preached on Sunday, November 18, 1716, at St. Lawrence-Jewry, London, in the morning, and St. Olave's, Southwark, in the afternoon," London, 8vo. Soon after, he was presented by the dean and chapter of St. Paul's, to the vicarage of St. Giles's, Cripplegate, London, which afforded him a plentiful income of nearly five hundred pounds a-year. But he had little quiet enjoyment of it; for, endeavouring to recover some dues that unquestionably belonged to that church, he was obliged to engage in tedious law-suits, which, besides the immense charges they were attended withal, gave him a great deal of vexation and uneasiness, and very much. embittered his spirits; however, he recovered a hundred and fifty pounds a-year to that living. After he was settled in it, in 1717, he married Mrs. Elizabeth Hunt of Salisbury, a gentlewoman of great merit, and by her he had three daughters. The same year he published "A Spital sermon preached before the lord mayor, aldermen, &c. of London, in St. Bridget's church, on April 24, 1717," London, 8vo; and in 1718, "A discourse of the ever-blessed Trinity in Unity, with an examination of Dr. Clarke's Scripture doctrine of the Trinity," London, 8vo. But, from this time, the care of his large parish, and other affairs, so engrossed his thoughts, that he had no time to undertake any new work, except an Hebrew grammar, which was published at London in 1726, 8vo, and is reckoned one of the best of the kind. He mentions, indeed, in one of his books written about 1716, that he had then " several tasks" in his hands, "which would find him full employment for many years;" but whatever they might be, none of them were ever finished or made public. He died of an apoplexy at London, October 9th, 1728, aged fifty-five years, five months, and two days, and was buried in his own church.

As to his person, Dr. Bennet was tall, and of a strong

and robust constitution. He was a man of strong passions, and not without haughtiness, but of very great integrity. With regard to his learning, he was a perfect master of the Eastern and other learned languages, well skilled in controversy, and an able champion for the church of England. Few scholars have equalled him as an exact reasoner, and an accurate textuary, and though he had an uncommon share of knowledge in various kinds of learning, he wisely gave himself up to the improvement of those talents in which his chief excellence lay. One of his antagonists, Mr. Emlyn, does not scruple to own, that he could truly esteem and respect him for his valuable abilities, for his industrious application of mind to an examination and inquiry into the important matters of our Christian religion, and for divers other worthy qualities, particularly for his candour and civility, and for his resolute contempt of those false topics of persuasion, by which ignorant and degenerate minds are led into error, viz. human decisions, by councils or churches' authority, when their judgment is not agreeable to the holy scriptures, in which case he speaks as if he had the courage and honesty to oppose the most triumphant errors of the age. Finally, he declares he esteemed him for his zealous profession of integrity, and exciting others to act honestly and openly according to their judgments, and not to use arts of disguise and hypocrisy in sacred matters.

Dr. Bennet was undoubtedly a divine of eminent piety and distinguished learning. The zeal and diligence with which he engaged in the studies and duties of his profession were highly commendable, and shew that he had no conception that the life of a clergyman was to be an idle or trifling life. Several of his works, however, being upon subjects of temporary controversy, are, we apprehend, not much read at present. This will ever be the case when disputes turn upon matters which are not of lasting importance, or upon some trivial circumstances in questions otherwise momentous, and it will especially be the case, when a man of abilities has to contend with insufficient adversaries. Dr. Kippis remembered being told, in his youth, by Dr. Doddridge, that the dissenting ministers, in and near Colchester, who endeavoured to answer Dr. Bennet, and particularly Mr. Shepherd, were persons of very mean talents. The doctor, in some of his subsequent writings, met with far abler antagonists.

The question concerning schism was deemed of great importance during the last century, and in the beginning of the present. The Papists charged this crime upon the Protestants, and the members of the church of England upon the Dissenters. A concise and rational account of the general controversy with regard to schism, and of the variations and inconsistencies to which it hath given rise, would be no incurious subject in the history of theological literature.

Dr. Bennet was perhaps too ready to engage in the debates of his time, upon questions of divinity, which led him sometimes into difficulties, obliged him to have recourse to distinctions and refinements which would not always bear examination, and laid him open to the attacks of his adversaries. Of all the doctor's controversial pieces, those on the doctrine of the Trinity, and on subscription to the articles of the church of England, have been the most brought into view in the present age. This is owing to these subjects being still eagerly debated, and on account of their acknowledged importance, will probably long continue to be debated. Dr. Bennet's explication of the Trinity is singular; and it would require much logical nicety to defend it from that heterodoxy which the learned author not only wished to avoid, but, no doubt, sincerely abhorred. This was an unfortunate circumstance in a man who, in another work, had employed himself in vindicating the Athanasian creed. However, he was but in the same case with many other eminent and learned divines, who, while they have imagined that they were defending Athanasianism, have, in fact, run into Sabellianism or Socinianism.

It is much to the honour both of Dr. Bennet and bishop Hoadly, that the latter contributed to the preferment of the former. Few persons could be more different in their theological and other sentiments. Dr. Bennet's character, therefore, must have been very excellent to excite such an instance of regard in Dr. Hoadly; and the bishop's candour and liberality of mind must have been equally laudable, in overlooking the most striking disparity of opinions.1

BENNING (JOHN BODECHER), was born in the village of Loosdrecht, about 1606, and had scarcely reached his twenty-third year, when his talents recommended him to a

1 Biog. Brit. but perhaps more full in the Gen. Diet. VOL. IV.

professorship in the university of Leyden, where he died 1642, in the thirty-sixth year of his age. His works, printed at Leyden in 1631, 12mo, contain a satire on the manners of youth, a little too highly coloured in some parts; some Latin poetical addresses to his learned contemporaries; and several Latin poems, which were reprinted at Leyden in 1637, 12mo, under the title of "Joan Bodecheri Benningii poemata," 4to. He was also author of "Dissertatio epistolica de philosophiæ et poetices studiis conjungendis," which is printed with the preceding.

Another BENNING or BENNINGIUS (JOHN), president of the provincial court of Luxemburgh, and who died Jan. 30, 1638, wrote a history of the duchy of Luxemburgh, which has not been printed. 1

BENNON, or BENNO, a writer of the eleventh century, was created a cardinal by the anti-pope Guibert, who assumed the name of Clement III. Benno, who was one of his most zealous partisans, made many attacks on the popes, accusing Sylvester II. of magic, Gregory VI. of simony, &c. and wrote, under the title of a "Life of Gregory VII." a bitter satire against that pontiff. He died about the close of the eleventh century. His life of Gregory was printed in the "Fasciculus rerum Expetendarum et Fugiendarum," 1535, by Gratius, and in a collection of pieces, in favour of the emperor Henry IV. against Gregory, published by Goldastus. 2

BENOIT (ELIAS), the son of a Calvinist, who was keeper of the hotel de la Tremouille, was born in 1640. In his youth he appears not to have been exempt from dissipation, but the love of study predominated, and after the regular course he was chosen minister of Alençon. While there, he had a dispute with father Larue, a Jesuit, on the pretended falsifications in the Geneva translation of the Bible, and the celebrated Huet took his part so far as to blame the intemperance of this Jesuit. The letters which passed on this occasion may be seen in the first volume of a collection published by the abbé Tilladet. On the revocation of the edict of Nantes, Benoit went to Delft, and became minister of the Walloon church, in which situation he remained until his death in 1728. Much of this long life was embittered by his marrying a woman of a mean, sordid, and irritable temper, and some part of it was dis

1 Biog. Universelle.-Moreri.-Foppen, Bibl. Belg. in Bodecher. 2 Moreri.-Dupin.-Cave, vol. II.