WATERLAND, DANIEL, D.E., a clergyman of the English church, prominent in the theological controversies of the first half of the 18th century. He was born on Feb. 17, 1683, at Waseley in Lincolnshire, of which parish his father was the rector. After going through the usual course of study at Magdalen college, Cambridge, he was admitted into orders; and in 1713 he became rector of Effingham on the nomination of the earl of Suffolk. It was shortly after this that lie published his first book, Advice to a Young Student, with a Method of Study for the first Four Years—an unpretentious but useful work, which soon became very popular, and brought its author into notice. King George I. appointed him one of his chaplains in 1717. About this period he began to be engaged in theological controversy, one of his earliest works being a criticism of a. book by Dr. Whitby, in which a severe attack was made upon bishop Bull's Defence of the Nicene Creed. Whitby answered him; Waterhouse rejoined; and in 1719 the latter expanded his writings upon this subject into his Defence of Christ's Divinity. This work was sharply criticised by Dr. Clarke and oilier Arians; to whom Waterland replied in a work published in 1724. Upon the same subject he in 1720, preached and published a series of sermons at the request of the bishop of London. Within a few years after this he passed through a rapid course of promotion in the church. In 1721 he was
appointed rector of the parish of St. Augustine in the city of London; in 1724 be got the chancellorship of the cathedral of York. He was appointed a canon of Windsor in 1727, and archdeacon of Middlesex in 1728. He held along with the latter appointments the valuable living of Twickenham. During these years he was indefatigable in contro versy; not only keeping up a paper war against the Arians, but entering the lists against free-thinkers, such as Middleton and Tindal, and against those of the Anglican body who did not share his doctrines upon the subject of the Trinity and the eucharist. Critical history of the Athanasian Creed (1724); A Review of the Doctrine of the Eucharist (1737); and Scripture Vindicated (1734), are considered among the most noteworthy of his productions. In 1738 were published two volumes of his sermons, edited by one of his friends—the one upon Justification, the other upon the Communion of Infants. Water land died on Dec. 23, 1740. A-complete edition of his works, accompanied by a pretty full memoir of his life from the pen of bishop Van Mildert, was published at Oxford in_ 1823, in ten vols. 8vo ; an eleventh vol. containing a general index, was added in 1828.