Clarke Samuel

Clarke, Samuel, D.D., the son of a Norwich alderman, was born in 1675, and took his degree at Cambridge in 1691. He then became chaplain to the Bishop of Norwich (Moore), and obtained the living of Drayton. He rushed eagerly into the metaphysical and ethical controversies that passed for religion in the eighteenth century. His Boyle lectures, A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God, and The Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion, brought him into correspondence with Butler. In 1706 he was given the rectory of St. Benet's, London, and appointed chaplain-in-ordinary to Queen Anne, from whom he presently received the living of St. James's, Westminster. He published in 1712 his Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity, a work of Arian tendencies. He engaged in a dispute with Leibnitz as to the principles of religious belief, and he attacked Collins for his denial of the freedom of the will. His last undertaking was a translation of the Iliad into Latin. He died in 1729.