Verpoorten, Wilhelm Paul

Verpoorten, Wilhelm Paul a German theologian, son of Albrecht Meno, was born Sept. 4, 1721, at, Neustadt. Having graduated at Dantzic with the treatise De Auctore Secundae Terticue Epistolae Johannis (1741), he went to Jena, where he publicly spoke (1743) on Calor sub Nube Torrente Esa. 25:5, in Versione Hieronymi Vulgataque. Obvius, ad Textum hebraeum Reique ipsius Naturam Expensus. In the same year he went to Leipsic, where, on account of his dissertation De Concilio AEcumenico Secundo, Constantinopolitano Primo (1745), he received the privilege of lecturing. But bodily infirmities of his father called him home, where he prepared himself for the ministry. In 1751 he was appointed pastor at Stüblau, near Dantzic; in 1762 he was called as second deacon to Dantzic; and in 1770 he was placed at the head of the gymnasium there, where he died, Jan. 17,1794. Besides the dissertations already mentioned, he wrote, Diss. Inaug. de Habitu Legis ad Penitentiam et Fidem (presented to the Konigsberg University for the degree of doctor of divinity, 1770): — Progr. de. Pcesidiis Theologo ex Historia Ecclesice Petendis (Gedani, 1770): — Diss. de Resurrectione. Impiorum Merito Christi non Impetrata (ibid. 1774): — Diss. de Vindiciis Doctrince de Simpliciis Datmnatorum AEternis (ibid. 1774). For his other writings see Doring, Gelehrte Theologen Deutschlands im 18ten und 19ten Jahrhundert, 4:592 sq. (B. P.)