74 LIVES OF THE PURITANS. were much vexed to see a man, 'whom they deemed unfit for the situation, preferred before: those who were more advanced in years. He no sooner entered upon his official duties, in the delivery of public, lectures, than he gave the most perfect satisfaction to all his hearers. There was in him nothing wanting which could be found in the best divine, and the 'most accomplished professor. He at once discovered much reading, a sharp judgment, a pure and easy style, with sound and solid learning, by which his fame spread in every direction, and multitudes resorted to his lectures, and reaped from them incalculable advantage.. To qualifyhimself for these public exercises, he directed his studies, with uncommon application, to all the useful branches of human learning. He was a great proficient in the knowledge of philosophy. With uncommon diligence he studied the sacred scriptures ' to which he invariably- appealed, not only in matters of faith, but in the determina- tion of all doubts and controversies. He turned over most of the modern commentators and faithful interpreters of the word of God. With incredible industry, and in the space of a few years, he read over most of the fathers, both Greek and Latin. He attended to his studies with the greatest regularity, and appointed himself every morning what exercises he should pursue during the day ; and if he was at any time interrupted in his engagements, he always protracted his studies to a late hour, and so deprived himself of his natural rest and sleep, in order to finish his appointed task. By this course oflabour and watchinghe very much increased in learning, but greatly impaired his health, which he never after perfectly recovered. In the public exercises in the schools, his great learning and singular eloquence gained the admiration of all his auditors. When he read in rhetoric and philosophy, he seemed to be another Basil ; when he catechised, another Origen ; and when he preached his Gonceo ad Clerum, it abounded with sanctity and all kinds of learning. In the office of professor, he delivered public lectures first upon various select parts of the New Testament, then he entered upon the controversies between the papists and pro- testants. He first encountered the vain-glorious Campian, who set forth his ten arguments, proudly boasting that he had utterly ruined the protestant religion. Whitaker so learnedly and so completely refuted the haughty Jesuit, Clark's Eccl. Hist. p. 816,
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