SHERLOCK, Thomas (1678-1761), bishop of London, the son of Dr William Sherlock, noticed below, was born at London in 1678. He was educated at Catherine Hall, Cambridge, and in 1704 succeeded his father as master of the Temple. He took a prominent part in the Bangorian controversy against Hoadly, whom he succeeded as bishop of Bangor in 1728; he was afterwards translated to Salisbury in 1734, and to London in 1738. He published against Collins’s Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion a volume of sermons entitled The Use and Intent of Prophecy in the Several Ages of the World (1725); and in reply to Woolston’s Discourses on the Miracles he wrote a volume entitled The Trial of the Witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus (1729), which in a very short time ran through fourteen editions. His Pastoral Letter (1750) on “the late earthquakes” had a circulation of many thousands, and four volumes of Sermons which he published in his later years (1754-58) were also at one time highly esteemed. He died in 1761. A collected edition of his works in 5 vols. 8 vo, by Hughes, appeared in 1830....
SHERLOCK, William (1041-1707), dean of St Paul’s, was born at Southwark in 1641, and was educated at Eton and Cambridge (Peterhouse). In 1669 he became rector of St George, Botolph Lane, London, and in 1681 he was appointed a prebendary of St Paul’s. In 1684 he published The Case of Resistance of the Supreme Powers stated and resolved according to the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures, an ably written treatise, in which he drew the distinction between active and passive obedience which was at that time generally accepted by the high church clergy; in the same year he was made master of the Temple. In 1686 he was reproved for preaching against popery and his pension stopped. After the Revolution he was suspended for refusing the oaths to William and Mary, but before his final deprivation he yielded, justifying his change of attitude in The Case of the Allegiance due to Sovereign Powers stated and resolved according to Scripture and Reason and the Principles of the Church of England (1691). During the period of his suspension he wrote a Practical Discourse concerning Death, which became very popular and has passed through many editions. In 1690 and 1693 he published volumes on the doctrine of the Trinity which involved him in a warm controversy with South and others. He became dean of St Paul’s in 1691, and died at Hampstead in 1707.
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