‘A Plain Account of the Nature and End of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper,’ published (1735) anonymously, but never disowned by the bishop, and included in his son's edition of his works. This treatise, which caused great theological excitement, was an elaborate attempt to explain the sacrament of the Lord's Supper as in no sense a mystery, and as having no special benefits attached to it, but as a mere commemorative rite. Bishop Van Mildert mentioned, among a host of eminent writers who controverted the ‘Plain Account,’ the names of Warren, Wheatly, Whiston, Ridley, Leslie, Law, Brett, Johnson, and Stebbing (Life of Waterland, p. 163). Dr. Waterland's great treatise, ‘A Review of the Doctrine of the Eucharist,’ was no doubt due in part to this publication. It was thought by many that Socinianism was plainly to be detected in Hoadly's treatment of the subject, and it may be added that the prayers published in the bishop's works go far to substantiate this charge.
Hoadly's literary activity declined with advancing years. In 1736 was published (anonymously) a short tract on ‘The Repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts.’ This, which was an answer to Bishop Gibson's pamphlet, did not see the light till some years after it was written, when it was published with a preface by Dr. Avery. It was an enlightened argument against the retention of these objectionable restrictions. Nothing more from the bishop's pen came out for nearly twenty years. In 1754 and 1755 were published two volumes of sermons. Hoadly, so dexterous as a controversialist, does not shine as a teacher of positive theology. There is a coldness and heaviness about his utterances, and his style is sometimes so involved that we can appreciate Pope's satirical description of ‘Hoadly with his periods of a mile.’ The bishop's literary life was brought to a conclusion by a very remarkable production published when he was eighty-one years old (1757), in which he was said by Horace Walpole not only to have got the better of his adversary, but to have conquered old age itself. The occasion of this publication—‘A Letter to Clement Chevallier, Esq.’—was as follows: One Bernard Fournier, a convert from popery, and a curate in Jersey, had come into England to appeal to the Bishop of Winchester (ordinary of Jersey) on some matter. He was kindly received by Hoadly, and obtained from him his signature as a frank to a letter. Over this he wrote a forged promissory note for 8,800l. The bishop might have prosecuted him for forgery, and would no doubt have obtained his condemnation. But shrinking from this he brought the forged promissory note into chancery, and obtained a decree that it was ‘a gross fraud and contrivance.’ Fournier continued to be troublesome, and met with some support; the bishop thought it necessary to write the letter, in which he exposed Fournier with great skill and acuteness. Hoadly died at his palace of Chelsea, at the age of eighty-five, on 17 April 1761. He was twice married.
His first wife, Sarah Curtis, achieved before her marriage some reputation as a portrait painter. She was a pupil of Mary Beale [q. v.], and among her sitters were Whiston, Burnet, and her husband. Her portrait of Burnet was engraved by Faithorne. The picture of her husband, which was, ‘as is believed, touched up by Hogarth,’ is in the National Portrait Gallery. She died in 1743. By her the bishop had five children, all sons, two still-born, and Samuel, Benjamin (1706–1757) [q. v.], and John (1711–1776) [q. v.], afterwards the editor of his works. The bishop's second marriage (23 July 1745) was with Mary, daughter and coheiress of Dr. John Newey, dean of Chichester.
Probably no divine of the church of England has been more violently attacked than Hoadly. As the prominent and aggressive leader of the extreme latitudinarian party in church and state he naturally attracted all the strongest assaults of the tory and high church party. As a minimising divine, writing down mysteries and dogma, he was especially offensive to churchmen, whether of the nonjuring school or not—to Waterland equally as to Brett. Probably the attacks made on him were not altogether unwelcome, as they enabled him to display his great skill as a controversialist. His controversial writings are remarkable for their temper, but there is in them a good deal of plausible sophistry. His dogmatic theological writings have no great merit. His political essays are clear and forcible, but they are disfigured by frequent adulation of the king and royal family. The letters to Lady Sundon show that he was well able to flatter influential personages in the state. As a bishop he was certainly negligent in the performance of his duties. He never visited the diocese of Bangor, and probably not that of Hereford; at Salisbury, however, he acted creditably on one occasion. John Jackson (1686–1763) [q. v.], being presented to a prebend at Salisbury, desired Hoadly to admit him without requiring subscription to the prayer-book and articles. Hoadly, though himself disliking subscription, refused on the ground that subscription was the law of the church. He did not, as many other clergy did, omit the Athanasian creed in using the service. A poem of somewhat fulsome praise of Hoadly
