The discourse made a great sensation. In the preface to his Scheme of Literal Prophecy Considered, 1727, in which he replied to his critics, Collins gives a list of thirty-five answers which had already appeared. Collins gave the principal attention to Bishop Chandler. Lesser fry suggested persecution. Dr. John Rogers, Canon of Wells, wrote: “A confessor or two would be a mighty ornament to his cause. If he expects us to believe that he is in earnest, and believes himself, he should not decline giving us this proof of his sincerity. What will not abide this trial, we shall suspect to have but a poor foundation.” No prosecution, however, was instituted.
In 1726 Collins lost his only son, which affected him deeply. He suffered for some time with the stone, and was in very bad health for several years before his death, which occurred at his house in Harley Street, London, Dec. 13, 1729. He was buried at Oxford Chapel, where a monument was erected to his memory. In the year of his death, in addition to the brief dissertation upon Liberty and Necessity, already mentioned, he published an anonymous Discourse on Ridicule and Irony, in which he vindicated the employment of these weapons in religious controversy.
Collins bore so high a character that even theological rancor was unable to assert anything against him. On his death he was called in the papers “the active, upright and impartial magistrate; the tender husband, the kind parent, the good master and the true friend.” Locke had described him as a gentleman who had “an estate in the country, a library in town, and a friend everywhere.”
Collins was a great lover of literature, and his fine library was open to all comers and especially to antagonists. By his will he left part of his goods to the poor. Legacies were also left to Dr. A. Sykes, one of his opponents, and to Des Maizeaux, his friend and literary agent, to whom he left his manuscripts, which included a dissertation on the Sibylline Oracles, showing they were forged by the early Christians, and a discourse on Miracles which he mentions at the end of his Scheme of Literal Prophecy Considered. One collection, we know not what it was, was in eight octavo volumes.
This precious legacy the widow of Collins persuaded Des Maizeaux to relinquish, upon which she presented him with
