Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 61.djvu/35

 the university marshal in the schools quadrangle. Seth Ward extorted from Whitby a retractation (9 Oct. 1683) in which he accused himself of 'want of prudence and deference to authority,' revoked 'all irreverent and unmeet expressions,' and renounced the above proposition and another similar one. He further issued a 'second part' of the 'Protestant Reconciler,' urging dissenters to conformity.

In 1684 he published in Latin a compendium of ethics. In 1689 he wrote in favour of taking the oaths to William and Mary. He took a small part in the Socinian controversy [see ] by publishing (1691) a Latin tract on the divinity of Christ. On 14 April 1696 he received the prebend of Taunton Regis. His magnum opus, which has retained a certain reputation to the present century, is a 'Paraphrase and Commentary on the New Testament,' begun in 1688 and published in 1703, fol. 2 vols.; latest edition, 1822, 4to. Doddridge (Works, 1804, v. 472) thought it, with all deductions, 'preferable to any other.' In his commentary he opposes Tillotson's view of hell torments. Faith he defined as mere assent to Gospel facts as true. A Latin appendix (1710) is an unwise attack on the critical labours of [q. v.] Of this 'Examen' use was made by [q. v.]; it was reprinted (Leyden, 1724) by Sigebert Haverkamp. A later Latin dissertation (1714) rejects the authority of the fathers as interpreters of Scripture, or as entitled to determine controversies respecting the Trinity. He had been led to this position by his antagonism (1707) to the arguments on which the elder [q. v.] based his rejection of the natural immortality of the soul. He made further use of it in criticisms directed (1718) against [q. v.] and (1720-1) [q. v.] His knowledge of the fathers was accurate, but not profound.

Meanwhile his busy pen was engaged (1710-11) in refuting the Calvinistic positions of (1637-1716) [q.v.] He is usually ranked as an Arminian, but his strenuous denial of the imputation of Adam's sin soon carried him beyond Arminian lines. In the Bangorian controversy he wrote (1714 and 1718) in defence of Hoadly. On the doctrine of our Lord's deity, which he had defended in 1691 and had firmly upheld throughout his New Testament commentary (1703), he was shaken by the treatise (1712) of (1675-1729) [q. v.] Of this there are marked evidences in his criticisms of Bull and Waterland, but the extent of his departure from 'the received opinion' was not revealed till the posthumous publication ('by his express order') in April 1727 of his 'Last Thoughts,' which he calls his 'retractation,' and which 'clearly shows his unitarianism' (letter of 17 July 1727 by Samuel Crellius, in 'Thesaurus Epistolicus La-Crozianus,' quoted in Anti-trinitarian Biography, 1850, iii. 471).

Whitby suffered in his later years from failing sight, and employed an amanuensis, otherwise he retained his faculties, including a tenacious memory, to a very advanced age. He was 'very well, and at church [according to Noble he had preached extempore] the day before he died; and returning home was seized with a fainting, and died the night following'. He died on 24 March 1725-6, his eighty-eighth birthday. His portrait, painted by E. Knight, was engraved (1709) by Van der Gucht. He was short and very thin; always studious, using no recreation except tobacco, affable in disposition, but utterly ignorant of business matters. To his piety and unselfishness there is full testimony.

Sykes gives a list of thirty-nine publications by Whitby, not counting several separate sermons. The chief are:

I. (against Romanism):
 * 1) 'Romish Doctrines not from the Beginning,' 1664, 4to.
 * 2) 'An Answer to "Sure Footing,"' Oxford, 1666, 8vo (with appended 'Answer to Five Questions').
 * 3) 'A Discourse concerning the Idolatry of &hellip; Rome,' 1674, 8vo.
 * 4) 'The &hellip; Idolatry of Host-Worship,' 1679, 8vo.
 * 5) 'A Discourse concerning &hellip; Laws &hellip; against Heretics &hellip; approved by &hellip; Rome,' 1682, 4to.
 * 6) 'Treatise in confutation of the Latin Service,' 1687, 4to.
 * 7) 'The Fallibility of the Roman Church,' 1687, 4to.
 * 8) 'A Demonstration that &hellip; Rome and her Councils have erred,' 1688,4to.
 * 9) 'Treatise of Traditions,' pt. i. 1688, 4to; pt. ii. 1689, 4to.
 * 10) 'Irrisio Dei Pannarii Romanensium,' 1716, 8vo (in English).

II. (on the evidences):  'Λόγος τῆς πίστεως &hellip; the Certainty of Christian Faith,' Oxford, 1671, 8vo.  'Discourse concerning the Truth &hellip; of the Christian Faith,' 1691, 4to.  'The Necessity &hellip; of &hellip; Revelation,' 1705, 8vo.  'Ἡ λογικὴ λατρεία &hellip; Reason is to be our guide in &hellip; Religion,' 1714, 8vo.

III. (against Calvinism):  'A Discourse concerning &hellip; Election and Reprobation,' 1710, 8vo.  'Four Discourses &hellip; Personal Election or Reprobation,' 1710, 8vo (includes replies to Edwards).  'Tractatus de Imputatione &hellip; Peccati Adami posteris ejus, 1711, 8vo.

IV. (on the fathers):  'Reflections on 