Thomas Halyburton

Thomas Halyburton (December 25, 1674 – September 23, 1712) was a Scottish divine.

Life

He was born at Dupplin, near Perth. His father George Halyburton, one of the ejected ministers, having died in 1682, he was taken by his mother in 1685 to Rotterdam to escape persecution, where he for some time attended the school founded by Erasmus. On his return to Scotland in 1687 he completed his elementary education at Perth and Edinburgh, and in 1696 graduated at the University of St Andrews.

In 1700 he was ordained minister of the parish of Ceres, and in 1710 he was recommended by the synod of Fife for the chair of theology in St Leonard's College, St Andrews, to which accordingly he was appointed by Queen Anne. After a brief term of active professorial life he died from the effects of overwork in 1712.

Works

his works were all published after his death. John Wesley and George Whitefield used to commend them to their followers. They were published as follows:

• Natural Religion Insufficient, and Revealed Religion Necessary, to Man's Happiness in his Present State (1714), an able statement of the orthodox Calvinistic criticism of the deism of Lord Herbert of Cherbury and Charles Blount
• Memoirs of the Life of Mr Thomas Halyburton (1715), three parts by his own hand, the fourth from his diary by another hand
• The Great Concern of Salvation (1721), with a word of commendation by Isaac Watts
• Ten Sermons Preached Before and After the Lord's Supper (1722)
• The Unpardonable Sin Against the Holy Ghost (1784)

References

• Halyburton's Memoirs (1714).
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.