CHAPTER LXVIII.

ISAAC WELD, D.D. (1732—1778),

MINISTER AT DUBLIN (EUSTACE STREET).

1. A Sermon preached at Eustace Street, 26th of January, 1766, on occasion of the much lamented death of the Reverend and Learned John Leland, D.D., who departed this life 16th January, 1766, in the 75th year of his age. 12mo, pp. 38. Dublin, 1766. [Heb. xiii. 7, 8.]

A. C. B.

2. Sketch of Dr. Leland [prefixed to Dr. Leland's Posthumous Sermons]. pp. xlii. London, 1769.

T. W.

DR. ISAAC WELD was son of the Rev. Nathaniel Weld, minister of New Row, Dublin (1682-1730), whom we have already noticed (see ch. xiv.). He was born in 1710, and was called Isaac after Sir Isaac Newton, for whom his father entertained great admiration and friendship. He was educated at the academy which Dr. Francis Hutcheson, before he became Professor of Moral Philosophy in Glasgow University, conducted in Dublin. He afterwards proceeded to Glasgow, and subsequently to London, in order to complete his education.

His father died in 1730, two years before Mr. Isaac Weld had finished his preparation for the ministry; and the congregation, which in 1726 had removed from New Row into their new church in Eustace Street, waited for him two years before making choice of a minister. In 1732 he was chosen and ordained as colleague to Dr. Leland, and for many years enjoyed the confidence and friendship of that excellent man, with whom he was in constant intercourse.

The only published works of Dr. Weld are those which originated in his connection with Dr. Leland, the Funeral Sermon which he preached after his death, and the biographical sketch which he prefixed to his posthumous sermons. He himself died in February, 1778. Dr. Armstrong says of him that he "sustained the character inherited from his forefathers by a life of unblemished worth."

Dr. Weld left two sons, Isaac and Richard, who started in business in London, but who proved unfortunate. The Church in some degree suffered by them. When they failed in 1779, the Minutes of the Synod of Ulster of that year inform us they had one year of Synod's additional Regium Donum in their hands, and the Synod, through its Moderator, had to sign an agreement giving its consent that the affairs of the Messrs. Weld might be vested in trustees for the benefit of their creditors. Isaac afterwards obtained a lucrative appointment in Dublin Castle, which he held till his death in 1824; and soon afterwards Richard also died suddenly, when visiting a friend confined in the Tower of London.

Dr. Weld's grandsons obtained some literary distinction. His son Isaac by his first wife, Elizabeth Kerr, whom he married in 1773, had a son called, after his father and grandfather, Isaac, who published in 1795-97 Travels in North America and Canada, and in 1807 Illustrations of the Scenery of Killarney_and the Surrounding Country. By his second wife, Lucy Powell, of Great Connel, in County Kildare, whom he married in 1812, he had another son, Charles Richard Weld, who became still more distinguished. He was born in 1813. After spending a considerable part of his boyhood in France, he was elected in 1839 assistant secretary to the Statistical Society of London. He spent much of his time at Ravenswell near Dublin, the residence of his half-brother. In 1844 he was called to the bar, and in the following year he was appointed. assistant secretary and librarian to the Royal Society of London, a position that he held till 1861. The

work by which he is best known is his History of the Royal Society, in two volumes, published in 1848. He was a frequent contributor to Fraser, and to other periodicals, and was the author of several books of travel and vacation rambles on the Continent, in America, and at home. Alfred Tennyson, the poet, is his brother-in-law. A fall which when a young man he received at Ryde, in the Isle of Wight, injured his spine, and made him a delicate man for life. He died in January, 1869.*

LAST DAYS OF DR. LELAND.

This improved state of health continued till some months ago, when he felt symptoms which were thought the presage of a painful chronical disease. These appearances, however, by skilful advice and proper medicines, abated; and as he was advised to walk as the properest exercise for him, he got cold in a moist day, which he neglected till it fixed in his breast, and raised an inflammation there. And then, notwithstanding all that art or tenderness could do, the disorder soon overpowered his weak and feeble frame. But his intellectual powers were unimpaired and lively to the last. He had the sentence of death in himself, and had no notion that he could recover, though his friends, when he got any ease, flattered themselves with the hope of it. With a head perfectly clear, and a mind quite easy and composed, he gave directions for what he thought proper to be done; and spent his time in most affecting exhortations to those who were about him, and in adoring the wisdom and goodness of Divine Providence towards him. He said the mercies he had received from God were more than could be numbered; and though he had been exercised with various afflictions, he trusted that, in the issue, they had proved real blessings. He discovered great humility in acknowledging his manifold infirmities and defects. "Whatever others may think of me," said he, "I, who have reason to know myself best, am sensible I have made but a small progress in righteousness and true holiness, or even in knowledge and learning, in comparison with what I might have done, if I had been careful to make the best use of my time, and of the means and opportunities that have been put into my hands." Thus lowly was this good man! And most devoutly did he celebrate the riches of Divine grace through Jesus Christ. "I give my dying testimony," said he, with a kind of emotion, "to the truth of Christianity. The precious promises

*MS. Minutes of Synod: Armstrong's Sketches: Preface to Weld's Notes on Burgundy.

of the Gospel are my support and consolation. They alone yield true satisfaction in a dying hour. I am not afraid to die. The Gospel of Christ has raised me above the fear of it. For I know that my Redeemer liveth; and that if this earthly house of our tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."

A little before he died, he was raised up, and with his own hands took some refreshment, and lay down again composed to rest; when in less than six minutes, without any agony or struggle, without a sigh or groan, he quietly breathed his last, and fell asleep in the Lord. "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace."-Funeral Sermon, pp. 29-31.

CHAPTER LXIX.

WILLIAM WARNOCK (1747-1768),

MINISTER OF DONAGHADEE.

The Nature and Effects of Simplicity and Godly Sincerity, as opposed to fleshly wisdom, in the character and conversation of a Godly Minister. Synodical Sermon at Lurgan, June 30, 1767. [2 Cor. i. 12.] pp. 35. Belfast, 1767. M. M. N.

THE REV. WILLIAM WARNOCK, previously a licentiate of the Presbytery of Killeleagh, was ordained by the Presbytery of Bangor as minister of Donaghadee on the 20th of May, 1747. He was the third minister in succession to the Rev. Andrew Stewart, already noticed (see ch. iii.).

In 1766 Mr. Warnock was chosen Moderator of Synod; and when resigning office the following year, he preached, and subsequently published, the discourse which entitles him to a place in these pages. Having pointed out in the introduction the design with which the words of the text were used, he proceeds to contrast godly sincerity and fleshly wisdom in their nature and effects. Sincerity, he thinks, will lead a minister to interpret Scripture in accordance with the ideas of the Divine perfections derived from the works of nature, so as to reject with abhorrence all notions of God being partial in His benevolence, rigorous in His demands, or vindictive in His anger: fleshly wisdom, on the other hand, directs men to "taking up matters as they find them in creeds and confessions made up by others to their hands, and, of whatever sect or church they are,