Thomas Bennet (clergyman)

Thomas Bennet (1673–1728) was an English clergyman, known for controversial and polemical writings, and as a Hebraist.

Life

He was born at Salisbury, England, on 7 May 1673. and was educated at the free school there. He entered St John's College, Cambridge, in 1688, before he was fifteen, took the degrees of B.A. and M.A. (1694), and was chosen Fellow of his college.^[1] In 1700, by chance, he went to Colchester on the death of a clergyman friend there, John Rayne,^[2] and was called on to preach the funeral sermon; and was appointed to succeed him. He was instituted 15 January 1701.^[3]

He left Colchester at the end of the decade, and became deputy chaplain to Chelsea Hospital. He preached a funeral sermon at St Olave's Church, Southwark, and was chosen lecturer there. He was appointed morning preacher at St Lawrence Jewry under John Mapletoft, and was also presented by the dean and chapter of St Paul's Cathedral to St Giles Cripplegate. The presentation, however, involved him in disputes over a tithe on peas and beans.^[3]

In 1711, he was created D.D. In 1717 he married Elizabeth Hunt of Salisbury, and by her had three daughters. He died on 9 October 1728. Thomas Emlyn praised him for his "small respect to decrees of councils or mere church authority".^[3]

Works

In 1695, Hebrew verses by Bennet on the death of Queen Mary were printed in the university collection. His first major publication was An Answer to the Dissenters Plea for Separation, or an Abridgment of the London Cases (1699, 5th edition 1711).^[3]

In 1701 appeared A Confutation of Popery in three parts. In 1702 he followed up his Answer by A Discourse of Schism.^[4] Timothy Shepherd of Braintree answered this work, and Bennet replied in 1703.^[5] Bennet found another antagonist in a fellow clergyman in A Justification of the Dissenters against Mr. Bennet's charge of damnable Schism, &c. … By a Divine of the Church of England by Law established, 1705.^[3]

Bennet's next book was Devotions, viz. Confessions, Petitions, Intercessions, and Thanksgivings, for every day in the week, and also before, at, and after the Sacrament, with Occasional Prayers for all Persons whatsoever. In 1705 Bennet also published A Confutation of Quakerism.^[6] B. Lindley answered this in 1710.^[3]

In 1708, perhaps stung by passing gibes at his own printed prayers, Bennet published A brief History of joint Use of precomposed set Forms of Prayer, and A Discourse of Joint Prayer, and later in the same year A Paraphrase with Annotations upon the Book of Common Prayer, wherein the text is explained, objections are answered, and advice is humbly offered, both to the clergy and the laity, for promoting true devotion to the use of it. In 1710 these works were tacitly vindicated by Bennet in A Letter to Mr. B. Robinson, occasioned by his Review of the Case of Liturgies and their Imposition, and in a Second Letter to Mr. Robinson on the same subject (also 1710). In 1711 he published The Rights of the Clergy of the Christian Church.^[3][7]

In 1714, Bennet published Directions for Studying. In 1715 appeared his Essay on the XXXIX Articles.^[8] In 1716, he assailed the extruded churchmen of the nonjuring schism in The Nonjurors Separation from the Public Assemblies of the Church of England examined and proved to be schismatical upon their own Principles. In 1718, he published A Discourse of the ever-blessed Trinity in Unity, with an Examination of Dr Clarke's Scriptural Doctrine of the Trinity. Like all his books, these were answered. His idea of the Trinity was Sabellian. In 1726, he gave to the world a small Hebrew Grammar.^[3]

References

1. "Bennett, Thomas (BNT689T)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
2. Gibson, William. "Bennet, Thomas". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/2114. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
3.  Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1885). "Bennet, Thomas (1673-1728)". Dictionary of National Biography. 4. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
4. A Discourse of Schism, shewing, 1. What is meant by Schism. 2. That Schism is a damnable Sin. 3. That there is a Schism between the Established church and the Dissenters. 4. That this Schism is to be charged on the Dissenters' Side. 5. The modern Pretences of Toleration, Agreement in Fundamentals, &c., will not excuse the Dissenters from being guilty of Schism. Written by way of Letter to three Dissenting Ministers in Essex. … To which is annexed an Answer to a Book entitled "Thomas against Bennet, or the Protestant Dissenters vindicated from the charge of Schism."
5. A Defence of the Discourse of Schism; in answer to the objections which Mr. Shepherd has made in his Three Sermons of Separation, and again in An Answer to Mr. Shepherd's Considerations on the Defence of the Discourse of Schism (both 1703).
6. A Confutation of Quakerism, or a plain Proof of the Falsehood of what the principal Quakers (especially Mr. R. Barclay in his ‘Apology’ and other works) do teach concerning the Necessity of immediate Revelation in order to a saving Christian Faith.
7. The Rights of the Clergy of the Christian Church; or a Discourse shewing that God has given and appropriated to the clergy authority to ordain, baptize, preach, preside in church-prayer, and consecrate the Lord's Supper. Wherein also the pretended divine right of the laity to elect either the person to be ordained or their own particular pastors is examined and disproved.
8. Essay on the XXXIX Articles agreed on in 1562, and revised in 1571, … and a Prefatory Epistle to Anthony Collins, Esq., wherein the egregious falsehoods and calumnies of the author of “Priestcraft in Perfection” are exposed.

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1885). "Bennet, Thomas (1673-1728)". Dictionary of National Biography. 4. London: Smith, Elder & Co.