CARYL, JOSEPH, was a native of the city of London, and was born in 1602. He became a student of Exeter College, Oxford, where he pro ceeded M.A. in 1627. After his ordination, he was chosen preacher at Lincoln's Inn, an office which he held for several years with much accept ance. In 1645 he was presented to the living of St. Magnus, near London Bridge, where he con tinued till he was ejected in 1662. After this, he gathered a separate congregation from amongst his former hearers, to whom he ministered till his death, which took place 7th Feb. 1671. Caryl was a moderate Independent, and is admitted by Wood to have been 'a learned and zealous Non conformist.' During the Protectorate he was em ployed in many offices of trust, and seems to have fully enjoyed the confidence of those in power. He published a considerable number of sermons, and had a principal hand in a Greek and English Lexicon which appeared in 1661, the earliest, we believe, of its kind. But his great work is his
Commentary on the Book of Yob, 12 vols. 4to, Lond. 1644-66, 2 vols. fol. 1669. This pon derous work, it is obvious, must contain a great deal that hardly belongs legitimately to the depart ment of Commentary ; it is full of polemical divinity, and homiletical discourse ; but, at the same time, it has very considerable worth in an exegetical point of view. Poole cites it frequently in the second vol. of his Synopsis, and Dr. E. Wil liams says it contains a rich fund of critical and practical divinity' (Christian Preacher, p. 431). A very useful abridgment of it by John Berrie, Esq., Dalkeith, appeared at Edinburgh in one vol. Svo, 1836.—W. L. A.