JOB

See also:

• JOB ORTON (1717–1783)

ORTON (1717–1783)  , English dissenting minister, was born at Shrewsbury on the 4th of September 1717 . He entered the academy of Dr Philip Doddridge at Northampton (q.v.), became minister of a congregation formed by a fusion of Presbyterians and Independents at High Street Chapel, Shrewsbury (1741), received Presbyterian ordination there (1745), resigned in 1766 owing to ill-health, and lived in retirement at Kidderminster until his death . He exerted great influence both among dissenting ministers and among clergy of the established church . He was deeply read in Puritan divinity, and adopted Sabellian doctrines on the Trinity . Old-fashioned in most of his views, he disliked the tendencies alike of the Methodists and other revivalists and of the rationalizing dissenters, yet he had a good word for Priestley and Theophilus Lindsey . Among his numerous works are Letters to Dissenting Ministers (ed. by S . Palmer, 2 vols., 18o6), and Practical Works (2 vols., with letters and memoir, 1842) .