William Sherlock


William Sherlock was an English church leader.

Life

He was born at Southwark and was educated at St Saviour's Grammar School and Eton, and then at Peterhouse, Cambridge. In 1669 he became rector of St George's, Botolph Lane, London, and in 1681, he was appointed a prebendary of St Paul's. In 1683 he was made master of the Temple.
In 1686, he was reproved for his antipapal preaching and his controversy with the king's chaplain, Lewis Sabran; his pension was stopped. After the English Revolution, he was suspended for refusing the oaths to William III and Mary II, but before losing his position, he yielded, justifying his change of attitude.
He became dean of St Paul's in 1691 and died at Hampstead.
William Sherlock was the father of Bishop Thomas Sherlock.

Works

In 1674, he showed his controversial tendencies by an attack on a Puritan John Owen, in The Knowledge of Jesus Christ and Union with Him. In 1684, he published The Case of Resistance of the Supreme Powers stated and resolved according to the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures, a treatise in which he drew the distinction between active and passive obedience, which was generally accepted by the High Church clergy.
During the period of his suspension, he wrote a Practical Discourse concerning Death, which became very popular.
In 1690 and 1693, he published works on the doctrine of the Trinity, which helped rather than injured the Socinian cause and involved him in a controversy with Robert South and others.
His sermons, collected in 2 volumes, went through several editions.