311 LIVES OF THE PURITANS. ROBERT DINGLEY, A. M.-This pious minister was the son of Sir John Dingley, by a sister of Dr. Henry Hammond; was born in Surrey, in the year 1619, and educated in Mag- dalen college, Oxford. Having finished his studies at the university, he took orders, and, according to Wood, became " a strict observer of church ceremonies, and a remarkable bower to the altar when he entered the church." Upon the commencement of the wars, he espoused the cause of the parliament, became an avowed enemy to superstitious cere- monies in divine worship, and a zealous puritan. He was made rector of Brightstone in the Isle of Wight, where he was much followed by those of his own persuasion, for his excel- lent practical preaching. He was presented to this benefice when Colonel Hammond, his kinsman, was governor of the island. But while Mr. Dingley was thus caressed and fol- lowed by his own party, he was hated by the royalists, on account of his activity as assistant to the commissioners of Hampshire, for ejecting ignorant and scandalops ministers (-1 schoolmasters.. This is the only crime alleged against him, for which he was even hated by the contrary party. He died at Brightstone, in the year 1659, and his remains were interred in the chancel of his own church. Over his grave was the following monumental inscription erected to his memory: Here lieth the body ofMr. ROBERT DINGLEY, Minister of this place; second son Of Sir. JOHN DINGLEY, Knight, who died on the twelfth day of January, 1659, in the fortiethyear of hiS age. His Woaxs.-1. The Spiritual Taste described : or, a Glimpse of Christ discovered, 1649.-2. The Disputation of Angels: or, the Angel Guardian, 1654.-3, Messiah's Splendour : or, the glimpsed Glory of a Beauteous Christian, 1654.-4. Divine Optics: or, a Trea- , tise of the Eye, discovering the Vices and Virtues thereof, 1655.- 5. Philosophical, Historical, and Theological Observations* of Thunder, with a more general view of God's wonderful Works, 1658.-6. A Sermon onJob xxvi. 14., 1658. Wood's Athente Oxon. vol. ii. p. 155.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=