Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

JOHN BALGUY (1686-1748)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 256 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

JOHN See also:BALGUY (1686-1748)  , See also:English divine and philosopher, was See also:born at See also:Sheffield on the 12th of See also:August 1686 . He was educated at the Sheffield See also:grammar school and at St See also:John's See also:College, See also:Cambridge, graduated B.A. in 1706, was ordained in 1710, and in 1711 obtained the small living of Lamesley and Tanfield in See also:Durham . He married in 1715 . It was the See also:year in which See also:Bishop Hoadley preached the famous See also:sermon on " The See also:Kingdom of See also:Christ," which gave rise to the " Bangorian controversy "; and See also:Balguy, under the nom de plume of Silvius, began his career of authorship by taking the See also:side of Hoadley in this controversy against some of his High See also:Church opponents. s Cal. of See also:State Pap . (See also:Foreign), 1579-1580, p . 294 . 3 The See also:title was attainted in 1716, through the 5th See also:baron's complicity in the Jacobite rising of 1715 . In 1869 it was restored to See also:Alexander See also:Hugh See also:Bruce (b . 1849), as 6th baron; he became one of the most influential of contemporary Scottish noblemen, on the Conservative side in politics, and was secretary for See also:Scotland from 1895 to 1903 . In 1726 he published A See also:letter to a Deist concerning the Beauty and See also:Excellency of Moral Virtue, and the Support and Improvement which it receives from the See also:Christian See also:Religion, chiefly designed to show that, while a love of virtue for its own See also:sake is the highest principle of morality, religious rewards and punishments are most valuable, and in some cases absolutely indispensable, as sanctions of conduct . In 1727 he was made a See also:prebendary of See also:Salisbury by his friend Hoadley . He published in the same year the first See also:part of a tractate entitled The See also:Foundation of Moral Goodness, and in the following year a second part, Illustrating and enforcing the Principles contained in the former .

The aim of the See also:

work is two-See also:fold—to refute the theory of See also:Hutcheson regarding the basis of rectitude, and to establish the theory of See also:Cudworth and See also:Clarke, that virtue is conformity to See also:reason—the acting according to fitnesses which arise out of the eternal and immutable relations of agents to See also:objects . In 1729 he became See also:vicar of See also:Northallerton, in the See also:county of See also:York . His next work was an See also:essay on Divine Rectitude: or, a Brief Inquiry concerning the Moral Perfections of the Deity, particularly in respect of Creation and See also:Providence . It is an See also:attempt to show that the same moral principle which ought to See also:direct human See also:life may be perceived to underlie the See also:works and ways of See also:God: goodness in the Deity not being a See also:mere disposition to benevolence, but a regard to an See also:order, beauty and See also:harmony, which are not merely relative to our faculties and capacities, but real and See also:absolute; claiming for their own sakes the reverence of all intelligent beings, and alone answering to the perfection of the divine ideas . Balguy wrote several other terse and readable tracts of the same nature, which he collected and published in a single See also:volume in 1734 . In 1741 he published an Essay on Redemption, containing somewhat advanced views . Redemption as taught in Scripture means, according to him, " the deliverance or See also:release of mankind from the See also:power and See also:punishment of See also:sin, by the meritorious sufferings of Jesus Christ," but involves no See also:translation of See also:guilt, substitution of persons or vicarious punishment . Freed from these ideas, which have arisen from interpreting literally expressions which are properly figurative, the See also:doctrine, he argues, satisfies deep and urgent human wants, and is in perfect consistence and agreement with reason and rectitude . His last publication was a volume of sermons, pervaded by See also:good sense and good feeling, and clear, natural and direct in See also:style . He died at See also:Harrogate on the 21st of See also:September 1748 . A second volume of sermons appeared in 1750 (3rd ed. in 2 vols., 1760) .

End of Article: JOHN BALGUY (1686-1748)
[back]
BART SIR JAMES BALFOUR
[next]
BALI

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click and select "copy." Paste it into a website, email, or other HTML document.