Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Middleton, Patrick
MIDDLETON, PATRICK (1662–1736), Scottish nonjuring divine, born in 1662, studied in St. Leonard's College, St. Andrews; graduated M.A. 20 July 1680, and after ordination became, in 1684, minister of Leslie, in the presbytery of Kirkcaldy. He was deprived by the privy council, 22 Aug. 1689, for not reading the proclamation of the estates and for praying for James II. He was discharged from exercising any part of the clerical function under a severe penalty by the privy council in December 1692 for not praying for William and Mary. In 1716 he had a meeting-house in Skinner's Close, Edinburgh, and was prosecuted, with others, before the lords of justiciary, and being convicted a second time, 19 June 1717, of not praying nominatim for George I in terms of the Act of Toleration, he was forbidden to preach or exercise any part of the ministry. He died at Bristol on 25 July 1736.
His works are: 1. ‘A Dissertation upon the Power of the Church; In a Middle Way, Betwixt those who screw it up to the highest, with the Papists and Scotish Presbyterians on the one hand; and the Erastians and Followers of Hugo Grotius, who, on the other hand, do wholly reject the Intrinsic Spiritual Authority wherewith Jesus Christ hath vested the Rulers of his Church,’ London, 1733, 8vo. 2. ‘A Short View of the Evidences upon which the Christian Religion, and the Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures is established. … With a Defence not only of the Usefulness, but also of the Necessity of Divine Revelation; against [Matthew Tindal],’ 2 parts, London [1734], 8vo. 3. ‘The Case of Abraham's being commanded by God Almighty to offer up his son Isaac in sacrifice, impartially examined and defended, against the Deists and other modern Infidels,’ 2nd edit. London, 1740, 8vo. On the title-page he is styled a doctor of divinity, though it does not appear that he took that degree. 4. ‘An Enquiry into the Inward Call of the Holy Ministry’ (anon.), Cambridge, 1741, 8vo.
[Bodl. Cat. ii. 741; Hist. Reg. 1736, Chron. Diary, p. 44; Political State of Great Britain, lii. 102; Hew Scott's Fasti, ii. 550.]