640 C L A 
tlifcourfing with another; he marlhalleth his thoughts 
more orderly, he Teeth how they look when they are turned 
into words. Bacon. 
CLA'RION, f. [cllirbi, Span, from clarus, loud, '-Lat.] 
A trumpet; a wind inftrument of war: 
Let fuller notes th’ applauding world amaze, 
And the loud clarion labour in your praife. Pope. 
CLA'RISSES, an order of nuns, fo called from their 
-founder St. Clare. She lived in the town of Affifa in 
Italy ; and, having renounced the world to dedicate her- 
fell to religion, gave birth to this order, in the year 1212. 
After Ferdinand Cortez had conquered Mexico for the 
king of Spain, Ifabella of Portugal, wife of the emperor 
Charles V. font thither fome nuns of the order of St. 
Clare, who made feveral fettlements there. Near their 
monafteries were founded communities of Indian young 
women, to be inftru£led by the clarifies in religion, and 
fuch works as were fuitable to perfons of their fex. Thefe 
communities are now laid to be fo confiderable, that they 
ufually conf.lt of four or five hundred. 
CLA'RITY,/ [clarte, Fr. claritas, Lat.] Brightnefs; 
fplendour.—Man was not only deceivable in his integrity', 
but the angels of light in all their clarity. Brown. 
CLARKE (Dr. Samuel), a preacher and writer of con¬ 
fiderable eminence in the reign of Charles II. was, during 
the interregnum, and at the time of the ejection, miniller 
of St. Bennet Fink in London. In November 1660, he, 
in the name of the prelbyterian minifters, prefented an 
addrefs of thanks to the king for his declaration of liberty 
of confidence. He was one of the commifiioners of the 
Savoy ; and behaved, on that occafion, with great pru¬ 
dence and Inoderation. He fometimes attended the church 
as an hearer and communicant; and was much efteemed 
by all who knew him, for his great probity and induftry. 
The moll valuable of his numerous works are faid to be 
his Lives of the Puritan Divines, and other perfons of 
note, twenty-two of which are printed in his Martyro- 
logy; the reft are in his Lives of fundry eminent Perfons 
in this latter Age, folio; and in his Marrow of Ecclefiaf- 
tical Hiftory, in folio and quarto. He died in 1680. His 
Lon, Samuel Clarke, was afterwards made fellow of Pem- 
broke-hall in Cambridge; but was ejedted from his fel¬ 
low fli i p for refufing to take the engagements, as he was 
alfo from his redtory of Grendon in Buckinghamfhire. He 
applied himfelf early to the ftudy of the fcriptures; and 
his annotations on the Bible, printed together with the 
lacred text, are highly commended by Dr. Owen, Mr. Bax¬ 
ter, and Dr. Calamy. He died in 1701, aged 75. 
CLARKE (Dr. Samuel), a celebrated Englifh divine, 
philofopher, and metaphyfician, the fon of Edward Clarke, 
efquire, a-lderman of Norwich, and for feveral years one 
of its reprefentatives in parliament; was born there the 
nth of Odtober 1675. Pie was inftrudled in claflical learn¬ 
ing at the'free-fchool of that city; and, in 1691, removed 
thence to Caius college in Cambridge ; where his uncom¬ 
mon abilities foon began to difplay themfelves. Though 
the philolophy of Des Cartes was at that time the efta- 
blilhed philofophy of the univerfity, yet Clarke eafily maf- 
tered the new fyltem of Newton ; and, in order to his firft 
degree of arts, performed a public exercife in the fchools 
upon a queftion taken from it. He greatly contributed 
to the eftablifhment of the Newtonian philofophy by an 
excellent tranflation of Rohault’s Phyfics, with notes, 
which he finilhed before he was twenty-two years of age: 
a book which had been for fome time the fyftem ufed in 
the univerfity, and founded upon Cartefian principles. 
This was firft publifhed in 1697, and it foon after went 
through feveral other editions, all with improvements. 
Mr. Whifton relates, that, in the year 1697, while he was 
chaplain to Dr. Moore bifiiop of Norwich, he met with 
young Clarke, then wholly unknown to him, at a coffee- 
pioufe in that city ; where they entered into a converfa- 
tion about the Cartefian philofophy, particularly Rohault’s 
J’hyfics, which Clarke’s tuton, as he tells us, had put him 
C L A 
upon tranfiating. “ The refult of this'converfation was, 
fays Whifton, that I was greatly furprifed that io young a 
man as Clarke then was, (hould know lo much of thole 
fublime difccveries, which were then almoil a fecret to 
all, but to a few particular mathematicians. Nor did I 
remember (continues he) above, one or two at the molt, 
whom I had then met with, that Teemed to know fo much 
of that philofophy as Mr. Clarke.” 
He afterwards turned his thoughts to divinity; and, 
having taken holy orders, in 1698 he fucceeded Mr. 
Whifton as chaplain to Dr. Moore bifiiop of Nbrwich, 
who was ever after bis conftant’friend and patron. In 
1699 he publifhed two treatifes; the one on Baptifm, 
Confirmation, and Repentance; the other, Refledtions on 
that part of a book called Amyntor, or a Defence of Mil¬ 
ton’s Life, which relates to the writings of the primitive 
fathers, and the canon of the New Teftament. In 1701 
he publifhed a Paraphrafe upon the Gofpel of St. Mat¬ 
thew; which was followed, in 1702, by the Paraphrafes 
upon the Gofpels of St. Mark and St Luke, and foon af¬ 
ter by a third volume upon St. John. Mean while bifiiop 
Moore gave him the redtory of Drayton near Norwich, 
with a ledturelhip in that city. In 1704 he was appointed 
to preach Boyle’s ledture; and the fubjedt he chole was, 
the Being and Attributes of God. He fucceeded fo well 
in this, and gave fo much fatisfadtion, that he was ap¬ 
pointed to preach the fame ledture the next year, when 
lie chofe for his fubjedt, the Evidences of Natural and 
Revealed Religion. Thefe fermons were firft printed in 
two volumes, in 1705 and 1706 ; and contained fbme re¬ 
marks on fuch objections as had been made by Hobbes 
and Spinoza, and other oppofers of natural and revealed 
religion. In the fixth edition was added, a Difcourle 
concerning the Connection of the Prophecies of the Old 
Teftament, and the application of them to Chrift. About 
this time, Mr. Whifton informs us, he difeovered that 
Mr. Clarke (having read much of the primitive writers) 
began to fufpedt that the Athanafian dodtrine of the Tri¬ 
nity was not the dodtrine of thofe early ages; and it was 
particularly remarked of him, that lie never read the 
Athanafian Creed at his parifh church. 
In 1706 he publifhed a Letter to Mr. Dodwell, anfwer- 
ing all the arguments in his epiftolary difeourfe againft 
the immortality of the foul, Bifiiop Hoadley oblerves, 
that in this letter he anfwered Mr. Dodwell in fo excel¬ 
lent a manner, both with regard to the philofophical 
part, and to the opinions of fome of the primitive writers, 
upon whom thefe dodtrines were fixed, that it gave uni- 
verfal fatisfadtion. But this controverfy did not ftop here; 
for the celebrated Mr. Collins, coming in as a fecond to 
Dodwell, went much farther into the philofophy of the 
difpute, and, indeed, feemed to produce all that could be 
faid againft the immateriality of the foul, as well as the 
liberty of human actions. This enlarged the feene of the 
difpute; into which Clarke entered, and wrote with fuch 
a fpirit of clearnefs and demonftration, as at once fhewed 
him greatly fuperior to his adverfaries in metaphyfical 
and phyfical knowledge ; making every intelligent reader 
rejoice that fuch an incident had happened to provoke 
and extort from him fuch excellent reafoning and perfpi- 
cuity of expreffion. In the midft of thefe labours, Mr. 
Clarke found time to fliew his regard to mathematical 
and philofophical ltudies, with his exadt knowledge and 
fkill in them. And his natural aftedtion and capacity for 
thefe ltudies were not a little improved by the friendfiiip 
of fir Ifaac Newton ; at whofe requeft he tranflated his 
Optics into Latin in 1706. With this verfion fir Ifaac 
was fo highly pleafed, that he prefented him with the fum 
of 500I. or 100I. to each of his five children. The lame 
year alfo, bifiiop Moore procured for him the redtory of 
St. Bennett’s, Paul’s Wharf, in London; and foon after 
carried him to court, and recommended him to the fa¬ 
vour of queen Anne. She appointed him one of her 
chaplains in ordinary ; and alfo prefented him to the rec¬ 
tory of St. James’s, Weftmintter, when it became vacant 
