CHANDLER, Dr Samuel, a learned and respectable dissenting minister, descended from ancestors who had heartily engaged in the cause of religious liberty, and suffered for the sake of conscience and nonconformity, was born at Hungerford in Berks, where his father was a minister
of considerable worth and ability. Being by his literary turn destined to the ministry, he was first placed at an academy at Bridgewater, and thence removed to Gloucester under Mr Samuel Jones. Among the pupils of Mr Jones were Mr Joseph Butler, afterwards Bishop of Durham, and Mr Thomas Secker, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. With these eminent persons he contracted a friendship which continued to the end of their lives, notwithstanding the different views by which their conduct was afterwards directed, and the different situations in which they were placed.
Mr Chandler having finished his academical studies, began to preach about July 1714; and being soon distinguished by his talents in the pulpit, he was chosen in 1716 minister of the Presbyterian congregation at Peckham, near London, in which station he continued some years. Here he entered into the matrimonial state, and began to have an increasing family, when, by the fatal South Sea scheme of 1720, he unfortunately lost the whole fortune which he had received with his wife. His circumstances being thereby embarrassed, and his income as a minister being inadequate to his expenses, he engaged in the trade of a bookseller, and kept a shop in the Poultry, London, for about two or three years, still continuing to discharge the duties of the pastoral office. He also officiated, with the learned Dr Lardner, as joint preacher of a winter weekly evening lecture, at the meeting-house in the Old Jewry, London; in which meeting he was established as assistant preacher about the year 1725, and then as the pastor. Here, for forty years, he administered to the religious improvement of a very respectable congregation with the greatest applause; and with what diligence and application he improved the intervals of leisure which his pastoral duties allowed him for improving himself and benefiting the world, will appear from his many writings on a variety of important subjects. While he was thus laudably employed, not only the universities of Edinburgh and Aberdeen gave him, without any application, testimonies of their esteem, in diplomas, conferring on him the degree of doctor in divinity, but he also received offers of preferment from some of the governors of the established church, which he nobly declined. He had likewise the honour of being afterwards elected fellow of the Royal and Anti-Quarian Societies.
On the death of George II. in 1760, Dr Chandler published a sermon on that event, in which he compared King George to King David. This gave rise to a pamphlet, which was printed in the year 1761, entitled "The History of the Man after God's own Heart;" in which the author ventured to exhibit king David as an example of perfidy, lust, and cruelty, fit only to be ranked with Nero or Caligula; and complained of the insult which had been offered to the memory of the late British monarch by Dr Chandler's parallel between him and the king of Israel. This attack occasioned Dr Chandler to publish, in the following year, "A Review of the History of the Man after God's own Heart; in which the Falsehoods and Misrepresentations of the Historian are exposed and corrected." He also prepared for the press a more elaborate work, which was afterwards published in two volumes 8vo, under the following title: "A Critical History of the Life of David; in which the principal Events are ranged in order of time; the chief objections of Mr Bayle and others against the Character of this Prince, the Scriptural Account of him, and the occurrences of his Reign, are examined and refuted; and the Psalms which refer to him explained." As this was the last, it was likewise one of the best, of Dr Chandler's productions. The greater part of the work had been printed off at the time of our author's death, which happened on the 8th May 1766, at the age
Chandipoor of seventy-three. During the last year of his life he was visited with frequent returns of a very painful disorder, which he endured with great resignation and Christian fortitude. He was interred in the burying-ground at Bunhill-fields on the 16th of the month; and his funeral was very honourably attended by ministers and other gentlemen. He expressly desired, by his last will, that no delineation of his character might be given in his funeral sermon, which was preached by Dr Amory. He had several children; two sons and a daughter who died before him, and three daughters who survived him.
Dr Chandler was a man of very extensive learning and eminent abilities. His apprehension was quick and his judgment penetrating; he had a warm and vigorous imagination; he was a very instructive and animated preacher; and his talents in the pulpit and as a writer procured him very great and general esteem, not only among the dissenters, but also among great numbers of the established church. He was principally instrumental in the establishment of the fund for relieving the widows and orphans of poor Protestant dissenting ministers. The plan of this fund was first formed by him; and it was by his interest and application to his friends that many of the subscriptions for its support were procured.
In 1768 four volumes of our author's sermons were published by Dr Amory, according to his own directions in his last will; to which were prefixed a neat engraving of him, from an excellent portrait by Mr Chamberlin. He had also expressed a desire to have some of his principal pieces reprinted in four volumes 8vo; and proposals were published for that purpose, but did not meet with sufficient encouragement. In 1777 another work of our author was published in one volume 4to, under the following title: "A Paraphrase and Notes on the Epistles of St Paul to the Galatians and Ephesians, with doctrinal and practical Observations; together with a critical and practical Commentary on the two Epistles of St Paul to the Thessalonians."