WILLIAM, an eminent divine. vine of the church of England, was born at Oxford in 1602, and bred there. He made early great proficiency in his studies, being of a very quick genius. He was an expert mathematician, as well as an able divine, and a very good poet. Study and conversation at the university turning upon the controversy between the church of England and that of Rome, on account of the king's marriage with Henrietta daughter to Henry IV. king of France, Mr Chillingworth forsook the church of England, and embraced the Roman religion. Dr Laud, then bishop of London, hearing of this, and being greatly concerned at it, wrote Mr Chillingworth; who expressing a great deal of candour and impartiality, that prelate continued to correspond with him. This set Mr Chillingworth on a new inquiry; and at last determined him to return to his former religion. In 1634 he wrote a confutation of the arguments which had induced him to go over to the church of Rome. He spoke freely to his friends of all the difficulties that occurred to him; which gave occasion to a groundless report, that he had turned Papist a second time, and then Protestant again. His return to the communion of the church of England made a great noise, and engaged him in several disputes with those of the Roman persuasion. But in 1635 he engaged in a work which gave him a far greater opportunity to confute the principles of the church of Rome, and to vindicate the Protestant religion, under the title of "The religion of Protestants a safe Way to Salvation." Sir Thomas Coventry, lord keeper of the great seal, offering him preferment, Mr Chillingworth refused to accept it on account of his scruples with regard to the subscription of the 39 articles. However, he at last surmounted these scruples; and being promoted to the chancellorship of the church of Sarum, with the prebend of Brixworth in Northamptonshire annexed to it, he complied with the usual subscription. Mr Chillingworth was zealously attached to the royal party; and, in August 1643, was present in King Charles I.'s army at the siege of Gloucester, where he advised and directed the making certain engines for assaulting the town. Soon after, having accompanied the lord Hopton, general of the king's forces in the west, to Arundel castle in Sussex, he was there taken prisoner by the parliamentary forces under the command of Sir William Waller, who obliged the castle to surrender. But his ill-health increasing, he obtained leave to be conveyed to Chichester, where he was lodged at the bishop's palace; and, after a short sickness, died in 1644. He hath left several excellent works behind him.