Bates, William

BATES, WILLIAM: English Presbyterian; b. at London Nov., 1625; d. at Hackney July 14, 1699. He was graduated at Cambridge 1647, and was vicar of St. Dunstan's-in-the-West, London, until 1662, when he lost the benefice for non-conformity; he was one of the commissioners to the Savoy Conference (q.v.) in 1661 and represented the nonconformists on other occasions in negotiations with the Churchmen; was chaplain to Charles II and had influence in high places both under Charles and his successors. He is said to have been a polished preacher and a sound scholar. Perhaps the best known of his works is The Harmony of the Divine Attributes in the Contrivance and Accomplishment of Man's Redemption (2d ed., London, 1675). A collected edition of his works, with memoir by W. Farmer, was published in four volumes at London in 1815.