COS 



WHISTON, WILLIAM. 



WHISTON, WILLIAM. 



601 



the bishopric of Chester. He died while on a visit to Cambridge, at 

 the house of his friend Dr. Cudworth, master of Christ's College, iu 

 May 1683. 



Dr. Whichcote is regarded as one of the heads, if not the chief 

 founder, of what is called the Latitudinarian school of English divines, 

 as holding those views of Christianity which attribute least importance 

 to minute points of doctrine, and are favourable to the largest compre- 

 hension of such as hold a few principles conceived to be alone funda- 

 mental and essential. But it was principally by his preaching and 

 other oral teaching that Dr. Whichcote diffused his opinions while 

 alive. An 8vo volume of his 'Observations and Apophthegms/ taken 

 down from his own mouth by one of his pupils, was published in 

 1688, and passed at least through two editions. The first selection of 

 his sermons was published, in Svo, in 1698, by the third Earl of 

 Shaftcabury, the author of the ' Characteristics," with a preface in 

 which he recommended them as making religion to consist rather iu 

 natural goodness of disposition than in anything either divinely re- 

 vealed or having respect to the rewards and punishments of another 

 life. This collection was reprinted at Edinburgh in 12ino, hi 1742, 

 preceded by a recommendatory epistle from the Kev. Dr. William 

 Wishart, principal of the university there. Meanwhile three more 

 volumes of Whichcote's sermons had been published from the original 

 manuscript in 1701-3, by Dr. Jeffery, archdeacon of Norwich, and a 

 fifth volume by Dr. Samuel Clarke, in 1707. A new edition of the 

 whole appeared at Aberdeen, in 1751, in 4 vols. Svo, under the super- 

 intendence of Drs. Campbell and Gerard. There is also a volume of 

 ' Moral and Religious Aphorisms,' collected from Whichcote's manu- 

 scripts, whicli was first published in 1703, by Jeffery, and which was 

 re-edited, with additions, in 1753, by Dr. William Salter. Dr. Which- 

 cote, who was possessed of considerable property besides his endow- 

 ments, was a person of much active benevolence and charity, and was 

 eminently distinguished for his command of temper and general 

 excellence of character. 



WHISTON, WILLIAM, was the son of Josiah Whiston, rector of 

 Norton, near Twycross, in Leicestershire, and was born at that place, 

 December 9, 1667. The materials for his Life are mostly contained iu 

 his singular autobiography, published in 1749 ; and from these the 

 account given in the ' Biographia Britannica ' is mostly taken. These 

 memoirs, like others of the same kind, are to be read with allowance 

 for the character of the author, in which there was much of vanity 

 combined with unsuspected integrity. There never was a writer of 

 his own life who laid his weaknesses more plainly before the reader, 

 unless it were Boswell. Whiston was educated by his father (who was 

 blind in the latter part of his life, and employed his son largely as an 

 amanuensis) till the age of seventeen. He was then sent as a pupil to 

 Mr. Antrobus at Tatnworth, whose daughter he afterwards married. 

 At the age of nineteen he was entered at Clare Hall in Cambridge, 

 where he^pplied himself to the study of mathematics and the Carte- 

 sian philosophy. He took his degree in Lent 1689-90, was elected a 

 Fellow of his college in the following June, and received ordination in 

 1693. In 1694 his health obliged him to give up his pupils, and he 

 was made chaplain to Dr. More, bishop of Norwich. In this year he 

 became acquainted with Newton, whose ' Principia ' he had already 

 studied. In 1696 he published his first work, the celebrated ' Theory 

 of the Earth,' which went through six editions. His fancies on this 

 subject, particularly his management of the comet for the production 

 of the Deluge, are well known : there was a joke against it, which was 

 not without foundation, namely, that he had covered the whole earth 

 with water, without providing any means of drawing it off again. In 

 1698 he got the living of Lowestoft in Suffolk, and by his subsequent 

 marriage vacated his Fellowship : during his tenure of this preferment 

 he performed his duties with singular disinterestedness and industry. 

 But his connection with the university was soon revived, for in 1701 

 Newton made him his deputy in the duties of the Lucasian chair, aud 

 in 1703 resigned the chair itself, and procured Whiston to be appointed 

 as his successor : on this he resigned his living, and settled at Cam- 

 bridge. In 1702 he published an edition of Tacquet's Euclid, which 

 was several times reprinted. He had also some clerical duties, 

 obtained the character of an eminent preacher, and was fairly in the 

 road to high preferment, when his theological studies, in which he 

 was most assiduous, brought about a gradual change in his opinions, 

 which ended in hie becoming an Arian ; he finally added the rejection 

 of infant baptism to his system. His views on the matter were much 

 influenced by a conviction which he obtained that the ' Apostolic Con- 

 stitutions ' were not only genuine books, but equal if not superior in 

 authority to any of the books of the ordinary canon. The change in 

 his opinions soon appeared in his sermons and in his writings, which 

 came out with great rapidity and were very numerous. The list was 

 too long even for the ' Biographia Britannica.' Very wide varieties of 

 doctrine were common enough at that time in the Church of England; 

 and, if not made too public, views which were called heresies were 

 connived at The bishop of Ely (Dr. Patrick), even when Whiston 

 had gone so far as to omit part of the Litany, and had consequently 

 been cited, contrived to break up the court before the promoter made 

 his appearance; and subsequently contsnted himself by desiring 

 Whiston not to do the duties of a lectureship which he held at Cam- 

 bridge, promising that the salary should be continued. But Whiston, 

 whose whole life was one uncompromising act of maintenance of his 



own opinions, and defiance of hia opponents, immediately resigned 

 both office and salary. 



In October 1710, the storm burst upon him. The heads of houses, 

 after several hearings, to which they would not allow Whiston to 

 bring a single friend, banished him from the university, after the usual 

 offer of leave to recant. A year afterwards they declared his professor- 

 ship vacant Both proceedings, as being done by the heads without a 

 public trial in the vice-chancellor's court, were highly irregular, if we 

 may trust the opinions given iu subsequent affairs of the same kind ; 

 but the Court of Chancery confirmed them. Whiston was now thrown 

 upon the world, but he had a small patrimony, and with thi^, his 

 writings, his public lectures, and the occasional liberality of those who 

 admired his unflinching character, particularly (towards the end of his 

 life) of his son-in-law, he never was in want. His trials however were 

 not yet over, and the heads of them will show how difficult, then, as 

 now, it was to define and prosecute heresy in the Church of England. 

 The lower house of convocation censured his writings in 1711, but the 

 censure happened to get mislaid before it was brought to the queen. 

 Whiston, nothing daunted, published his ' Primitive Christianity ' in 

 November, whereupon the lower house applied to the upper house for 

 a censure, but without effect. Further steps were thought of, and the 

 judges were applied to for information on the extent of the powers of 

 convocation : four were of opinion that there was no power to cite a 

 heretic, but the rest were the other way. Still the convocation did 

 not move, aud in 1713 a private incumbent in London delated Whiston 

 of heresy before the Dean's court of St. Paul's. The commissary of 

 this court would not assume jurisdiction, but referred the matter to 

 the Dean of the Arches, who in his turn objected to hear it except as 

 an appeal. The delator thereupon applied to the Chancellor, who 

 appointed a court of delegates, who decided that the Dean of Arches 

 ought to have heard the case, but proceeded to treat it as an appeal 

 made to themselves. Whiston was accordingly cited, and appeared, 

 but not until the court had managed to dissolve the sitting, after 

 declaring him in contempt. This sort of thing happened so often, 

 that we cannot but suspect the courts liked in such cases to take 

 advantage of some party being a few minutes behind his time, and to 

 escape the discussion. The lay delegates subsequently declared they 

 would not proceed without a court of adjuncts to determine what 

 heresy was. One of the delegates (a judge) affirmed that he would not 

 take heresy on his shoulders nor on his conscience, aud another kept 

 whispering Winston's counsel (Sir Peter King, afterwards lord chan- 

 cellor) to move for a prohibition. Finally, in the court of adjuncts, 

 the chief justice declared he would not be a judge of heresy ; and so 

 proceedings were delayed till 1715, when all heresy was pardoned by 

 an act of grace ; and neither excommunication nor degradation ever 

 followed. Whiston declares that he never lost more than two or 

 three hours' sleep during the whole five years ; he handed about his 

 ' Proposals for finding out the Longitude at Sea by Signals ' at the 

 door of the court, and on one occasion presented each of his judges 

 with a sheet, wet from the press, which they supposed was a petition, 

 but which on being opened displayed the following title : ' The Cause 

 of the Deluge demonstrated.' During the remainder of his life 

 Whiston had no serious annoyance for his opinions. He was preached 

 against and refused the communion by the clergy, foremost among 

 whom was the famous Dr. Sacheverel, but he was never averse from 

 controversy, and would have been anything but pleased if he had not 

 excited attention. He was also refused admission into the lloyal 

 Society. According to his account, Sloane and Halley one day asked 

 him (in 1720) why he was not a Fellow : he replied, that they durst 

 not choose a heretic ; upon which Halley proposed Whiston, and 

 Sloane seconded him. When Newton heard this, he said that if 

 Whiston was chosen a member, he would not be president. The 

 reason of this could not have been disapprobation of Whiston's 

 opinions, for even supposing that Newton was not himself an Arian 

 (which is a disputed point), his most particular friend Dr. Clarke was 

 one, and we can hardly suppose that he would not endure in a Fellow 

 of the Society the opinions of his own moat intimate associate. 

 Whiston states what he considers to be the reason as follows : " Now if 

 the reader desires to know the reason of Sir Isaac Newton's unwilling- 

 ness to have me a member, he must take notice that as his making me 

 first his deputy, and giving me the full profits of the place, brought 

 me to be a candidate ; [and] as his recommendation of me to the heads 

 of colleges in Cambridge made me hia successor ; so did I enjoy a 

 large portion of his favour for twenty years together. But he then 

 perceiving that I could not do as his other darling friends did, that is, 

 learn of him without contradicting him when I differed in opinion 

 from him, he could not, in his old age, bear such contradiction, and so 

 he was afraid of me the last thirteen years of his life." Whiston was 

 a singularly vain man, but no one can read his writings without seeing 

 a good portion of shrewdness mixed up with his vanity. Some of his 

 retorts deserve to be celebrated in the history of such things. Talking 

 with Chief Justice King, he Bays, " We fell in debate about signing 

 articles which we did not believe, for preferment, which he openly 

 justified, and pleaded for it, saying, ' We must not lose our usefulness 

 for scruples.' I replied, that I was sorry to hear his lordship say so ; 

 and desired to know whether in their courts they allowed of such pre- 

 varication or not. He answered, they did not allow of it. Which 

 produced this rejoinder from me : ' Suppose God Almighty should be 



