PYLE, THOMAS, born at Stodey in Norfolk in 1674, was ordained in 1698 to a curacy at King's Lynn, where he became greatly distinguished as a preacher, and was appointed lecturer at the chapel of St. Nicholas. He published, before 1718, six sermons in defence of the succession of the House of Brunswick. He afterwards distinguished him self in the famous Bangorian controversy, wh:ch arose out of a sermon preached by Hoadley, bishop of Bangor, before George I., on the text, ' My kingdom is not of this world,' to prove that the clergy ought to have no temporal jurisdiction. He sided with the bishop, who rewarded him with the gift of a canonry in Salisbury cathedral, when he was himself translated to that see. His views of Christian doctrine, like those of Hoadley, were strongly tainted with Socinianism—so much so, as to be a bar to that advancement in the church which his talents and political principles might otherwise have gained for him. His Biblical works
were—I. A Paraphrase, with Notes on the Acts of the Apostles and Epistles, London 1737 and 1765, 2 vols. 8vo. This is a supplement to Dr. Samuel Clarke's Paraphrase on the Four Gospels. 2. The Scripture Preservative against Popery ; being a Paraphrase with Notes on the Revelation of St. ,john, 1735, 1795, 8vo. 3. A Paraphrase, with Short and Useful Notes on the Books of the Old Testament, published from time to time between 1715 and 1725, and united under one title in an edition of 1738, 4 vols. 8vo. Father Chais has made use of this work in the Bible, with a com mentary drawn from several English authors, which he published at the Hague, in S vols., from 1763 to 179o.—M. H.