[26] In this year he printed "A Narrative of what passed at the Revolution-house at Whittington in the year 1688, with a view and plan of the house by Major Rooke (reprinted in Gent. Mag. vol. LIX. p. 124)." [See the Appendix.]
[27] See the Appendix to this Memoir.
[28] In this Discourse the venerable Preacher, taking for his text Psalm cxviii. 24, first recites, in plain and unaffected language, the blessings resulting from the event here commemorated to Church and State; and then points out the corruptions of the present age, with advice for their reformation.
[29] This solemnity took place on Wednesday; and, the Church being crowded with strangers, the Sermon was repeated to the parochial congregation on the following Sunday.—Mr. Pegge was then very old, and the 5th of November N. S. was his birth-day, when he entered into the 85th year of his age.
[30] Mr. Pegge, at the time, was on a visit to his Grandson, the present Sir Christopher Pegge, M. D. then lately elected Reader of Anatomy at Christ Church, Oxford, on Dr. Lee's foundation.
[31] The only Member of the Society at the time of its Incorporation, who survived Dr. Pegge, was Samuel Reynardson, Esq.
[32] The first Piece that appears to have been, in any degree, published by Dr. Pegge, was, A Latin Ode on the Death of King George I. 1727. See "Academiæ Cantabrigiensis Luctus" Signature Z. z. fol. b. [Dr. Pegge was then lately elected Fellow of St. John's College (the first time) as he signs it "Sam. Pegge, A. B. Coll. Div. Joh. Evang. Soc." See before, p. xiii.]—1731. An irregular English Ode on Joshua vi. 20, which he contributed to a Collection of "Miscellaneous Poems and Translations," published (with a numerous subscription) by the Rev. Henry Travers, 1731, octavo, p, 170. [See "Anonymiana," p. 327, for an account of Mr. Travers, and this publication.] A marginal note in Dr. Pegge's copy of Mr. Travers's publication tells us, that this Ode was an academical exercise, when the Doctor was an under-graduate at St. John's, which was sent to the Earl of Exeter. His Lordship's Ancestors had been Benefactors to the College, a circumstance which, we presume, gave rise to the custom of sending such periodical exercises to the then Earl; though the practice, as far as we know, does not continue. Thus much of this Commemoration, as we believe, remains, that two Sermons are still annually preached (the one at Hatfield, and the other at Burleigh) by Fellows of the College, which we apprehend to have been enjoined by the Benefactor. The Ode, of which we have spoken, became some years after an auxiliary contribution to Mr. Travers's Collection from Dr. Pegge, jointly with other contemporaries, to relieve the Editor from some pecuniary embarrassments.—An Examination of "The Enquiry into the meaning of Demoniacks in the New Testament; in a Letter to the Author," 1739. An octavo (of 86 pages), with his name prefixed. [This controversy originated from the Rev. Dr. Arthur-Ashley Sykes, who published "An Enquiry into the Meaning of the Demoniacks in the New Testament" (1737). under the obscure signature of "T. P. A. P. O. A. B. I. T. C. O. S." The interpretation of this is, The Precentor And Prebendary Of Alton-Borealis, In The Church Of Salisbury. Dr. Sykes had been vicar of Godmersham; so that two vicars of Godmersham became, incidentally, parties in the controversy. The question engaged several other Writers; viz. Rev. Leonard Twells, Rev. Thomas Hutchinson, and Rev. William Winston, who were followed by Dr. Pegge. He, however, entered so late into the lists, after the subject was almost worn out, that his Publication was not much attended to, though it attracted the applause of several competent judges, such as the Rev. Dr. Newcome, Master of St. John's College, Cambridge; Rev. Dr. Taylor (late Residentiary of St. Paul's); the very learned Bp. Smalbroke; and some others.]—A Sermon on St. John i. 5: "The Light Shineth in Darkness," preached on St. John's-day, 1742, at Canterbury cathedral, and inscribed to his much-respected friend, Thomas Knight, Esq. of Godmersham, in Kent.—A Sermon, preached also at Canterbury Cathedral during the Rebellion, 1746. [The avowed design of the Discourse was, to prove that "Popery was an encouragement to vice and immorality." This Sermon attracted the civilities (mentioned in p. xxxi.) which Dr. Pegge received from Archbishop Herring. These are the principal professional Publications by Dr. Pegge; to which ought to be added some short pastoral and gratuitous printed distributions at various times; viz. 1755. A Discourse on Confirmation (of 23 pages, octavo), being an enlarged Sermon, preached at Chesterfield previously to the Bishop's triennial Visitation, and dispersed.—1767. A brief Examination of the Church Catechism, for the Use of those who are just arrived at Years of Discretion.—1790.]
Frivolous as many detached morsels, scattered up and down in the Gentleman's Magazine, may appear to some Readers, they may be called the ruminations of a busy mind; which shews an universality of reading, a love of investigation, A short Paraphrase of the Lord's Prayer (4 pages octavo), first addressed to his Parishioners of Brindle, in Lancashire, 1753; and afterwards reprinted and distributed in his three parishes of Whittington, Heath, and Wingerworth, in Derbyshire, 1790.
[33] An accurate list of these detached publications may be seen in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1796, pp. 979, 1081.
[34] We shall here specify Mr. Pegge's several Memoirs printed (by direction of the Council of the Society of Antiquaries) in the Archæologia, as being the principal combined work to which he contributed. Herein we shall proceed as they successively occur in those volumes, rather than by the times at which the communications themselves were actually read before the Society.