BAMPTON, REV. JOHN, founder of the series of divinity lectures at Oxford known as the Bampton Lectures, appears to have been born in 1689 and to have died in 1751. He was a member of Trinity College, Oxford, and for some time canon of Salisbury. His will directs that eight lectures shall be delivered annually on as many Sunday mornings in full term, " between the commencement of the last month in Lent term and the end of the third week in Act term, upon either of the following subjects : - to confirm and establish the Christian faith, and to confute all heretics and schismatics - upon the divine authority of the Holy Scriptures - upon the authority of the writings of the primitive fathers, as to the faith and practice of the primitive Church - upon the divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ - upon the divinity of the Holy Ghost - upon the articles of the Christian faith as comprehended in the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds." The lecturer, who must be at least a Master of Arts of Oxford or Cambridge, is chosen yearly by the heads of colleges, and no one can be chosen a second time. The series of lectures began in 1780, and has continued to the present time unbroken, with the exception of the years 1834 and 1835, when no lecturers were appointed, and 1841, when no lectures were delivered. Several of the lecturers have been men of great eminence and ability ; Heber, for instance, was selected in 1815, Whately in 1822, Milman in 1827, Home in 1828, Hampden in 1832, Goulburn in 1850, Hansel in 1858, Liddon in 1866. The institution has done much to preserve, at least in some quarters, a high standard in English theology ; and the lectures as a whole form a very valuable body of apologetic literature.