W H I 



He left behind him by lady Elizabeth, his mourning- 

 widow, two fons and two daughters. 



The following memorandum of Mr. Whitbread's fudden 

 death was written immediately after the lamentable event 

 was afcertained, in the title-page of a very ancient edition 

 of Cicero's " Paradoxa," by a friend who highly refpeft- 

 ed the ftern virtues both of his public and his pnvate 

 charadler : — 



Samuel Whitbread, armiger ; 



Vir illuftris ifte, quern omnes liberales brevi in tempore 



appellabunt 



Anglicum Catonem, 



E terra fuit ereptus die fexto Julii, anno'Chrifti 1815. 



Ann. Biog. and Obit, for i8i7- 



WHITBURN, in G--^graphy, a townlhip of England, 

 in the county of Parham ; 4 miles N.'of Sunderland. 



WHITBV, Daniel, a learned divine of the church 

 of Eno-land, was born at Rufhden, in Northampton (Iiire, 

 in 1638, and admitted to Trinity college, Oxford, in 

 1653, where he took the degree of M.A. in 1660, and 

 became fellow of his college in 1664, in which year he firll 

 appeared as a writer againlt popery. In 1668 he was 

 appointed chaplain to Dr. Seth Ward, bilhop of Salif- 

 bury, and collated to a prebend in his church. In 

 1672 he took the degree of D.D., and about this time 

 was made reftor of St. Edmund's parilh in Saliftury. 

 From this time he became a confiderable writer in the 

 popifh controverfy, publilhing " A Difcourfe concerning 

 the Idolatry of the Church of Rome," 1674; "The 

 Abfurdity and Idolatry of Holl-Worfhip proved," 1679 ; 

 " The Fallibility of the Roman Church demonftrated," 

 1687 ; and " A Treatife of Traditions," in two parts, 

 1689. He alfo exprefled, in common with feveral other 

 liberal perfons at this period, his wifhes for an union of all 

 Proteltants, in a piece publifhed in 1683, and intitled 

 " The Protellant Reconciler ; humbly pleading for Con- 

 defcenfion to Diflenting Brethren in Things indifferent and 

 unneceffary, for the Sake of Peace, &c." This publica- 

 tion was too liberal for the times, and called forth a hoft of 

 adverfaries. But the moft formidable attack was that of 

 the famous Oxford decree, which paffed a cenfure on the 

 following propofitions contained in it ; in%. " It is not 

 lawful for fuperiors to impofe any thing in the worfhip of 

 God that is not antecedently neceflary :" — " The duty of 

 not offending a weak brother is inconfiftent with all himiaii 

 authority of making laws concerning indifferent things ;" 

 which propofitions were denominated in the decree falfe, 

 impious and feditious doftrines ; and the book was burnt 

 in the quadrangle of the univerfity fchools. But it was 

 ftill more humiliating to the author to be required by his 

 patron, the bifhop, to declare his forrow for having written 

 the work, and to renounce by name the two preceding pro- 

 pofitions. This conduft was very unworthy of a Chriftian 

 bifhop, and fixes a permanent fligma on the memory of 

 Ward. It reminds us of the Inquifition and Galileo. (See 

 Galileo.) Dr. Whitby, aftuated probably by a defire to 

 conciliate his adverfaries, or urged to adopt this meafure, 

 publifhed in the fame year a fecond part of the book, in 

 which he ftrongly prefles the diffenting laity to join in full 

 communion with the eflablifhed church, and replies to all 

 the objetlions of the Non-confonmifls againft the lawfulnefs 

 of their complying with its rites and ceremonies. 



No man could more fincerely rejoice in the Revolution 

 than Whitby, nor more cordially welcome the emancipation 



W H I 



of Britifh fubjefts from all kinds of tyranny. Accordingly 

 he pubhflied two trafts in favour of the oath of allegiance 

 required on the accelTion of king William ; and in one of 

 thefe trafts he maintains the principle in the Englifh govern- 

 ment of an original contract between the prince and the 

 people. 



His capital work, however, was the refult of fifteen years' 

 ftudy, and is intitled " A Paraphrafe and Commentary on 

 the New Teflament," 2 vols. fol. printed in 1703, feveral 

 times rfprnited, and held in high eflimation by bibhcal 

 itudents. To the edition of 1710 he annexed a Latin 

 appendix, containing an examination of Dr. Mill's various 

 readings, under an apprehenfion that they might prove in- 

 jurious to the authority of Scripture. This great work of 

 Dr. Whitby was followed by feveral trafts on theological 

 fubjefts, in which he feems to value himfelf on that freedom 

 of difcuffion which, with new times, he was allowed to in- 

 dulge, more efpecially as he occafionally ftrays beyond the 

 fixed boundaries of what has been called orthodoxy. 

 Among thefe trafts were, " The NecefTity and Ufefulnefs 

 of the Chriftian Revelation ;" " A Difcourfe concerning 

 the true Import of the Words Eleftion and Reprobation ;" 

 " The Extent of Chrift's Redemption ;" " The Grace of 

 God ;" " The Liberty of the Will ;" " The Perfeverance 

 or Defeftibility of the Saints ;" " Four Difcourfes on 

 Eleftion and Reprobation ;" " A Treatife on Original 

 Sill," in Latin, in which he denies that the imputation of 

 Adam's fin to his polterity has any fair ground in Scripture. 

 Upon the publication of Dr. Clarke's " Scripture Doc- 

 trine of the Trinity," Dr. Whitby adopted his opinion, and 

 wrote a Latin treatife, intended to prove that the contro- 

 verfies refpefting the Trinity could not with certainty be 

 determined from fathers, councils, or Catholic tradition. 

 In conneftion with this fubjeft of controverfy, he pubhfhed 

 " A DifFuafive from Inquiry into the Doftrine of the 

 Trinity ; or, the Difficulties and Difcouragements which 

 attend the Study of that Doftrine." In the Bangorian 

 controverfy, he was one of the auxiliaries of Dr. Hoadly, 

 and printed feveral trafts. He alfo pubhfhed feveral fer- 

 mons. But his lafl work, which did not appear till after 

 his death, was " The laft Thoughts of Dr. Whitby, con- 

 taining his Correftions of feveral Paffages in his Commen- 

 tary on the New Teflament ; to which are added Five 

 Difcourfes ; publifhed by his exprefs Order." In the pre- 

 face to this work, written at the clofe of a long life of 

 learned and laborious inquiry, the author fays, " when 

 he wrote his Commentaries, he went on too haftily in the 

 common beaten road of other reputed orthodox divines ; 

 conceiving firft, that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, in 

 one complex notion, were one and the fa.me God, by virtue 

 of the fame individual effence communicated from the Father ; 

 which confufed notion (he adds) he is now fully convinced 

 to be a thing impofTible, and full of grofs abfurdities." A 

 fhort illnefs clofed the hfe of this eminent bibhcal fcholar, 

 on March 24, 1725-6, at the age of 88. He is reprefented 

 by a biographer as a man of great fimplicity of charafter, 

 Angularly ignorant of worldly affairs, entirely devoted to his 

 ftudies, but affable, pious, and charitable. He preferved a 

 tenacious memory to the lafl, but through a defeft of fight 

 was obliged to employ an amanuenfis. Biog. Brit. 



Whitbv, in Geography, is a confiderable fea-port town 

 of the North-Riding of Yorkfhire, England, fituated be- 

 tween Flamborough-head and the entrance of the river 

 Tees. Confidering the ruins of the ancient abbey as the 

 principal objeft of the town, the latitude of Whitby is 54° 

 29' 24" N., and the longitude 0° 35' 59" W. from the 

 meridian of Greenwich. It is 47 miles N.E. of York, and 



246 



