Samuel Colliber

Samuel Colliber (fl. 1718–1737) was an English writer, a lay author on theological and naval matters. John Knox Laughton suggested he was a Royal Navy volunteer or schoolmaster.

Works

Colliber published in 1727 Columna Rostrata, a naval history with significant coverage of the Anglo-Dutch wars of the 17th century. It took account of Dutch and French sources. A second edition was published in 1742.^[1]

Colliber wrote also a number of religious tracts, including:^[1]

• An Impartial Enquiry into the Existence and Nature of God (1718, 230 pp.), citing Pierre Poiret and Hermann Alexander Roëll [de] among other Cartesian thinkers,^[2] and which ran through several editions;
• The Christian Religion Founded on Reason (1729);^[3]
• Free Thoughts concerning Souls (1734), citing Spinoza;^[4] and
• The Known God, or the Author of Nature unveiled (1737).

Colliber took up the ideas of Samuel Clarke on the existence of God, and his modifications influenced Edmund Law.^[5] Joseph Priestley cited Colliber against Cartesian plenism.^[6]