Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 30:118 (Apr 1873)
Article: Whichcote’s Aphorisms
Author: Anonymous

BSac 30:118 (April 1873) p. 384

Whichcote’s Aphorisms

This volume, now a hundred and twenty years old, contains two parts, both of which are thus designated on the title-page :

“Moral and Religious Aphorisms. Collected from the Manuscript Papers of the Reverend and Learned Doctor Whichcote; and published in 1703, by Dr. Jeffery. Now republished, with very large additions, from the Transcripts of the latter, By Samuel Salter, D.D., Prebendary of Norwich, and Curate of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk. To which are added, Eight Letters: which passed between Dr. Whichcote, Provost of

BSac 30:118 (April 1873) p. 385

King’s College; and Dr. Payne Tuckney, Master of Emmanuel College, in Cambridge; on several very interesting Subjects. Now first published. London: Printed for J. Payne, at Pope’s-Head, in Pater-Noster-Row. 1753. 12mo.”

The First Part of this volume is devoted to the Aphorisms of Whichcote, and contains a Preface by Dr. Salter. The Second is devoted to the Letters, and contains also a Preface by the same editor. From these two Prefaces we gather the following items :

Dr. Benjamin Whichcote was born at Whichcote Hall, in the Parish of Stoke, March 11, 1609; was sent to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1626; took his degree of B.A. in 1629, of M.A. in 1633, of B.D. in 1640; was ordained, March 5, 1636 both deacon and priest by Bishop Williams of Lincoln; was presented by his college to the living of North Cadbury in Somersetshire, in 1643; was recalled to Cambridge as Provost of King’s College in 1644; was rector of Milton, Cambridgeshire, in 1649; was deprived of his provostship, quite unnecessarily, at the Restoration; was minister of St. Anne’s, Blackfriar’s, London, in 1662; was vicar of St. Lawrence, Jewry, in 1668; died at the house of “his ancient and learned friend, Dr. Cudworth,” in Cambridge, in 1683; was buried in the chancel of his own church, in London, Dr. Tillotson preaching his funeral sermon. In this sermon, Tillotson describes Whichcote as excelling “in the virtues of conversation, humanity, and gentleness and humility, a prudent and peaceable and reconciling temper “; as “extremely careful not to provoke any man,” and not to be provoked by any; using to say: ‘If I provoke a man, he is the worse for my company; and if I suffer myself to be provoked by him, I shall be the worse for his.’” Dr. Salter says of Whichcote: “I cannot find that he published anything before the Restoration, or in any part of his life.” “In 1685, two years after his death, a small octavo of eight sheets appeared,” consisting of “Notes on Five Texts of Scripture, which take up one hundred pages, and of twenty-eight pages more of what this editor calls Apostolical Apothegms.” This volume was a collat...