of an anti-trinitarian publication [see Emlyn, Thomas]. Boyse (who had himself been under some suspicion of Pelagianism) moved in the matter with manifest reluctance, had no hand in the public prosecution, and made strenuous, and at length successful, efforts to free Emlyn from incarceration. Boyse drew up, with much moderation, ‘The Difference between Mr. E. and the Dissenting Ministers of D. truly represented;’ and published ‘A Vindication of the True Deity of our Blessed Saviour,’ 1703, 8vo (2nd ed. 1710, 8vo), in answer to Emlyn's ‘Humble Inquiry.’ Emlyn thinks that Boyse might have abstained from writing against him while the trial was pending; but it is probable that Boyse's able defence of the doctrine in dispute gave weight to his intercession. Boyse at this early date takes note that ‘the unitarians are coming over to the deists in point of doctrine.’ Emlyn's place as Boyse's colleague was supplied by Richard Choppin, a Dublin man (licensed 1702, ordained 1704, died 1741). In 1708 Boyse issued a volume of fifteen sermons, of which the last was an ordination discourse on ‘The Office of a Scriptural Bishop,’ with a polemical appendix. This received answers from Edward Drury and Matthew French, curates in Dublin, and the discourse itself was, without Boyse's consent, reprinted separately in 1709, 8vo. He had, however, the opportunity of adding a voluminous postscript, in which he replied to the above answers, and he continued the controversy in ‘A Clear Account of the Ancient Episcopacy,’ 1712. Meantime the reprint of his sermon, with postscript, was burned by the common hangman, by order of the Irish House of Lords, in November 1711. This was King's last argument against Boyse; now the archbishop of Dublin writes to Swift, ‘we burned Mr. Boyse's book of a scriptural bishop.’ Once more Boyse came forward in defence of dissent, in ‘Remarks,’ 1716, on a pamphlet by William Tisdall, D.D., vicar of Belfast, respecting the sacramental test. Boyse had been one of the patroni of the academy at Whitehaven (1708–19), under Thomas Dixon, M.D., and on its cessation he had to do with the settlement in Dublin of Francis Hutcheson, the ethical writer, as head (till 1729) of a somewhat similar institution, in which Boyse taught divinity. He soon became involved in the nonsubscription controversy. At the synod in Belfast, 1721, he was present as a commissioner from Dublin; protested with his colleague, in the name of the Dublin presbytery, against the vote allowing a voluntary subscription to the Westminster Confession; and succeeded in carrying a ‘charitable declaration,’ freeing nonsubscribers from censure and recommending mutual forbearance. The preface to Abernethy's ‘Seasonable Advice,’ 1722, and the postscript to his ‘Defence’ of the same, 1724, are included among Boyse's collected works, though signed also by his Dublin brethren, Nathaniel Weld and Choppin. In the same year he preached (24 June) at Londonderry during the sitting of the general synod of Ulster. His text was John viii. 34, 35, and the publication of the discourse, which strongly deprecated disunion, was urged by men of both parties. Next year, being unable through illness to offer peaceful counsels in person, he printed the sermon. Perhaps his pacific endeavours were discounted by the awkward circumstance that at this synod (1723) a letter was received from him announcing a proposed change in the management of the regium donum, viz. that it be distributed by a body of trustees in London, with the express view of checking the high-handed party in the synod. The rupture between the southern and northern presbyterians was completed by the installation of a nonsubscriber, Alexander Colville, M.D., on 25 Oct. 1725 at Dromore, co. Down, by the Dublin presbytery; Boyse was not one of the installers. He published in 1726 a lengthy letter to the presbyterian ministers of the north, in ‘vindication’ of a private communication on their disputes, which had been printed without his knowledge. Writing to the Rev. Thomas Steward of Bury St. Edmunds (d. 10 Sept. 1753, aged 84) on 1 Nov. 1726, Boyse speaks of the exclusion of the nonsubscribers as ‘the late shameful rupture,’ and gives an account of the new presbytery which the general synod, in pursuance of its separative policy, had erected for Dublin. Controversies crowded rather thickly on Boyse, considering the moderation of his views and temper. He always wrote like a gentleman. He published several sermons against Romanists, and a letter (with appendix) ‘Concerning the Pretended Infallibility of the Romish Church,’ addressed to a protestant divine who had written against Rome. His ‘Some Queries offered to the Consideration of the People called Quakers, &c.,’ called forth, shortly before Boyse's death, a reply by Samuel Fuller, a Dublin schoolmaster. It is possible that in polemics Boyse sought a relief from domestic sorrow, due to his son's career. He died in straitened circumstances on 22 Nov. 1728, leaving a son, Samuel [q. v.] (the biographers of this son have not usually mentioned that he was one of the deputation to present the address from the general synod of Ulster on the accession of George I), and a daughter, married to Mr. Waddington. He was succeeded in his ministry by Abernethy (in 1730). Boyse's works were collected by
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