LESLIE, CHARLES, the author of a Short and Easy Method with the Deists, was born in 1650, in Ireland, where his father was Bishop of Raphoe, subsequently Bishop of Clogher. He graduated at Trinity College, Dublin. On his father's death, in 1671, removing to England, he enrolled as a student of law in the Temple, but soon after turned his attention to theology, and received orders in 1680. In 1687 he was appointed Chancellor of Connor, and began a long career of controversy by a debate with several popish champions, chosen for their office by Patrick Tyrrel, whom James II. had installed into the see of Clogher. His success on this occasion led him deeper into conflict with the government, and by implication with the king. Strange as it may appear, Leslie, although a bold advocate for the supremacy of law, was himself a firm believer in passive obedience; and declining at the Revolution to take the oaths of allegiance, was deprived of his benefice. In 1689 the growing commotions in Ireland induced him to remove to England, where he devoted himself to the defence of non-resistance, in several controversial pamphlets, and encountered, amongst other opponents, Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury. His incessant activity also led him into controversy with the Quakers, Jews, and Socinians. His best known work, A Short and Easy Method with the Deists, appeared in 1699; and in 1706, led to his being charged, somewhat paradoxically, with being vicious in argument, in such a way as to favour the progress of Popery.
Leslie,
Sir John.
In 1709 he was sent by several Jacobite gentlemen of fortune on a mission to Bar-le-duc, to convert the Pretender. That prince, however, foiled all his attempts, by forbidding him to converse about religion either with himself or with his priests. With the view of spreading Jacobite principles, Leslie addressed a letter from Bar-le-duc to a member of parliament in London, which was printed and circulated among the Jacobites in England. After the failure of the Pretender's expedition, Leslie accompanied him into Italy. Returning to England in 1721, he removed to Ireland, and died at Glasnevin, Monaghan, 13th April 1722.
His principal works are,—A View of the Times, their Principles and Practices, London, 1750; The Massacre of Glencoe, London, 1703; The Axe laid to the Root of Christianity, London, 1706; Querela Temporum, London, 1695; Theological Works, 7 vols., Oxford, 1832, containing, among other controversial treatises, his Short and Easy Method with the Deists.