rather contemptuous expressions, Hoadly replied in two treatises. The first of these (1705), called ‘A Serious Admonition,’ &c., was designed to get rid of irrelevant topics introduced by Calamy, and complained of ‘unhandsome treatment.’ In the second treatise (‘A Defence of the Reasonableness of Conformity to the Church of England’), which was published in 1707, Hoadly laboured to prove that the declaration of ‘assent and consent’ to be made to the liturgy was only equivalent to a promise to use it, and did not imply a formal approval of every part. Appended to this treatise was ‘A Brief Defence of Episcopal Ordination’ (which, however, extended to ninety large folio pages). It was a work of considerable power, and exhibited Hoadly's almost unrivalled controversial abilities at their best. Two other treatises, ‘A Reply to the Introduction of the Second Part,’ and a ‘Postscript relating to the Third Part of Mr. Calamy's Defence of Moderate Nonconformity’ (1707), brought this controversy to an end. Before the conclusion of it Hoadly was engaged in another contest with the leader of the high church party, Francis Atterbury [q. v.], upon the interpretation of the text 1 Cor. xv. 19. This had been explained in a funeral sermon by Atterbury as implying that Christians, while losing happiness in this world, were to be compensated in the future. Hoadly, taking much higher ground, demonstrated that the greatest happiness in this life was attained by those who rightly used the highest parts of their nature (1706). Atterbury replied to his strictures and was answered in a more full and elaborate manner in a second letter (1708). In a postscript to this letter Hoadly attacked another sermon of the same divine, in which he had clearly mistaken the meaning of 1 Peter iv. 8 as to charity covering a multitude of sins (1708).
The next year (1709) brought Hoadly into the arena of political churchmanship, and made him the leader of the ‘low church’ divines who upheld ‘revolution principles’ against the champions of hereditary right and passive obedience. In 1705 Hoadly had preached a sermon before the lord mayor and aldermen, in which he maintained that the teaching of St. Paul in Romans xiii. only amounted to a charge to obey rulers who governed for the good of their people. This doctrine was exceedingly distasteful to the high church party. The lower house of the convocation of Canterbury voted a request ‘that some synodical notice might be taken of the dishonour done to the church by a sermon preached by Mr. Benjamin Hoadly at St. Lawrence Jewry,’ and Hoadly was strongly attacked by Atterbury in a tract called ‘An Enquiry into the Nature of the Liberty of the Subject.’ He immediately replied to this in a ‘Review of the Doctrine of the Sermon’ (1705). Having entered upon this controversy, which, as he said, ‘he thought himself under some sort of obligation to prosecute,’ he was next engaged in it with Dr. Offspring Blackall [q. v.], bishop of Exeter. Blackall had preached a sermon before the queen (1708) in which he had maintained that rulers were ‘ministers of God,’ and hence that ‘none upon earth had the right to question or resist them.’ Hoadly replied to this in ‘Some Considerations humbly offered to the Bishop of Exeter,’ in which he maintained that ‘the Gospel of Jesus Christ hath not utterly deprived men of the right of self-defense.’ The bishop responded somewhat angrily, complaining of being misrepresented, and to this Hoadly replied in an ‘Humble Reply to the Bishop of Exeter's Answer’ (1709). Meantime, Atterbury preached the Latin sermon to the London clergy at Sion College on 17 May 1709, advocating the highest doctrine as to the rights of governors, and asserting that subjects when injuriously treated were bound to suffer in silence. This sermon was published at once at the request of the clergy. Hoadly had long had a bitter feeling against Atterbury, both on account of former controversies, and because Atterbury had charged him in a published tract (‘Some Proceedings in Convocation,’ &c. 1705) with ‘imputing rebellion to the clergy in the church, while he himself preached it in the State.’ Hoadly's answer to the sermon was severe and long, extending to nearly one hundred folio pages (1709). An ‘Essay on the Origin of Civil Government’ was appended, and the effect of all his writings on this subject was to raise Hoadly to the highest point in the estimation of the whig party. This was demonstrated when on 14 Dec. 1709, immediately after the publication of his book on civil government, it was moved in the House of Commons by Anthony Henley [q. v.] that Hoadly for his strenuous assertion of revolution principles had merited the favour of the house, and that the queen should be addressed to bestow some dignity upon him. The queen answered that she ‘would take a proper opportunity to comply with their desires.’ The accession to power of the tories was fatal to Hoadly's claims for the time. Mrs. Howland, however, widow of a rich London merchant, presented him to the rectory of Streatham (1710), which he was enabled to hold with his other benefice by being made chaplain to the Duke of Bedford.
