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to tlic remonflrances of a friend, who difTiiaded him from 

 piiblifliing; them, Icfl tli^fy might be the means of preventing 

 his further preferment, he committed them to the prefs under 

 the title of " A ferious Enquiry into the Ufe and Im.port- 

 nnce of external Religion, &c." This piece, which was 

 afterwards printed by Mr. Baron, in the 4th volume of a 

 colhftion of trafts, entitled, " The Pillars of Prieftcraft, 

 and Orthodoxy (haken," a:id afcrib^d to him as its author, 

 gave great offence, particularly to archbi(hop Seeker, and 

 ])recluded all hopes of preferment in the church, if indeed 

 lie had indulged any fuch hopes, under epifcopal patronage. 

 The next fubjeft of importance, which engaged his atten- 

 tion, was the doftnne of an intermediate ftate. To this he 

 was led by an " Appendix" to Dr. Law's " Confiderations 

 on the Theory of Religion," which appeared in 1755, 

 and which inculcated the tenet of the Deep of the foul. 

 This opinion was attacked from feveral quarters, and parti- 

 cularly by Dr. Goddard, matter of Clare-hall, in a fermon 

 preached at St. Edmund's Buiy. Mr. Clackburne defended 

 his friend Dr. Law, in a publication entitled " No Proof in 

 ihe Scriptures of an intermediate ftate of happinefs or miferj-, 

 between death and the refurredtion." He alfo publifhed fe- 

 Teral other pieces on the fame topic; fuch as " Remarks on 

 Dr. Warburton's account of the fentiments of the early 

 Jews concerning the foul ;" and " A Review of fome paf- 

 fages in the laft edition of the Divine Legation of Mofes 

 dcmonftrated," which appeared in 1759, and may be confi- 

 dered as a fequel to the " Remarks." He alfo prepared a 

 reply to Dr. Morton, Mr. John Steffe, and Dr. Caleb Fle- 

 ming, who had publifhed ftriclures on Dr. Law's Appendix ; 

 and he purfued the difcufHon of the fubjeft more at large in 

 a work, firfl publiflied in 1765, and afterwards with confi- 

 derable additions in 1772, and entitled " A fhort hiftorical 

 View of the Controverfy concerning the intermediate ftate 

 between death and the refurreftion, with a prefatory dif- 

 courfe on the ufc and importance of theological controverfy." 

 In 1756, our author publifhed " Some Sentiments of a 

 country-divine concerning the Ordinance of Baptifm, &c." 

 occafioned by letters which pafled between bifhop Clayton 

 and Mr. Penn on that inftitution. Iir the correfpondence 

 between thefe writers, a difBculty occurs in the interpretation 

 of the charge given by our Lord to his apoftks. Matt. 

 xxviii. 19. Our Lord, it is faid, prcfcribes om prccife 

 form of words to be ufed in baptifm ; the apoftles appear, 

 from the Afts and Epiltles, to have ufed another ; and the 

 evangelifts Mark, Luke, and John, do not mention atiy pre- 

 c'lfe form whatever. Various hypothefes have been propofed 

 by Grotius, Limborch, Lightfoot, Whitby, Clayton, &c. 

 for reconcihng the praftice of the apoiUes with the precept 

 of Chrift. Mr. Blackburne, diffatislied with all thefe, fug- 

 gefts that the words in queftion contain no baptifmal form at 

 all ; and that we fhould rather follow the apoftolical form in 

 Afts, as being derived to us by the authority and example 

 of men, who muft be perfectly fatisfied that the foundation 

 they built upon was found and good. Accordingly, he pro- 

 pofes that we fhould read the paffage in St. Matthew thus ; 

 T\.o^i\i^i'i\ii dv ftaSiiTsutrals Travla xa sfivn [(SaTTi^ovls.: aflac) fi; to 

 cmfj-x -m m.lfo:, xxi la i/ia, xat t« ttvekjukIo,- ayio ; " Go ye there- 

 fore, and difciple all nations (baptizing them) into the name 

 of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghoft." 

 By conftruftion and parenthefis, the command to baptize 

 refers to no particular form at all, and leaves us to fuppofe, 

 what was certainly the truth of the matter, that the apoftles 

 being already well acquainted with the form ufed in the bap- 

 tifm of Jefus, it was quite fnperflucus to enjoin it here. 



In 1758, Mr. Blackburne avowed the fentiments which he 

 had for fome time entertained concerning fubfcription to the 



Vol. IV. 



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liturgy and articles of the church of England, in " Remarks 

 on the Rev. Dr. Poweiri fermon in defence of fubfcriptions, 

 &c." preached in the preceding year before the univerfityof 

 Cambridge ; to which is prefixed " An Addrefs to the 

 younger lludents in both our univerfities." The fubjcft of 

 fubfcription had indeed for foms time engaged his attention ; 

 and it was not without fcruplcs that he had quahned himfelf 

 to hold the archdeaconry and prebend in 1753; but wlien 

 he had reafon to expert further advancement in the church, 

 he refumed the coniidei-ation of the fubjetl, and tiie refult 

 was a determination never to renew his fubfcription. About 

 this time he began to make coUeftions for his famous work 

 entitled " The Confcffioua!, or a full and free Enquiry into 

 the right, utility, and fucccfs of eftablifliing Confcfiions of 

 faiih and doftrine in Protellant churches." This work, in 

 the execution of which he was much encouraged by Dr. Ed- 

 mund Law, afterwards bifliop of Carlifle, lay by him in ma- 

 nufcript for feveral years, and was at length publifhed in 

 1766, 8v5). withor-t his name. It excited, as we may natu- 

 rally imagine, very general attention both among the parti- 

 zans of reform and the advocates for exitling eftablilliments. 

 A fecond edition appeared in 1767; and the controverfy, 

 which it occafioned, lafted for fome years, and produced a 

 great number of pubhcations. The third edition, corrected 

 and much enlarged, was publifhed in 1770 ; and to this edi- 

 tion has been added from the author's manufcript, in the late 

 colleAion of his works, an appendix, containing a fhort hiflory 

 of the confeflions eftablifhed in the church of Scotland at 

 different periods. For a further account of the fubjeft of 

 this work, and of the arguments for and againft fubfcription, 

 fee Subscription. Soon after the publication of the third 

 edition of the " Confefiional," the author was induced by 

 feveral of his friends to draw up and pubhth " Propofals for 

 an application to parliament for rehef in the matter of fub- 

 fcription to the liturgy and thirty-nine articles of the efta- 

 bUfhcd church of England, humbly fubmitted to the confi- 

 deration of the learned and confcientious clergy of the faid 

 church." An affociation was formed for this purpofe, for 

 the refult of which, fee Association. 



It was natural to imagine, that the author of fuch a work 

 as the " Confeffional," written with a view of examining 

 and refuting the feveral pleas that had been urged in favour 

 of fubfcription, and which had convinced many perfons of 

 the infufBciency of thefe pleas, would have witlied to with- 

 draw himfelf from the eftablifhed church, which impofed a 

 fubfcription that appeared to him to be unjuftitiable ; and 

 accordingly, as the death of Dr. Chandler, in 1766, occa. 

 fioned a vacancy in the refpeiSable congregation of dif- 

 fenters at the Old Jewry, in London, fome individuals of 

 that fociety applied to Mr. Blackburne for information, 

 whether fuch a fituation would be agreeable to his views, 

 if it were offered to him. But, with the profpeft of a very 

 coiifiderable accefTion to his income, he declined accepting 

 the propofal, for reafons that were very fatisfaftor)- to thofe 

 who made it. The clear amount of all that he poffcffcd, as a 

 beneficed clergyman, never much exceeded the fum of 150I. 

 a-year ; whereas, if the removal that had been fuggefled to 

 him had taken place, his income would have been nearly 

 trebled. Some other circumftances alfo afterwards occurred, 

 which had a tendency to detach him from the eftablifhed 

 church. Two very refpettable clergymen, immediately con- 

 nefted with his own family, viz. the learned Mr. Theophilus 

 Lindfey, whofe excellent charafter thofe who are moft ad- 

 verfe to his theological opinions concur in applauding, and 

 his fon-iu law. Dr. Difney, no lefs efteemed by all who 

 know him, furrendered their preferments, becaufe they dif- 

 approvcd the dedrines and forms of the eftablifhed church. 

 3 X Mr. Black.. 



