Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Collins, Hercules

by Thompson Cooper

COLLINS, HERCULES (d. 1702), baptist minister, had not the advantage of a learned education. 'He began to be religious at an early age, and continued faithful to the last, and was not shock'd by the fury of the persecutors' (Crosby, Hist, of the English Baptists, iii. 129). He appears to have officiated to a congregation at Wapping, and at one period he was imprisoned in Newgate (Wilson, Dissenting Churches, ii. 178). He died on 4 Oct. 1702, and his funeral sermon, by the Rev. John Piggott, was printed in the following year; but it contains no biographical particulars.

Besides some single sermons, he wrote the following works, some of which occasioned a good deal of controversy:

1. 'An Orthodox Catechism, being the sum of Christian Religion contained in the Law and Gospel,' London, 1680, 12mo.
2. 'A Voice from the Prison, or Meditations on Revelations,' London, 1684, 4to.
3. 'Believers' Baptism from Heaven, and of Divine Institution Infants' Baptism from Earth, and Human Invention,' London, 1691, 8vo., revised and republished by John Bailey, London, 1803, 8vo.
4. 'The Antidote proved a Counterfeit, or Error detected, and Believers' Baptism vindicated, containing an answer to "An Antidote to prevent the Prevalency of Anabaptism,"' London, 1693, 4to.
5. 'Three books, viz. I. The Scribe instructed unto the Kingdom of Heaven. II. Mountains of Brass, or a Discourse upon the Decrees of God. III. A poem on the Birth, Life, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus Christ.' 3 parts, London, 1696, 12mo.

[Cat. of Dr. Williams's Library, i. 82, ii. 87; Wilson's Dissenting Churches, ii. 558; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.; Bodleian Cat. i. 576; Watt's Bibl. Man.]

T. C.