II-ECCLESIASTICAL SERIES.

Thomas Woolston.

BORN A. D. 1669.-DIED A. D. 1733.

SCARCELY had the latest of the illustrious band of Christian advocates, who so nobly maintained the fight against irreligion, intolerance, and infidelity, in the seventeenth century, ceased from their labours and entered into rest, when a melancholy reaction took place. "The outward condition of the church was tranquil, and to a mere cursory observer might even seem prosperous. Liberty of conscience, under the name of religious toleration, was conceded to the various denominations of protestant dissenters, though under restriction which neither sound policy nor impartial justice could approve. Some liberal and enlightened churchmen-among whom were included several distinguished members of the hierarchy-were prompted by a spirit of liberality and forbearance, that did them the highest credit, to attempt the removal of the causes of separation by a measure of general comprehension: on the other hand, some influential members of the dissenting body manifested a disposition to meet the wishes and second the exertions of their brethren of the established church by at least equal concessions on their part. A hope began to be cherished by the moderate and liberal of both parties, that the period was not far distant in which former divisions would be effectually healed, and unity and peace restored to the protestant church. Yet, amidst these circumstances of external prosperity, it soon became but too evident that the glory had departed from our British churches; and that, instead of the spiritual vigour by which they were formerly characterized, a moral decay preyed upon their vitals. The truly pious both within and without the pale of the national church, could not but perceive that the internal symptoms were most alarming. Religious apathy and indifference, under the specious names of liberality and candour, pervaded and paralysed the far greater portion of the community. A cold system of ethics, scarcely superior to the morality of the pagan world, superseded the faithful and energetic preaching of former times. A spirit of daring speculation betrayed many into pernicious errors, or disposed them to universal scepticism. The watchmen on the walls of Zion,' instead of sounding an alarm at this peculiar crisis, for the most part either slumbered at their posts or basely deserted them; and even where the trumpet of alarm was heard, it gave but an uncertain sound. The congregations which had been accustomed to listen with devout attention to the evangelical doctrine and truly Christian eloquence of their late pastors, were now either scattered and broken up as sheep having no shepherd. or they also, being infected with the moral contagion of the time, yielded to the same spiritual torpor and deadly lethargy of soul. While this cold and heartless semblance of Christianity was substituted by the great majority of its professors for vital and spiritual religion, there were others who, justly apprehensive of danger from the latitudinarian

spirit which then prevailed, rushed to the contrary extreme, which proved in its results scarcely less injurious. They cherished and diffused around them a controversial spirit; they contended with equal zeal and bitterness for the circumstantials as for the essentials of the Christian faith, for dogmas of human invention, and the distinguishing peculiarities of human systems, as for the great principles of revealed truth. The war of words was fiercely carried on both in the pulpit and from the press; whilst, in the meantime, the spirit of Christianity, which is that of meekness and love, deserted the combatants on either side." The truth and accuracy of these remarks, for which we are indebted to the judicious essay prefixed by Mr Morell to a recent edition of the Miscellaneous works of Doddridge,' will be frequently made apparent to the reader in the hasty sketches which follow of the ecclesiastical men of the period now under review. At the same time, an age adorned with such names as Waterland, and Doddridge, and Butler, and Berkeley, and Lardner, an age whose master-minds had received an impulse at one extreme by a Bentley, and at the other by a Warburton,- -an age too, in which a Chubb, and a Tindal, and a Collins, laboured to destroy the foundations of the Christian creed, and a Woolston, a Whiston, a Sykes, and a Clarke, eagerly maintained tenets at variance with some of the most essential doctrines of revelation,—such an age, we say, must be one of more than ordinary interest to the student of ecclesiastical history.

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Thomas Woolston, one of the most stirring if not the most powerful spirits of his age, was born at Northampton in 1669. He was entered of Sidney college, Cambridge, in 1685; and became a fellow on that foundation, after taking the usual degrees.

His first appearance as an author was in 1705, when he published a work, entitled The old Apology for the Truth of the Christian Religion against the Jews and Gentiles revived.' The design of this work is to prove that all the actions of Moses were typical of Christ, and many of them not real but merely typical relations of what was afterwards to take place. Whiston gives this account of the progress of his mind towards error:-" He was in his younger days a clergyman of very good reputation,—a scholar, and well-esteemed as a preacher,charitable to the poor, and beloved by all good men that knew him. Now it happened, that after some time he most unfortunately fell into Origen's allegorical works, and poring hard upon them, without communicating his studies to any body, he became so fanciful in that matter that he thought the allegorical way of interpretation of the scriptures of the Old Testament had been unjustly neglected by the moderns, and that it might be useful for an additional proof of Christianity; insomuch that he preached this doctrine first in the collegechapel, to the great surprise of his audience, though (his intentions being known to be good, and his person beloved,) no discouragement was showed him there. His notions appeared to be so wild, that a report went about that he was under a disorder of mind, which, when he heard, instead of that applause which he thought he had deserved by retrieving a long forgotten argument for the truth of Christianity, he grew really disordered; and, as I have been informed, he was accordingly confined for about a quarter of a year; after which, though his notions were esteemed in part the effect of some such dis

order, yet did he regain his liberty. When he found himself pretty well, as he thought, he fell a writing to great men, and to his old friends, and insisted on the truth of his notions, and pretended that the reports of his disorders were only from the inability the learned were under to confute them. Nay, at length he wrote several pamphlets to prove that following the literal sense of the Old Testament was no better than antichristianism, though, in the meantime, he sometimes insinuated that Jesus Christ's own miracles were no other than allegorical miracles, and not real facts; and exposed these miracles, taken in the literal sense, after such a manner and with such a mixture of wit and scoffing, as if he in earnest intended to abuse and oppose the Christian religion, which design, however, he utterly denied, and seemed tc wonder that any should impute such a thing to him.”

In 1720 he published a Latin dissertation, De Pontii Pilati ad Tiberium Epistolâ, circa res Jesu Christi gestas; per Mystagogum.' In this piece he endeavours to prove that Pontius Pilate wrote a letter to Tiberius Cæsar concerning Christ and his miracles, but that the epistle bearing his name, and inserted in some of the fathers, is a forgery. In the same year he published two Latin epistles addressed to Whitby, Waterland, and Whiston, in defence of the allegorical mode of interpreting. These publications he followed up by other more popular tractates on the same subject. He was now deprived of his fellowship, and went to London, where he supported himself on a small annuity allowed him by his brother. In 1722 he published a piece entitled, The Exact Fitness of the time in which Christ was manifested in the flesh, demonstrated by Reason against the objections of the Old Gentiles and Modern Unbelievers.' This was an old college exercise, and was well enough received; but in 1723 and 1724 came out his abusive pamphlet, entitled 'Free Gifts to the Clergy,' which raised a loud cry against him. Pursuing his own way, he published, in 1726, a Defence of the Thundering Legion, against Moyle's Dissertations; and then thrust himself into the controversy with Collins, as a kind of umpire, in a pamphlet entitled 'Moderator between an Infidel and Apostate,' to which he subsequently added two supplements. In these latter pieces he pushed his objections to the reality of the miracles of Christ to such an indecent length, that, to use the words of Whiston, "the government fell upon him, and had him indicted in Westminster-hall for blasphemy and profaneness." Whiston succeeded in getting the indictment quashed for this time; but Woolston, undeterred by the experience of the past, between the years 1727 and 1730, published a series of Discourses on the Miracles of Christ,' and two Defences' of them, in which he attempts to prove that all the miracles of our Saviour, as recorded by the evangelists, were only so many allegories, and to be interpreted not in a literal but only a mystical sense. Not content with aiming to establish this extraordinary theory, he indulged in a strain of the most scurrilous and indecent language on the alleged reality of these miracles, and likewise assailed the prelates, to whom he addressed his 'Discourses,' in very abusive terms. Legal proceedings were again commenced against him, and the case, King v. Woolston, has been treated by lawyers as a leading case in the law of religious libels. At his trial in Guildhall, before Lord-chief-justice Raymond, he spoke several times himself; but he was found guilty, and sentenced to a year's imprison

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ment, and to pay a fine of £100. Dr Samuel Clarke interfered to procure a mitigation of punishment for him; but his exertions were rendered needless by Woolston's death in January, 1733.

Woolston was unquestionably a learned man, and perhaps was to a certain extent sincere in his notions; but there appears to have been a great want of judgment as well as prudence about him,—to such an extent even as to afford some foundation for the doubts which have been entertained of his sanity.

William Derham.

BORN A. D. 1657.-DIED A. D. 1735.

THIS excellent man was born at Stoughton, near Worcester, on the 26th of November, 1657, and educated in grammar-learning at Blockley in the same county. He took his degrees at Oxford, and was ordained by Compton, bishop of London, in 1681. In July, 1682, he was presented to the vicarage of Wargrave in Berkshire, and in 1689 obtained the valuable living of Upminster in Essex. In this convenient retirement he paid considerable attention to natural history, and began to collect the materials for his Physico-Theology, or Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of a God from the Works of the Creation; and his Astro-Theology, or Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God from a survey of the Heavens.' The former of these works was first given to the public at the Boyle lectures for 1711 and 1712.

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In 1716 he was made a canon of Windsor; and at the same time became chaplain to the prince of Wales. He revised and printed the 'Miscellanea Curiosa,' in three volumes, in 1726; and, in 1730, received the degree of D. D., by diploma from Oxford, on account of the service he had rendered religion by the culture of natural knowledge. In the same year he published his Christo-Theology, or a Demonstration of the Divine Authority of the Christian Religion.' In addition to these productions he was the author of several scientific papers communicated to the Royal society, of which he was a fellow. He also edited Ray's 'Epistolary Correspondence;' and Albin's 'Natural History of Birds and British Insects,' in four volumes 4to. He deservedly obtained considerable reputation. The scientific portion of his works, although modern discoveries have convicted him of numerous errors, display profound knowledge of natural philosophy, such as it was in the early part of the last century. He died on the 5th of April, 1735, leaving several children, the eldest of whom became president of St John's college, Oxford.

Daniel Waterland, D.D.

BORN A. D. 1683.-DIED A. D. 1740.

DANIEL WATERLAND, one of the most eminent divines of an age peculiarly rich in theological talent, was born at Waseley in Lincoln

shire-of which parish his father was rector-on the 14th of February, 1683. His early education was conducted by his father and his father's curate, Mr Sykes; he was afterwards sent to Lincoln school, then one of the most celebrated provincial seminaries for the education of youth. At this school, young Waterland exhibited uncommon proficiency in the classics. The masters were proud of their pupil, and used to exhibit his exercises in particular as a specimen of what their school could produce.

In 1699 Waterland was admitted of Magdalen college, Cambridge, where he had for his tutor Samuel Barker. In December, 1702, he obtained a scholarship; and in February following was elected fellow. In 1706 he commenced A. M. On the death of Dr Gabriel Quadrin, master of Magdalen college, the earl of Suffolk, in whose family the patronage of this mastership is vested, presented Waterland to it, and at the same time gave him the rectorship of Ellingham in Norfolk. He remained at his college, and about this period wrote his 'Advice to a young Student, with a method of study for the first four years,' a book which was favourably received, and went through several editions.

In 1714 he took the degree of B. D. His dissertation upon this occasion is a famous one in the annals of English theology. His first question was, 'Whether Arian subscription be lawful? '—"a question," says his eulogist, Seed, "worthy of him who had the intrepidity to abhor with a generous scorn all prevarication, and the capacity to see through and detect those evasive arts by which some would palliate their disingenuity. When Dr James, the professor, had endeavoured to answer his thesis, and embarrass the question, with the dexterity of a person long practised in all the arts of a subtle disputant, he immediately replied in an extempore discourse of above half-an-hour long, with such an easy flow of proper and significant words, and such an undisturbed presence of mind, as if he had been reading what he has since printed, 'The case of Arian subscription considered,' and the 'Supplement' to it. He unravelled the professor's fallacies, reinforced his own reasonings, and showed himself so perfect a master of the language, the subject, and himself, that all agreed no one ever appeared to greater advantage. There were several members of the university of Oxford there who remember the great applauses he received, and the uncommon satisfaction which he gave. He was happy in a first opponent, one of the greatest ornaments of the church and finest writers of the age, who gave full play to his abilities, and called forth all that strength of reason of which he was master."1 This opponent was Dr Thomas Sherlock, afterwards bishop of London. The unusual circumstance of a public debate between two heads of houses, the subject of discussion itself, and the well-known talents and learning of the combatants, drew a more than ordinary share of public attention to this disputation. They were both," says Dean Monk, speaking of the disputants on this occasion," they were both young men, distinguished by talent and erudi. tion; and they exhibited, on their elevation, great aptitude for business and discretion, as well as activity, which speedily gave them influence and authority in the body."2

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Waterland, who was a steadfast supporter of the Hanoverian succes2 Life of Bentley, p. 291.

Seed's Funeral Sermon for Dr Waterland,