Robert Robinson
Robert Robinson [1]
a distinguished minister of the Baptist denomination in England, was born at Swaffham, Norfolk, Jan. 8, 1735. In 1749 he was apprenticed to a hair dresser in London. Becoming a hopeful Christian under the preaching of Whitefield, his master released him from his indentures, and he returned to his native county and began to preach as a Calvinistic Methodist. He soon joined the Baptists, and in 1759 became pastor of the Baptist Church in Cambridge, where he was very popular with all classes of people. Enjoying peculiar facilities for study at Cambridge, he improved every opportunity to add to his store of knowledge. He was a fine linguist, and easily learned both the ancient and modern languages. Between the years 1770 and 1782 he prepared and published a translation of Saurin's Sermons, He also published in 1776 A Plea for the Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in a Pastoral Letter Addressed to a Congregation of Protestant Dissenters at Cambridge. It is said that this "Plea excited the most singular attention, and the highest dignitaries of the Church of England pronounced that it was the best defense of the divinity of Christ that had ever been published. He was invited to become a clergyman of the Establishment, to which, however, he refused to listen." Robinson was the author of several other works which, in their day, enjoyed a good degree of popularity. Among them was a translation of the celebrated essay of Claude, On the Composition of a Sermon, and an elaborate work on which he spent years of labor - History of Baptism. Close and long continued application to study at length produced its effect on his constitution, and he died June 8, 1790. Although he was thought at one time to lean somewhat towards Socinianism, he never lost the affection and confidence of his Church in Cambridge. See Dyer, Robinson's Life and Writings (Lond. 1796, 4to); Flower, Robinsons Miscellaneous Works, etc.; also the Annual Review, 1805, p. 464; Eclectic Review, September, 1861; Allibone, Dict. of Brit. and Amer. Authors, s.v.; Darling, Cyclop. Bibliog. s.v. (J.C.S.)
