Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 11.djvu/351

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Collier
345
Collier

however, of two Scottish bishops, he consecrated Collier and two others to the episcopal office in 1713. After the death of Hickes in 1715, Collier became the foremost man of the nonjuring body. He was fully determined to maintain the separation, and in 1716 he and his colleagues consecrated Henry Gandy and Thomas Brett [q. v.] He had agreed with Hickes in preferring the communion office of the first prayer-book of Edward VI (1649) to the revision of 1552, and in 1717 urged the restoration of certain prayers and directions contained in it. The four points for which he chiefly contended the usages as they were called—were the mixture of water with the wine used in the communion, the restoration of the petition for the faithful departed, of the prayer for the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the elements, and of the oblatory prayer. A vigorous controversy ensued, part of the nonjurors holding with Collier and part being against him. He and his allies went so far as to pronounce the ' usages ' essential, and were therefore called 'essentialists.' In 1718 they published a new communion office, chiefly no doubt the work of Collier, which was brought into use at the Easter of that year ; communion with those who held to the Common Prayer-book was forbidden, and a fresh schism took place. Collier was accused of holding Romish views, an accusation that Burnet had already brought against him with reference to his 'History.' As, however, the new communion office expressly declares against 'praying the dead out of purgatory' and any approach to a belief in the corporal presence, it would be more correct to describe him as advocating certain usages of the church of Rome while refusing to assent to its doctrines (Lathbury, Life of Collier ; History of the Non-jurors). Meanwhile Collier took an active part in an attempt to form a union with the Eastern church. The idea originated with a visit to England made by the Archbishop of Thebais, and a long correspondence with the court of Russia ensued, in which Collier sometimes signs himself as ' Jeremias, Primus Anglo-Britanniae Episcopus.' The matter dropped in 1725. In 1722 he again joined in consecrating a bishop. He employed Samuel Jebb as his librarian; but during the last few years of his life produced comparatively little literary work, for, as he grew old, his health, which had generally been strong, was much enfeebled by frequent and violent attacks of the stone. He died on 26 April 1726, in the seventy-sixth year of his age, and was buried in the churchyard of St. Pancras, London.

Collier published : 1. 'The Difference between the Present and Future State of our Bodies consider'd in a Sermon,' London, 1686, 4to. 2. 'The Comparison between Giving and Receiving . . . stated in a Sermon preached at Whitehall, 19 April 1687.' 3. ' The Office of a Chaplain,' 1688, 4to (Cole), see 17. 4. 'The Desertion discuss'd in a Letter to a Country Gentleman,' 1688, 4to ; also in 'The History of the Desertion,' with 'An Answer to a piece call'd The Desertion discuss'd ... [by E. Bohun],' 1689, 4to ; 1705, fol. ; and in ' Collection of State Tracts,' vol. i. 1705, fol. 5. 'Translation of 9th, 10th, llth, and 12th books of Sleidan's [J. Philippson] Commentaries,' 1689,4to. 6. ' Vmdicise Juris Regni, or Remarks upon a paper entituled An Inquiry into the Measure of Submission . . . ' [by Dr. Burnet], 1689, 4to. 7. 'Animadversions upon the Modern Explanation of ... a King de facto,' 1689, 4to. 8. 'A Caution against Inconsistency, or the Connection between Praying and Swearing, in relation to the Civil Powers,' 1690, 4to ; 1703, 8vo. 9. ' A Dialogue concerning the Times between Philobelgus and Sempronius,' 1690, 4to. 10. 'To the Right Hon. the Lords and the Gentlemen convened at Westminster,' October 1690, half-sheet (a petition for an inquiry into the birth of the Prince of Wales). 11. ' Dr. Sherlock's Case of Allegiance considered, with some Remarks upon his Vindication,' 1691, 4to. 12. 'A brief Essay concerning the Independency of Church Power,' 1692, 4to. 13. 'The case of giving bail to a pretended authority examined,' dated from the king's bench, 23 Nov. 1692, the preface bearing date December, and a 'Letter to Sir J. Holt,' 30 Nov. 1692, 4to. 14. 'A Reply to some Remarks upon "The case" . . . ,' dated April 1693, 4to. 15. ' A Persuasive to Consideration tendered to the Royalists, particularly those of the Church of England,' 1693, 4to ; 1716, 8vo (Cole), on which see Macaulay's opinion, ' History of England,' iii. 459. 16. ' Remarks upon the " London Gazette " relating to the Streights Fleet and the Battle of Landen in Flanders,' 1693, 4to, ' Somers Tracts ' (1814), xi. 462. 17. 'Miscellanies in Five Essays,' 1694, 8vo (Cole), afterwards in Part I. of 'Essays on Moral Subjects.' 18. ' A Defence of the Absolution given to Sir W. Perkins,' 1696, 4to (Cole). 19. 'A further Vindication of the Absolution . . . ,' 21 April 1696, 4to ; also in Howell's 'State Trials,' xiii. 451. 20. 'A Reply to the Absolution of a Penitent . . . ,' 20 May 1696. 21. ' An Answer to the Animadversions on Two Pamphlets lately published,' 1 July 1696. These form together fifty pages, without title-page or printer's name. 22. 'The Case of the Two Absolvers