BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY; CONTAINING An Historical and Critical ACCOUNT OF THE LIVES and WRITINGS OF THE Most Eminent Perfons In every NATION; Particularly the BRITISH and IRISH; From the Earliest Accounts of Time to the present Period. WHEREIN Their remarkable ACTIONS or SUFFERINGS, VOL. VI. LONDON: Printed for T. OSBORNE, J. WHISTON and B. WHITE, M DCC LXI. 2101 e 29 ΑΝ Univerfal, Historical, and Literary DICTIONARY. G G. RAAF (REGNIER DE) a celebrated phyfician, was born at Schoonhaven, a town in Holland, where his father was the firft architect, on the 30th of July 1641. After having laid a proper foundation in claffical learning, he went to ftudy phyfick at Leyden; in which fcience he made fo vaft a progrefs, that in 1663 he published a treatise De Succo Pancreatico, which did him the highest honour. Two years after he went to France, and was made doctor of phyfic at Angers: but returned to Holland the year after, and fettled at Delft, where he practifed in his profeffion fo fuccefsfully, that he drew upon himself the envy of his brethren. He married in 1672, and died Auguft the 17th, 1673, when he was only thirty-two years of age. He publifhed three pieces upon the organs of generation both in men and women, upon which fubject he had a controverfy with Swammerdam. His works, with his life. prefixed were published in 8vo. at Leyden, in 1677 and 1705; they were alfo tranflated into Flemish, and published at Amfterdam in 1686. GRABE (JOHN EARNEST), the learned editor of the Septuagint from the Alexandrian manufcript, in the king of England's palace at St. James's, was the fon of Martin Sylvefter Grabe, profeffor of divinity and history, in the univerfity of Koningsberg in Pruffia, where his fon Earneft was born, January 10, 1666. He had his education there, and took the degree of master of arts in that university; after which, devoting himself to the ftudy of divinity, he read the works of the fathers with the utmost diligence and attention. These he took first into hand as the best masters and inftructors upon the important fubject of religion. He was fond of their principles and cuftoms, and that fondness grew into a kind of unreferved veneration for their authority, through the pains and time he spent in making himself master of their language and fentiments. Among these he obferved the uninterrupted fucceffion of the facred miniftry to be univerfally laid down as effential to the being of a true church, this point working continually upon his fpirits, made by degrees fo deep an impreffion, that at length he thought himself obliged, in confcience, to quit lutheranifm, the established religion of his country, in which he had been bred, and enter within the pale of the Roman church, where that fucceffion was preferved. In this temper he faw likewise many other particulars (A) in the evangelical faith and practice, not agreeable to that of the fathers, and confequently abfolutely erroneous if not heretical. Whence being confirmed in his refolution, he gave in to the electoral college at Sambia in Pruffia, a memorial, fetting forth his reasons for his change in 1695, and leaving Koningfberg, fet out in order to put it in execution in fome catholic country. He was in the road to a place called Erfard, in this defign, when there were presented to him three tracts in anfwer to his memorial, from the elector of Brandenbourg, who had given immediate orders to three Ruffian divines to write them for the purpofe (B). Mr. Grabe was entirely difpofed to pay all due refpect to this address from his fovereign, and having perused the tracts with fufficient care, his refolu (A) Lutheranism was particularly diftinguished by this title. (B) The names of thefe divines were Philip James Spener, Bernard Van Sanden, and John William Baier. The firft was ecclefiaftical counsellor to the elector, and princi pal minister at Berlin; and the fecond was principal professor at Koningfberg. The three answers were printed the fame year. The firft at Berlin, the fecond at Koningsberg, both in 4to. and the third at Jana, in 8vo. tion for embracing popery was a little unhinged, in fo much that he wrote to one of the divines, whofe name was Spener, to procure him a fafe conduct that he might return to Berlin, to confer with him. This favour being eafily obtained, he went to that city, where Mr. Spener prevailed upon him fo far as to change his defign of going among the Papitts, for another. In England, fays this friend, you will meet with the outward and uninterrupted fucceffion which you want: take then your rout thither, this ftep will give much lefs diffatisfaction to your friends, and at the fame time equally fatisfy your confcience (c); our author yielded to the advice, and arriving in England, was received with all the respect due to his merit, and prefently recommended to king William in fuch terms, that his majefty granted him a penfion of 1001. per annum, to enable him to pursue his ftudies. He had the warmest fense of those favours, and presently fhewed himself not unworthy of the royal bounty, by the many valuable books which he published in England, which, from this time, he adopted for his own country, where finding the ecclefiaftical conftitution fo much to his mind, he entered into prieft's orders in that church, and became a zealous advocate for it, as coming nearer in his opinion to the primitive pattern, than any other. In this fpirit he published in 1698, and the following year, "Spicilegium SS. Patrum, "&c." (D), or a collection of the leffer works and fragments, rarely to be met with, of the fathers and heretics of the three first centuries; induced thereto, as he exprefly declared, by the confideration, that there could be no better expedient for healing the divifions of the Chriftian church, than to reflect on the practice and opinions of the primitive fathers (E). Upon the fame motive he printed alfo Juftin Martyr's firft apology in 1700 (F). And the works of Ire (c) Meneken's German dictionary and Pfaffii notæ in liturgiam Græcam Grabii. (D) Both volumes were reprinted at Oxford in 1700, 8vo. To thefe the doctor defigned to add a third volume, in order to which he had got a copy of the Didafcalia of Clemens Romanus, and of Hippolitus, with others, transcribed by him. felf. Hicke's Account, &c. The doctor alfo found, among our author's MSS. many Greek fragments of Origen, particularly out of his commentaries, containing 120 sheets naus 4to. and five in folio, befides a numerous collection of other Greek fragments of the fathers, and fome of heretics, which would make feveral volumes in print, Ibid. (E) Some remarks were made upon the first volume, in a piece intituled, "A New and full Method of fettling "the canonical Authority of the "New Teftament," in two vols. by Jer. Jones, vol. ii. part 3. col. 34. Lond. 1726. 8vo. (F) The works of this father came out in 1722. The editor whereof, in the dedication obferves, B 2 that |
