KING, Dr William, archbishop of Dublin, was descended from an ancient family in the north of Scotland, but born at Antrim in the north of Ireland on the 1st of May 1650. In 1674 he took priest's orders, and in 1679 was promoted by his patron, Dr Parker, archbishop of Dublin, to the chancellorship of St Patrick. In 1687 Peter Manby, dean of Londonderry, having published at London a pamphlet entitled Considerations which obliged Peter Manby, dean of Londonderry, to embrace the Catholic Religion, our author immediately wrote an answer. Mr Manby, encouraged by the court, and assisted by the most learned champions of the church of Rome, published a reply under the title of a Reformed Catechism, in two Dialogues, concerning the English Reformation, in reply to Mr King's Answer. Our author soon rejoined in a Vindication of the Answer. Mr Manby dropped the controversy, but dispersed a loose sheet of paper, artfully written, with the title of a Letter to a Friend, showing the Vanity of this Opinion, that every Man's Sense and Reason are to guide him in Matters of Faith. This Dr King refuted in a Vindication of the Christian Religion and Reformation against the Attempts of a Letter to a Friend. In 1689 he was twice confined in the Tower by order of King James II., and the same year created doctor of divinity. In 1690, upon King James's retreat to France after the battle of the Boyne, he was advanced to the see of Derry. In 1692 he published at London, The State of the Protestants of Ireland under the late King James's Government, in 4to; "a history," says Bishop Burnet, "as truly as it is finely written." He had by him at his death attested vouchers of every particular fact alleged in this book. However, it was soon attacked by Mr Charles Lesly. In 1693, our author, finding the number of Protestant Dissenters in his diocese of Derry increased by a vast addition of colonists from Scotland, in order to persuade them to conformity to the established church, published a Discourse concerning the Inventions of Men in the Worship of God. Mr Joseph Boyse, a dissenting minister, wrote an answer.
The bishop answered Mr Boyse. The latter replied, and the bishop rejoined. In 1702 he published at Dublin, in quarto, his celebrated treatise De Origine Mali. Mr Edmund Law, fellow of Christ's College in Cambridge, afterwards published a complete translation of this work, with very valuable notes, in 4to. In the second edition he has inserted, by way of notes, a large collection of the author's papers on the same subject, which he had received from his relations after the publication of the former edition. In this excellent treatise the author has made many curious observations. He asserts and proves that there is more moral good in the earth than moral evil. A sermon by our author, preached at Dublin in 1709, was published, under the title of Divine Predestination and Foreknowledge consistent with the Freedom of Man's Will. This was attacked by Anthony Collins, in a pamphlet entitled a Vindication of the Divine Attributes; in some Remarks on the Archbishop of Dublin's Sermon entitled Divine Predestination, &c. He published likewise a Discourse concerning the Consecration of Churches, showing what is meant by dedicating them, with the Grounds of that Office. He died in 1720. Archbishop King, as appears by his correspondence with Swift, was a man of humour, and many of his witty sayings were at one time current.