WOOLSTON, THOMAS, a heterodox divine of the English church, equally remarkable for ingenuity and learning, and for the singularity of his opinions, was born at North ampton in 1669. He was educated at Sidney Sussex college, Cambridge; was elected a fellow of his college; entered into holy orders,. and in due course proceeded to the degree of bachelor of divinity. Gifted with a lively fancy, he became a diligent and appreci ative student of the works of Origen, and by them seems to have been first imbued with a taste for the allegorical interpretation of the Scriptures. That he was disposed to carry this principle of interpretation much too far for his contemporaries, appeared at once from his first work, published in 1705. This was, The Old Apology for the Truth of the Christian Religion against the Jews and Gentiles revived. In this work, Woolston maintained that Moses was only an allegorical person, and all his history typical of that of Christ; that the miracles of the Pentateuch were allegorical, and the, miracles at tributed to Christ and the apostles pure allegory too; and lie stigmatized as atheists and apostates all who received the Scripture narratives as literally, historically true. In subsequent publications he went further in the same direction; also maintaining that the Quakers approached more nearly in doctrine and organization to the primitive church than any other religious body; and denouncing clergymen, because they made a profession of the pastorate, as "hireling priests," worshipers of the beast, and ministers of Antichrist. In 1721 be published The _Moderator between the Infidel and the Apostate, dialogues tending to show that the gospel miracles, by themselves, could not prove Christ to be the Messiah. This work occasioned great scandal: it abounded in expres sions considered indecent and blasphemous; and it was only through the intervention of Whiston, who was friendly to him, and in favor of toleration in matters of opinion, that tho author escaped a prosecution. Up to 1720 Woolston had continued to live in his college, leading a studious and blameless life, and showing great kindness to the poor. "In 1720 he went to live in London; and in 1721 his college, upon some pretext— really on account of the scandal made by his writings—deprived him of his fellowship. The views set forth in the last-mentioned work. Woolston developed more fully in a
series of six discourses during the years 1727, 1728, 1729, republished under the title Discourses on the Miracles of Christ. He maintained—representing himself, as in all his works, as the defender of true Christian doctrine—that Christ's miracles, in themselves, were open to the gravest doubts; that, in fact, the gospel narratives, if they were to be 'taken literally, were only fitsne of absurdities;- and that the authority of the ancient church was against the literal, and in favor of an allegorical acceptation of them. hese views were supported with a good deal of warmth, and mixed up with them were fierce dua enciations of the order of clergy. The freethinkers, both in and on the cntifient, were now triumphantly quoting Woolstou in their favor; and people who bad previously been disposed to treat him as a maniac, whose rhapsodies were too wild for refutation, began to think it time to rescue the Christian faith from so dan gerous and dubious a defender. No less than sixty answers were made to the Discourses. :Now, •oo—AV histon no longer intervening—an indictment, at thi instance of the attor i!e.y-general, was brought against Woolston, on account of the blasphemous and irre ligious character attributed to his works. He was tried before chief-justice Raymond at Guildhall, found guilty, and sentenced to be imprisoned for a year, and to pay a fine of £100, and ordered to find securities to the amount of £2,000 that he would not repeat las.offense. He was imprisoned in the queen's bench prison; and being unable to pay the flue, and both unable and unwilling to provide the requisite securities, the remainder of his life was spent within the rules of the prison. It was not long protracted. lie died on Jan. fn. 1731. His death-bed scene has often been described as if it supported :the supposition 4,11211 Woolstou was insane, but surely without good reason. It is stated rthat as he felt death approaching heelosed his eyes with his own tinv,ers, saying to the turnkey who attended him, that be desired to die decently; and lits last words were: " This is a struggle which all men must go through, and which I bear not only patiently but willingly." His body was interred in the church-yard of St. George's, Southwark,