dean of Durham, author of ‘The Companion to the Temple,’ and is said to have been ‘of a learned and communicative conversation;’ he is also reported to have been ‘a florid and eloquent preacher,’ and the two printed sermons he has left behind him bear out this character. But his fame rests upon his writings on church history, which are voluminous and valuable. They are as follows: 1. ‘Primitive Christianity, or the Religion of Ancient Christians in the First Ages of the Gospel,’ 1672; it was dedicated to Nathaniel Crewe, lord bishop of Oxford, and has been often reprinted. 2. ‘Tabulæ Ecclesiasticæ; Tables of Ecclesiastical Writers,’ 1674. 3. ‘Antiquitates Apostolicæ; a History of the Lives, Acts, and Martyrdoms of the Holy Apostles of our Saviour and the Two Evangelists, St. Mark and St. Luke. To which is added, an introductory discourse concerning the Three Great Dispensations of the Church—the Patriarchal, the Mosaical, and the Evangelical. Being a continuation of the “Antiquitates Christianæ; or, the Life and Death of Holy Jesus,” by Jeremy Taylor,’ 1676. 4. ‘Apostolici, or a History of the Lives, Acts, Deaths, and Martyrdoms of those who were contemporary with or immediately succeeded the Apostles; as also of the most eminent of the primitive Fathers for the first three hundred years. To which is added a Chronology of the Three First Ages of the Church,’ 1677. 5. ‘Ecclesiastici, or a History of the Lives, Acts, Deaths, and Writings of the most eminent Fathers of the Church in the Fourth Century; wherein, among other things, an account is given of the rise, growth, and progress of Arianism and all other sects of that age descending from it. Together with an Introduction containing an Historical Account of the State of Paganism under the First Christian Emperor,’ 1682. 6. ‘A Dissertation concerning the Government of the Ancient Church by Bishops, Metropolitans, and Patriarchs. More particularly concerning the ancient power and jurisdiction of the Bishops of Rome and the encroachments of that upon other sees, especially the see of Constantinople,’ 1683. 7. ‘Chartophylax Ecclesiasticus,’ 1685; a sort of abridgment of the ‘Tabulæ Ecclesiasticæ’ and ‘Historia Literaria,’ containing a short account of most of the ecclesiastical writers from the birth of Christ to 1517 A.D. 8. ‘Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Historia Literaria;’ a literary history of ecclesiastical writers, in two parts, the first part published in 1688, the second in 1698. Besides these historical works Dr. Cave published: 9. ‘A Serious Exhortation, with some important Advices relating to the late cases about Conformity, recommended to the present Dissenters from the Church of England, being the twenty-second in the London Cases.’ 10. ‘A Sermon before the Lord Mayor at St. Mary-le-Bow, 5 Nov. 1680.’ 11. ‘A Sermon before the King at Whitehall, 18 Jan. 1684,’ published by his majesty's command. 12. ‘Epistola Apologetica adversùs iniquas J. Clerici Criminationes in Epistolis Criticis et Ecclesiasticis nuper editis. Quâ argumenta ejus pro Eusebii Arianismo ad examen revocantur,’ 1700.
The merits of Cave as a writer consist in the thoroughness of his research, the clearness of his style, and, above all, the admirably lucid method of his arrangement. Thus, in ‘Primitive Christianity,’ in part i., he deals systematically with the charges against the primitive christians—the novelty of their doctrines, their mean condition, their manner of life; then dwells on ‘the positive parts of their religion,’ their piety to God, places of worship, fasts and festivals, ministers, sacraments. In part ii. he discusses their ‘religion as respecting themselves, their humility, heavenly-mindedness, sobriety of dress, temperance, chastity, religious constancy, patience in suffering.’ In part iii. he treats of their ‘religion as respecting other men,’ their justice and honesty, love and charity, unity and peaceableness, obedience to civil government, and discipline and penance.
In his ‘Historia Literaria.’ the most elaborate of all his works, he divides his subject methodically into fifteen ‘sæcula’ (Apostolicum, Gnosticum, &c.), and gives, at the beginning of each, a short ‘conspectus sæculi,’ and then an exhaustive account of the writers in it. Cave had various troubles in connection with his publications. He was accused, without the slightest reason, of Socinianism. He was charged, perhaps with a little more reason, by Le Clerc, who was then writing his ‘Bibliothèque Universelle,’ with ‘writing panegyrics rather than lives,’ and also with ‘having forcibly drawn Eusebius, who was plainly enough Arian, over to the side of the orthodox, and made a trinitarian of him;’ this produced a paper warfare between the two great writers. His ‘Tabulæ Ecclesiasticæ’ was reprinted at Hamburg in 1676 without his knowledge (‘me planè inscio’), and evidently to his great annoyance. His ‘Historia Literaria’ was in a similar way published at Geneva in 1705, which is said to have caused the author great loss, and to have so disgusted him that he would not issue a second edition; but he spent much time during the later years of his life in revising repeatedly this great work. He made alterations and additions equal to one-third of
