Grove, Henry

, a learned divine among the disseners, was descended from the Groves of Wiltshire, and the Jlowes of Devonshire. His grandfather Grove was ejected from a living in Devonshire for nonconformity in 1662; his father suffered much in the same cause for lay-nonconformity under Charles and James II. The eminent piety of Mr. Rowe, his grandfather by the mother’s side, may be known by the account of his life by Mr. Theophilus Gale. His father, in particular, filled a life of eighty years honourably and usefully, and died universally esteemed and lamented. From such parents our author was born at Taunton, in Somersetshire, January 4, 1683, and at fourteen years of age, being possessed with a sufficient stock of classical literature, he went through a course of jacademical learning under the rev. Mr. Warren, of Taunton, who was for many years at the head of a flourishing academy. Having finished here his course of philosophy and divinity, he removed to London, and studied some time under the rev. Mr. Rowe, to whom he was nearly related. At this time he contracted a friendship with several person^ of merit, and particularly with Dr. Watts, which | continued till his death, though they differed in their judgment upon several points.

After two years spent in London, he returned into the country; and being now twenty-two years of age, began to preach with great reputation. The spirit of devotion which prevailed in his sermons early procured the friendship of Mrs. Singer, afterwards Mrs. Howe, which she expressed in an “Ode on Death, 7 ' addressed to Mr. Grove, Soon after his beginning to preach, he married; and at the age of twenty -three, upon the death of his tutor, Mr, Warren, was chosen to succeed him in the academy at Taunton. The province first assigned him, was ethics and pneumatology; and he composed systems in each. His concern in the academy obliging him to a residence in Taunton, he preached for eighteen years to two small congregations in the neighbourhood. In 1708 he commenced author, by a piece entitled” The Regulation of Diversions,“drawn up for the use of his pupils; and about the same time Dr. Samuel Clarke published his” Discourse on the Being and Attributes of God;“and the proof in, that work from the necessary ideas of space and duration not convincing our author, he wrote to the doctor for farther information. This occasioned their exchanging several letters; when, not being able to convince each other, the debate was dropped with expressions of great mutual esteem. The pext offering he made to the public was several papers in the eighth volume of the” Spectator,“viz. JNo. 588, 601, 626, 635, In 171S he published” An Essay towards a Demonstration of the Soul’s Immortality.“About 1719, when disputes upon the Trinity divided the presbyterians, and when the animosities were carried so high as to produce excommunications, &c. Mr. Grove’s moderation on this occasion drew on him the censures and displeasure of some of his own persuasion: what influenced his mind, however, he has explained in his” Essay on the Terms of Christian Communion."

In 1725 he lost his partner in the academy, the rev. Mr. James; and was now obliged to take the students in, divinity under his direction. In the execution of this, task he confined himself to no system in divinity, but directed his pupils to the best writers on natural and revealed religion, and an impartial consideration of the chief controversies. He likewise succeeded Mr. James in his pastoral charge at Fullwood^ near Taunton, in which he continued | till his death. In 1730 he published “The Evidence of our Saviour’s Resurrection considered,” and the same year, “Some Thoughts concerning the Proof of a future State from Reason,” in answer to the rev. Mr. Hallet, junior, which drew him into a dispute on the point with that divine. In this controversy he was thought to disparage the necessity of revelation in regard to that proof. In 1732 he printed “A Discourse concerning the Nature and Design of the Lord’s Supper,” where he set that institution in the same light with bishop Hoadly. In 173-1he published, without his name, “Wisdom the first Spring of Action in the Deity,” which was animadverted on, as to some particulars, by Mr. Balguy, who, however, allowed the discourse in general to abound in solid remarks and sound reasonings. In 1736 he published “A Discourse on saving Faith.” The same year he met with a heavy affliction, in the death of his wife; and a little more than a year after this, he died himself; for, having preached on February 19, 1737-8, and with such an uncommon flow of spirits as he said he could hardly govern, he was violentlyseized at night with a fever, which carried him off upon the 27th. His friends erected a handsome monument over his grave, on which is a Latin inscription composed by the late Dr. Ward, rhetoric-professor at Gresham-college, who has also obliged the world with an English version of it. Besides the works already mentioned, he published many sermons upon several occasions, and also a volume of (i Miscellanies in prose and verse.“After his death came out by subscription his” Posthumous Works,“1740, in 4 vols. 8vo. 1

1

Biog. Brit. Life prefixed to his posthumous works, by Mr. Thomas Amory.

Gruchius, or Grouciii (Nicholas), an eminent antiquary in the sixteenth century, descended from a noble family of Rouen, was the first who explained Aristotle in Greek. He taught with reputation at Paris, Bourdeaux, and Coimbra, and, on his return to France, went to Rochelle, where a college was intended to be established, and where he died in January 1572, leaving many works. The most known are, a translation of F. L. de Castagneda’s” History of the Indies,“Paris, 1554, 4to; a treatise” De Comitiis Romanorum," 1555, fol.; and some pieces against Sigonius, fol. which Sigonius did not answer till he heard of the author’s death. 2
2

Aloreri. —, Curieuse. —Saxii Onomast.

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