Bennet, Benjamin

, a dissenting minister of considerable note in the beginning of the last century, was born at Temple-hall, in the hamlet of Whellesburgh in Leicestershire, in 1674; and educated, it is believed, at the neighbouring free-school of Market Bosworth. After going through a course of theological studies, he was first settled as a preacher at a meeting-house, erected in 1710, on Temple Farm, the place of his nativity, from which he was called to succeed Dr. Gilpin at Newcastle upon Tyne, where he continued until his death, Sept. 1, 1726, exercising his ministerial functions with success and popularity, and acquiring a high character among hi* brethren for his talents and piety. He wrote several books, 1. “A memorial of the Reformation,1721, 8vo, an historical sketch of that event, full of prejudice against the church of England. 2. “A Defence” of the same, 1723, 8vo. 3. “Discourses on Popery,1714, 8vo. 4. “Irenicum, or a review of some late controversies about the Trinity, &c.1722, 8vo. Of this work one of his biographers says, that, “like many other good men, he was not aware of the pernicious effects of Arianism, and entertained a more favourable idea of the sentiments of some of the dissenting ministers than they deserved. The general principles of the book are good, but not suitably applied.” 5. “Sermons on the Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures.” But his most popular work, and which has gone through many editions, is his “Christian Oratory,” which the biographer just quoted calls the “Dissenters’ Whole Duty of Man.Job Orton, a very emiitent divine among the dissenters, appears by one of his letters, to have read this book at least ten times. 2

2

Nichols’s Leicestershire.—Prot. Dissenter’s Mag. vol. V.—Bogue and Bennet’s Hist. of Dissenters, vol. III.—Orton’s Letters to Stedman, vol. I. p. 41.