Joseph Glanvill

was born at a Sea-port Town in Devons. called Plymouth, became a Batler of, and entred into Commons in, Exeter Coll, 19 Apr. 1652, aged 16 years, where being put under a good Tutor (Sam. Conant M. A.) and severely disciplin’d in religion, Logick and Philosophy, makes me wonder, considering that that House was then one of the chief nurseries for youth in the University, why he should afterwards lament that his friends did not first send him to Cambridge, because, as he used to say, that new Philosophy and the art of Philosophizing were there more than here in Oxon, and that his first studies in this University did not qualifie him for the world of action and business. After he had taken the degree of Bach. of Arts, he went to Linc. Coll. in the beginning of July 1656, where taking the degree of M. of Arts in the beginning of 1658, was about that time made Chaplain to old Franc. Rous one of Olivers Lords and Provost of Eaton Coll. But he dying soon after, Glanvill return’d to Oxon, continued in Linc. Coll. for a time and became a great admirer of Mr. Rich. Baxter, and a zealous person for a Commonwealth. After his Majesties restauration, he turned about, became a Latitudinarian, a great pretender to the new Philosophy, wrot and published The vanity of Dogmatizing, to gain himself a name among the Virtuosi, was made a member of the Royal Society, entred into holy orders according to the Church of England, and, by the favour of Sir James Thynne, was presented to the Vicaridge of a Mercate Town in Somersetshire called Frome-Selwood in the beginning of Nov. 1662, in the place of John Humphrey a Non-conformist. In 1666 Jun. 23. he was inducted Rector of the great Church in Bathe dedicated to S. Pet. and S. Paul, and in July 1672 he changed Frome for the rectory of Streat with the Chappel of Walton annex’d, in Somersetshire, with Rich. Jenkins M. A. So that by vertue of the presentation to those two Churches by Tho. Thynne Esq, Jenkins was instituted to Frome and Glanvill to Streat and Walton, on one and the same day viz. 26. July 1672. About that time he was made one of the Chaplains in ordinary to K. Ch. 2. and at length by the endeavours of Henry Marquess of Worcester (to whom our authors Wife pretended some alliance) he became one of the Prebendaries of Worcester, in the place of Hen. Greisley deceased; in which dignity he was installed 22. June 1678. A certain author named Hen. Stubbe who wrot much against, and did not care for, him, saith ((a))((a)) In his Epistolary discourse concerning Phlebotomy, printed 1671. p. 14.15. that Mr. Glanvill was the most impudent Lyer in the world, that he would prove him a lyer, and so ignorant and illiterate a fellow that he was not fit to come into any learned company or to open his mouth among them. He tells ((b))((b)) Ibid. p. 22. us also that he did not understand Greek only to read it,—he could ((c))((c)) Ib. p. 25. not construe Aristotle,—he knew ((d))((d)) Ib. p. 26. not Logick either in the practice or notion,—that he ((e))((e)) Ib. p. 27. was an ignorant and inconsiderate fellow,—that as much as he pretends to have studied Aristotle and the peripatetick Philosophy, yet he did not ((f))((f)) Ib. p. 25.26. know that Aristotle held the gravity of the air, and was therefore followed by the Avicennists and Averroists, &c.—that he was against ((g))((g)) Ib. p. 16. the fertility of the way of notion and dispute; concerning which he affirmed that it produced no practical useful knowledg. He charged ((h))((h)) Ib. p. 6.7. him with impiety and indiscretion, with decrying the learning of the Lord Bacon, yet to excuse his errour and insolence, he made use of his great name, and thought it a sufficient apology that he could shew that the subject of his most obnoxious periods and passages were to be found largely and often insisted on by so great and learned a man. He tells us also that he was a renegado Presbyter, Latitudinarian, a proud and conceited person, &c. But all these things, with many more, having been spoken by a rash person, and one that was well known not to abound with good nature and seldome to have spoken well of any body, I shall take the liberty to give this character of him, Glanvill, (with which those that knew him, as I did partly, will without doubt concur) viz. that he was a person of more than ordinary parts, of a quick, warm, spruce and gay-fancy, and was more lucky, at least in his own judgment, in his first hints and thoughts of things, than in his after-notions, examined and disgested by longer and more mature deliberation. He had a very tenacious memory, and was a great Master of the English Language, expressing himself therein with easie fluency, and in a manly, yet withal a smooth, stile. He catcht at all occasions, as well in his discourse, as in his writings, of depreciating that renowned Master of reason and celebrated advancer of knowledge Aristotle, and of undervaluing his philosophy, altho it hath been received in the Schools for many ages as if great authority, with general approbation and advantage; and in the place of it he substituted many pretty new fangled and fantastical Hypotheses of that Philosophy, which bidding defyance to the old, boasts it self in the winning and glorious title of being new. This also must be said, that he did not blame the use of Aristotle in the Universities among the junior Students, but did altogether disapprove the streightness and sloath of elder dijudicants, from whom a more generous temper might be expected, than to sit down in a contended despair of any farther progress into Science, than hath been made by their idolized Sophy, (as he is pleased to term it) and depriving themselves and all this world of their liberty in Philosophy by making a Sacramental adherence to an heathen authority: And this it was, together with the pedantry and boyishness of humour that drew from him those reflections he directed against Aristotle, in the Letter which I shall anon mention. He did more especially applaud and recommend that more free and generous way (as they call it) of promoting learning, now for some years carried on and professed (tho not at this time (1690) and several years since, with that active vigour, as at first) by the Royal Society: The institution of which, its religious tendency towards the advancement of true substantial and solid improvements, and great benefit which hath, and may accrue thence to humane life by that real and useful knowledge there aimed at, and in part obtained, he hath with some shew and appearance, at least of reason, defended against H. Stubbe; and all this against the old way which he calls a bare formal Scheme of empty airy notions, sensless terms and insignificant words, fit only to make a noise and furnish men with matter of wrangling and contention, &c. His reflecting on his University education with such regret and disatisfaction, (declaring often in common discourse, that his being trained up in that trite and beaten road, was one of his greatest unhappinesses that had ever befalen him) as it savoured plainly of too much arrogance thus rashly to condemn the statutable continued practice of such a learned body, which doth not, (as is by our modern Virtuosi falsly pretended) so slavishly tye up its youth to the magisterial dictates of Aristole, as not to be permitted in any cases to depart from his somtimes erroneous sentiments, but gives them free and boundless liberty of ranging and conversing with the many and different writers, who set up with the specious name of new Philosophy, referring still to the authority of Aristotle as unquestionable in the performance of public exercise; So neither did it seem to consist with those grateful returns which his more benign mother, the University, might here reasonably looked for from him, as some slender requital for her so frankly bestowing on him the ground-work, or foundation at least, of all that learning, which afterwards rendred him so mightily known and famous to, and among, some people. Mr. R. Baxter, to whom our author wrote a large ((a))((a)) In Mr. Baxters Second true defence of the meer Nonconformists, &c. Lond. 1681. cap. 14. p. 179. courting Letter, dat. 3. Sept. 1661 (wherein it appears that he admired his preaching and writings) saith that he ((b))((b)) Ibid. p. 175. was a man of more than ordinary ingeny,—that he was ((c))((c)) Ib. p. 174. one of themselves here (tho an Originist) a most triumphant Conformist, and not the greatest contemner of Nonconformists,—and famous for his great wit, &c. which last commendation is given of him by the most famous Th. de Albiis ((d))((d)) In Epist. ded. junioribus Britanic. Scholarum Academicis, ad libr. cui tit. est Sciri. an eminent writer of another persuasion. As for the books that this our author Glanvill hath written, (the titles of which follow) some of them are new vamp’d, have fresh titles, and somtimes new dedications put to them: which, whether it was so contrived to make the world believe that he was not lazy, but put out a book every year, I leave to others to judge.

The vany of Dogmatizing: or confidence in opinions, manifested in a discourse of the shortness and uncertainty of our knowledg, and its causes; with some reflections on Peripateticisme, and an apologie for philosophy. Lond. 1661. oct. All, or most of this book is contained in Scepsis scientifica, &c. as I shall tell you by and by. It was answered by Thom. Anglus ex Albiis East-Saxonum in his book entit. Sciri, sive Sceptices & Scepticorum a jure disputationis ex [•] lusio. Lond. 1663. in tw. By this Tho. Anglus we are to understand to be the same with Tho. White, second son of Rich. White of Hutton in Essex Esq. by Mary his wife, daughter of Edm. Plowden the great Lawyer in the raign of Qu. Elizabeth: which Th. White having been alwaies from his childhood a Rom. Catholick, became at length a Secular Priest and a most noted Philosopher of his time, as his published writings, much sought after and admired by many, shew. Hobbes of Malmsbury had a great respect for him, and when he lived in Westminster, he would often visit him, and he Hobbes, but seldom parted in cool blood: for they would wrangle, squabble and scold about philosophical matters like young Sophisters, tho either of them was 80 years of age; yet Hobbes being obstinate, and not able to endure contradiction, (tho well he might seeing White was his Senior) yet those Scholars, who were somtimes present at their wrangling disputes, held that the Laurel was carried away by White; who dying in his lodging in Drury lane between the hours of two and three in the afternoon of the sixth day of July, an. 1676 aged 94 years, was buried almost under the Pulpit in the Church of S. Martin in the fields within the liberty of Westminster, on the ninth day of the same month. By his death the R. Catholicks lost an eminent ornament from among them; and it hath been a question among some of them whether ever any Secular Priest of England went beyond him in philosophical matters. Our author Glanvill hath also written,

Lux Orientalis: or, an Enquiry into the opinion of the Easterne Sages concerning the pre-existence of Soules, being a key to unlock the grand mysteries of Providence, &c. Lond. 1662. oct. There again 1683. See at the end of this Cat. of our authors works.

Scepsis Scientifica: or confest ignorance, the way to Schisme; in an Essay to the vanity of Dogmatizing and confident opinion. Lond. 1665. qu.

A reply to the exceptions of the learned Tho. Albius, &c. Or thus.—Scire / i tuum nihil est; or the authors defence of the vanity of Dogmatizing, &c. Printed with Scep. Scient.

A Letter to a friend concerning Aristotle—Printed also with Scep. Scient.

Some philosophical considerations touching the Being of Witches and Witchcraft. In a letter to Rob. Hunt Esq. Lond. 1666. qu. But all or most of the impression of this book being burnt in the great fier at Lond. in the beginning of Sept. the same year, it was reprinted there again 1667. qu. The said Phil. consid. were answer’d by John Webster practicioner in physick and chirurgery in the W. Riding of Yorshire, in a book which I shall anon mention.

A blow at moderne Saducisme, in some philosophical considerations about Witchcraft. Lond. 1668, &c. qu. See more towards the latter end of this Cat. of books.

Relation of the famed disturbance at the house of Mr. Mumpesson—Printed with the Blow at Mod. Sad. This disturbance in the house of Tho. Mompesson of Tidworth in Wilts. Esq. was occasion’d by its being haunted with evil Spirits, and the beating of a drum invisibly every night, from Febr. 1662 to the beginning of the year following and after.

Reflections on drollery and Atheisme—Pr. also with A Blow at Mod. Sad.

Palpable evidence of Spirits and Witchcraft, in an account of the famed disturbance by a Drummer in the house of Mr. Mumpesson, &c. Lond. 1668. This is most, if not all, the same with the former, only the title alter’d.

A Whip for the Droll, Fidler to the Atheist; being reflections on Drollery and Atheisme. Lond. 1668. This is also mostly the same with Rest. on droll. and Ath. beforemention’d. ’Tis reprinted, as if it was a new thing, by Dr. Hen. More among the additions to the Sec. edit. of Saducismus triumphans.

Plus ultra: or, the progress and advancement of knowledge since the dayes of Aristotle, &c. Lond. 1668. oct. An account of which book you may see in the Royal or Phil. Transactions. nu. 36.

Several Sermons as (1) Fast Sermon on the Kings Martyrdome, on Rom. 13.2. Lond. 1667. (2) Catholic Charitie, recommended in a Serm. before the L. May. of Lond. on 1. Pet. 1. part of the 22 verse, in order to the abating the animosities among Christians that have been occasion’d by differences in religion. Lond. 1669. qu. (3) Seasonable recommendation and defence of reason in the affairs of religion against infidelity, Sceptisme and fanaticisme of all sorts, on Rom. 12. latter part of the first verse. Lond. 1670. oct. See more Sermons following.

The way of happines in its difficulties and encouragements: cleared from many popular and dangerous mistakes, Lond. 1679. oct. This had also another title put to it the same yeare, with alterations thus. A discourse concerning the difficulties of the way to happines, whence they may arise, and how they may be overthrowne; with an account of the shortness and vanity of the animal religion, &c. in oct.

A Seasonable recommendation and defence of reason in the affaires of religion, against infidelitie, Sceptisme, and Fanaticismes of all sorts. Lond. 1670. qu.

Philosophia Pia: A discourse of the religious temper and tendences of the experimental Philosophy which is profest by the Royal Society. Lond. 1671. oct.

A Praefaratory answer to Mr. Hen. Stubbe, the Doctor of Warwick, wherein the malignity, hypocrisie and falshood of his temper, pretences and reports, &c. in his animadversions on Plus ultra, are discovered. Lond. 1671. oct.

A farther discovery of Mr. Stubbe, in a brief reply to the last Pamphlet against Jos. Glanvill. Lond. 1671. oct.

Ad Clerum Somersetensem Epistola ΠΣΟΣΦΩΝΗΣΙΣ. Pr. in one sh. in oct. at the end of the Farther discovery.

An earnest invitation to the Lords Supper. Lond. 1673. 74. 77. in tw.

Seasonable reflections and discourses in order to the conviction and cure of the scoffing and infidelity of a degenerate age. Lond. 1676. oct. Made up of four Sermons, viz. (1) The sin and danger of scoffing at religion, on 2. Pet. 3.3. (2) The Churches contempts from profane and fanatick Enemies, on Psal. 123.3.4. (3) Moral Evidence of a life to come, on Matth. 22.32. (4) The serious considerations of a future judgment, on Acts 17.31.

Essays on several important subjects in Philosophy and Religion. Lond. 1676. qu. Which Essays (being 7 in number) except the last, were published singly before by the author; whose preface to them gives a particular account of his new furbishing and vamping them up in this collection.

An Essay concerning preaching: written for the direction of a young Divine, &c. Lond. 1678. oct.

A seasonable defence of preaching, and the plain way of it.—Printed with the Essay concerning, &c.

Saducismus triumphans: or, full and plain evidence concerning witches and apparitions, in two parts.—The first treats of the possibility, the second of the real existence of them; with a Letter of Dr. Hen. More on the same subject. The first part consists of his Considerations about Witchcraft, &c. reprinted herein the fifth time. The second part is made up of an Answer to part of Mr. John Websters Display of suppos’d Witchcraft, &c. Lond. 1667. fol. and of our authors former narrative of the Daemon of Tidworth, and a second relation printed with it inlarged, together with a collection of 26 modern relations. The authors imperfect preface to the second part gives an account of the several editions of his former treatise of Witches, and relates the many motives which induced him to those large additions in this edition. The person who perused his papers after his death, disgested his materials (that were left somewhat incompleat) into order and distinctness, tied the pieces methodically together, and supplied what was wanting by advertisements scatter’d through the whole work. The last advertisement is the most considerable, and as an appendage to the first part concerning the possibility of apparitions, &c. is added an easie, true, and genuine notion, and consistent explication of the nature of a spirit, translated out of the two last Chapters of Dr. More’s Enchiridion Metaphysicum, &c. Lond. 1681. oct. and there again in 82 with large additions of the said More the publisher of both editions: An account of which additions he gives in the beginning of the work.

Some discourses, Sermons and remains. Lond. 1681. qu. with his picture before them. Before these Sermons, in number eleven, (most of which came out in small vol.) is prefix’d a short preface of Anth. Horneck the publisher of the said Discourses, &c. In which is briefly drawn our authors character, mostly as to his eminent ministerial endowments, in very lively and graceful strokes.

The zealous and impartial Protestant, shewing some great, but less heeded, dangers of popery, &c. in a Letter to a member of Parliament. Lond. 1681. qu. This book being published a little before the authors death, was so displeasing to some Parliament men, that they would have called the author to an account for it if he had lived a little longer.

Letter to the Earl of Bristol, with another to a friend of the usefulness of the universal character, with the way of learning it.—MS: which I think is not extant. See more of our author Glanvil and some of his writings in Rob. Crosse, under the year 1683. He hath also published Two Discourses, viz. A discourse of truth, by Dr. Geor. Rust Bishop of Dromore, and The way to happiness and salvation. Lond. 1677. in tw: which discourses came out afterwards (1683 in oct.) with this title, Two choice and useful treatises: The one Lux orientalis, &c. The other a discourse of truth, by the late reverend Dr. G. Rust L. Bish. of Dromore in Ireland, with Annotations on them, by Dr. Hen. More as I suppose. These Annotations are full as large as the discourses themselves, on which they are written. The title to the latter Annotations on Dr. Rusts discourse run thus, Annotations upon the discourse of truth: In which is inserted by way of digression, A brief return to Mr. Baxters reply, which he calls a placid collation with the learned Dr. Hen. More, occasioned by the Doctors answer to a letter of the learned ((*))((*)) Meaning Rich. Baxter. Psythophorist; (which letter of Mr. Baxter, Dr. More published without the authors knowledge in the sec. edit. of our author Glanvils Saducismus triumphans &c.) whereunto is annexed a devotional Hymn, translated for the use of the sincere Lovers of true piety. Lond. 1683. oct. Mr. Glanvill hath a pretty large letter before Dr. Rust’s discourse concerning the subject and the author of it. The Annotator to the reader, before his Annotations on the last discourse, endeavours to make people believe that Dr. More is not author of the abovenamed Digression against Baxter, but the beginning of this Epist. doth implicitly own the same Person to be author. To conclude; Mr. Glanvill died in his House at Bathe on the fourth day of Octob. in sixteen hundred and eighty,1680. and was buried in his Church of S. Pet. and S. Paul there, on the 9th day of the same month; at which time Jos. Pleydell Archdeacon of Chichester preached his funeral Sermon, which afterwards was made extant. In his Rectory of Bathe succeeded Will. Clement of Ch. Ch, in his Prebendship of Worcester Ralph Battell or Battle, M. of A. of Peter house in Cambridge, and in his Rectory of Streat with Walton, Charles Thirlby Archdeacon of Wells.