BULL, GEonor., Bishop of St David's, was born at SArells, in Somcrsetshirc, in the year 1634. At the age of four, he was left, by the death of his father, in inde pendent circumstances. Having been early destined for the church, he received a liberal and appropriate educa tion ; and such was his progress in classical learning, that he became fit for the univei shy at the age of fourteen. He was sent to Exeter College, in Oxford. There he ,pent the greater part of his time in pleasure and amuse ment ; but contriv ed, notwithstanding, to acquire intel lectual reputation and respectable patronage among- his superiors. lu consequence of refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the Commonwealth, he was obliged to leave the university, about seven limotha after In- entered st. lie retired to Notth Cadbury. 11 hum he continued for ear or five years ; during which time. one of his .isters had the merit of w caning him from the v anities to veld( h he had been addict' d, and inducing him to pro ..ecute the studies that were culla'. to his views in fife. At of twcnty-one, he was ordained deacon and priest by Dr Skinner, the ( jeered bishop of Oxford ; and non after became minister of St George's. near Bristol.
'In that situation he discharged his pastoral duties with singular assiduity and zeal, preaching twice every Sun day, visiting his parishioners from house to house, and la bouring by all the means in his power to instruct and re form them. In the livings which he afterwards held, he was characterised by the same exemplary attention to the improvement and interests of his people ; and was so much respected and beloved by them, that he prevailed on many to return to the bosom of the church, which at that troublous period was an object of general and invete rate dislike. While rector of Suddington St Mary, in Gloucestershire, which he held for twenty-seven years, he was extremely diligent in theological study, and com posed the greatest proportion of his works. In 1669. he published his celebrated book, entitled, Harnzonia The object of this treatise is, 1. To explain an() defend St James's doctrine of justification by works ; and. 2. To demonstrate the agreement of St Paul with St. James. It is frequently referred to by Arminian and Pe lagian writers, in support of their notions respecting the mode of our acceptance with God, and is perhaps as good as any thing on that kw of the subject which has yet been produced. Towards the end of the year 1675, he published two defences of his Hurnzonia ; one of them, his Examen Censurx, in reply to Mr Gataker ; and the other, Apologia pro Harmonia, in reply to Dr Tully. Al! these works, whatever may be thought of their principles, are certainly distinguished both by learning and ability. In 1678, Mr Bull was installed as a prebendary in the church of Gloucester, to which he had been promoted by Lord Chancellor the Earl of Nottingham. Two years after this, he completed and published his Defensio Fidei Aricence : a work directed against the Arians and Socini ans on the one hand, and the Sabelians and Tritheists on the other. It procured for the author great celebrity as a controversialist, both at home and abroad ; and has been of considerable service in the disputes respecting the Tri nity, which have's° long agitated the Christian church. At the same time, while it has been applauded by some as a masterpiece of reasoning and erudition, it has been con demned by others as containing no small portion of male yoIencC, fraud, ignorance, and sophistry. The author was presented, in 1685, to the rectory of Ayening, and very soon after to the arehdeaconry of LandalT; and, in consi deration of his eminent services to the church, the Univer sity of Oxford unanimously made him a doctor in divini ty, although he had not previously taken any academical degree. As he hail been zealous in the defence and resto ration of the establishment, in opposition to its levelling enemies, so he laboured to guard it against the other ex treme of popish superstition, with which it was threat ened during the short and inglorious reign of Jantes 11.—
preaching against that system in the warmest manner ; and attacking, with equal courage and ability, those false and pcinicious dogmas, by winch it directly tends to de grade the human understanding, and to corrupt the hu man character. Some time after the Revolution, he was put into the commission of the peace. In this secular office he remabied almost constantly till lie became a bishop. During all the time that he held it, he was in defatigable in his mica\ ours to put down profaneness and immorality, by executing the laws of the land with pru dence and igour. 'While rector of Avening, he publish ed his Judicium Ecelesix Catholic,', &c. It was intended to he a supplement to the Defensio Fidei Aficence, and to \ indicate the Anathema, as the other work vindicated the Faith, wili•h had been decreed by the council of Nice. For this publication he received the thanks and congrowlations of the whole clergy of France, commu nicated in a letter front the bishop of Meaux. The last treatise which Dr Bull wrote, was his Primitiva et ilpostoliea Traditio, btc. the great object of which was to slim, in opposition to Daniel Zit icker and his apostles, that Christ's existence before t :e creation of the world was an apostolical tradition, introduced into the first Christian churches, and a doctrine that was after wa•ds broached Ity heretics, or borrowed from the heathen theology. In the seventy-first vial of his age he was nominated to the bishopric of St David's, which, how ever, he accepted of with considerable reluctance and hesitation, on account of his advanced period of line, and indifferent state health. Ile was present in the Ilouse of Lords when the bill passed for the union of the two kingdoms ; and, on that occasion, delivered a short speech, in s-cconding a motion which had been made, to give a character of the Church of England, as the Scot tish parliament had given of their church. As a bishop, he conducted Iiiirself with becoming zeal, and discharged the episcopal functions with all the care and attention he could bestow. Ile was particularly strict in examining the qualifications of candidates for the ministry. Ile shewed great anxiety to promote education among the poor, by the erection of charity schools. Ile laboured to establish and to encourage family-devotion, and family libraries, consisting of books on practical divinity. And, while he endeavoured to revive the spirit and the practice of ancient discipline, he also addressed himself to the civil power, for the exercise of its legal and coercive authority against impiety and vice. I1 is intense applica tion to study had impaired his health and constitution ; and he had not enjoyed his bishopric above four years, when he was carried of (1710) by a severe distemper, leaving behind hint an acknowledged reputation for sound talents, great learning, fervent. piety, unblemished in tegrity, and warm active benevolence. Several years before his death, his Latin works were collected and printed in one volume folio, under the inspection of Dr Grabs ; the author himself being prevented by infirmity from managing the publication. After his death, several productions from the bishop's pen were given to the public. Of these posthumous works, his sermons are of the greatest value. They contain much curious mat ter, and much ingenious discussion, and deserve a care ful though cautious perusal from every student of theo logy. The whole works of bishop Bull have been pub lished together in folio, by his biographer Mr Nelson. See Nelson's Life of Dr C. Bull ; and Biographic Bri tannica. (r)