MIDDLETON
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MroDLETON
endeavored chiefly to show tliat Middletoii's scheme was inseparably connected with tlie fall of Christianity, while the latter labored to sui)|)ort the autliority of the fathers. These attacks Middhton repelled by ^ome Re- marks on Two I'aniphlcts (by l)rs. SiMinij and Chap- man') published offuinst the /iilrududion. " The dis- course," remarks Mr. Orme (Bibl. Bib. s. v.), referring to the whole controversy, '• is worthy of attention, for, though the combatants on both sides carried matters too far, considerable information may be collected from them— on the character and testimony of the fathers, the nature of miracles, and on other points closely con- nected with the Christian revelation." The controversy began to gro^v verj' hot. Besides Stebbing and Chap- man, Parker, Brook. .Johnson, Dodwell, Church, and oth- ers attacked him, while he was defended by Yates, Jen- kins, Toll, etc, A full list of the principal publications on the subject are enumerated by Kippis in a note to the Gth part of Doddridge's Coitrse of Lectures (see also Orme's JJibl. Rib. ; Strong's Cat. of Enf/l. Theol. 1830, No. 9441 s(i. ; Lord Brougham, ,!/(»« of Letters of the Times of Ceiinje I J I, p. .384). It was declared by Middleton's oppimeiits that the tendency of his inquiry was to de- stroy the evidence of miraculous inteqwsitions; butJMid- dleton explicitly disavowed such intentions, and should have the bcnetit of the doubt. This much, however, must be admitted, that he seems never to have been so much i)leased as when, by broaching some startling point of disputation, he succeeded in horrifying the minds of his orthodox brethren. Accordingly, before the theo- logical world had recovered from the surprise and in- dignation into Avhich they had been thrown by the F7-ee Inquiri/, its fearless author jiut forth upon the world an attack upon bishop Sherlock, entitled ^Ira 7ia-a»n'Hcr^2o« of the Lord Biiiliop of London^s Discourses concerninr/ the Use and Intent of Prophecy ; with some cursory A nimad- versions on his late Appendix, or additional Dis»e rial ii in . containing a further Inquiry into the Mosaic A rcmui/ vj' the Fall (1750), In this work he attempted to rcluic Sherlock's (q, v,) theory of a chain of prophecy running through the different portions of the Olil Testament, He was refuted by Dr, Uutherforth, divinity professor at Cambridge : but Middleton, whose end seems to have been answered, which was to abuse the bishoj) a little, jnirsued tlie argument no further. The obstinate contro- versialist died with the armor on his back and the lance in his hands. He was meditating a general answer to all the objections made against the Free Inquiry; but, being seized with illness, and imagining he might not be able to go through it, he singled out Church and Dodwell, as the two most considerable of his adversa- ries, and employed himself in preparing a particular an- swer to them. This, however, he did not live to finish, but died .luly 28, 1750, at Ilildersham, in Cambridge- shire, A little before his death, he thought it prudent to accept a small living from Sir John Frederick. A few months after his death was published his Vindica- tion of the Free Inquiry into the Miracidous I'oivers, etc., from the Objections of Dr. Dodwell and Dr. Chuixh. The ))iece is unfinished, but very able as far as it goes. In 1752 all the before-mentioned works, except The Life of Cicero, were collected and ])rinted in four volumes, •Ito. under the title of Miscellaneous Works; among whiih were inserted the following jiieces, never before pulilished. viz., .1 I'nfice to an intended Answer to all the Oliji (linns made ayainst the Free Inquiry; — Some cursory lit jbrlinns on the Dispute, or Dissension, which happened at A ntioch, bet ween the Apostles I'eter and Paul ; — He flections on the Variations, or Inconsistencies, which are found amony the Four Evunyelists in their dij'i nut Accounts of the same Facts; — An Fssay on the (iift of Tonyues. tendiny to explain the proper Notion and Xat- vre of it, as it is described and delivered to us in the sa- cred Scriptures, and as it appears also to hare been under- stood by the learned both (f ancient and modern times; — Some short liemarhs on a Sto7-y told by the A ncients con- cerniny St. John the Evangelist and Cerinthus the Here-
tic; and on the Use which is inade of it by the Modems, to enforce the Duty of shunning Heretics ;— An Essay on the allegorical and literal Interpretation of the Creation and Full of Man; — LJe Latinarum literarum pronunci- atione dissertatio ; — Some Letters of Dr. Middleton to his Friends. A second edition of these Miscellaneous Works was published in five volumes, 8vo, in 1755. '■ Dr. Mid- dleton," says Parr, in his preface Bellendenus, '• was a man of no common attainments; his learning was ele- gant and profound, his judgment was acute and polished, his taste was fine and correct ; his style was so pure and harmonious, so vigorously flowing without being in- flated, that, Addison alone excepted, he seems to me without a rival." See I^eckey, Hist, of Rationalism (see Index in vol. ii) ; Jortin, Eccles. Renunks, i, 298 ; Dis- raeli, Miscell. of Literature, Quarrels of A uthors, \i. 313 ; Nichols, Lit.Anec, p. 414 sq. ; Knox, Essays, ii, 5G; N. A mer. Review, xxxv, 440; Chancellor Kani, Course of Engl. Reading ; ISIacaulay, Crit. and Hist. Essays, ii, 1 32 ; Orme, Bibl. Bib. s, v, ; Biogr. Brit, s, v, ; Chalmers's Biogr. Diet, s, V, ; General Biogr. Diet. s. v, ; Enyli.th Cyclop, s. V, ; Hook, Eccles. Biogr. s, v, ; Darling, Cyclop. Bibl. i, 2057 ; Allibone, Diet, of Brit, ami A mer. A uthors, ii, 1273 sq, ; Blackwood's Magazine, xiv, 257 ; xv, 461 ; xxviii, 440 sq,; xxxii,C07; 'QickcTsiQ\.\\,Christ. Student, p, 298.