BICKKR3TKTH. REV. EDWARD. 



DIDDLE, JOHN. 



I .; 



l<limilM<illiiiii of a highly discreditable nature. He U known u the 

 ncMssdnl author of a number of light comedies and musical piece, 

 produced under Garrick'e management, of which iomo yet retain pos- 

 lilihn of the stage. The principal are' Love in a Village,' 1763 ; 

 the 'Maid of the Mill,' 1765 ;' Love in the City,' 1767 (since altered 

 to the farce of 'The Kotnp'); 'The Hypocrite,' 1768; 'Lionel and 

 Clarissa,' 1768; 'The Padlock,' 1768; 'The Captive,' 1769;. 'He 

 Would if he Could,' 1769. HU last piece, ' The Sultan,' was produced 

 in 1787. The muaic to many of the* piece* wai composed by Charles 

 Dibdin. Tbo time and manner of BickcrstafTs death are uncertain : 

 all that it known U that he withdrew to the continent, and died in 

 obacnritr. ( /liografJiia Dramatic* ; Tketpian Dictionary.) 



BICKERSTETH, REV. EDWARD, waa born March 19, 1786, at 

 Kirkby Lotudale, Westmorland. He wa the fourth son of Mr. Henry 

 Hekenteth, a surgeon of that town, and the younger brother of the 

 late Lord Langdale, master of the rolls. He received his early educa- 

 tion at the grammar school of Kirkby Lonadale, but waa removed 

 thence on receiving a clerkship in the post-office, London, at the age 

 of fourteen. Here he remained for six years, when he was received 

 into the office of Mr. Bleasdale, a London attorney, as an articled clerk. 

 Having completed his term of five years, he entered into partnership 

 with Mr. liignold, a fellow clerk, whose sister he married, and com- 

 menced business as a solicitor at Norwich in 1812. 



Toe business soon became a flourishing one, and Mr. Bickersteth's 

 proapeeU appeared very favourable. But he had become deeply 

 impressed with the importance of religious truths, sod he soon took a 

 prominent part in the various religious movements for which Norwich 

 was becoming celebrated. The Norwich Church Missionary Society 

 was founded by him, snd he was active in promoting the operations of 

 the Bible Society, and several other religious societies in that city. 

 He also wrote and publi.hed, in 1314, 'A Help to the Study of the 

 Scriptures,' which in its enlarged form baa had an enormous circulation. 

 His own strong religious feelings, sided perhaps by on acquaintance 

 he bad formed with Mr. Piatt. Mr. Budd, and some other leading 

 clergymen of the ' evangelical ' section of the church, led him to desire 

 earnestly to devote himself to the miosterial office a desire which 

 those gentlemen strongly encouraged. Accordingly, Mr. Bickersteth 

 waa, December 10, 1815, ordained a deacon of the Church of England ; 

 the Bishop of Norwich having becii induced to dispense in his case 

 with the usual university training, in consequence of its being repre- 

 sented to him that the Church Missionary Society were anxious to 

 obtain the services of Mr. Bickersteth to proceed on a special mission 

 to inspect and re-organise the stations of the society in Africa, and to 

 act afterwards as their secretary. A fortnight later the Bishop of 

 Gloucester admitted him to full orders, and he almost immediately 

 departed with his wife to Africa. He returned in the following autumn, 

 having satisfactorily accomplished the purposes of his visit 



He continued in the zealous discharge of the duties of his secretaryship 

 for the next fifteen years, organising new and visiting old branch asso- 

 ciations, directing the studies of the missionaries, continually advocating 

 the interests of the society in the pulpit and on the platform, as well 

 as with his pen ; and in the course of his frequent official journeys 

 through all part* of the kingdom, acquiring a constantly increasing 

 amount of influence and popularity in what U commonly designated 

 the religious world. At the end of 1830 he resigned bis office, and 

 also his ministerial charge at \VI>eler Chapel, Spitalfields, upon accept- 

 ing the rectory of Walton in Hertfordshire, At Walton Mr. Bickersteth 

 spent the remaining twenty years of his life. But his labours wore by 

 no means bounded by his parish. He was during the whole of that 

 time in constant request as the advocate, by sermons and speeches, not 

 only of the missionary, but of almost every other religious society 

 connected with/the church, or in which, as in the Bible Society, and 

 the Evangelical Alliance (of which he was one of the founders), 

 churchmen and dissenters associate. And he also produced during 

 his residence at Walton a constant succession of religious publications, 

 which wen for the most part read in the circles to which they were 

 chiefly addressed with the greatest avidity. Indeed it may be said 

 that during most of these later yean of his life Mr. Biokersteth was 

 one of the most influential and generally popular clergymen of that 

 section of bis brethren among whom he was classed. 



During this period be took a very decided part in all those measures 

 which be regarded as having a direct bearing on the religious condi- 

 tion of the country. He was especially earnest in opposing the 

 Maynooth grant, and in calling for its withdrawal ; and he was equally 

 salons in denouncing the spread of what an known as TracUrian 

 opinions in the Church of England ; yet his opposition was free from 



opinions 

 ail perso 



nal bitterness, and his influence was directed to softening the 

 asperities of nligious strife. In bin later yean be manifested a grow- 

 ing interest in the study of prophecy. The unfulfilled prophecies 

 were ma ! the frequent subject of his discourses, and he published 

 several pamphlets and tracts and three or four elaborate treatises in 

 elucidation of the prophetic writings. 



His principal works besides the 'Scripture Help' already noticed, 

 and a large number of sermons, tracts, Ac., were : ' The Christian 

 8todnl,' 'A Treatise on the Lords Supper,' 'A Treatise on Prayer,' 

 'Family Expositions of the Epistlm of St. John and St. Jude/'A 

 Treatise on Baptism,' ' The Signs of the Times,' ' The Promised Glory 

 of UM Church of Christ,' 'Tb Restoration of the Jew*,' ' A Practical 



Guide to the Prophecies,' &c. His collected works have been published 

 in 16 vols. 8vo. Among his literary labours ought to bo mentioned the 

 Hymn-book which he compiled, and the ' Christian Family Library,' 

 which he edited, and which extended to fifty volumes. 



Mr. Bickersteth was in 1841 attacked by paralysis, the result of too 

 prolonged mental exertion. He recovered from this, and resumed his 

 labours. In 1846 he was, when proceeding to a meeting of the 

 Evangelical Alliance, thrown from his chaise under a heavily laden 

 cart, the wheels of which passed over him ; but though dreadfully 

 injured he wm after a time restored to health and activity, and sur- 

 vived till February 24, 1850, when he died of congestion of the brain, 

 aged sixty-three. 



(liirks, Memoir of the Km. Edward BicLeritcth.) 



BIDDLE, JOHN, styled the Father of the English Unitarians, was 

 born in 1615, at \Votton-under-Edge in Gloucestershire, where his 

 falher carried on the trade of a woollen-draper. Being sent to the 

 grammar school of his native town, he gave such proofs of talent and 

 proficiency as attracted the notice of George Lord Berkeley, who con- 

 ferred on him, at an earlier age than any other scholxr, an exhibition of 

 101. per annum. In 1632, in his 17th year, he was admitted a student 

 of Magdalen Hall, Oxford. He took his degree of Bachelor of Arts in 

 1638, and that of Master of Arts in 1641. About this time he was 

 elected master of the free school in the crypt in the city of Gloucester, 

 and he performed its duties in a manner that raised the character of 

 the school. His theological studies meanwhile were prosecuted with 

 great ardour ; and carrying into these his characteristic freedom of 

 inquiry, he printed for private circulation the result of his investi- 

 gations in a small tract, entitled 'Twelve Argument*, drawn out of 

 the Scripture, wherein the commonly received opinion touching the 

 deity of the Holy Spirit U clearly and fully refuted.' Having adopted 

 the views indicated in this title, ho gave unrestrained expression to 

 them in conversation, and speedily drew upon himself tha attention 

 of the authorities. His printed tract was brought under the notice of 

 the parliamentary committee then sitting at Gloucester, and, after 

 the fashion in which religious opinions were handled in those days, he 

 was summoned before a bench of magistrates, who committed him to 

 the county jail, December 2, 1645, although suffering at the time from 

 a dangerous fover. His release on bail was not obtained without con- 

 siderable difficulty. At his examination before the magistrates he 

 delivered a " confession of faith," which, from its ambiguity, shows 

 that Biddle's mind was then in a state of transition from TriuitaciaaUui 

 to Unitarianism, without being quite decided either way. Six months 

 afterwards Archbishop Usher had a conference with him on the 

 doctrine of the Trinity, without being able to convince him that it 

 was founded in Scripture. About the same time he was summoned 

 before tho parliament at Westminster, who appointed a committee to 

 inquire into his case. The proceedings of this committee were pro- 

 tracted through a period of nearly eighteen months, when a decision 

 was arrived at unfavourable to Biddle, who was committed to the 

 custody of one of the officers of tho House of Commons, and deprived 

 of his liberty for five years. In the meantime the caso was referred to 

 the assembly of divines then sitting ut Westminster, before whom 

 Biddle often appeared. Their answers to his doubts only increased 

 his conviction of their validity, and made him feel the importance of 

 giving them greater publicity. For this purpose he resolved to publish 

 the 'Twelve Arguments,' ftc., which had ouly been privately circulated. 

 This was no sooner done than it raised such a spirit of opposition that 

 the book was immediately ordered to be burnt by the common hang- 

 man. Undaunted by this proceeding, in the year 1648, while yet in 

 prison, he printed a ' Confession of Faith concerning the Holy Trinity 

 according to the Scriptures, with the Testimonies of several of the 

 Fathers on this Head.' This was followed by another tract, entitled 

 ' The Testimonies of Ireneeus, Justin Martyr, Novatianus, Theophilus 

 (who lived the two first centuries after Christ was born or thereabouts), 

 as also Arnobius, Lactautius, Eusebius, Hilary, and Brightman, con- 

 cerning that one God and ihe persons of Holy Trinity.' The publi- 

 cation of these works in succession stimulated the Westminster divines 

 to call upon the House of Commons to pass a measure by which the 

 punishment of death was awarded to the denial of the Trinity, and to 

 other doctrinal points, besides attaching severe penalties to minor 

 offences. This act, or ordinance as it was styled, was especially aimed 

 at Biddle ; and he must certainly have been the first victim to it but 

 from an opposition which was raised to it in the army; and this 

 circumstance, aided by the dissensions in parliament concerning it, 

 caused the ordinance to remain inoperative. His confinement con- 

 tinued with unabated strictness until after the death of Charles, when 

 through the influence of Cromwell and Fairfax a relaxation of tho 

 penal laws relating to religion took place. Favoured by these changes, 

 Biddle was released from prison under certain conditions, and retired 

 into Staffordshire, where he was hospitably received into the house of 

 a justice of the peace, who not ouly made him his chaplain mid 

 procured him a congregation, but at his death left him a legacy. 11 M 

 retirement was disturbed by Itradshaw, president of the council, who 

 being informed of it remanded him to prison. The loss of freedom 

 during his long confinement was hardly a greater hardship than the 

 loss of bis friends, who were alienated from him by the odium cast 

 upon him by the charge of heresy and blasphemy ; not a single divine, 

 except Dr. Gunning, afterwards bishop of Ely, paid him a visit while 



