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    Xight i ?^» . J bn Douglas , D . D . F , JR . S . & A . S *

    * n imppiitajrxt branch of theology , in which be . has attained deserved and lusting reputation , fji 1750 , he publi s hed in a letter to Lord Bath , " Milton vindicated from the charge qf plagiarism brought against him by Mr . kauder , '* followed in 1756 by a Po script . Xauder , who had been a Schoolmaster in

    Sc ; otlan 4 > commenced in 1747 in the Gentleman ' s Magazine , an attack on the originality 01 * paradise JLost , charging Milton with plagiarism from modern Latin poets , especially from the " Adamus Exul , " a juvenile work of Grotiu . ^ . This charge he repeated in his < c Essay on Milton ' s Imitation of the Moderns" 1750 . Dr Johnson , whose inveteracy to the politics

    of a Republican , made him ready enough to disparage Milton under any character , contributed a preface and a postscript . Dr . D . from his investigation of the subject , was abje completely to detect the fraudulent sitternpt of JLauder , who , to accomplish his base design , had interpolated the " Adamus Exul " w ^ th several verses copied from a neglected Latin translation © f Paradise

    Lost-J ohnson , though he retained his malevolence to Milton , withdrew his support from Lauder , whom he obliged publicly < to confess the fraud , and who sinking into contempt , retired to Barbadoes , wjiere he died , in indigence and obscurity .

    * 754 > Dr . I > . published in 1 vol . 8 vo . a work occasioned by I lume n s " Essay on Miracles , * ' 3 Lnd of which the design is well explained in the following copious title : tCl % e Criterion ; or , Miracles examined , with a view to expose the pretensions of Pagans and Papi . ^;

    to compare tUe miraculous powers recorded in the New Testament , with those said tip subsist in latter times , and to shew the great and material difference between them in point of evidence ; from whence it will appear , that the former m , u 6 t be true * and the latter may be false /* f n this work , as Dr . Leland

    observes , ( D . W . 3 d ed . iii . 336 ^ will be found " a full proof of the wonderful force of the imagination , and the mighty influence that strong impressions made upon the mind , and vehement passions raised there , may have in producing surprising changes on the body , and particularl y in removing diseases ; of which

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    the author hath produced several wellattested instances , which yet cannot reasonably be pretended to be properly miraculous . " To these instances the History of Animal Magnetism would have since supplied several curious additions . Dr . I > . appears generally to have agreed with Middieton as to the

    duration of miraculous powers in the Church though he animadverts with some severity upon the language used by that writer in discus ing his subject , aad ¦ which has brought into question his belief in Revelation . The '' . Criterion' *

    was re-published in 1806 by the author , ¦ with scarcely any ' alterations or addi- ' tions . « He ha 4 many years ago , collected materials for a new and enlarged edition , but they had been mislaid or destroyed by mistake with other manuscripts . "

    In 1756 , Dr . D . again employed his pen to detect imposture in the case of Archibald Bower , a Scotch Jesuit , who had been an officer of the Inqui ition in ItaJy . On his arrival in England , he publicly abjured the Romish religion . When his " History of the Popes' * appeared in 1 750 , it was so well received , that the two first volumes soon came to

    a third edition ; but Dr . D . by three pamphlets written in 1756 . 7 and 8 , the last entitled < c The Complete and final detection of Bower / ' proved to the satisfaction of the public—that the pretended convert from popery had in 1744 ^ been re-admitted among the Jesuits though he afterwards broke with them again , and that his work , proi . b ly written from original papers , was little more than a translation from the £ c-

    clesiasiiral History of Tillemont , a respectable French writer , who died in 1698 . ^ After employing his pen during the intermediate years upon a variety of pamphlets , chiefly political , he was engaged to draw up the introduction to Cook ' s fast voyage * in which he very

    ably marked the progress of maritime Discovery and especially the beneficial effects likely to result from the discoveries of that justly lamented navigator . This appears to have been the author ' s la-t publication , except a Sermon preached before the Lords in 1789 , on that threadbare theme , King Charles ' s Martyrdcucv

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    Obituary . 331

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• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1807, page 331, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2381/page/43/