vacant in his own college. In 1757, having been some time previously appointed curate of Clapham, he married the daughter of Dr. Bishop of Ipswich. On resigning his curacy in 1759 he dedicated a volume of sermons to his parishioners, in token of his gratitude and affection. In the course of the same year he was presented to the vicarage of Huddersfield in Yorkshire, where he laboured with an untiring zeal for the welfare of his flock. His health, however, after an incumbency of rather more than ten years, threatened to break down. He had, in fact, overworked his delicate frame, and a cough and spitting of blood admonished him to seek a less laborious cure. He accordingly resigned the living of Huddersfield, and shortly afterwards accepted the rectory of Yelling in Huntingdonshire. At this small village he continued to reside till the month of December, 1796, when he was prostrated by a paralytic shock, which also affected his intellects. He died in the June of the following year, beneath the roof of his son John, who having like himself observed what might be called the law of his house, was then in possession of the rectory, and residing at the parsonage of Clapham. This brief outline of the life of Henry Venn gives but a very imperfect notion of its inestimable value. He was, indeed, one of the men whom the England of that day could least have spared. For though he lived in great measure out of the world, yet have his silent energies, in which were united the deepest piety and a strength of intellect, which if not great was yet greatly harmonious, exercised a mighty influence on those interests which are at once the deepest and the highest that affect mankind. Sir James Stephen, who has passed a splendid eulogium on him in his celebrated essay entitled The Evangelical Succession, ranks him along with John Newton, Thomas Scott, and Joseph Milner, as one of the four great evangelists of the Church of England in these latter days. "His venerable image," says the same writer, "seems to look upbraidingly on any attempt to delineate himself or his works in a spirit less devout than his own, or less exclusively consecrated to the glory of God and to the wellbeing of mankind. Yet it can hardly be at variance with these great objects of his life to record of him, that he was one of the most eminent examples of one of the most uncommon of human excellencies—the possession of perfect and uninterrupted mental health. As all the chords of a well-tuned harp, or as all the organs of a well-ordered body, so all the faculties of a well-constituted mind contribute, each in its due place and measure, to that harmony which is the essence at once of all effective action and of all salutary repose. In this sense of the words Henry Venn was "made whole," first by nature, or that divine patrimony with which we enter on our present state of being; and then by providence, or that divine beneficence which directs and blesses our progress through life. The congruity of his intellectual powers was not marred by any discord in his affections, nor did either reason or passion ever abdicate or usurp in his mind the separate provinces over which they were respectively commissioned to reign. There prevailed throughout the whole man a certain symphony which enabled him to possess his soul in order, in energy, and in composure . . . . "And his talents, though separately of no very exalted order, became by their habitual concurrence of a very singular efficacy . . . . To Henry Venn, therefore, among the 'evangelical' clergy belonged, as by an inherent right, the province which he occupied of giving to the world a perfect and continuous view of their system of Christian ethics. The sacred consonance of all the passages of his own life, and the uniform convergence of them all towards one great design, rendered his conceptions of duty eminently pure, large, and consistent; gave singular acuteness to his discernment of moral error, and imparted a rich and cordial unction to his persuasions to obedience." These last sentences refer to his book entitled "The Complete Duty of Man," which was composed during his residence at Huddersfield. It was undertaken with the view of superseding, or at least of supplementing the deficiencies and correcting the errors of the "Whole Duty of Man;" a work remarkable for the idiomatic force of its style, for its almost unrivalled popularity, and for the obscurity in which its authorship is still involved. Venn's other works are—"A full and free examination of the Rev. Dr. Priestley's Address on the Lord's Supper, with some strictures on the treatise itself," 1769; "Mistakes in Religion exposed, in an essay on the prophecy of Zechariah," 1774; together with a considerable number of sermons, one of which is entitled "A token of respect to the memory of the Rev. Mr. Whitfield."
Venn, John, son of the preceding, was born at Clapham on the 9th of March, 1759. After pursuing his studies successively under Mr. Shute of Leeds; Mr. Sutcliffe, rector of Hippasholme school; the Rev. Joseph Milner, and other masters—he was admitted a member of Sidney Sussex college, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1781. In September of the following year he was ordained deacon, and became his father's curate. Two years afterwards, having entered into priest's orders, he was instituted to the living of Little Durham in Norfolk. He married in 1789 Catherine King, a lady belonging to Hull, who died on the 15th of April, 1803, leaving a family of seven children. In 1792 he became rector of Clapham, where he spent the rest of his life. He died on the 1st of July, 1813. A selection of his sermons was published in two volumes after his death. Their style is said to be more polished than that of his father's works, but they are not so rigidly Calvinistic.—Henry Venn, his son, also entered the church, and some years, ago published a brief memoir of his grandfather, a collection of his letters, and a new edition of the "Complete Duty of Man."—R. M., A.
VENNER, Tobias, an eminent physician, was born of a good family at Petherton, near Bridgewater in Somersetshire, in 1577. He entered St. Alban's hall, Oxford, as a commoner, in 1594. After graduating in arts, he applied himself to the study of medicine, and subsequently practised for some time in the neighbourhood of Oxford. On taking his doctor's degree, however, he returned to Bridgewater, whence in a few years he removed to Bath. He died on the 27th of March, 1660, and was buried in St. Peter's church, Bath. Venner was greatly esteemed as a practitioner, and for the integrity and generosity of his character. But his great popularity was derived from his work entitled "Via Recta ad Vitam Longam." It is a practical treatise on diet and regimen, and remarkable for the good sense and simplicity of its directions. The first part of it was published in 1620, the second in 1623; they were, however, published together in subsequent editions. To that of 1638 were appended "A Compendious Treatise concerning the nature, use, and efficacy of the Bathes at Bath;" "Advertisement concerning the taking of Physic in the Spring;" "Censure concerning the Water of St. Vincent's Rocks near Bristol;" and a "Treatise concerning the taking of the fume of Tobacco."—R. M., A.
VENNING, Ralph, an excellent nonconformist minister, was born about the year 1620. He studied at Emmanuel college, Cambridge, and subsequently held the lectureship of St. Olave's, Southwark, from which he was ejected for nonconformity in 1662. Venning, however, still continued his ministerial duties, preaching for the most part at a dissenting meeting, held in Pewterer's hall, Lime Street. He died on the 10th of March, 1673. He was a man of a meek, quiet, and benevolent spirit, taking no part with any of the factions of the time, but, contrariwise, devoting all his zeal and abilities to the promoting of virtue and true religion. He is said to have excelled in an extraordinary degree in the preaching of charity sermons; his fervid eloquence on such occasions, inspired as it was by a sincere regard for the poor, not seldom melted into compassion the toughest-hearted of his auditory. He was author of a considerable number of works in practical theology—"Orthodox and Miscellaneous Paradoxes;" "Things worth Thinking on, or helps to piety," &c.—R. M., A.
VENTURA, Joachim, an Italian preacher and theologian, was born at Palermo in 1792. He was early received into the Society of Jesuits, and became secretary-general of the order. He was appointed censor of the press, and a member of the council of public instruction; and in this capacity he exerted himself to spread in Italy the religious philosophy of Lamennais and Le Maistre. His funeral sermon for Pius VII. raised him to the first rank among living preachers. In 1824 he was named chief of the order of the Théatins, and took up his residence in Rome, where his influence, it is said, promoted the reconciliation of the pope with Chateaubriand, and the recognition of Louis Philippe. A work, "De Methodo Philosophandi," Rome, 1828, brought him into collision with his ancient guide and friend Lamennais, for whom, however, he manifested to the last the utmost respect and kindness. The ten years between 1829 and 1839 were spent in retirement, though he preached occasionally at Rome. On the accession of Pius IX., Ventura exerted himself to reconcile the papacy with the genius of the revolution then at work. His funeral sermon for O'Connell produced almost a reaction in favour of the pope; but in vain he urged Pius IX. to grant a constitution ere it was too late. After the
