THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 MEMOIRS 
 
 OF THE LATE REVEREND 
 
 THEOPHILUS LINDSEY, M.A. 
 
 INCLUDING 
 
 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF HIS WORKS; 
 
 TOGETHER WITH 
 
 ANECDOTES AND LETTERS OF EMINENT PERSONS, 
 HIS FRIENDS AND CORRESPONDENTS : 
 
 ALSO 
 
 A GENERAL VIEW OF THE PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 UNITARIAN DOCTRINE IN ENGLAND 
 
 AND AMERICA. 
 
 BY THOMAS BELSHAM, 
 
 MINISTER OF THE CHAPEL IN ESSEX-STREET. 
 
 Simulacra vultus, imbecilla ac mortalia; forma mentis, sterna, 
 
 quam tenere et exprimere tuis ipsernoribus possis. 
 
 Tatitus. 
 
 Care .... Vale. At veniet felicius sevum 
 Qnmido iterum tecum, sim modo dignus, ero. 
 
 Lowth. 
 
 SECOND EDITION, CORRECTED. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR ROWLAND HUNTER, 
 
 SUCCESSOR TO MR. JOHNSON, 
 
 NO. 72, ST, PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD. 
 1820.
 
 Richard and Arthur Taylor, Printers, Shoe- Lane, London.
 
 BX 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE publication of this tribute of respect to the memory 
 of a highly venerated friend has been delayed beyond 
 expectation, partly by a necessary attention to other pub- 
 lications, but chiefly by the time which was occupied in 
 the perusal of letters and other documents, which far ex- 
 ceeded what was antecedently supposed to be requisite. 
 
 The events which occur in the life of a scholar and a 
 pastor seldom possess novelty and variety sufficient to 
 excite public attention. Those of Mr. Lindsey's life, 
 indeed, were of no common complexion. But the chief 
 design of publishing this Memoir is to exhibit the pic- 
 ture of an eminently virtuous, pious, and disinterested 
 mind in circumstances of great difficulty and perplexity, 
 as an example to others who may find themselves in si- 
 milar difficulties, and as an encouragement to sacrifice 
 every secular consideration in the cause of religious 
 truth, and to prefer the performance of duty and the 
 approbation of conscience to all the honours and emolu- 
 ments which the world can offer. It was also the author's 
 design to mark the progress of that glorious cause which 
 lay nearest to the heart of this venerable man, that of a 
 long-lost and almost-forgotten truth, the proper Unity 
 of God, and the supreme unrivalled undivided homage 
 which is due to the Father alone : a cause for which he 
 
 A2
 
 IV 1'REFACE. 
 
 voluntarily sacrificed all his secular possessions and ex- 
 lactations, to the promotion of which he devoted all his 
 labours, and in testimony to which he would, if needful, 
 have cheerfully laid down his life. Happily, he lived in 
 an age which was enlightened and liberal beyond all that 
 preceded it : and though some alarm was excited, and 
 some risk incurred, when he first opened a chapel for 
 Unitarian worship, he met with no real impediment or 
 molestation in the discharge of his official duties : and he 
 lived to see the time, when, in consequence of the in- 
 creasing knowledge and liberality of the age, owing in 
 great measure to his unwearied and successful exertions, 
 the profession of Unitarianisrn ceased to be regarded 
 either as singular or hazardous. 
 
 It was also the design of the author to communicate 
 some information relative to other generous advocates of 
 the same righteous cause, some of whom were also suf- 
 ferers for truth. Among these are Dr. William Robert- 
 son, Mr. Tayleur of Shrewsbury, and, above all, Dr. 
 Priestley, whose letters cannot be perused by any feeling 
 and intelligent reader without great interest and sympathy 
 with the venerable exile : and it cannot but excite astonish- 
 ment in every serious and reflecting mind, that such a 
 person should not have been allowed to end his days in 
 peace in his native country. But Providence had wise 
 and good ends to answer by permitting this afflicting 
 event, some of which are sufficiently apparent ; so that 
 Dr. Priestley might justly say to his enemies and perse- 
 cutors, as Joseph said to his brethren, <c It was not you 
 thut sent me hither, but God." 
 
 The author very much regrets that the respectable re-
 
 PREFACE. t 
 
 lict of Mr. Lindsey did not live to see this work complete, 
 and to give her sanction to the narrative. But it may be 
 some satisfaction to the reader to know that the first 
 eight chapters were written some time ago, and were 
 read over as they were finished to Mrs. Lindsey, who ex- 
 pressed her kind approbation of them, and her decided 
 attestation to the truth of the facts stated in them. And 
 the author flatters himself that no circumstances will be 
 found in the remainder of the narrative which are not 
 supported by sufficient testimony. 
 
 By far the greater part of the materials from which 
 this Memoir is composed were supplied to the author 
 by Mrs. Lindsey, for the express purpose of selecting 
 from them what might be interesting and useful. To 
 other friends and correspondents of Mr. Lindsey he 
 is indebted for the rest ; and on this account he ac- 
 knowledges his particular obligations to the Rev. Wil- 
 liam Turner, of Newcastle, and the Rev. Dr. Toul- 
 min, of Birmingham. Of these materials, he trusts, 
 it will appear that he has not made an indiscreet use. 
 There is no living friend of Mr. Lindsey, from whose 
 correspondence he has made more copious extracts than 
 from the letters of the Rev. Dr. Freeman, of Boston in 
 New England : but these are of a public nature, relating 
 wholly to the state and progress of the Unitarian doc- 
 trine in America ; and they do great credit to the ability 
 and the piety of the writer, who, it is hoped, if he should 
 chance to hear of this Memoir, will pardon the liberty 
 which the author has taken with the letters which he ad- 
 dressed to his venerable friend. 
 
 This Memoir will be of little interest to any but those
 
 vi PREFACE. 
 
 to whom a calm impartial inquiry into the. sacred Scrip- 
 tures is a consideration of supreme importance, and by 
 whom the firm undaunted profession of Christian truth is 
 regarded as among the first of duties. To these the au- 
 thor hopes it will not be unacceptable ; to their candour 
 he commends it ; and if they derive any portion of that 
 satisfaction and advantage from the perusal, which he has 
 done from the composition of the Memoir, they will not 
 have read, nor he written, in vain. 
 
 Essex House, 
 July 16/A, 1812, 
 
 POSTSCRIPT TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 THE Author has republished the Memoirs of Mr. Lindsey with- 
 out any material alteration, excepting the addition of an Appen- 
 dix to the Ninth Chapter. This Chapter having been republished 
 separately in America, gave rise to a warm controversy at Boston 
 and in its vicinity: which, though it does not make it necessary 
 to introduce any considerable change in the state of facts, has 
 rendered it expedient for the Author, in his own vindication, to 
 show that he has not used his terms in any new or unusual sense ; 
 and much less that he has affected to set himself up as the head 
 of a religious party, 
 
 Essex House, 
 March '23tt, 1820.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ACCOUNT of Mr. Lirulsey from the time of his birth to his et- 
 tlement at Catterick, in Yorkshire. 
 
 Mr. Lindsey born at Middlewich, p. 1 . early noticed and patronized by 
 Lady Betty and Lady Ann Hastings, p. 2.-^and by Lady Huntingdon, ibid. 
 Anecdotes of Lady Huntingdon, ibid. note. Mr. L. educated under Mr. 
 Barnard at Leeds, p. 3. spends his vacations with Lady Ann Hastings at 
 Ashby Place, ibid. where his mother when she became a widow lived and 
 died, ibid. Mr. L. admitted at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he 
 greatly distinguished himself by his proficiency and good morals, p. 4. and 
 is intrusted by the Bishop of Lincoln with the superintendancy of his grand- 
 son Richard Reynolds, Esq. which laid the foundation of long and mutual 
 friendship, ibid. Mr. L. ordained by Bishop Gibson, and presented by Sir 
 G. Wheeler to a chapel in Spital Square, p. 5. is recommended by Lord 
 Huntingdon as domestic chaplain to the Duke of Somerset, ibid. treated 
 with great kindness and friendship by the Duke and his family, p. 6. ac- 
 companies Lord Warkworth to the continent, ibid. and upon his return is 
 presented by the Earl of Northumberland to the living of Kirkby Whiske, 
 p. 7- becomes acquainted with Archdeacon Blackburne, p. 9. at the de- 
 sire of Lord Huntingdon Mr. L. resigns the living of Kirkby for that of Pid- 
 dletown, ibid. marries Miss Elsworth, ibid. begins to entertain scruples 
 concerning the Trinity, ibid. and forms a design of retiring from the 
 church, p. 10. declines the solicitations of the Duke and Dutchess of Nor- 
 thumberland to accompany them to Ireland, ibid. by the interest of Lord 
 Huntingdon he is permitted to exchange the living of Piddletown for the 
 vicarage of Catterick, p. 12. Mr. L., now become a Unitarian, reconciles 
 himself to subscribing the Articles, and using the Liturgy, p. 12. his rea- 
 sons for this conduct stated by himself, p. 14. shelters himself under Dr. 
 Wallis's account of the Trinity sanctioned by the University of Oxford, p. 17- 
 but upon reflection does not approve his own conduct, p. 19. Mr. Lind- 
 sey's manner of performing his parochial duties at Catterick, where he con- 
 tinues ten years, ibid. Mrs. Cappe's testimony to his zeal and success, p. 21 . 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 From Mr, Lindsey's settlement at Catterick, to his resignation 
 of that vicarage A. D. 1773. 
 
 Mr. Lindsey becomes dissatisfied with his reasons for conformity, p. 23. 
 he is introduced by Archdeacon Blackburne to Mr. Turner of WakefieU, 
 and Dr. Priestley, p. 24. State of Mr. L.'s feelings, p. 27. Dissenters not 
 likely to receive him cordially, p. 28. Cowper's censure and Orton's ap- 
 plause of Mr. L.'s conduct, ibid. note. Mr. L. not satisfied with altering the 
 church service, p. 30. Resolves upon resignation of his living, p. 31. is 
 encouraged by the example of the ejected ministers, p. 32. and of Dr. W. 
 Robertson, ibid. Mr. L. defers his resignation on account of the clerical 
 petition, p. 34 Origin of this petition, ibid. Mr. L.'s great exertions to.
 
 Vlii CONTENTS. 
 
 procure signatures to it, p. 35. the number small, but respectability great, 
 p. 37- Mr. Lee's account of the unfavourable aspect of the case, p. 38. 
 and of the manner in which it was supported in and received by the House 
 of Commons, p. 39. Sir. George Savile's speech from Dr. Furneaux's notes, 
 p. 42. note. Mr. Lindsey'3 account of the same debate, p. 44. Mr. Pickard 
 and Dr. Furneaux take encouragement from what passed to summon the 
 general body of dissenting ministers to apply to parliament for relief from 
 subscription, p. 45. Account of the Rev. Edward Pickai d, late minister of 
 Carter Lane, ibid. note. Dissenting ministers succeed in their application, 
 p. 48. Mr. L. confirmed in his resolution by reading Calamy, ibid. deter- 
 mines that he will delay no longer, p. 50. his state of mind, p. 51. 
 preaches the assize sermon at York, p. 53. visits Alnwiek Castle, ibid. 
 reflections upon this visit, p. 54. Mr. L. communicates his intention to 
 "Archdeacon Blackburne, p. 55. to Dr. Jebb, p. 56. and to Dr. Markham, 
 his diocesan, p. 58. declines Mr. Turner's proposal of recommending him 
 to the Octagon Chapel at Liverpool, p. 59. takes leave of two of his cha- 
 pels, p. 60. and is prevailed upon to publish his Farewell Discourse, ibid. 
 note. Distress of his parishioners at parting with their minister, ibid. note. 
 Some account of Dr. Chambers, p. 62. note. Poverty of Mr. Lindsey, 
 p. 63. Dr. Markham dissuades Mr. L. from resigning his living, but in vain, 
 ibid. Mr. Lindsey resigns his vicarage, ibid. and leaves Catterick in the 
 month of December 17/3, p. 64. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 From Mr. Lindsey's resignation of Catterick, to his opening the 
 Chapel in Essex-street. 
 
 Mr. Lindsey treated with coldness by former friends, p. 64. Mr. and 
 Mrs. Lindsey visit Mrs. Harrison, p. 65. Mr. Turner, ibid. and Mr. Ma- 
 son, ibid. Mr. L. violently attacked by Dr. YV. Cooper, p. 66. note. and 
 defended by Mr. Cappe and Mr. Turner, ibid. sells his library for his sub- 
 sistence, ibid. visits Dr. Disney, p. 67- and transcribes Dr. S. Clarke's 
 "alterations in the Liturgy, ibid. visits Dr. Chambers, at Achurch, where he 
 finishes his Apology, ibid. hopes for cooperation from Dr. Jebb, p. 68. and 
 has great promises. of support in London, ibid. visits Mr. Reynolds at Pax- 
 ton, p. 70. where he hears of the death of his friend Thomas Hollis, Esq. ibid. 
 note. Mr.and Mrs. Lindsey arrive in London, p. 71. visit at Dr. Ramsden's, 
 and take lodgings in Featherstone Buildings, ibid. sell their plate to pro- 
 vide necessaries, ibid. Mr.L. soon meets with friends, ibid. Samuel Shore, 
 Esq. of Norton Hall, p. 72. Robert Newton, Esq. of Norton House, ibid. 
 note. Mr. Johnson secures the house in Essex-street, p. 73. Mr. Lindsey's 
 state of mind, ibid. declines an invitation to Norwich, p. 74- improves 
 upon Dr. Clarke's Liturgy, ibid. Obstructions threatened from the civil 
 power, p. 75. the magistrates object to licensing the chapel, p. 78. Mr. 
 Lee demands it as a matter of right, p. 79. and obtains a promise of it from 
 the bench, p. 80. which promise was not fulfilled, ibid. note. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 From the first opening of the Chapel, to the purchase of the 
 premises, and the erection of the present building in Essex- 
 street. 
 
 The chapel opened, p. 81. Account of it by Mr. Lindsey, ibid. by Mr. 
 Lee, ibid, note. Lord Le Despenccr subscribes to it, p. 82. How far Mr. 
 L, receded from the church service, ibid. Analysis of the sermon preached 
 and printed on the occasion, p. 83. Mr. L. in a manner pledges himself
 
 CONTENTS. xl 
 
 not to introduce controversy into the pulpit, p. 84. Evil consequences of 
 equivocal preaching stated and exemplified, p. 85. note. Success of doc- 
 trinal instruction, p. 86. Mr. Lindsey obliged to violate his rule, p. 87. 
 Early hearers of Mr. Lindsey, ibid. Mr. and Mrs. Rayner, ibid. Sir George 
 Savile, p. 89. Michael Dodson, Esq. ibid. Robert Martin Leake, Esq. and 
 others, ibid. Sir Barnard Turner's letter and liberal contribution, ibid. 
 Mr.L.'s great satisfaction and peace of mind, p. 90. Mr.L.'s conduct gives of- 
 fence to some of the associated clergy, p. 91. he is accused of mercenary 
 views, p. 93. his defence, ibid. Mr. Lindsey's Apology attacked by Mr. 
 Burgh, p. 94. whose work is approved by Mr. Mason and Dr. Hurd, p. 95. 
 note. he is also attacked by Mr. Bingham and Dr. Randolph, p. 96. to all 
 which he replies in the Preface to his Sequel, ibid. Mr. Lindsey publishes 
 the Sequelto his Apology, ibid. Analysis of that elaborate work, p. 96. Mr. 
 L. desires a colleague, p. 98. applies to Dr. Jebb, who declines the pro- 
 posal, p. 99. Moderate income and liberal spirit of Mr. L., ibid. note. 
 Generosity of Mr. Smith, now Lord Carrington, and others, ibid. Mr. L. 
 applies to other clergymen- to join him in the chapel service, but without 
 success, p. 100. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 From the erection of the building in Essex-street, to the appoint- 
 m^nt of Dr. Disney to be the colleague of Mr. Lindsey iu 
 1783. 
 
 House and chapel erected in Essex-street, p. 100. Mrs. Lindsey's acti- 
 vity and zeal, p. 101. note. Brief account of William Tayleur, Esq. of 
 Shrewsbury, p. 102. of Richard Kirwan, Esq. P.R.S.I. p. 104. Mr. L. in 
 quiet possession of his dwelling-house and chapel, p. 105. seized with a 
 dangerous fever, p. 106. his reflections upon recovery, ibid. The author's 
 reflections upon his first hearing Mr. Lindsey preach in 1779, p. 107. Mr. 
 L. no party writer, but a zealous whig in politics, and opposer of the Ame- 
 rican war, p. 108. publishes his two Dissertations on the Preface to St. 
 John's Gospel, and on Prayer to Christ, p. 110. with a Postscript by Dr. 
 Jebb, p. 111. Mr. L. publishes The Catechist, p. 112. regrets the title, 
 which has misled many as to the intention of the work, ibid, note. Analy- 
 sis and specimen of The Catechist, p. 113. Dr. Disney unexpectedly offers 
 to join Mr. L. in his labours in Essex-street, p. 114. the proposal embraced 
 with joy by Mr. L., ibid. Mr. L.'s liberality, p. 115. and Mrs. Rayner's e>i- 
 traordinary generosity upon this occasion, ibid. Mr. L.'s communication to 
 Dr. Toulmin, ibid. Great prosperity of the Unitarian congregation at Bir- 
 mingham, under the care of the Rev. Dr. Toulmin and the Rev. J. Kentish, 
 ibid. note. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Mr. Lindsey publishes the Historical View. Some account of 
 Dr. William Robertson. Society for promoting the knowledge 
 of the Scriptures. 
 
 Mr. L. publishes an Historical View of the Unitarian Doctrine and Wor- 
 ship, p. 117. the execution different from the original plan, ibid. note. to 
 be regretted that he did not accomplish his design of treating on the pleas 
 of Unitarians for attending Trinitarian worship, ibid. note. Design of the 
 work, p. 1 19. Analysis of its contents, ibid. Bishop Law's letter of thank:-, 
 p. 121 . note. sends Mr. L. a present of a new edition of his Theory, purged 
 from prejudices relative to the pre-existence of Christ, ibid. note. Dr. Ro- 
 bertson's death, ibid. interesting account of that venerable confessor, by
 
 X CONTENTS. 
 
 Thomas Ilollis, F,:sq. under tin- .signature of Pierce Driver, ibid. Bishop 
 of Feriis's (afterwards Primate Robinson) remarks \ipon Dr. Robcrtson'i 
 scruples, p. 123. Dr. R. appointed by the Merchant Taylors' Company to 
 the Free Grammar School at Wolverhampton, p. 124. Extraordinary ge- 
 nerosity of a country clergyman, Rev. W. Hopkins, to Dr. 11. ibid. note. 
 Dr. R. applied to by Mr. L. to become his colleague in Essex-street, p. 125. 
 declines it on account of a threatened prosecxition at Wolverhampton, which 
 he determines to brave, p. 126. his admirable letter upon the occasion, 
 ibid. reflections, p. 127- happy termination of the affair, p. 128. Apology 
 for Dr. R.'s violent expressions against the Catholics, which do not apply 
 to present times, p. 130. note. Institution of a Society for promoting the 
 knowledge of the Scriptures, p. 131. Plan drawn up by Dr. Jebb, ibid. 
 does not succeed according to expectation, ibid. publishes two volumes of 
 Commentaries and Essays, p. 132. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Controversy with Robert Robinson. Analysis of the Vindiciae 
 Priestleyanae. Misunderstanding and reconciliation with Dr. 
 Price. 
 
 Rev. Robert Robinson publishes a Plea for the Divinity of Christ, p. 133. 
 plausible and candid, but weak and trivial, ibid. much applauded both 
 by churchmen and dissenters, p. 134. Dr. Furneaux and Dr. Kippis not 
 dazzled by it, p. 135. Archdeacon Blackburne thinks it unanswerable, ibid. 
 Mr. Lindsey urged to reply to it, p. 137. publishes an Examination of 
 Mr. Robinson's Plea, p. 138. analysis of the work, ibid. complete success 
 of the Reply, p. 140. Mr. Robinson stung by the answer, ibid. but con- 
 vinced, and becomes a decided Anti-trinitarian, p. 141. Mr. Robinson no 
 enemy to Scripture criticism, though he sometimes expresses himself un- 
 guardedly, ibid. note. Uncertainty as to Mr. R.'s final sentiments, but pro- 
 bably perfectly Unitarian, p. 142. certainly no Arian, p. 144. note. Mr. 
 R.'s friends do not allow that he was a proper Unitarian, ibid. Mr. Lindsey 
 publishes his Vindiciae Priestleyanae, p. 146. The reasons which induced 
 him, ibid. Analysis of the work, p. 147. Mr. Kirwan's testimony to Dr. 
 P.'s talents, ibid. Mr. L.'s character of P. Courayer, p. 149. and of Bishop 
 Butler, p. 150. Bishop Butler's letter to the Dutchess of Somerset, and 
 Her Grace's remarks, ibid. note. Mr. L.'s testimony to the benevolence of 
 the Creator, p. 152. Offensive remark with respect to Dr. Price, p. 153. 
 Dr. Price's letter, ibid. and Mr. Lindsey's reply and retractation, p. 154. 
 the misunderstanding cleared up, ibid. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Analysis of Mr. Lindsey's second Address. Dr. Watts an Uni- 
 tarian. Mr. Lindsey's alarm at Dr. Priestley's bold assertions, 
 and ultimate conversion to his doctrines. 
 
 Mr. Lindsey publishes a second Address to the Students of Oxford and 
 Cambridge, p. 156. Analysis of the work, p. 157. proves Justin Martyr 
 to have been the inventor of the commonly-received doctrine of the Logos, 
 p. 158. Catalogue of false readings published separately, p. 160. Dr. 
 Watts believed by many to be a Socinian, p. 161. probably did not believe 
 himself to be one, p. 1(!2. his last papers destroyed contrary to the judge- 
 ment of Dr. Doddridge, ibid. his pathetic address to the Deity, p. 163. 
 Dr. Lardner believed Dr. Watts to be a proper Unitarian, ibid, note. he 
 assigns bis reasons in a letter to the Rev. Samuel Merivalcj ibid. Mr. L,
 
 CONTENTS. XI 
 
 disapproves of Dr. Priestley's language concerning the inspiration of Moses 
 and of Christ, p. 164. his letter to Mr. Cappe, p. 166. Dr. Priestley de- 
 fended, p. 167- and freedom of discussion vindicated, p. 168. Mr. L. fur- 
 ther disapproves of Dr. Priestley's rejection of the Miraculous Conception, 
 p. 171- and repeatedly urges Mr. Cappe to reply, p. 172. Mr. Cappe de- 
 clines the task which he had given reason to expect he would undei take, 
 p. 175. Mr. L., upon further consideration, inclines to Dr. P.'s hypothesis, 
 p. 176. Mr. Cappe's final judgement unknown, ibid. note. 
 
 C HAPTER IX. 
 
 Unitarian Liturgy adopted by the congregation at the King's Cha- 
 pel at Boston in New England. Mr. Lindsey corresponds with 
 Dr. Freeman, Mr. Vanderkemp, &c. Progress and present 
 state of the Unitarian churches in America. 
 
 Mr. Lindsey is informed that an Unitarian Liturgy is adopted at Boston in 
 New England, p. 178. Mr. (now Dr.) Freeman expresses regret that it 
 is not more perfect, ibid. note. a new edition, cleared from exceptionable 
 phrases, printed in 181 1, ibid. Dr. Freeman at a loss for episcopal ordina- 
 tion, p. 179. ordained by his own society after a form recommended by 
 Governor Bowdoin, p. 180. an example of Bishop Seabury's mode of ordi- 
 nation satisfies the scruples of Mr. Freeman's friends, 181. note. Dr. 
 Styles's reply to a claim of precedence by Bishop Seabury, ibid. Mr. Gary 
 associated as a colleague with Dr. Freeman, p. 181. Mr. Gary dies of a de- 
 cline in England, p. 182. note. Mr. L. presents Dr. Priestley's works to 
 Harvard College, p. 182. Men of eminence in America Unitarians in prin- 
 ciple, p. 183. note. Unitarian congregation formed at Portland, under Mr. 
 Oxnard, ibid. and at Saco, under the auspices of Mr. Thacher, a gentle- 
 man cf great respectability, p. 184. Hopes formed which events have not 
 justified, p. 186. Mr. Bentley of Salem a declared Unitarian, p. 187- 
 Progress of the Unitarian doctrine, ibid. Dr. Freeman's excellent letter to 
 Mr. Lindsey upon Mr. L.'s resignation, p. 188. apprehensive that he may 
 have been too sanguine in his expectations, p. 1 90. Unitarianism in North- 
 umberland and Philadelphia, ibid. at Oldenbarneveld under Mr. Vander- 
 kemp and Colonel Mappa, 191. Case of the Rev. J. Sherman, minister 
 of Mansfield in Connecticut, p. 192. becomes an Unitarian, ibid. his 
 reasons for professing his sentiments, ibid. note. is approved by a great ma- 
 jority of his congregation, p. 193. but disowned by the Association of mi- 
 nisters, p. 194. and by a Mutual Council dismissed from his church, p. 195. 
 Form of Independent churches, ibid. note. Reflections, p. 197- Mr. 
 Sherman's friends wish to retain him, p. 200. but he removes to Olden- 
 barneveld, ibid. from which situation he retires in 1810, p. 203. The si- 
 milar case of the Rev. Abiel Abbot, expelled by the Consociation under a 
 charge of heresy in 181 1, p. 198. note. appeals to a Mutual Council, p. 199. 
 Dr. Osgood's just remarks, ibid. the Mutual Council dissolves the con- 
 nexion between Mr. Abbot and his congregation, ibid. Mr. Abbot's pru- 
 dence and moderation, p. 200. State of Unitarianism in the district of 
 Maine, p. 204. Promising state of the University of Cambridge under the 
 direction of Dr. Kirkland, ibid. Griesbach's Greek Testament, published by 
 the Rev. J. E. Buckminster, p. 205. and the Improved Version by Mr. W. 
 \Vclls, ibid. Curious account of the present state of the town of Boston, in 
 a letter from a gentleman in America to his friend in England, p. 205. note. 
 Reflections, p<. 208. note. 
 
 Appendix to CHAP. IX. -Controversy excited at Boston by the facts 
 stated in the preceding chapter, p. 209. Professed Unitarians in America
 
 Xli CONTENTS. 
 
 disclaim being such in Mr. B.'s sense of the word, p. 210. Mr. B. uses the" 
 word in the sense of Lardner, Lindsey, and Priestley, ibid. Arians in the 
 proper sense of the word maintain a plurality of Cods, p. 211. in express 
 contradiction to Scripture they deny worship to their Maker, p. 212. and 
 confine it to their Maker's maker, a being unknown to the sacred writers, 
 ibid. Extraordinary fact that Arians now deny worship to their Maker, ibid. 
 note. Different feelings of the author when an Arian, ibid. Remarks on 
 practical and doctrinal preaching, p. 212. Success of Unitarianism in 
 America, p. 213. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Account of the New College at Hackney. The Author's intro- 
 duction to and intimacy with Mr. Lindsey and Dr. Priestley. 
 London Unitarian Society. Western Unitarian Society. Re- 
 verend Timothy Kenrick. Unitarian Fund Society. 
 
 Origin of the New College at Hackney, p. 214. zealously supported by 
 the Dissenters, p. 215. causes of its failure, p. 216. remaining funds, 
 p. 217. the author of the Memoir becomes connected with the Institution 
 at Hackney, p. 218. brief account of the Institution supported by the be- 
 quest of William Coward, Esq. ibid. note. The author appointed divinity 
 tutor at Daventry, ibid. mode of lecturing on the Unitarian controversy, 
 p. 219. the effect of it upon his pupils, p. 220. and himself, p. 221. 
 becomes an Unitarian, and resigns his office, p. 222. introduces himself 
 to Mr. Lindsey, ibid. appointed a tutor at Hackney, p. 223. becomes 
 intimate with Mr. L., p. 224. Dr. Priestley, driven from Birmingham by 
 the riots, is chosen successor to Dr. Price, p. 225. the author's frequent 
 intercourse with Mr. Lindsey and Dr. Priestley, ibid. Unitarian Society 
 formed, p. 226. disputes concerning the preamble, p. 22/. first annual 
 dinner, p. 229. political toasts, p. 230. animadverted upon by Mr. Burke 
 in the House of Commons, ibid. the Society disavows all political views, 
 p. 231. its growing prosperity, ibid. Western Unitarian Society formed, 
 p. 232. Brief account of the late Rev. Timothy Kenrick, ibid. his zeal 
 and success as a minister, tutor, and an advocate for truth, p. 233. his sud- 
 den and lamented decease, ibid. his family and his posthumous works, 
 p. 234. Southern Unitarian Society, ibid. Unitarian Fund Society, p. 235. 
 its great success, ibid. present state of the London Unitarian Society, 
 p. 236. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Analysis of the Conversations upon Christian Idolatry. The 
 Duke of Grafton corresponds with and visits Mr. Lindsey, and 
 attends Unitarian worship. A brief account of the progress 
 of the Duke's opinions, and of his reasons for seceding from 
 the Established Church. Reflections. 
 
 Circumstances which gave rise to the Conversations upon Christian Ido- 
 latry, p. 237. account of the characters introduced, ibid. Analysis of the 
 work, ibid. Trinitarians acknowledge themselves to be Idolaters, if their 
 doctrine is false, p. 240. note. Remarks upon the conduct of the dialogue, 
 ]). 243. Duke of Grafton attends Mr. Lindsey 's ministry, p. 244. The 
 Duke's reasons for inquiry, ibid. becomes ah Unitarian, and corresponds 
 confidentially with Mr. Lindsey, p. 245. requests permission to visit Mr. 
 L. p. 246. continues firm to his principles to the end of life, ibid. takes 
 memorandums of the progress of his mind, ibid. of which he prints a few
 
 CONTENTS. X111 
 
 copies for the use of his family and friends, ibid. continues to hold com- 
 munion with the Established Church, p. 247- his reasons for this conduct, 
 p. 248. remarks, ibid. the Duke's humility, p. 249. perplexed about the 
 doctrine of atonement, ibid. believes Christ can hear and help, but disap- 
 proves of prayer to him, p. 250. rejects the perpetual inspiration of the 
 apostles and evangelists, ibid. and the doctrine of original sin, p. 251. 
 God reconciled by repentance, ibid. unintelligible doctrines not essential, 
 ibid. natural arguments for the immortality of the soul unsatisfactory, p. 252. 
 the Duke vindicates his secession from the church, ibid. Reflections upon 
 the fortitude and the strength of principle in the Duke of Grafton, p. 254. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Mr. Lindsey publishes a new and reformed edition of his Liturgy; 
 resigns his office in Essex-street Chapel. His Farewell Sermon 
 printed, but not preached. Interests himself for those who suf- 
 fered by unjust prosecutions. Cases of Fyshe Palmer, Muir, 
 and Winterbotham. 
 
 Mr. Lindsey 's resolution to resign his office at the age of seventy, p. 257. 
 publishes a new edition of his reformed Liturgy, omitting the Apostles' 
 Creed, and the three invocations in the Litany, ibid. preaches and pub- 
 lishes a sermon upon the occasion, vindicating the alterations, ibid. this 
 Liturgy changed for Dr. Disney's, p. 260. but resumed, ibid. Mr. Lind- 
 sey's letter of resignation, ibid. he recommends Dr. Disney as his succes- 
 sor, p. 261. Reply of the Trustees, p. 262. Mr. Lindsey publishes a ser- 
 mon upon the occasion, which his feelings would not permit him to preach, 
 ibid. On the great importance of the Unitarian doctrine, p. 263,-^interest- 
 ing conclusion, p. 265. Mr. L. justified in resigning, though in the vigour 
 of his powers, p. 266. still continues to reside in Essex-House, p. 267- note. 
 Mr. Lindsey interests himself for those who were under State-prosecu- 
 tions, p. 268. Singularly hard case of Mr. Fyshe Palmer and of Mr. Muir, 
 ibid. their sentence reprobated abroad, p. 270. legality of it questioned in. 
 the House of Commons, p. 271. sent among felons to Botany Bay, p. 272. 
 and treated with great rigour, ibid. Mr. Fyshe Palmer dies on his re- 
 turn, p. 273. Rev. W. Winterbotham's unjust sentence, ibid. his suffer- 
 ings mitigated by the kindness of Mr. Lindsey, Mrs. Rayner, and others, 
 p. 274. Mr. W. acknowledges his great obligation to Mr. Lindsey, ibid. note. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Dr. Priestley emigrates to America. His reasons for this mea- 
 sure. Mr. Lindsey's judgement in the case. Dr. Priestley's 
 Farewell Sermon at Hackney. Letters to Mr. Lindsey from 
 Gravesend, Deal, and Falmouth. Arrives at New York. Re- 
 ception in America. 
 
 Dr. Priestley determines upon emigration to America, p. 275. assigns 
 his reason in the Appendix to his Fast Sermon, ibid. Remarks, p. 278. 
 Dr. Priestley hopes to return to England, ibid. note. Mr. Lindsey approves 
 Dr. P.'s resolution of going to America, p. 2/9. Dr. Priestley takes his 
 passage on board the Sansom, p. 280. delivers an excellent Farewell Dis- 
 course at Hackney, p. 281. Analysis of the discourse, ibid. expresses, in 
 conversation with the author of the Memoir, his firm expectation of the 
 speedy personal appearance of Christ, p. 286. note. passes his last Sunday 
 iij Essex-street, and hears a,n impressive discourse from Dr. Touluiin, p. 286.
 
 XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 Dr. Priestley goes to Gravesend, p. 287. Letter from Gravesend, Hml. 
 fj-om Deal, p. 288. from off Fulinou'li, p. 289. from New York, p. 290. 
 giving an account of his passage, ibid. and his reception in America, 
 p. 29.3. Letter from Mr. Henry Wansey to Mr. Lindsey, giving some ac- 
 count of Dr. Priestley's reception at NYw York, p. 293. note. Dr. Priestley 
 accompanies his son to Philadelphia, p. 296. and to Northumberland, ibid. 
 projected settlement on the Loyalsoc, p. 294. note. Dr. Priestley refuses 
 offers of preferment, and fixes his residence at Northumberland, to the great 
 regret of his friends, p. 296. but with an ultimate beneficial effect to the 
 cause, ibid. he keeps up a regular correspondence with Mr. Lindsey, p. 297- 
 his death, p. 298. 
 
 CHAFFER XIV. 
 
 Dr. Priestley's Reply to Paine's Age of Reason ; reprinted in 
 England by Mr. Lindsey, with a Preface in vindication of Dr. 
 Priestley's character. Mr. Lindsey republishes another work of 
 Dr. Priestley's, with a short preface. Dr. Priestley's acknow- 
 ledgement of Mr. Lindsey's kindness. Analysis of Mr. Lind- 
 sey's last publication, entitled Conversations upon the Divine 
 Government. 
 
 Paine's Age of Reason makes great impression in America, p. 298. Dr. 
 Priestley replies to it immediately after his arrival, p. 299. Mr. Lindsey re- 
 prints the work in England, with a preface in defence of Dr. Priestley, ibid. 
 Analysis of the preface, p. 300. Dr. Priestley esteemed and beloved by 
 many, ibid. hostility to him accounted for, p. 301. Bishop Kurd's illiberal 
 reflections upon the Unitarians censured, p. 302. Mrs. Barbauld's elegant 
 verses addressed to Dr. Priestley, ibid. note. Falsehoods circulated con- 
 cerning him in England, ibid. and America, p. 303. Mr. Lindsey's reflec- 
 tions on the prostituted talents of the editors of The British Critic in giving 
 currency to foul calumnies, p. 304. Dr. Priestley's acknowledgements to his 
 friend, p. 305. note. Mr. L. reprints Dr. Priestley's treatise on the know- 
 ledge which the Hebrews had of a future state ; with a preface, p. 305. 
 Dr. Priestley's thanks, and testimony to the value of religion, ibid. note. 
 Mr.Lindsey publishes his Conversations on the Divine Government, p. 306. 
 dedication, ibid. design of the work, p. 307. First Conversation, ibid. 
 Photinus argues, that miracles result from general laws, p. 308. Re- 
 marks, p. 309. Second Conversation, p. 310. Photinus argues the good- 
 ness of the divine government, ibid. Third Conversation, ibid. Photinus 
 defends the Mosaic history, p. 31 1. The author rather too peremptory on 
 this point, ibid. Extermination of the Canaanites considered, p. 312. Im- 
 perfection of heathen philosophy, p. 314. Superior excellence of the Go- 
 spel, ibid. depraved by Mohammed, who was at first sincere, p. 315. Mo- 
 ral state of the world better than it is sometimes represented, p. 316. 
 Archbishop King's original and valuable observations upon this subject, 
 p. 317. note. Fourth Conversation most important, ibid. Marcellinus 
 wishes to see it proved, that natural and moral evil are of divine appoint- 
 ment, and permitted for goad, p. 318. Photinus undertakes the proof, ibid. 
 Volusian is delighted with the conclusion, and laments the errors of Fre- 
 deric and D'Alembert, p. 320. Photinus endeavours to reconcile this doc- 
 trine with the responsibility of man, ibid. a different solution proposed, 
 p. 322. In the Fifth Conversation Synesius recants his errors concerning 
 the Mosaic history, p. 324. refutes the doctrine of eternal torments, p. 325. 
 and defends the theory of universal salvation, ibid. in which Photinus 
 concurs, ibid. In the Sixth Conversation Synesius argues to the satisfac-
 
 CONTENTS. XV 
 
 tion of his friends against the existence of such a being as the devil, p. 326. 
 The author'* remarks upon Mr. Liudsey's last work, p. 328. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Mr. Lindsey suffers a paralytic seizure, but recovers. Dr. Priest- 
 ley's reflections upon the situation of his friend, and upon Mr. 
 Lindsey's last work. Mr. Lindsey interests himself in the ap- 
 pointment of the author to the chapel in Essex-street. En- 
 courages and assists the Improved Version. His gradual decline 
 and death. Conclusion of the Work. 
 
 Mr. Lindsey is seized first with a slight and afterwards with a violent pa- 
 ralytic affection, p. 330. from which he recovers so far as to he able to 
 finish his last publication, p. 331. Dr. Priestley's feelings upon the occa- 
 sion expressed in a letter to Mrs. Lindsey, ibid. and in another to Mr. 
 L. p. 333. His joy at receiving a letter in Mr. L.'s own hand-writing, 
 p. 335. Reflections of the author upon this correspondence, p. 337. Let- 
 ter from Mr. Jefferson to Dr. Priestley, p. 338. note. Dr. P.'s letter to Mrs. 
 Lindsey, and testimony to the distinguished excellence of that lady's cha- 
 racter, p. 340. Plan of a subscription to defray the expense of Dr. Priest- 
 ley's Church History, and Notes on the Scriptures, p. 341. note. Bishop 
 of Elphin's letter and liberal subscription, p. 342. Letter of thanks from 
 the Rev. C. Wyvill for Mr. L.'s Conversations on the Divine Government, 
 p. 344. Dr. Priestley's death, p. 345. Mr. Lindsey interests himself in 
 the appointment of the writer to Essex-street chapel, on the resignation of 
 Dr. Disney, p. 346. and renews his attendance at the chapel, ibid. Mr. L. 
 takes great interest in the publication of the Improved Version of the New 
 Testament by the Unitarian Society, p. 347. Dr. Priestley's original plan 
 of a continually improving translation of the Scriptures, in 1789, ibid. 
 great progress made in the undertaking, p. 348. stopped by the destruc- 
 tion of Dr. Priestley's papers at the Birmingham riots, p. 349. Unitarian 
 Society take up the design, ibid. resolve, at the General Meeting in 1806, 
 to carry it into immediate execution, ibid. reasons for adopting Archbishop 
 Newcome's Translation as the basis, p. 350. Bishop of Killala's expostula- 
 tion with the author of the Memoir upon this subject, p. 352. note. rea- 
 sons for the introduction of explanatory note?, p. 352. zeal with which this 
 undertaking was supported, p. 354. liberal subscriptions by Mr. Lindsey, 
 the Duke of Grafton, and Mr. Prime, ibid. Mr. William Smith distributes 
 many copies with a judicious preface for the use of students, ibid. note. Ob- 
 jections to the Improved Version, and answers, p. 355. Mr. Lindsey ap- 
 proves the execution of the Work, and takes great pleasure in reading it, 
 p. 359. His health declines rapidly, p. 360. his last sickness, ibid. and 
 death, p. 361 . Brief recapitulation of his character, p. 362. Reflections of 
 the author, ibid. Death of Mrs. Lindsey, p. 363. and of Mrs. Jebb, ibid.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 I. Letters of the Dutchess of Somerset to Mr. Lindsey, p. 365. 
 II. Letters of the Countess (afterwards Dutchess) of Northumberland, 
 p. 374. 
 
 III. Letters of Archdeacon Blackburne, p. 376. 
 Letter from Thomas Hollis, Esq. p. 380. 
 
 IV. Letter of Hans Stanley, Esq. refusing to support the Petition of the 
 
 Clergy, p. 381. 
 Correspondence between Mr. Lindsey and Dr. Markham, then bishop 
 
 of Chester, on Mr. Lindsey's resignation, p. 384. 
 V. Letters to Mr. Lindsey upon his resignation of the vicarage of Cat- 
 
 terick, p. 388. 
 VI. Letter* of Thomas Hollis, Esq., under the assumed name of Pierce 
 
 Delver, p. 391. 
 
 VII. Letters of the Rev. William Hopkins, p. 392. 
 IX. Letter of P. Courayer, p. 399. 
 X. Letter from William Wells, Esq., with some account of the present 
 
 state of the Unitarians in New England, p. 401 . 
 XI. Letter of the Rev. Thomas Fyshe Palmer, giving an account of his 
 
 cruel treatment on board the Surprize, p. 403. 
 
 XII. Letters from Dr. Priestley to Mr. Lindsey; and from Thomas Jefler- 
 son, Esq., President of the United States, to Dr. Priestley, p. 406. 
 XIII. List of Mr. Lindsey's publications, p. 422.
 
 MEMOIRS 
 
 OF THE LATE 
 
 REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ACCOUNT OF MR. LINDSEY FROM THE TIME OF HIS BIRTH 
 TO HIS SETTLEMENT AT CATTERICK, IN YORKSHIRE. 
 
 JL HE Reverend Theophilus Lindsey was born at Mid- 
 <llewich, in Cheshire, June 20, 1723, O, S. His father, 
 Robert Lindsey, descended from an ancient family in 
 Scotland, was a mercer in that town, and also possessed 
 a lucrative concern in the salt-works in that neighbour- 
 hood. He was a man of excellent character, and origi- 
 nally in easy circumstances ; but through the imprudence 
 of an elder son by his first wife, whom he had admitted 
 into partnership, his property was considerably reduced. 
 His second wife, the mother of the subject of this me- 
 moir, was a lady of exemplary character. Her maiden 
 name was Spencer ; she was distantly related to the 
 Marlborough family, and previously to her marriage had 
 lived upwards of twenty years in the family of Frances, 
 Countess of Huntingdon. By Mr. Robert Lindsey this 
 lady had three children, the youngest of whom was named 
 after his godfather Theophilus, Earl of Huntingdon, the 
 son of the above-mentioned lady, and the. husband of 
 Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, so well known as the 
 >* B
 
 2 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [ CH ' l " 
 
 zealous and liberal patroness of Mr. Whitfield and the 
 Calvinistic Methodists *. 
 
 Lady Betty and Lady Ann Hastings, the kind friends 
 of Mrs. Lindsey, who had lived with them from their 
 childhood, soon remarked the ingenuous temper, the pro- 
 mising talents, the love of learning, and the serious spirit 
 of her youngest son, and took him under their own im- 
 mediate patronage. From a school in the neighbour- 
 hood of Middlewich, at which he had made considerable 
 proficiency in proportion to the advantages which he en- 
 joyed, they removed him to Leeds, and placed him under 
 the care of the Reverend Mr. Barnard, master of the free 
 
 grammar school in that town ; a gentleman of great emi- 
 
 
 
 * With this very respectable lady Mr. Lindsey lived many years in habits 
 of friendship. And though after his secession from the established church, 
 and the public avowal of his theological principles, all personal intercourse 
 was for many years suspended, yet when Mr.' and Mrs. Lindsey, in the sum- 
 mer of 1786, called upon Lady Huntingdon at Talgarth, in Wales, they 
 were received, as he expresses it in a letter to a friend, " most graciously, as 
 usual." Not only did she direct that every possible attention should be 
 shown them in their visit to her Academical Institution in the neighbourhood,, 
 but she earnestly pressed them to prolong their stay. With her old and much 
 respected friend she had much serious conversation; and seemed particularly 
 impressed with a hint which Mr. Lindsey threwout, in reference to a dear and 
 only surviving son, of the safety of whose final state her ladyship entertained 
 the most painful apprehensions, that possibly the state of future punishment 
 might be only a process of severer discipline, and that the greatest sinners 
 might ultimately find mercy. And when they parted, she took a most affec- 
 tionate leave of them, and gave them her kind maternal benediction, express- 
 ing atthe same time her hope of meetingthem in a betterworld. "Some good 
 I hope is done," says Mr. L. to his correspondent above referred to, "where 
 much is intended, by this praiseworthy lady, who has, for full forty years, de- 
 voted her fortunes, time, and labours to promote, what she believes to be the 
 truth : though I cannot but hope it will be a place for more rational enquirers 
 after she drops into her grave." This venerable lady was at that time "turned 
 eighty, but hale and sensible for that age." And though she might for a 
 moment be soothed by a glimpse of hope of the ultimate restoration of a 
 darling child, it was not to be expected thatMr.Lindsey's conversation would 
 make any permanent impression upon her mind. He afterwards speaks of 
 his aged friend as " still in the depths of mysticism and methodism, though 
 she was become more moderate towards those who held different opinions." 
 Nor does it appear that any material change ever took place in Lady Hunting- 
 don's, religious views, though the abuse of her generosity by some persons in 
 whom she had placed a confidence which they did not deserve, made it ne- 
 cessary for her, in some measure, to restrain her munificence, and gave rise 
 to a report that she had deserted the methodist connexion.
 
 CH. I.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 3 
 
 nence both for learning and piety, who devoted himself 
 wholly to the honourable and arduous duties of his pro- 
 fession ; and to whose superior talents and exemplary 
 assiduity his grateful pupil was wont to ascribe, under 
 divine Providence, not only all his literary attainments, 
 but almost all that was honourable and right in his per- 
 sonal character. To the edifying instructions of Mr. 
 Barnard, in concurrence with the impressions of his 
 earlier domestic education, Mr. Lindsey was indebted 
 for that ardent love of truth, that firm integrity, that pu- 
 rity of spirit, that early and deeply rooted principle of 
 piety, by which he was so eminently distinguished. 
 
 His vacations were usually spent at the mansion of 
 his noble patronesses, in the vicinity of Leeds, during the 
 life of Lady Betty Hastings, and after her decease, at 
 Ashby Place, near Ashby de la Zouch, in Leicestershire, 
 where Lady Ann then fixed her residence. To this 
 house, likewise, Mrs. Lindsey removed, together with 
 her only daughter, at the invitation of Lady Ann Hast- 
 ings, after the decease of her husband in the year 1742, 
 where she continued to reside with her noble and pious 
 friend till her death, which took place A.D. 1/47, after 
 having been gratified by the accomplishment of the first 
 wish of her heart, that of seeing her son in the pulpit. 
 Over the remains of this exemplary lady a neat monu- 
 ment was erected in Ashby churchyard, with an inscrip- 
 tion, purporting that "while a child she had been the 
 play-fellow, and a widow, the friend of Lady Ann Hast- 
 ings, who erected that monument to her memoiy, and 
 was a sincere and affectionate mourner for her death." 
 
 With these advantages, public and domestic, for im- 
 provement both in learning and piety, in concurrence 
 with a temperament cast in the happiest mould, "having," 
 as he expresses it in the modest account of himself an- 
 
 B2
 
 4 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. I. 
 
 nexed to his Apology on resigning the vicarage of Cat- 
 terick, "been impressed from early youth with a love of 
 truth and virtue, a fear of God and desire to approve 
 himself to him, which never left him;" and having been 
 well instructed in classical literature, Mr. Lindsey was 
 well qualified for the university, and was admitted as a 
 student at St. John's College, in Cambridge, May 21, 
 1741, in the eighteenth year of his age. Here his lite- 
 rary attainments and exemplary conduct soon attracted 
 general notice and admiration. And when the late learn- 
 ed and pious Dr. Reynolds, bishop of Lincoln, being de- 
 sirous of sending his grandson, a promising youth of 
 fifteen, to the university, inquired after some senior stu- 
 dent under whose care he might place him, to assist his 
 studies and to protect his morals at that early age, Mr. 
 Lindsey was the person recommended for the office. This 
 circumstance laid the foundation for a firm and tender 
 friendship, founded upon a thorough knowledge of each 
 other's character, and a consequent mutual affection and 
 esteem, which continued without interruption to the end 
 of Mr. Lindsey' s life; and the recollection of which is 
 cherished by the venerable and grateful survivor as one 
 of the best blessings which heaven bestowed upon him. 
 Mr. Reynolds, after having finished his education at the 
 university, was taken by the late Lord Sandwich as his 
 private secretary to Aix la Chapelle, Where he remained 
 during the negotiation of the celebrated treaty which 
 takes its name from that city. After his return to En- 
 gland, declining the engagements of public life, he retired 
 to his estate at Little Paxton, in Huntingdonshire. There 
 he still resides (1812) ; and amidst the high estimation 
 in which he is universally and deservedly held both for 
 his public and his private virtues, he justly regards it as 
 not the least of his honours to be known as one of the
 
 CH. I.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 5 
 
 earliest friends and warmest admirers of the venerable 
 Theophilus Lindsey *. 
 
 Having passed through his academical course and taken 
 his degrees with high reputation, Mr. Lindsey was elected 
 a Fellow of St. John's College in April 1 747 ; and had 
 he chosen to devote himself to literary pursuits, he was 
 well qualified to have attained considerable distinction ; 
 but his chief ambition was to be a minister of the gospel. 
 Accordingly, he relates of himself that, " after the usual 
 time spent at school and in the university, he entered 
 into the ministry of the gospel, out of a free and delibe- 
 rate choice, and with an earnest desire to promote -the 
 great ends of it. And having been educated in the esta- 
 blished church, he did, not at that time feel any scruples 
 either concerning the use of the liturgy, or subscription 
 to the articles." 
 
 Having been ordained by Dr. Gibson, the learned and 
 exemplary bishop of London, he was in the twenty-third 
 year of his age presented to a chapel in Spital Square 
 by Sir George Wheeler of Otterden Place in Kent, at 
 the recommendation of his noble sister-in-law, the un- 
 wearied friend and benefactress of Mr. Lindsey, Lady 
 Ann Hastings. 
 
 In a short time after his settlement in London, Alger- 
 non Duke of Somerset being in want of a discreet and 
 pious clergyman to officiate as his domestic chaplain, re- 
 ceived such a character of Mr. Lindsey from Francis 
 Earl of Huntingdon, the nephew of Lady Ann Hastings, 
 that he immediately invited him into his house. To 
 
 * " I recollect," says this gentleman in a letter with which he favoured 
 the writer of this memoir, " that Mr. Lindsey excelled in college exercises ; 
 that he was singularly pious; that he attended the chapel prayers, and 
 monthly received the sacrament. His manners were mild and gentle, and 
 his conversation was of a serious turn, hut agreeable, and sought by his fel- 
 low students. I have reason to believe that he obtained the highest ho- 
 nours on taking his degree, I mean Wranglership, but this I cannot posi- 
 tively assert." Mr. Reynolds died in 1814.
 
 6 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. I. 
 
 this amiable nobleman and his accomplished lady, better 
 known as the Countess of Hertford, the honoured patron- 
 ess of genius and virtue, he recommended himself to such 
 a degree, by his prudent and exemplary conduct, and by 
 the suavity of his manners, that he soon acquired the af- 
 fection and confidence of his illustrious patrons ; and du- 
 ring the short remainder of the Duke's life, who expired 
 in his arms, he was treated not with the distance and cold- 
 ness of a dependant, but with the liberality and affection 
 of a friend. 
 
 After the decease of the Duke of Somerset, Mr. 
 Lindsey continued for some time in the family of the 
 Dutchess. And at her particular and earnest request, 
 he accompanied her grandson, the late Duke of Nor- 
 thumberland, then about nine years of age, and in a de- 
 licate state of health, to the continent, where he conti- 
 nued two years ; at the expiration of which term he 
 brought his noble pupil back, restored in health and im- 
 proved in learning. 
 
 Of the kind and successful attention of Mr. Lindsey 
 to Lord Warkworth, his illustrious parents entertained 
 a just and grateful sense, and from that time they were 
 set upon advancing his interest in the church*. Nor 
 
 * See Appendix, No. I. How anxiously these noble personages were bent 
 upon making a comfortable provision in the church for their highly esteemed 
 friend, appears from the following extract of a letter from the late Dutchess, 
 then Countess of Northumberland, to Mr. Lindsey, when he resided at Pid- 
 dletown in Dorsetshire : 
 
 " I dnre not give you another invitation to come to us, though both my 
 lord and I wish much for the pleasure of seeing you, as you say it may be 
 inconvenient to your affairs. I am truly sorry that it is so, and shall be sin- 
 cerely glad to do any thing in my power to make it otherwise, and find my- 
 self really obliged to you for believing I would do so. You say, dear sir, 
 that if any small matter fell in my way for your service, you are persuaded 
 I would think of you. Of this you may be assured. At the same time, I 
 could wish you would be so good as to hint to me of what kind ; whether in 
 the chuich, or a domestic chaplainship, or a private tutor would be most 
 agreeable to you. At the same tme I must tell you, that I some years ago 
 told my lord that I desired he would give me the next presentation of Hasil- 
 bury Bryan, as 1 hoped its vicinity to Piddletown might make it agreeable 
 to you ; and upon this you may depend whenever it shall become vacant :
 
 CH. T.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 7 
 
 was his faithful superintendence lost upon the mind of 
 his noble pupil, who, to the latest hour of Mr. Lindsey's 
 life, entertained the highest esteem for his character, and 
 manifested his regard for his venerable preceptor by more 
 than empty professions. 
 
 Immediately after Mr. Lindsey's return from the con- 
 tinent, he was presented by the Earl of Northumberland 
 to the valuable rectory of Kirkby Whiske, in the north 
 riding of Yorkshire, at first under condition to resign it 
 when the person for whom it was intended came of age ; 
 but this young man dying a short time afterwards, it was 
 given to Mr. Lindsey unconditionally in the usual form. 
 And Mr. Lindsey, declining the proposal of his noble 
 patrons to accompany Lord Warkworth to Eton as his 
 private tutor, hastened down into the north to take pos- 
 session of his living, and to enter upon the office of a 
 parochial minister, which was the highest object of his 
 ambition ; this being, in his judgement, " the way in 
 which he could best serve God and be useful to man ;" 
 and which, therefore, he engaged in, " with an earnest 
 desire that he might promote these great ends of the mi- 
 nistry of the gospel*." 
 
 In this very retired situation Mr. Lindsey continued 
 
 but, in the mean while, I beg you will let me know if any of these above 
 would suit you. And if I can be of any service to you in these, or any other 
 "things, it will give me great pleasure. I will not trouble you now any longer 
 than to assure you of the sincere and affectionate friendship with which I am, 
 
 " Dear sir, 
 " Your most faithful humble servant, 
 
 "E. NORTHUMBERLAND." 
 
 It may be proper to mention here, that during his residence at the 
 Dutchess of Somerset's, Mr. Lindsey so recommended himself by his dis- 
 creet and exemplary behaviour, that a worthy and pious lady, Mrs. Pearce, 
 a friend of the Dutchess, bequeathed to him without his knowledge the next 
 presentation to the rectory of Chew Magna, near Bristol. The living be- 
 came vacant after Mr. Lindsey had left the church and was settled in Essex- 
 street. And, honourably resisting all the proposals which were made to him to 
 dispose of it to great advantage, he presentedit to a worthy clergyman, M 
 Hall, the brother-in-law of Mrs. Lindsey, who married Archdeacon Black- 
 burne's youngest daughter, and who is now (1812) the respectable incumbent. 
 * Apology, p. 217.
 
 8 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. I, 
 
 about three years ; and during his residence in. Yorkshire 
 he was introduced to the acquaintance, and became a 
 visitor in the family, of the celebrated Archdeacon Black- 
 burne, at Richmond, a circumstance to which he was 
 afterwards indebted, under divine Providence, for the 
 most valuable blessing of his life. 
 
 At the request of the Huntingdon family, who con- 
 sidered themselves as having a prior claim, which they 
 were unwilling to relinquish, to the honour of providing 
 for Mr. Lindsey, he resigned the living of Kirkby Whiske, 
 in the year 1756, in order to succeed Dr. Dawney in the 
 living of Piddletown, in Dorsetshire, which was in the 
 gift of the Earl of Huntingdon. In this place he lived 
 and laboured in his parochial and official duties with high 
 reputation for seven years. While he was minister of 
 this parish, Mr. Lindsey was married, Sept. '29, 176Q, 
 to Miss Hannah Els worth, the stepdaughter of Archdea- 
 con Blackburne*, a lady whose principles and views were 
 congenial to his own; whose superior understanding and 
 exalted virtues were eminently calculated (as her ex;cel- 
 lent consort most cheerfully acknowledged) to aid and 
 second him in all his schemes for the temporal and spi- 
 ritual benefit of his parishioners, and especially of the poor 
 and ignorant ; to go hand in hand with him in his re- 
 searches after divine truth ; to encourage him in every 
 
 * Archdeacon Blackburne, noticing this event in the memoirs of his own 
 life, prefixed to a new edition of his Works, published by his son, the Reve- 
 rend Francis Blackburne, A.D. 1804, says, "The friendship between Mr. 
 Lindsey and Mr. Blackburne was .not nearly so much cemented by this fa- 
 mily connexion, as by a similarity of sentiment in the cause of Christian 
 ltberty,nnd their aversion to ecclesiastical imposition in matters of conscience. 
 In the warfare on these subjects they went hand in hand." The Archdea- 
 con, who did not, for reasons which were afterwards published, approve of 
 the magnanimous sacrifice which his relation had made, coldly adds, that 
 " when Mr. Lindsey left Yorkshire and settled in London, Mr. Blackburne 
 \wecl to say he had lost his right arm." See Blackburiie's Works, vol. i. 
 p. 48. Upon the subject of Mr. Lindsey's marriage with Miss Elsworth see 
 an entertaining letter of the Countess, afterwards Dutchess of Northumber- 
 land, Appendix, No. II.
 
 CH. I,J REVEREND THEQPHILUS LINDSEY. 9 
 
 labour, in every profession, and in every sacrifice, to 
 which he might be prompted by a sense of duty ; and. 
 to fortify and console his mind under trials and privations 
 of no common sort, and which it required no ordinary 
 share of fortitude and magnanimity to support with dig- 
 nity and to encounter with success*. 
 
 It was whjle Mr. Lindsey resided, at Piddletown that 
 he, first began to entertain serious scruples concerning 
 the Scripture warrant for Trinitarian worship, and the 
 lawfulness of his continuing to officiate in the established 
 church. His susceptible and inquisitive mind .had, in- 
 deed, from early youth disapproved of some things in the 
 thirty-nine articles ; and even while he was at the uni- 
 versity, it struck him as .a strange unnecessary entangle- 
 ment, to put young men upon declaring and subscrib- 
 ing their approbation of, such a large heterogeneous mass 
 of positions and doctrines, as are contained in the liturgy, 
 articles, and homilies. "But," he adds,. "I was not 
 under any scruples or great uneasiness on this account. 
 I had hitherto no doubt, or rather I had never much 
 thought of or exarnmed into the doctrine of the Trinity, 
 but supposed all was right there "j." 
 
 Some years afterwards, many doubts concerning the 
 truth of this doctrine sprang up in his mind, which in- 
 duced him to study t}ie Scriptures with. very close atten- 
 tion, in order to settle his judgement and to relieve him- 
 self from a painful state of suspense upoi} a question, of 
 such high importance. The result of his learned, calm, 
 
 * Mr. Lindsey, who was deeply sensible of the high value of the inesti- 
 mable treasure which he possessed, in a letter to a friend, when he had it 
 in contemplation to resign his benefice in the church, speaks of Mrs. Lind- 
 sey as one whp was ready-to, run any hazard or loss to promote the cause of 
 truth, and that in every step which he took in this business he had the full 
 concurrence of his wife, "quse quoque currentem incitat." See .Memoirs 
 of the Reverend T. Lindsey, published in the Monthly Magazine for Dec. 
 1808, drawn up by a friend from original papers in his possession. 
 
 t Apology, p. 2 17.
 
 10 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. I. 
 
 and diligent inquiries shall be stated in his own words : 
 "The more I searched, the more I saw the little foun- 
 dation there was for the doctrine commonly received, 
 and interwoven with all the public devotions of the church, 
 and could not but be disturbed at a discovery so ill suit- 
 ing my situation. For, in the end, I became fully per- 
 suaded, to use St. Paul's express words, 1 Cor. viii. 6. 
 * that there is but one God, the Father, and he alone to 
 be worshiped.' This appeared to be the uniform unva- 
 ried language and practice of the Bible throughout: and 
 I found the sentiments and practice of Christians, in the 
 first and best ages, corresponding with it*." 
 
 The scruples excited in Mr. Lindsey's mind from the 
 result of his inquiries, gradually rose to such a height as 
 to induce him, while he lived in Dorsetshire, to take some 
 previous steps with a design to relieve himself, by quit- 
 ting his preferment in the church. The considerations 
 which chiefly weighed with him to relinquish this design 
 at that time, will be stated hereafter. It may be suffi- 
 cient for the present to observe, that self-interest and 
 worldly considerations were not the motives ; for by these, 
 as he truly observes, and as all who knew him and the 
 whole tenor of his life will testify, " he was never much 
 influenced." Beside which, "he had at that time a pro- 
 spect of not being left entirely destitute of support if he 
 had gone out of the church f." 
 
 In the year 1762, upon the resignation of the Whig 
 administration, the late Duke of Northumberland was 
 appointed to succeed the Earl of Halifax as Lord Lieu- 
 tenant of Ireland. Upon this occasion his illustrious con- 
 sort, eager to testify her regard to distinguished worth, 
 at the Duke's desire wrote immediately to Mr. Lindsey 
 to offer him the place of chaplain to the Lord Lieutenant, 
 
 * Apology, p. 218. f Ibid. p. 221.
 
 CH. I.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 11 
 
 accompanied with a request that he and Mrs. Lindsey 
 would reside with them in the vice-regal palace till some 
 preferment should offer worthy of his acceptance ; " at 
 the same time assuring him that the duke and herself 
 should consider his acquiescence as a favour conferred 
 on themselves ; that they should want the society of so 
 kind and faithful a friend in a situation so new and un- 
 tried*." That the acceptance of this offer would have 
 been a prelude to some exalted station in the church of 
 Ireland cannot admit a doubt. f But ambition of high 
 ecclesiastical dignity formed no part of Mr. Lindsey's 
 character. Eminently qualified as he was by learning 
 and piety, by prudence of conduct and politeness of man- 
 ners, to have filled and adorned the most conspicuous 
 station in the church, his humility aspired to no higher 
 preferment than that of a parochial minister. With 
 much gratitude, therefore, but with equal firmness and 
 decision, he declined the splendid offer of his noble friends, 
 and contented himself with remaining for the present in 
 his beautiful retirement in Dorsetshire. 
 
 Not, indeed, that Mr. Lindsey felt any particular pre- 
 dilection for the situation in which he was now placed, 
 however agreeable or advantageous. It was the secre* 
 wish both of him and of Mrs. Lindsey, to return to the 
 north, and to fix their residence in the vicinity of Rich- 
 
 * See the Memoir of the late Rev. Theophilus Lindsey, in the Monthly 
 Repository for December 1808, by Mrs. Cappe. This lady, the daughter of 
 Mr. Lindsey's worthy predecessor at Catterick, and the widow of the late 
 learned, pious, and eloquent Newcome Cappe of York, who is also herself 
 well known to the public by various works which equally display the superi- 
 ority of her intellect and the ardour of her piety and benevolence, was the 
 early and faithful friend of Mr. and Mrs. Lindsey : and to her great honour 
 be it known, that this lady was one of the very few who remained firmly and 
 affectionately attached to them in the season of severe trial, and who, upon 
 all occasions, came forward as their generous and intrepid advocate, when 
 many who had formerly made great professions, stood aloof, and not a few 
 were disposed to cavil and condemn. 
 
 f Dr. Dodgsan, who accepted the appointment which Mr. Lindsey de- 
 clined, was soon advanced to the bishopnck of Ossory, from which he was 
 afterwards translated to that of Elphin, where he died a few years ago.
 
 12 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. I 
 
 mond, where they might enjoy the society of many valu- 
 able friends, and particularly of the venerable Archdea- 
 con Blackburne. An opportunity for effecting this pur- 
 pose occurred in the year following, by the vacancy of the 
 vicarage of Catterick, in Yorkshire, occasioned by the 
 decease of the Rev. Jeremiah Harrison, in July 1763. 
 With the. consent and by the interest of Lord Hunting- 
 don, M,r. Lindsey was permitted to exchange his living 
 in Dorsetshire for the vicarage of Catterick ; a benefice 
 in every respect inferior to that of Piddletovvn, excepting 
 that of its proximity to those learned and virtuous friends 
 whose society he was most anxious to cultivate*. 
 
 It may appear singular, that Mr. Lindsey, who, while 
 he resided in Dorsetshire, had, in consequence of his 
 more diligent study of the Holy Scriptures, discarded the 
 doctrine of the Trinity, and other doctrines of the esta- 
 blished church which are connected with it; who had 
 even proceeded so far as to have formed a design of resign- 
 ing his preferment in the church, and had taken some 
 steps towards the accomplishment of this purpose, could 
 by any means reconcile his ingenuous mind to that re- 
 newed subscription to the articles and declaration of his 
 assent, which were necessary upon his induction into his 
 new living. And the case appears the more extraordi- 
 nary, as many clergymen, who in consequence of a revo- 
 lution in their opinions had become dissatisfied with the 
 articles, would never, for the sake of obtaining the most 
 valuable preferment, subscribe them again, though, while 
 they were permitted to remain unmolested, they did not 
 perceive it to be their duty to retire from the churchf. 
 With the frankness natural to his liberal mind, Mr. 
 
 * See Mrs. Cappe's Memoir in the Monthly Repository, ibid. 
 
 T In the foremost rank of these worthy confessors is the venerable Arch- 
 deacon Blackburne, who, though he has opposed the Unitarian doctrine with 
 much more of acrimony than argument, in a small tract which he left for 
 publication after his decease, entitled An Answer to the Question, Why are
 
 CH. I.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 13 
 
 Lindsey himself gives the following solution of this diffi- 
 culty. After having stated the considerations which 
 at that time overruled his scruples of remaining in the 
 church, he adds, "My great difficulty was the point of 
 worship. In comparison with this, subscription to the 
 articles, however momentous in itself, gave me then but 
 little concern. For as the devotions of the church are 
 framed in strict agreement With the articles, and corre- 
 spond with them more especially in what relates to reli- 
 gious worship, I looked upon my continuing to officiate 
 in them as a constant virtual repetition of my subscrip- 
 tion : and therefore I needed not nor did decline the actual 
 repetition of it when occasion served; though I Was not 
 forward in seeking such occasions*." It cannot be de- 
 nied that Mr. Lindsey's conduct in this instance has the 
 merit of consistency ; for it seems hard to assign a satis- 
 factory reason, why they who do not hesitate to use the 
 liturgy, should decline subscribing the articles of the 
 church. It would hdwever be the extreme of unchari- 
 tableness, to pass a severe censure upon those who ap- 
 prove their integrity by rejecting preferment, when it 
 could not be obtained but at the price of a renewed sab- 
 
 you not a Socinian ? has, in the same tract, advanced reasons for the conti- 
 nued conformity of those who disapprove of many th'ings in the doctrine and 
 discipline of the established church, which, if not completely satisfactory, 
 will at least induce a candid reader, who can make allowance for human 
 frailty, to pause before he passes a se'nt^nce of unqualified condemnation 
 upon those serious and inquisitive persons, who retain their official situations 
 in the church so long as they continue unmolested in making those altera- 
 tions which they judge to be necessary in the unscriptural phraseology of the 
 public -liturgy. Upon these principles, Archdeacon Blackburne continued 
 to the end of life an officiating minister of the established church ; while at 
 the same time, though the whole emolument which he derived from his pro- 
 fession amounted to little more than the scanty pittance of a hundred and 
 fifty pounds a-year, he peremptorily and repeatedly refused to accept of bet- 
 ter preferment, which required renewed subscription to the thirty-nine ar- 
 ticles. On the other hand, he declined an offer of more than double that in- 
 come from the numerous and respectable congregation of the Old Jewry, in 
 London, who were desirous of inviting him to be their pastor, in succession 
 to the learned Dr. Chandler. See Memoir of Archdeacon Blackburne's Life 
 prefixed to his Works, pp. 74, /5, and 120. See Appendix, No. III. 
 * Apology, p. 225.
 
 14 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. I. 
 
 scriptjon to articles, even though (inconsistently as we 
 may think) they may continue to retain their stations in 
 the church, and to officiate in its devotions. Every man 
 has not the firmness of a Luther or a Lindsey, and to his 
 own master must every one stand or fall. 
 
 It may now therefore be proper to state those conside- 
 rations which reconciled this venerable confessor's own 
 mind, to remaining in the church, and to the regular 
 performance of his official duties, for so many years after 
 that by his own acknowledgement he had abandoned its 
 main doctrines, and regarded its forms of worship as er- 
 roneous and unscriptural. Upon this subject, we are hap- 
 pily not left to vague conjecture; for Mr. Lindsey himself, 
 with all his native modesty and candour, has clearly stated 
 in the last chapter of his Apology on resigning the vicarage 
 of Catterick, the interesting process of his mind upon 
 this trying occasion. I transcribe his own words*. 
 
 1 . " Destined early and educated for the ministry, and 
 my heart engaged in the service, when the moment of 
 determination came, I felt a reluctance at casting myself 
 out of rny profession and way of usefulness that quite dis- 
 couraged me. This was probably heightened by my 
 being alone at the time, having no intimate friend to 
 consult or converse with, and my imagination might be 
 shocked by the strangeness and singularity of what I was 
 then going to do ; for such subjects, then upwards of fif- 
 teen years ago, were not so much canvassed or become 
 so familiarized as they have been sincef. 
 
 " But I did not enough reflect, that when unlawful 
 
 * Apology, p. 220. 
 
 f The time alluded to must have been about the year 1/58. This was 
 previous to the resignation of the reverend and learned Dr. William Robert- 
 son, who, in January 1 760, for the sake of a good conscience, gave up a va- 
 luable living in Ireland. So that at the time when Mr. Lindsey first thought 
 of relinquishing his station in the church, he had scarcely any example for 
 nearly a century back, of a similar act of self-denial to encourage and fortify 
 his mind. Those eminent divines of the established church, who, at the
 
 CH. I.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. - 15 
 
 compliances of any sort are required, the first dictates of 
 conscience, which are generally the rightest, are to be at- 
 tended to; and that the plain road of duty and uprightness 
 will always be found to lead to the truest good in the end, 
 because it is that which is chalked out by God himself. 
 
 2. " Many worthy persons whose opinions varied little 
 from mine, could nevertheless satisfy themselves so as 
 to remain in the church and officiate in it. Why then, 
 it often occurred to me, and others did not spare to re- 
 monstrate, why must I alone be so singularly nice and 
 scrupulous, as not to comply with what wiser and better 
 men could accommodate themselves to, but disturb 
 others and distress myself by enthusiastic fancies purely 
 my own, bred in gloomy solitude, which by time, and 
 the free communication and unfolding of them to others, 
 might be dispersed and removed, and give way to a more 
 cheerful and enlarged way of thinking ? It was worth the 
 while at least to try such a method, and not rashly to 
 take a step of which I might long repent. 
 
 3. "It was suggested that I was not author or con- 
 triver of the things imposed and complained of. All I 
 did was ministerial only, in submission to civil authority, 
 which is within certain limitations the authority of God, 
 and which had imposed these things only for peace and 
 public good. That I ought not only to leave my bene- 
 fice, but to go out of the world, if I expected a perfect 
 
 commencement of the eighteenth century, thought and wrote with great 
 freedom upon theological subjects, contented themselves, for the most part, 
 with declining to renew their subscription to the articles in order to obtain 
 further preferment, but did not feel themselves obliged to resign the stations 
 which they held. And though, as the century advanced, much had been said 
 and written in recommendation of greater liberality and latitude in the terms 
 of conformity, the lawfulness of clerical conformity had been but little can- 
 vassed. It is not therefore surprising that Mr. Lindsey should have been at 
 first shocked, and in some degree intimidated, at the prospect of the strange 
 singularity of the measure which he had in contemplation. After the resig- 
 nation of Dr. Robertson, he was much affected and encouraged by the exam- 
 ple of that venerable confessor.
 
 16 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. I. 
 
 state of things in which there was no flaw or hardship. 
 That if there was a general tendency in what was esta- 
 blished to serve the interest of virtue and true religion, 
 I ought to rest satisfied and wait for a change in other 
 incidental matters that Were grievous to me, but not ge- 
 nerally felt by others. That in the mean time I had it 
 in my power to forward the desired work, by preparing 
 men's minds for it, whenever there should be a disposi- 
 tion in the state to rectify what was amiss. Therefore, 
 if I could in any way of interpretation ?ecoi\k\\ the pre- 
 scribed forms with the scripture in my own mind, and 
 make myself easy, I was not only justified, but to be com- 
 mended." 
 
 Being influenced by these considerations to regard it 
 as a duty to retain his station in the church, the great 
 difficulty now was, to devise some way of interpretation, 
 by which to reconcile the prescribed form of Trinitarian 
 worship with his own just and scriptural view of the pro- 
 per unity of God, and that the Father alone is to be 
 worshiped. In comparison with this, the objection against 
 subscription to the articles appeared to Mr. Lindsey to be 
 of trivial account: or rather as a less intricate case under 
 the same problem. And the method which he took to 
 satisfy his mind upon this subject, he thus describes. 
 
 " I brought myself to consider the Trinitarian forms 
 in the liturgy, and the invocations at the entrance of the 
 litany, as a threefold representation of the dne God, the 
 Father, governing all things by himself and by his Son 
 and Spirit ; and as a threefold way of addressing him as 
 a Creator and original benevolent cause of all things, as 
 Redeemer of mankind by his Son, and their Sanctifier by 
 his Holy Spirit*. 
 
 * This, which is usually called the Sabellian hypothesis, and which differs 
 only in words from the proper Unitarian doctrine, was advanced by the
 
 CH. I.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. I/ 
 
 "I took all opportunities, both in public and privately, 
 to bear my testimony to this great truth of Holy Scrip- 
 ture, that there is but one God the Father, with great 
 plainness and without any reserve. And I hoped I was 
 laying a good foundation to build on for those that come 
 after me, when the time of a further reformation should 
 come; and that I might thus innocently continue in a 
 church where there were many things I disapproved, and 
 wished to have amended, as I knew not where I might 
 be in any degree alike useful." 
 
 These were the considerations, which, as Mr. Lindsey 
 expresses it, were of weight to divert him then from the 
 thought of quitting his station in the church, and which 
 brought him in time to remain tolerably quiet and easy 
 in it. But however plausible these arguments might be, 
 and whatever real weight some of these considerations 
 might possess, they were not likely to maintain a perma- 
 nent ascendency over the honourable, ingenuous, and 
 inquiring mind of this excellent man; and in his Apology, 
 
 learned Dr. Wallis, Savilian professor of mathematics at Oxford, and well 
 received by the university, in opposition to the hypothesis of three infinite 
 minds, maintained hy the celebrated Dr. Sherlock, which underwenka pub- 
 lic censure. 
 
 " This reasoning," says Dr. Wallis, alluding to the objections of the Uni- 
 tarians, " is grounded on this silly mistake, that a divine person is as much 
 as to say a Divinity or a God, when indeed a divine person is only a mode, or 
 respect, or relation of God to his creatures. He beareth to his creatures 
 these three relations, modes, or respects, that he is their Creator, their Re- 
 deemer, their Sanctifier : this is what we mean, and ALL that we mean, when 
 we say God is three persons. He hath those three relations to his creatures, 
 and is thereby no more three Gods than he was three Gods to the Jews be- 
 cause he calleth himself the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God 
 of Jacob." See Considerations on the Explications of the Doctrine of the 
 Trinity, p. 7 1693, apud Lindsey's Apology, p. 227- The learned professor 
 might have spared his supercilious reflection upon the understandings of his 
 Unitarian brethren, whose only error consisted in taking common words in 
 their common acceptation. Is Dr. Wallis's doctrine that which still prevails 
 in the learned university? If so, the pure Unitarian doctrine is much more 
 extensively diffused than many of its most zealous advocates imagine. Happy 
 would it be for the cause of truth, if, when error is detected and discarded, the 
 language of error were discarded with it. 
 
 C
 
 18 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. 1. 
 
 he frankly and with great humility acknowledges their 
 invalidity, and his own infirmity in yielding to them. 
 
 "Not," says he, p. 225, "that I now justify myself 
 therein. Yea, rather I condemn myself. But as I have 
 humble hope of the divine forgiveness, let not men be 
 too rigid in their censures. Let those only blame and 
 fcondemn, who know what it is to doubt, to be in per- 
 plexity about things of the highest importance, to be 
 in fear of causelessly abandoning a station assigned by 
 Providence, and being found idle and unprofitable when 
 the Great Master came to call for the account of the 
 talent received." He must be a very severe moralist 
 whom such a concession does not satisfy. 
 
 These reflections however occurred at a subsequent 
 period. For the present, Mr. Lindsey had made up his 
 mind to continue as an officiating minister in the esta- 
 blished church; and with those views and in this posture 
 of mind, in the month of November 1763, he took pos- 
 session of his vicarage of Catterick, fully determined to 
 seek out and accept of no other preferment, and expect- 
 ing " here quietly to have ended his days*," though it 
 pleased God in his providence to order it otherwise. 
 
 No sooner was Mr. Lindsey settled in his new situa- 
 tion than he applied himself with great assiduity, in his 
 extensive and populous parish, to perform the duties of 
 a parochial minister. He regularly officiated twice on 
 the Sunday in his parish church, and in the interval be-, 
 tween the services he catechized young people. He vi- 
 sited the sick, he relieved the poor, he established and 
 supported charity-schools for the children, he spent con- 
 siderable sums of money in feeding the hungry, in cloth- 
 ing the naked, in providing medicines for the diseased, 
 and in purchasing and distributing books for the instruc- 
 
 * Sec Farewell Address to the Parishioners at Catterick, p. 1.
 
 CH. 1.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 19 
 
 tion of the ignorant. In his domestic arrangements, the 
 greatest oeconomy was observed, that he and his excel- 
 lent lady might have the greater surplus to expend in li- 
 berality and charity : for it was a rule with him to lay up 
 nothing from the income of his living. " It is a great 
 satisfaction," says he, in his Farewell Address, p. 7, " at 
 this, my departure from you, that I can truly say I have 
 coveted no man's silver, nor gold, nor apparel. In no- 
 thing have I made a gain of you, or sought to enrich my- 
 self; nor am I enriched by you at all; but what was over 
 and above the supply of necessary wants, has been freely 
 expended in what was thought might be most useful for 
 your present benefit and future happiness. I have not 
 sought yours but you." 
 
 His instructions, public and private, were judiciously 
 adapted to the state of his hearers. "I have endeavour- 
 ed," says he, p. 8, " to teach you the truth which Christ 
 our Lord taught, as far as I was able to learn it by an 
 impartial and diligent search of the Holy Scriptures. 
 And I often reminded you, that you were not to believe 
 any thing because spoken by me, but to examine and 
 compare how far it was agreeable to Holy Scripture, our 
 only rule and guide." 
 
 His discourses were scriptural and practical, consist- 
 ing, as he says, "altogether of expositions of large por- 
 tions of the New Testament, with such inferences as 
 naturally and plainly flowed from them." In these dis- 
 courses, he adds, "I was led continually to point out 
 to you that religion lay not in outward forms and ordi- 
 nances, even of God's own appointment, though they be 
 helps to it; but in an entire conversion and devotedness 
 of the heart to God, influencing to sobriety, chastity, bro- 
 therly love, kindness, integrity, in all your conversation ; 
 to do every thing out of a sense of duty to God, ever pre- 
 sent with and supporting us in life; and chiefly for his 
 
 c 2
 
 20 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. It 
 
 infinite love to us in Christ Jesus our Lord, by whom he 
 hath called us to his eternal glory." 
 
 Mr. Lindsey often pressed upon his village hearers the 
 duty of family religion. " That every house should be 
 a little church as it were, wherein all the members of it 
 were carefully instructed in the things of God ; and once 
 at least at the close of each day called together to join in 
 a short prayer to God." This he represented as a con- 
 stant check upon parents in their daily conduct; as a 
 means of inducing them to hasten home with pleasure 
 after their labours were over; of making their families 
 orderly and happy; of preventing early depravity and cor- 
 ruption in the youth of both sexes ; and of training them 
 up in habits of piety and virtue. 
 
 He still more inculcated upon them the necessity of 
 keeping the Lord's day holy. " As many of each family 
 as can be allowed, to attend the public worship of the 
 great Creator and heavenly Father, and to be mindful 
 afterwards of a suitable employment of time at home. 
 For the spending one part of this sacred day in unneces- 
 sary worldly cares, or in sports and diversions, tends to 
 efface every serious impression made on the mind on the 
 other part ; and by degrees leads to spend the whole of it 
 in the same ungodly sort. Not that the service of God 
 is to make us morose, or sad and uncheerful at this or 
 at any time. There are ways of passing this holy day in- 
 walking out and contemplating the works of God, in 
 pleasing charitable offices to our neighbours, and in in- 
 nocent useful conversation, which will cheer and refresh 
 both mind and body far beyond all those noisy and riot- 
 ous games, always accompanied with profane oaths, and 
 generally ending in the alehouse or worse." Ibid. 
 
 Thus did this truly apostolic man, at the conclusion 
 of his ten years ministerial labours in the parish of Cat- 
 terick, modestly yet firmly appeal to those who had been
 
 CH. I.J REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 21 
 
 the constant witnesses of his life and doctrine, to bear 
 their testimony to the simplicity, fidelity, and zeal with 
 which he had instructed them in the truths of divine re- 
 velation, and to the unblameableness and the uniform 
 disinterestedness of his conduct. He laments that he 
 had not seen so much of the fruits of his labours among 
 them as he desired. But, he adds, "I would not now 
 complain. Let us all make haste to repent and amend, 
 for the time is short. I would hope that more good may 
 have been done than I know of; and that there are more 
 truly pious than the few that appear to be so ; and that 
 some seed of the word which has been sown, may here- 
 after spring up and bear good fruit." Ibid. p. 1 1. 
 
 To the exemplary conduct of this venerable man in 
 the discharge of his official duties, and in particular to 
 his interesting and condescending manner of communi- 
 cating instruction to the young and the ignorant, I will- 
 ingly transcribe the eloquent testimony of an early and 
 attentive hearer and witness, who was also a frequent vi- 
 sitor at his house, and through life an ardent and grate- 
 ful admirer, to whose narrative I have before alluded. 
 
 " Young at the time," says Mrs. Cappe in her elegant 
 Memoir of Mr. Lindsey in the Monthly Repository, " un- 
 informed, and accustomed to the society of those among 
 my general acquaintance who form their estimate of right 
 and wrong in the scale of commonly-received opinion, I 
 was little qualified to comprehend, or duly to appretiate, 
 the full excellence of such a character; yet I was exceed- 
 ingly interested by the amiable unassuming disposition 
 of my new friend ; by the patience with which he endea- 
 voured to set right every mistake or prejudice ; by his to- 
 tal disregard of every personal indulgence; and by his 
 unwearied solicitude to make all around him good and 
 happy, It was the constant subject of his thoughts iu
 
 22 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. I. 
 
 what way be could most effectually benefit the people 
 committed to his care, whether in their temporal or eter- 
 nal interests. And to this end a plan of great frugality 
 was adopted by himself and Mrs. Lindsey, who perfectly 
 acceded to his views, that they might have the power of 
 distributing books, in aid of personal instruction; of giv- 
 ing medicines to the sick, and food to those who were 
 ready to perish with hunger. But it was on a Sunday 
 evening chiefly, when the labours of the day were over, 
 a day devoted to the public and private instruction of the 
 congregation at large, of the children of those who com- 
 posed it, of servants and others who attended in his own 
 study, that the irradiations of a mind so heavenly were 
 the most striking. Never shall I forget, as he walked 
 across the room with cheerful and animated step, unmind- 
 ful of weariness or fatigue, discoursing, perhaps, on the 
 beauties of creation, the goodness of God every where 
 manifested, the perfect example of Christ, or on the he- 
 roism and virtue of martyrs and confessors gone to their 
 reward, how his eyes would sparkle with delight. When, 
 he would say, will the happy time arrive, that all men will 
 be virtuous and happy ?" 
 
 In this pleasing manner, and with these promising 
 prospects, did Mr. Lindsey commence his career at Cat- 
 terick. Surrounded with parishioners who idolized him ; 
 in the neighbourhood of friends who loved him, and whose 
 society charmed and edified him ; and engaged in offices 
 most delightful to himself and useful to others, he de- 
 voted himself wholly to the duties of his ministry, and 
 aspired to no other preferment.
 
 CH. II.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 23 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 FROM MR. LINDSEY'S SETTLEMENT AT CATTERICK, TO 
 HIS RESIGNATION OF THAT VICARAGE, A. D. 1/73. 
 
 JJUT this sunshine of felicity did not continue long with- 
 out interruption : Mr. Lindsey's ingenuous mind could 
 not satisfy itself in a compromise with sincerity, A dan- 
 gerous fit of sickness roused his conscience, and he be- 
 came secretly but firmly resolved to seek an opportunity 
 to relinquish a situation which was no longer supportable. 
 The further process of his mind upon this interesting 
 occasion I shall state in his own words *. 
 
 " I could not now satisfy myself with Dr. Wallis's and 
 the like softenings and qualifications of the Trinitarian 
 forms in the liturgy. I wondered how I had been able 
 to bring myself to imagine that I was worshiping the 
 Father in spirit and in truth, whilst I was addressing two 
 other persons, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, 
 and imploring favours severally of them in terms that 
 implied their personality, and distinct agency and deity, 
 as much as that of the Father f. 
 
 * Apology, p. 230. 
 
 f This miserable casuistry, for such it now appeared to the venerable man 
 who had formerly been entangled in its web, silenced the scruples of many 
 of the learned Unitarians at the close of the IJth century, and induced them 
 to acquiesce in conformity to the established form of worship ; while con- 
 trary to the obvious meaning of the words, they interpreted the. language 
 of the liturgy in a Unitarian sense upon the principles of Dr. Wallis s Ex- 
 planation of the Trinity, and of the Oxford Decree. Amongst others, the 
 celebrated Thomas Firmin, the friend of Tillotson and the patron of the 
 poor, who made no secret of his Unitarian principles, from which, at the par- 
 ticular request of Queen Mary, the pious archbishop in vain laboured to re- 
 claim him, was influenced by these considerations to adhere to the commu- 
 nion of the established church, and to dissuade others from separating from 
 it. His friend John Biddle appears to have seen the question in ajuster 
 light ; and rather chose to suffer imprisonment and banishment than to 
 join in worship, the language of which, however he might interpret it to his 
 own satisfaction, must necessarily convey an erroneous sense to the majority 
 of those who use it. See the Life of Firmin, p. 14, ed. 1791.
 
 24 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cil. II. 
 
 " If invocations so particular, language so express and 
 personal, might be sifted and explained away into prayer 
 to one God only, I might, by the like supposals and in- 
 terpretation, bring myself to deify and pray to the Virgin 
 Mary, and maintain that I was still only praying to the 
 one God, who was thus invoked in his creature that was 
 so nearly united to him. 
 
 " It appeared to me a blameable duplicity, that whilst 
 I was praying to the one God the Father, the people that 
 heard me were led, by the language I used, to address 
 themselves to two other persons or distinct intelligent 
 agents : for they would never subtilize so far as to fancy 
 the Son and Holy Spirit to be merely two modes, or re- 
 spects, or relations of God to them. 
 
 " As one great design of our Saviour's mission was to 
 promote the knowledge and worship of the Father, the 
 only true God, as he himself tells us, I could not think 
 it allowable or lawful for me, on any imagined prospect 
 of doing good, to be instrumental in carrying ojn a wor- 
 ship which I believed directly contrary to the mind of 
 Christ, and condemned by him. 
 
 "If it be a rule in morals, quod dubitas nefeceris., it 
 is still more evident that we are not to do any thing that 
 we know to be evil ; no, not to procure the greatest good. 
 For God does not want my sinful act. It would be im- 
 pious to suppose that he cannot carry on his government, 
 and promote the felicity of his creatures without it. And 
 although in his providence he may bring good out of any 
 evil, he will not let the doer of it go unpunished. And 
 if any thing be evil and odious in his sight, prevarication 
 and falsehood is such ; and most of all an habitual course 
 thereof in the most solemn act a creature can be engaged 
 in, the worship of him, the holy all-seeing God." 
 
 While these thoughts were passing through Mr. Lind- 
 sey's mind, and probably before he had formed an ahso-
 
 CH. II.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 25 
 
 lute and final determination upon the subject, he had the 
 happiness to be introduced to the acquaintance of two 
 persons, like-minded with himself, whom he ever after-! 
 wards numbered amongst his most intimate and confi- 
 dential friends, and whose friendship he with reason re- 
 garded as among the greatest consolations and blessings, 
 of his life. These were the Rev. William Turner, the 
 learned, liberal, and pious minister of the Presbyterian 
 congregation at Wakefield in Yorkshire, and the cele- 
 brated Dr. Priestley, then a dissenting minister at Leeds. 
 Early in the summer of the year 1769, these gentlemen 
 met Mr. and Mrs. Lindsey by appointment at the house 
 of Archdeacon Blackburne at Richmond, where they 
 passed some days together in that unreserved and de- 
 lightful interchange of sentiments, and in those free and 
 amicable discussions which would naturally take place 
 among persons of high intellectual attainments, in whose 
 estimation the discoveries of divine revelation held the 
 most honourable place, and who were all equally ani- 
 mated with the same ardent love of truth, and with the 
 same generous zeal for civil and religious liberty. 
 
 This memorable interview made a favourable and last- 
 ing impression upon the minds of all the parties, and was 
 followed with very important consequences. It gave 
 birth to friendships between the strangers who were then 
 first introduced to each other, which improved rapidly 
 upon further acquaintance, which were ever afterwards a 
 source of the highest mutual satisfaction and improve- 
 ment, which continued unimpaired to the end of life, and 
 will no doubt be resumed under happier auspices, in a 
 better and immortal state. 
 
 In a letter from the Archdeacon to Mr. Turner, which 
 is now before me, and which was written soon afterwards, 
 he says : "I have had Mr. Lindsey's thanks in form, for 
 bringing him acquainted with two. valuable men. The
 
 26 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. II. 
 
 company of such worthies as Mr. Turner and Dr. Priest- 
 ley is one of my luxuries ; and the last small taste I had 
 of it, will make me long till another opportunity affords 
 me a second course. And I had the less relish for the 
 dessert, (I mean the rambles,) as it was a kind of inter- 
 ruption of that conversation for which I am always sharp 
 set. Friend Lindsey can talk and even dispute on horse- 
 back. In that situation I am sure to fall into reveries, 
 and often forget both myself and my company ; and for 
 something of that sort which might look like ill manners, 
 I believe I ought to make an apology in our pilgrimage 
 to Master Buncle's cave*." 
 
 Dr. Priestley, in the interesting Memoir of himself, 
 mentions this introduction to Mr. Lindsey as one of the 
 greatest blessings of his life. Speaking of the connexions 
 he formed during his residence at Leeds, he adds, 
 
 " Here it was that, in consequence of a visit which in 
 company with Mr. Turner I made to Archdeacon Black-? 
 burne at Richmond, I first met with Mr. Lindsey, then 
 of Catterick, and a correspondence and intimacy coniT 
 menced, which have been the source of more real satis- 
 faction to me than any other circumstance in my whole 
 life. He soon discovered to me that he was uneasy in 
 his situation, and had thoughts of quitting it. At first 
 
 * Mr. Turner was as eminent for prudence as he was for learning, piety, 
 and liberality of sentiment. An intimate friendship was formed between 
 this gentleman and Mr. Lindsey soon after the interview at Richmond, and 
 an interesting and confidential correspondence took place, which only ter- 
 minated by disability on the part of Mr. Turner from age and infirmity. It 
 was then taken up by his son, the present highly respected minister of the 
 Unitarian congregation at Newcastle upon Tyne, and continued till Mr. Lind- 
 sey himself became disabled by the infirmities of age. To the kindness of 
 this gentleman the author h indebted for a sight of Mr. Lindsey's letters; of 
 which it will be perceived that a liberal, though it is hoped not an improper 
 use has been made in the course of the narrative. It will easily be conceived 
 that Mr. Lindsey was not deficient in expressions of affection and esteem. 
 How' high a value he set upon the friendship of these excellent men, will be 
 seen from various extracts of letters to Mr. Turner, which will be introduced 
 in the sequel of this Memoir.
 
 CH. II.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 27 
 
 I was not forward to encourage him in it, but rather ad- 
 vised him to make what alteration he thought proper in 
 the offices of the church, and leave it to his superiors to 
 dismiss him if they chose. But his better judgement and 
 greater fortitude led him to give up all connexion with 
 the established church of his own accord*." 
 
 Mr. Turner was not less sensible than Dr. Priestley of 
 the value of Mr. Lindsey's friendship ; and to these two 
 excellent men, of spirits congenial with his own, did this 
 venerable confessor first communicate his intention of 
 resigning his preferment in the church. And that, not 
 to ask their advice upon the subject, for his resolution 
 was already fixed, but to consult with them concerning 
 the proper time and manner of accomplishing this ex- 
 traordinary design, and to derive that support and com- 
 fort which a virtuous mind, in trying circumstances, needs 
 and seeks from the sympathy and kind suggestions of 
 enlightened and generous friends, who having adopted 
 similar principles enter cordially into all its views, feel- 
 ings, and difficulties, and by seasonable counsel, and ten- 
 der expressions of encouragement and approbation, soothe 
 and tranquillize the emotions of an anxious and disquieted 
 spirit. 
 
 Mr. Lindsey was now in a situation to need all the 
 comfort which his friends could administer. This vene- 
 rable man was no professed ascetic : he was no enthu- 
 siast or visionary. He had ever lived in a station of ease 
 and affluence, and comparatively high consideration. His 
 company had been sought after by the opulent, the learn- 
 ed, and the great. Nor was he insensible to the advan- 
 tages and the comforts of an eminent and respectable 
 station. He had not been at all accustomed to struggle 
 with difficulties, or to endure the privations and the ob- 
 
 * Dr. Priestley's Memoirs, p. 61, London edition.
 
 28 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. II, 
 
 acurity of indigence. His delight had been to employ 
 his affluence in doing good, and he had even made con- 
 science of saving nothing for his own use from the reve- 
 nues of his living. 
 
 He was fully apprized, that if he carried his present 
 virtuous resolution into effect, the scene would soon be 
 changed. " To leave a station of ease and affluence," 
 (he observes in his Farewell Address to his Parishioners 
 at Catterick,) " and to have to combat with various straits 
 and hardships of an uncertain world, affords but a dark 
 prospect." Instead of opulence and high estimation in 
 the world, he clearly foresaw that the step he was about 
 to take would entail poverty, contempt, neglect, and ca- 
 lumny. He could not but be sensible that by the ma- 
 jority of those who either knew him or who might hear 
 of his withdrawing from the church, and who could not or 
 would not duly appreciate his motives, his conduct would 
 be severely censured as rash, fanatical, and absurd. He 
 expected that his means of usefulness, whether in the 
 way of instruction or beneficence, would be exceedingly 
 reduced, if not entirely annihilated. Among the dissent- 
 ers his connexions were very limited, and he had little 
 prospect of encouragement. By the great majority of 
 them his principles and his person would be regarded 
 with horror*. Not many even of those societies which 
 
 *. They now are deem'd the faithful and are prais'd, 
 
 Who, constant only in rejecting Thee, 
 
 Deny thy Godhead with a martyr's zeal, 
 
 And quit their office for their error's sake. 
 
 Blind, and in love with darkness ! COWPEK. 
 
 Such is the language of our admired poet, whose gloomy system of theo-. 
 logy cast a deeper shade upon the natural morbid tendency of his constitu- 
 tion, and involved his innocent and tender spirit in the darkest clouds of re- 
 ligious melancholy, under which he sunk in sad despondency to the grave.. 
 Peace to his hallowed ashes ! When the last trumpet shall summon the 
 sleeping sufferer from the tomb, free from the oppressive chain of ignorance 
 and infirmity, he will rejoice to find the Parent of the human race infinitely 
 more kind and merciful to his erring offspring than his rigid system, so 
 much at war \yith his gentle temper, led him to believe ; and will greet with,
 
 CH. It.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 29 
 
 call themselves rational and liberal would endure to hear 
 the pure Unitarian doctrine ; and very few indeed, would 
 justly appreciate the sublime principles and the exem- 
 plary character of this faithful servant of Christ. And, 
 as he observes with great feeling, it was a severe aggra- 
 vation of his distress, in the prospect of straits and diffi- 
 culties, that he was not alone involved in them. The 
 person who was most justly the dearest in the world to 
 him must share in his privations and sufferings. And 
 
 delight on fheir thrones of glory, those whom his rash and misguided zeal 
 had formerly consigned to regions of woe. Let the reader forgive the above 
 almost involuntary effusion of respect to departed genius, combined with 
 high moral worth, but oppressed with melancholy, and entangled in a sy- 
 stem the most sombre and terrific of all that have ever been grafted upon 
 the mild and benevolent doctrine of Jesus. As to the rest, the sentiment 
 expressed in the above quotation was certainly that of the great body of dis- 
 senters at the time when it was written. It is so still ; but not to the same 
 extent. Happily within the last thirty years, owing under God to the la- 
 bours and sacrifices of Mr. Lindsey and others his worthy coadjutors or fol- 
 lowers, " the gospel light of the knowledge of the one true God, and the 
 worship to be paid to him only, as taught by Jesus Christ, has been spread- 
 ing its beautiful ray through the British nation : so that many of all ranks 
 begin to see with concern the striking opposition betwixt our public forms 
 of worship and those laid down in the word of God." (Apology, p. 236.) And 
 among the dissenting churches in particular, where there were formerly 
 only one or two solitary individuals who received the proper Unitarian doc- 
 trine, and who were almost afraid of avowing their belief lest they should 
 be hunted out of society like wild beasts, flourishing congregations of pro- 
 fessed Unitarian Christians have of late sprung up, whose conduct is an or- 
 nament to their profession, and whose enlightened zeal is diffusing the sa- 
 lutary odour of pure evangelical truth with a rapidity and success almost 
 unprecedented. 
 
 Nevertheless, that all the dissenters who were Mr. Lindsey's contempo- 
 raries, though differing from him in doctrinal principles, were not insensible 
 to his great moral worth, is evident from the correspondence of the late re- 
 verend Job Orton, the able assistant and confidential friend of the late pious 
 and celebrated Dr. Doddridge ; who in one of his letters published by and 
 addressed to the Reverend S. Palmer, of Hackney, expresses himself in 
 these words : " Were I to publish an account of silenced and ejected mini- 
 sters, I should be strongly tempted to insert Mr. Lindsey in the list which 
 he mentions in his Apology with so much veneration. He certainly deserves 
 as much respect and honour as any one of them for the part he has acted. 
 Perhaps few of them exceeded him in learning and piety. I venerate him 
 as I would any of your confessors. As to his particular sentiments, they 
 are -nothing to me. An honest pious man, who makes such a sacrifice to 
 truth and conscience as he has done, is a glorious character, and deserves 
 the respect, esteem, and veneration of every true Christian." Orton's Let- 
 ters, vol. ii. p. 159.
 
 30 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. II. 
 
 though that excellent person, as soon as his pious and 
 honourable resolution was communicated, expressed the 
 highest approbation of it, animated and encouraged him 
 to pursue it, and urged him on with a zeal almost supe- 
 rior to his own, testifying the utmost readiness to forego 
 ease and comfort, and, what was the most dear of all, 
 the many opportunities of active benevolence, and to ac- 
 company him into the shades of solitude and poverty ; 
 yet Mr. Lindsey did not on that account feel less sensi- 
 bly the hardships and miseries to which his beloved and 
 worthy consort would inevitably be exposed. But none 
 of these things moved him. He fixed his eye upon the 
 line of duty, and determined to adhere closely to it, and 
 to leave the event to God. 
 
 These were the difficulties which Mr. Lindsey foresaw, 
 and which he made up his mind to encounter. But 
 though the conflict of his feelings must have been inex- 
 pressibly great, the delicacy of his spirit would not per- 
 mit him to disclose them at large even to his most con- 
 fidential friends, that he might not give them unneces- 
 sary pain j and, chiefly lest, if they were acquainted with 
 all the circumstances of the case, they should endeavour 
 to dissuade him from that measure which was now be- 
 come the fixed purpose of his heart. " It was not till 
 long after this," says Dr. Priestley, (Memoir, p. 61,) 
 " that I .was apprized of all the difficulties he had to 
 struggle with before he could accomplish his purpose." 
 
 It had occurred to himself, and had been suggested 
 by Dr. Priestley and some other friends who knew the 
 embarrassment he was under, that " he might change 
 the public service of the church, and make it such as he 
 could conscientiously officiate in," leaving it to his su- 
 periors to dismiss him if they disapproved his conduct. 
 And there was no ground to suspect that he would ever 
 have met with any molestation from them ; but, as Dr.
 
 CH. II.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 31 
 
 Priestley observes, " Mr. Lindsey's better judgement and 
 greater fortitude led him to determine the contrary." 
 The foundation of this determination he has explained 
 in his Apology, p. 237. 
 
 " I could not," says he, " reconcile myself to change 
 the public service of the church, because I looked upon 
 the declaration of conformity and subscription at insti- 
 tution to be such solemnities, that I could not be easy 
 under so great a violation of them. For I must have 
 adopted all Dr. Clarke's amendments, or even more ; 
 which would have been making almost a new service of 
 it*." 
 
 " But, could I have brought my own mind to it, there 
 were some things in my situation in so large a parish, 
 with three chapels in it, which would have made such a 
 change impracticable. Not to mention also, that when 
 incapacitated by sickness or removed by death, the people 
 in all probability must have returned back to their old 
 forms again. In short, such an attempt would have been 
 likely, in my place, to have produced much confusion 
 and perplexity, to say the least : and I could not see any 
 adequate religious improvement or edification among my 
 people likely to arise from it ; the only justifiable end of 
 making such a change, and staying with them." 
 
 The venerable writer adds: "Upon the most calm 
 and serious deliberation therefore, and weighing of every 
 circumstance, I am obliged to give up my benefice, xvhat- 
 ever I suffer by it, unless I would lose all inward peace 
 and hope of God's favour and acceptance in the end." 
 
 * The following is the form of the engagement to conformity at institu- 
 tion to a living before a bishop : 
 
 " I do declare that I will conform to the liturgy of the church of En- 
 gland as it is now by law established." A. B. 
 
 " This declaration was made and subscribed before mo by the said 
 A. B. to be admitted and instituted into the rectory or vicarage, &c. in 
 tlie year of our Lord and in the year of our consecration."
 
 3*2 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. 11. 
 
 Mr. Lindsey was encouraged and fortified in his vir- 
 tuous resolution* by the example of those pious and con- 
 scientious clergymen, who in the year 1662, on the 24th 
 of August, the too memorable Bartholomew day, being 
 the day on which the Act of Uniformity was Carried into 
 effect, to the number of two thousand suffered themselves 
 to be ejected and silenced, rather than submit to the new 
 impositions, and subscribe and conform to the liturgy and 
 articles against their consciences ; " a long list" conti- 
 nues Mr. Lindsey, " that does honour to human nature, 
 and to our own country in particular, which has hitherto 
 taken the lead in the restoration of God's true religion." 
 
 But the example which if possible pressed with still 
 greater weight upon his thoughts, and which urged, and, 
 if I may so express it, even stung his tender and upright 
 mind to a decisive resolution upon the subject, was the 
 recent and affecting but little noticed case of the Reverend 
 Dr. William Robertson, who in the year 1760, having 
 embraced Unitarian principles, though he had a large 
 family and very slender means of subsistence, for the 
 
 * Mr. Lindsey was particularly struck with the following pious and af- 
 fecting soliloquy of Mr. Oldfield, an ejected minister of Carsington in Der- 
 byshire, whose private papers fell into Dr. Calamy's hands. 
 
 " When thou canst no longer continue in thy work without dishonour to 
 God, discredit to religion, foregoing thy integrity, wounding conscience, 
 spoiling thy peace, and hazarding the loss of thy salvation ; in a word, when 
 the conditions upon which thou must continue (if thou wilt continue) in thy 
 employments are sinful and unwarranted by the word of God, thou mayest, 
 yea thou must believe that God will turn thy very silence, suspension, de- 
 privation, and laying aside, to his glory and the advancement of the gospel's 
 interest. When God will not use thee in one kind, yet he will in another. 
 A soul that desires to serve and honour him shall never want opportunity 
 to do it ; nor must thou so limit the Holy One of Israel, as to think he hath 
 but one way in which he can glorify himself by thee. He can do it by thy 
 silence as well as by thy preaching : thy laying aside as well as thy conti- 
 nuance in thy work. It is not pretence of doing God the greatest service, 
 
 or performing the weightiest duty, that will excuse the least sin, though 
 that sin capacitated or gave us the opportunity for the doing that duty. Thou 
 wilt have little thanks, O my soul, if when thou art charged with corrupting 
 God's worship, falsifying thy voivs, &c. thou pretendest a necessity for it in 
 order to a continuance in the ministry." Calamy's Account of ejected Mi- 
 nisters, vol. ii. p. 1/5.
 
 CH. II.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 33 
 
 sake of preserving his integrity inviolate, resigned a va- 
 luable preferment and the offer of much better in the 
 diocese of Ferns in Ireland. This venerable confessor, 
 in his affecting epistle to his worthy diocesan Dr. Ro- 
 binson, afterwards the celebrated Primate of Ireland, 
 who was anxious to retain him in the church, expresses 
 himself thus : 
 
 " In debating this matter with myself, besides the ar- 
 guments directly to the purpose, several strong collateral 
 considerations came in upon the positive side of the ques- 
 tion. The streightness of my circumstances pressed me 
 close ; a numerous family quite unprovided for, pleaded 
 with the most pathetic and moving eloquence. And the 
 infirmities and wants of age, now coming fast upon me, 
 were urged feelingly. But one single consideration pre- 
 vailed over all these That the Creator and Governor 
 of the universe, whom it is my first duty to worship and 
 adore, being the God of truth, it must be disagreeable 
 to him to profess, subscribe, or declare, in any matter 
 relating to his worship and service, what is not believed 
 strictly and simply to be true*." 
 
 " The example of this worthy person," says Mr. Lindsey, 
 Apology, p. 239, " has been a secret reproach to me ever 
 since I heard of it. For I thought, and perhaps justly, 
 that he might not have all .those reasons of dislike to our 
 established forms of worship that I had : and though 
 myself not without unknown straits and difficulties to 
 struggle with, and not alone involved in them, yet have 
 I not all those dissuasives and discouragements that he 
 paints forth in his affecting letter to the Bishop of Ferns, 
 subjoined to his instructive and learned work." 
 
 Mr. Lindsey's purpose being now irrevocably fixed 
 
 * This epistle is annexed to a small publication of Dr. Robertson's, en- 
 titled An Attempt to explain the words Reason, Substance, &c. Of this ex- 
 cellent man some further account will be given hi the sequel of this narrative. 
 
 D
 
 34 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. II. 
 
 quietly to retire from the established church, he only 
 waited for a favourable opportunity of carrying his ho- 
 nourable design into effect. 
 
 In the mean time an event occurred which induced 
 Mr. Lindsey for the present to postpone his intended 
 resignation. This was an Association formed in the year 
 1771, by some of the clergy of the established church 
 and a few of the laity, for the purpose of making an ap- 
 plication to parliament to obtain relief in the matter of 
 subscription ; that a declaration of assent to the suffi- 
 ciency of the Holy Scriptures might be substituted in 
 lieu of subscription to the thirty-nine articles and the 
 book of Common Prayer. Mr. Lindsey from the be- 
 ginning " entertained very slender hopes of success. 
 Least of all did he expect that reformation in the liturgy 
 Would be carried to such an extent as to make it practi- 
 cable for him, with a safe conscience, to retain his situa- 
 tion in the church. But he was anxious to avoid the 
 charge of precipitancy. He would not leave room for 
 cavillers to allege that he had deserted his post before 
 he knew that such a step would be necessary. And he 
 thought that after having waited the issue of this impor- 
 tant measure, his resignation would be more justifiable 
 in the sight of the world, and would produce a better 
 effect*." 
 
 This application to parliament originated in the great 
 impression which was made upon the public mind, and 
 especially upon the minds of many of the learned, liberal, 
 
 * " From the first that I engaged," says Mr. Lindsey, Apology, p. 235, 
 " with the associated clergy for procuring the removal of subscription to 
 formularies of faith and doctrine drawn up by fallible men, I foresaw that if 
 no relief was obtained, nor any prospect opened of a reformation of the liturgy 
 with regard to the great, object of worship, or of a disposition to indulge a 
 latitude to private persons to make discretionary alterations in it for them- 
 selves by the express rule of holy Scripture ; it would certainly terminate, 
 as to myself, in resignation of my office in the church ; and I thought this 
 would be a fitting season for it." -, >
 
 CH. II.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 35 
 
 and serious clergy, by the celebrated work of Archdeacon 
 Blackburne,, entitled The Confessional. At the desire 
 of some of his brethren the Archdeacon published in the 
 beginning of the year 1771, " Proposals for an applica- 
 tion to parliament for relief in the matter of subscrip- 
 tion, &c. humbly submitted to the consideration of the 
 learned and conscientious clergy." In consequence of 
 these proposals, a meeting of the clergy residing in or 
 near the metropolis was advertised for the 1 7th of July, 
 when it was unanimously agreed to form an Association 
 for the purpose of applying to the legislature for relief. 
 This from the place of meeting was called The Feathers 
 Tavern Association ; and an excellent petition having 
 been drawn up by the Archdeacon, was adopted by the 
 Association and circulated through the country with great 
 industry, in order to obtain signatures previous to the 
 meeting of parliament. 
 
 It is almost needless to add, that in a cause so right 
 and honourable in itself, and so congenial to his prin- 
 ciples and feelings, Mr. Lindsey exerted himself with 
 more than his usual activity and ardour. He undertook 
 to solicit signatures in the extensive district where he 
 resided; and for the purpose of adding names to this 
 venerable list, he spared neither labour nor expense*. 
 For this end, he travelled upwards of two thousand miles 
 at the worst season of the year, and often through roads 
 which were almost impassable. But his success did not 
 correspond with his labours and his hopes. The majority, 
 
 * In a letter upon this subject to his confidential friend Mr. afterwards 
 Dr. Jebb, Mr. Lindsey says, " I own to you, sir, I cannot but be greatly in- 
 terested in a cause in which I bless God that I have an opportunity to engage 
 and declare myself; and for which I do not know, with the help of Grod, the 
 
 pains or sufferings that I would refuse. ! have offered, and if health 
 
 be permitted will carry the petition to Kendal in Westmoreland, to Newcastle 
 in Northumberland, to York and Wakefield ; all places at a very great di- 
 stance from me, and in which labours I am alone without any assistance what- 
 ever." See Mr, Joyce's excellent Memoir of Mr. Lindsey in the Monthly 
 Magazine for December 1808. 
 
 D 2 

 
 36 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cil. II. 
 
 as usual, saw no reason for any alteration ; the violent 
 and bigoted expressed their abhorrence of the under- 
 taking, and calumniated the motives of the petitioners ; 
 the cautious and timid were unwilling to commit them- 
 selves, and thought it more prudent to defer the appli- 
 cation*; and some, of whom better hopes were enter- 
 tained, and who were known to be in their judgement 
 friendly to the objects, unexpectedly hesitated and drew 
 back at the critical moment, and instead of their signa- 
 tures they could only proffer their good wishes. 
 
 " These well-disposed and good sort of men," says 
 Mr. Lindsey in a letter dated November 19, 1771, 
 written just after his return from one of these fruitless 
 circuits, " have done the cause more harm than they in- 
 tended. They may wait long before the season of refor- 
 mation comes, and their brethren of the clergy and the 
 governing powers be more inclined to promote it than 
 they are at present. May they have no regrets in reflect- 
 ing that Providence put it in their power to bring on the 
 desired season, and propagate the requisite dispositions 
 and zeal for relieving the oppressed truth of God by their 
 much-wanted example ! I really never expected success 
 in this our undertaking ; and still less, since I have had 
 cause to observe the desertion of many from whom one 
 might have expected better. And yet I do not give it 
 up for gone ; nor will those worthy persons who have 
 taken an active part in promoting it." 
 
 In another letter to the same friend, dated Decem- 
 ber 21, 1771, and written soon after his return from a 
 general meeting of the Association in London on the 
 1 1th, in which it was finally determined to present the 
 petition to parliament during the present session, after 
 stating the violent opposition which was expected from 
 
 * It has been observed by an elegant writer, that the verb reform wants 
 the present tense.
 
 CH. II.} REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 3/ 
 
 the University of Oxford, from Lord North, from the 
 Methodists and others, Mr. Lindsey adds, 
 
 "Be the event, however, what it may, still good, much 
 good I am sure has arisen, and more will rise from this 
 shaking of the stagnant waters, and stirring up of better 
 principles. Political statesmen without any principle are 
 afraid of disturbances which may hurt the enjoyment of 
 their ease and emoluments. Political divines, and re- 
 verend unbelievers and half believers, are still more 
 haunted with fears of the like kind. Bigots are enraged 
 at the thought of a free rational examination of the Holy 
 Scriptures. Whilst serious and honest men, for such 
 there are in all places, rejoice at the Christian and Pro- 
 testant undertaking." 
 
 The petitioners, though comparatively few in number, 
 not amounting to two hundred and fifty, were of high 
 consideration in point of talents, of learning, and of 
 moral worth. The names of Lindsey, of Blackburne, of 
 Wyvill, of Jebb, of Law, of Disney, of Chambers, and 
 many others, are such as would do honour to any cause. 
 The majority were clergymen ; the rest were gentlemen 
 of the professions of law and medicine, who thus entered 
 their protest against the yoke of subscription imposed 
 upon students at the universities who had no view to the 
 clerical office. 
 
 It being determined by the Association not to defer 
 the petition to another session, the petitioners and their 
 friends were very active in soliciting the support of those 
 members of the House of Commons who might be dis- 
 posed to listen to their arguments. Their reception in 
 general was civil, but not very encouraging. Many re- 
 garded the object of the petition as frivolous ; and many 
 believed, or pretended to believe, that it would be hazard- 
 ous to meddle with the Articles. The prevailing opi- 
 nion was, that the application was ill-timed, and that it
 
 38 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. II. 
 
 was best to let religion alone. Some, however, who 
 were in the foremost rank for talents, integrity, and elo- 
 quence, took up the cause with great ardour, and pro- 
 mised their most zealous support. The state of the bu- 
 siness is thus represented in a letter from John Lee, Esq. 
 who was afterwards Solicitor General, to a friend in the 
 country, dated January 31, 1772. 
 
 " It will surprise you who live in the country, and con- 
 sequently have not been informed of the discoveries of 
 the metropolis, to hear that the Christian religion is 
 thought to be an object unworthy of the least attention ; 
 and that it is not only the most prudent; but the most 
 virtuous and benevolent thing in the world to divert 
 men's rninds from such foolish subjects with all the dex- 
 terity that can be. This is ho exaggeration, I assure 
 you : on the contrary, it seems to be the opinion (and 
 their conduct will show it) of nine-tenths of both houses 
 of parliament. On Thursday a committee of petitioners 
 waited upon Lord North to apprize him of the nature of 
 their application, and to inform themselves of his inten- 
 tion concerning this matter. He received them with 
 great courtesy, commended the decency of the petition 
 itself; but before he parted with them, he told them that 
 all with whom he had conversed were of opinion 'that 
 innovations would be very improper. Mr. Pitt, the 
 nephew of Lord Chatham, has undertaken to second the 
 motion, and I am sure he will acquit himself ably. I 
 spoke with him on the subject, and he understands it 
 very well. Lord George Germaine is hearty in the cause, 
 has studied the controversy, and speaks admirably. Mr. 
 Dunning has promised me to attend it ; and as his abi- 
 lities are unequalled by any man's I ever knew, I hope 
 he will do honour to the cause and to himself. Some 
 others there are of less note, who will enter into the de^ 
 bate; yet such a general confederacy is there against the
 
 CH. II.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 3D 
 
 measure, that I do not believe we shall divide forty mem-* 
 bers, perhaps not twenty ; yet the debate will do honour 
 to the petitioners, though at present no good to the cause. 
 Perhaps it may excite an attention to the subject ; and 
 who knows what time may do ? This may cure Dr. 
 Priestley of writing divinity, which, to be sure, hardly 
 any body minds. Yet I do not think our sons are more 
 honest, our daughters more chaste, our liberties more 
 sacred, or our property more secure, than in the days 
 when it was thought no dishonour to read or to believe 
 the Scripture." 
 
 This able advocate, whose powers were equalled by 
 few, and whose integrity was surpassed by none, the 
 worthy and confidential friend of Mr. Lindsey and Dr. 
 Priestley, and Mr. Turner, was engaged to exert his su- 
 perior abilities and energetic eloquence in pleading the 
 cause which he so well understood, and which he had so 
 much at heart, if the petitioners had been permitted to 
 be heard by counsel at the bar of the House of Commons. 
 ' If I attend at the bar," says he, " I will do my utmost 
 to serve the petitioners ; but I fear counsel will not be 
 permitted." 
 
 On the Cth of February 1772, agreeably to the reso- 
 lution of the general meeting, the petition was presented 
 to the House of Commons. It was introduced with a 
 very neat and appropriate speech by Sir William Mere- 
 dith, the member for Liverpool ; Lord John Cavendish 
 and Sir George Savile having declined the office, not 
 from any want of zeal for the cause, but because they 
 did not consider themselves as sufficiently masters of the 
 subject. It was intended by the minister that the peti- 
 tion should be treated civilly, be laid upon the table, and 
 the consideration of it adjourned for six months. It was 
 Lord North's policy, if possible, to preclude debate upon 
 so delicate a subject. But the intemperate zeal or the
 
 40 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cil. II. 
 
 secret instructions of Sir Roger Newdigate, one of the 
 members for the University of Oxford, a gentleman of 
 mild dispositions and exemplary character in private life, 
 happily defeated the artful policy of the noble Lord, and 
 gave rise to one of the most interesting and animated 
 debates that was ever heard in that house; " a debate," 
 as Mr. Lindsey expresses it in a letter to a friend, " which 
 entered gloriously into the whole merits of our cause ; 
 and which was well worth going two hundred and forty 
 miles to hear." It lasted for eight hours. Of this de- 
 bate I will take the liberty to introduce a brief account 
 extracted from a letter of the learned gentleman above 
 mentioned to his friend in the country. 
 
 " Sir William Meredith in a few words informed the 
 House that he had in his hands a petition of a number 
 of respectable clergy and others, praying relief in the 
 matter of subscription ; and therefore he moved that it 
 might be brought up. Mr. T. Pitt seconded the mo- 
 tion. On this, Sir Roger Newdigate rose up in great 
 anger, and demanded to know what the contents of the 
 petition were, and what the number and names of the 
 men who had subscribed it. Sir William then read the 
 petition in his place, and a few of the names, adding, 
 that the number was about two hundred and fifty. Sir 
 Roger Newdigate then began the debate, and opposed 
 with great Vehemence the bringing up of this petition. 
 In his opinion it aimed at the destruction of the church, 
 whose existence depended upon the continuance of the 
 Articles. Sir Roger spoke contemptuously of the num- 
 ber and quality of the petitioners, and sustained with 
 great fortitude the character of member for Oxford. He 
 was followed by Mr. Hans Stanley, who opposed the 
 bringing up of the petition, as it tended to disturb the 
 peace of the country, which, in his opinion, ought to be 
 the subject of a fortieth article, which would be worth
 
 CH. II.] REVEREND THEOFHILUS LINDSEY, 41 
 
 all the thirty-nine*. He was succeeded by Mr. Fitz- 
 maurice, who is brother to Lord Shelburne, and spoke 
 on the same side, throwing out some very indecent re- 
 flections on The Confessional and its author, and endea- 
 vouring to prove the petitioners to be a parcel of canting 
 hypocrites, who, under pretence of reformation, meant 
 the ruin of our civil and ecclesiastical government. This 
 conduct roused the resentment of Mr. Pitt, who with 
 great dignity and good sense observed upon the inde- 
 cency of calumniating any persons appearing in the cha- 
 racter of petitioners for redress of grievances, more es- 
 pecially the persons then applying for relief in a matter 
 that highly concerned the purity of religion, the integrity 
 of their own minds, and even the morality of the people. 
 He stated very well the principles of the Reformation, and 
 fairly inferred from them the propriety of the petition." 
 " The motion for bringing up the petition was also 
 supported by Lord George Germaine, Mr. Sawbridge, 
 Mr. Thomas Townshend, Lord John Cavendish, Mr. 
 Dunning, Sir Henry Hoghton, Mr. Solicitor General 
 Wedderburnet, and Sir George Savile. I believe Sir 
 George Savile's speech was one of the best that was ever 
 delivered in that house. I can give you no idea of its 
 excellence, unless by repeating some parts of it when I 
 have the pleasure of seeing you. I cannot help saying, 
 however, that I never was so affected with, or so sensible 
 
 * Upon this subject see a very curious letter of Mr. Hans Stanley to Mr. 
 Lindsey, Appendix, No. IV. 
 
 J- The author of this Biographical Memoir is neither inclined nor called 
 upon to vindicate Mr. Wedderburne, afterwards Earl of Rosslyn, and Lord 
 High Chancellor of Great Britain, in the whole of his political conduct. But 
 let it be remembered to Lord Rosslyn's praise, that he was always the en- 
 lightened advocate of a liberal toleration ; and that he was the steady zealous 
 friend and disinterested patron of the late learned Edward Evanson, A.M. 
 Vicar of Tewkesbury, whom he carried triumphantly through a mean and 
 savage persecution instituted against him by a few of his parishioners, in 
 opposition to the sense of a decided majority of the inhabitants of the town, 
 under pretence of heresy, and because of a few verbal alterations or omissions 
 in reading the Liturgy.
 
 42 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. II. 
 
 of the power of pious eloquence as while he was speaking. 
 It was not only an honour to him, but to his age and 
 country*. Mr. Solicitor General spoke very well, and 
 gave a very handsome testimony to the character of Mr. 
 Blackburne as a learned, pious, virtuous, and venerable 
 man, and vindicated his book as an excellent and enter- 
 taining performance. The speakers on the opposite side 
 were Sir Roger Newdigate, Mr. Fitzmaurice, Lord Folk- 
 stone, Mr. Byrne, Lord North, Mr. Charles Fox, Mr. 
 Burke, Mr. Dyson, Mr. Jenkinson, Mr. Stanley, Dr. 
 
 * The speeches of Sir William Meredith and of Sir George Savile were 
 afterwards written down from memory by Dr. Furneaux, and corrected by 
 Sir \V. Meredith himself. Of these speeches, so corrected, I am in posses- 
 sion of a copy, from which I will trespass upon the indulgence of thy reader 
 by presenting him with a few extracts of the admirable speech of Sir George 
 Savile, which he will easily perceive was well entitled to the high eulogium 
 of Mr. Lee. The earnestness and fervour with which it was delivered ma- 
 nifested how deeply the honourable speaker was impressed with his subject, 
 and the House listened from beginning to end .with silent, astonishment. 
 
 The honourable speaker, after a few preliminary remarks, in which' he 
 distinguishes between the Church of England and the Church of God and 
 Christ, (with which Sir Roger Newdigate had confounded it,) after having 
 stated that adherence to the Scriptures only, in opposition to human inven- 
 tions, was the grand principle of Protestantism, and having made some, judi- 
 cious and pointed observations upon some of the doctrines which are con- 
 tained in the Articles, proceeds to vindicate the character of the petitioners, 
 and to reply to the objections which had been started in the course of the 
 debate. It may be proper to premise that the zealous member for the Uni- 
 versity of Oxford had in his speech used words to this effect : " Some per- >- 
 haps may ask what is the use of requiring subscription to the Thirty-nine 
 Articles ? All blind as they are, cannot they see that the Articles are bar- 
 riers for the protection of the Church ? " It was also fully understood at the 
 time that the beautiful allegory, in reply to this allegation, though men- 
 tioned as a quotation, was in fact the extemporaneous suggestion of the elo- 
 quent orator's own vivid imagination. 
 
 " I must now, sir, express my very great concern at the manner in which 
 the petition, and they who signed it, have been treated. They have been, 
 treated in a manner very unparliamentary, in a manner that none should be 
 treated who come to the bar of this House to represent grievances and to 
 solicit redress. Their characters have been aspersed : injurious suspicions 
 have been thrown out against their designs and intentions. I wish many 
 things not to have been said which have been said. The petitioners, sir, 
 are clergymen ; men of respectable characters; I verily believe good and con-; 
 scientious men. We may treat their situation with indifference, because we 
 are strangers to it and feel not their difficulty. But let us for a moment put 
 ourselves in the place of these petitioners, who are required to bring them- 
 selves under a solemn obligation on the one hand to preach according to 
 Scripture, (which, if it means any thing, must mean according to what they 
 apprehend to be the sense of Scripture,) and on the other, are required to
 
 CH. II.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 43 
 
 Hay, and Mr. Cooper. Nobody but Sir Roger Newdi- 
 gate attempted to defend the Articles. And all the 
 House explicitly declared it was foolish to require sub- 
 scription at the university, and expressed a wish that it 
 might be laid aside there. 
 
 " After a very fine debate the house divided; the num- 
 bers for not receiving the petition were two hundred and 
 seventeen for receiving it seventy-one, which, consi- 
 dering the influence of the bishops and ministry, and the 
 character and weight of the minority, was thought a very 
 
 declare their belief of Articles which in their consciences they think contrary 
 
 to the Scripture, and which few will pretend to believe or to understand 
 
 This, sir, is a debate in which the honour of God, the interests of religion 
 and virtue, our own consciences, and the consciences of others, are deeply 
 concerned. Let us, then, hear no more of private characters, of Confes- 
 sionals, and Feathers Tavern. I have always thought that the persons of men 
 who petition this House were under our protection. Their characters ought 
 to be still more so. I therefore beseech you I become a humble and ear- 
 nest supplicant to you, by the benevolent spirit of the Gospel, by all that is 
 serious, I beseech you by the bowels of Christ, that this affair be treated, 
 not as a matter of policy, not as a matter of levity, not as a matter of censo- 
 riousncss, but as a matter of religion," 
 
 " Some gentlemen seem to apprehend that we are to make the doors of 
 the church as narrow and to exclude as many as possible. I think we should 
 make them as wide as -we can to take in as many as possible. Others are 
 apprehensive that, in case the Scriptures are substituted in the room of the 
 Articles, it will be the means of admitting into the church a great number 
 of sectaries. Sectaries ! Sir : had it not been for sectaries, this cause had 
 been tried at Rome. Thank God, it is tried here. 
 
 "Some gentlemen fear that if we lay aside the Articles and place the 
 Scriptures in their stead, by throwing down all distinctions we shall admit 
 Papists, and together with them their religion too. But they forget that 
 Papists are excluded by the oath of supremacy, and by the declaration against 
 transubstantiation, against the invocation of the Virgin Mary and other saints, 
 and against the sacrifice of the mass. And if any other test be needful, let 
 them be made to acknowledge liberty of conscience and the right of private 
 judgement ; let them abjure persecution that were a truly Protestant test. 
 But can any one seriously think that encouraging free inquiry and the study 
 of the Scriptures will issue in the Romish religion ? When I see a rivulet flow 
 to the top of a high rock, and requiring a strong engine to force it back again, 
 then shall I think that freedom of inquiry will be prejudicial to truth then 
 shall I think that liberty of judgement will be prejudicial to the Protestant 
 religion then shall I think that adhering to the Scriptures only will lead to 
 Rome. 
 
 " Some gentlemen talk of ' raising barriers about the Church of God, and 
 protecting his honour.' Language that is astonishing, that is shocking, that 
 almost approaches to blasphemy. What ! Man ! a poor vile contemptible 
 reptile, talk of raising barriers about the Church of God ! He might as well 
 talk of protecting Omnipotence, and raising barriers about his throne. Bar-
 
 44 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. 11. 
 
 great affair. The clergy petitioners were delighted with 
 the debate, all of them that were in town being admitted 
 to hear it. Dr. Hallifax of Cambridge was in the gallery, 
 and seemed disappointed that his violent nonsense had 
 produced so little effect on the House. This scene was 
 acted yesterday, beginning at three and ending at eleven 
 o'clock." 
 
 " The XXXIX Articles," says Mr. Lindsey in a letter 
 of nearly the same date to the same friend, " underwent 
 such a scrutiny, and had such a just exposition, that the 
 
 tiers about the Church of God, Sir? about that church, which, if there 
 be any veracity in Scripture, shall continue for ever, and against which the 
 gates of hell shall not prevail ? If I may be allowed on so serious an oc- 
 casion to recollect a fable, it puts me in mind of one which I have met 
 with, of a stately, magnificent, impregnable castle built on a rock, the basis 
 of which was the centre of the earth, the top of it piei'ced the clouds, the 
 thickness of the walls could not be measured by cubits. At the bottom of 
 it a few moles were one day very busy in raising up a little quantity of earth, 
 which when some mice saw, What are you doing, said they, to disturb the 
 tranquillity of the lord of this castle ? We are not disturbing his tranquillity, 
 replied the moles ; all blind as you are, you may see that we are only throw- 
 ing up a rampart to protect his castle. 
 
 "The Church of God, Sir, can protect itself. Truth needs not be afraid 
 of not obtaining the victory on a fair trial. The lovers of truth will love all 
 sincere inquirers after it, though they may differ from them in various re- 
 ligious sentiments. For it is to impartial and free inquiry only that error 
 owes its ruin and truth its success. Those who are penetrated with the 
 benevolent spirit of the Gospel will not condemn as heretics, will not reject 
 as unworthy of their aflection, any who believe the Christian religion, who 
 search and endeavour to understand the Scriptures, though they may be 
 unable to comply with creeds and articles. 
 
 " Some gentlemen suppose that the Scriptures are not plain enough to be 
 a rule and centre of union to the Church. They must have articles and 
 creeds to supply its defects. But if the things which are necessary to sal- 
 vation are not plainly revealed, there is no way of salvation revealed to the 
 bulk of mankind at all. Whatever is obscurely revealed will be always 
 obscure notwithstanding our decisions. It can never be authoritatively 
 determined by men. The only authority which can explain it, and make 
 the explanation a test of faith, is the authority of God. As to what he has 
 plainly revealed, it needs no articles to ascertain its meaning. We should 
 not then adopt views and measures which are contracted and narrow. We 
 should not set bars in the way of those who are willing to enter and labour 
 in the Church of God. When the disciples came to Christ and complained 
 that there were some who cast out devils in his name, and said, We forbad 
 them because they followed not us what did our Saviour do ? Did he send 
 them tests and articles to be subscribed ? Did he ask them whether they 
 believed this, or that, or the other doctrine ? whether they were Athanasians, 
 or Ariisns, or Arminians ? No. He delivered that comprehensive maxim 
 He that is not against me is for me. Go ye, and say likewise."
 
 CH. II.} REVEREND THEOPHILUS LTNDSEY. 45 
 
 civil power must soon be ashamed of imposing what not 
 one of our adversaries defended, except Sir Roger ; and 
 many of them gave them up. 
 
 " Burke declaimed most violently against us in a long 
 speech, but entirely like a Jesuit, and full of popish 
 ideas ; the multifarious strange compound of the book 
 called the Scriptures ; the uncertainty what were the 
 Scriptures ; the necessity of a priesthood ; of men in 
 society, religious as well as other, giving up their right 
 of private judgement, &c. &c. 
 
 " Can it be true ?" continued Mr. Lindsey, " I hope 
 not ; but it is said, and suspected, that this man spoke 
 the sentiments of his patron, Lord Rockingham. The 
 persuasion, however, does my Lord Marquis no good in 
 the esteem of judicious men. 
 
 " Though defeated," adds he, " we sing a victory ; as 
 truth and reason were all for us, and overpowered only 
 by power ; and we are not disheartened, but in high 
 spirits, with thankfulness to the good providence of God 
 so happily disposing things ; and shall certainly not give 
 up the cause, though what steps next are to be taken we 
 cannot say." 
 
 So little interest did the Dissenters take in this appli- 
 cation of the clergy, that only two of the General Body 
 of dissenting ministers happened to be present at this 
 memorable debate. These were, indeed, gentlemen of the 
 first eminence and respectability among their brethren : 
 the late reverend Edward Pickard*, minister of the con- 
 
 * Let it be permitted to one who, after an interval of more than thirty 
 years, entertains a grateful and unabated sense of many and important obli- 
 gations, to bear a humble testimony to the distinguished, but retiring and 
 unobtrusive merit of the friend of his youth. The reverend Edward Pickard 
 was born at Alcester, in Warwickshire, A.D. 1714, of reputable and pious 
 parents. He was educated in high Calvinistic principles, and after he had 
 finished his studies under the reverend and learned J. Eames, F.R.S. he 
 settled with a congregation at Stratford upon Avon. The excellence of hi* 
 understanding and the benevolence of his heart, combined with a serious aiii
 
 46 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. 11. 
 
 gregation at Carter Lane, a gentleman distinguished by 
 benevolence of heart and urbanity of manners, who was 
 afterwards Chairman of the Committee for conducting 
 the application of the Dissenting Ministers to Parliament 
 for relief; and the learned Philip Furneaux, D.D. mi- 
 nister of the congregation at Clapham, well known to 
 the public by his Letters to Mr. Justice Blackstone upon 
 the subject of Toleration, and whose memory was so cor- 
 rect and tenacious, that having taken down from recol- 
 lection the celebrated speech of Lord Mansfield in the 
 House of Peers, in the great dissenting cause, concerning 
 
 diligent study of the Scriptures, soon led him to discard the gloomy system 
 in which he had been brought up, and to embrace the more rational hypo- 
 thesis of Arianism, which was then in the zenith of its glory, being supported 
 by the great abilities, learning and reputation of Dr. Clarke, Mr. Whiston, 
 Dr. Daniel Scott, and others. To this opinion Mr. Pickard ever afterwards 
 adhered. His deviation from the- orthodox creed having created uneasiness 
 in his situation at Stratford, he removed to London, and was at first settled 
 with a small congregation in the Borough. But his eminent talents were 
 not destined to remain long in obscurity. And in 1 746, upon the accession 
 of Mr. Newman to the pastoral office in the flourishing congregation at Carter 
 Lane in the room of Dr. Wright, Mr. Pickard was chosen afternoon preacher; 
 and, upon the death of Mr. Newman, A.D. 1/59, he was appointed sole pas- 
 tor, and continued in that connexion happy, useful, and beloved, beyond the 
 common lot, till his own decease in Febiuarv \"JTS. Mr. Pickard had great 
 pulpit talents. He was, indeed, no professed orator ; and perhaps he enter- 
 tained too great a prejudice against the artificial helps of public elocution. 
 But his voice was clear and strong : his matter was judicious, well com- 
 posed, interesting, and practical. He spoke as one who deeply felt the 
 power of religious truth. In prayer, he chiefly excelled. In variety of 
 thought, in copiousness of language, in simplicity, in propriety and perti- 
 nence to the occasion, in pathos, and in fervour of devotion, he was un- 
 equalled. No one could hesitate in preferring free prayer to written or pub- 
 lic forms, if all could pray like Mr. Pickard. He riveted the attention and 
 captivated the heart. And it was the same in the more private and family 
 circle as in public. His public services did not indeed attract the crowd, 
 but they delighted the intelligent, the judicious, and the devout ; and have 
 been honoured more than once by the attendance of dignitaries of the highest 
 order in the established church. 
 
 Mr. Pickard possessed talents which qualified him eminently for conduct- 
 ing business. What he planned with calm and cool deliberation and advice, 
 he executed with promptitude, with vigour, and with perseverance. And his 
 kindness of heart and conciliatory manners made it a pleasure to every one 
 to transact business with him. He was a leading and active member in 
 many important trusts. He was chairman of the committee for that ap-i 
 plication to parliament which originated with him, for the relief of protestant 
 dissenting ministers, tutors, and schoolmasters ; and in this office he con- 
 ducted himself with a degree of prudence aud activity which commanded uni-
 
 CH. II. J REVEREND THEOPHILUS LTNDSEY. 47 
 
 the liability of dissenters to serve the office of sheriff, and 
 having shown it to the noble and learned Lord for his 
 correction, it was returned by Lord Mansfield with very 
 few alterations, and with his express consent to publish 
 it as his genuine speech : which Dr. Furneaux has ac- 
 cordingly done, in the Appendix to the second edition 
 of his Letters to the learned Judge. In the course of the 
 debate, many of the speakers who opposed the petition 
 of the clergy, and particularly Lord North, who having 
 with his usual good humour observed, that he saw no 
 ground to complain of intolerance in times when every 
 
 versal approbation. His conduct in this affair was, indeed, severely, not to 
 say rudely attacked, in an anonymous pamphlet, by an author who did not 
 at that time fully appreciate his worth. But at the next general meeting of 
 the three denominations, which was most numerously attended, Mr. Pickard, 
 as chairman, delivered a most excellent speech, which he was strongly so- 
 licited to publish, stating and defending his own conduct and that of his 
 brethren of the committee, and repelling the attack which had been made 
 iipon him and them, with a spirit, truth, and energy, which gave complete 
 satisfaction to the audience, and even to the accuser himself who was pre- 
 sent, and who was ready frankly to acknowledge that he had not formed a just 
 estimate of Mr. Pickard's character and talentsf. 
 
 Ill the American war, and in the party politics of the time, Mr. Pickard 
 took a side opposite to that of Dr. Price and most of his dissenting brethren. 
 This he did honestly and conscientiously, and without any improper or in- 
 terested bias of mind. He was a man of a truly independent spirit, and dis- 
 dained to be the tool of a party. And when the minister of the crown, know- 
 ing his character, his political principles, and his weight among the dissent- 
 ers, offered him the whole management of the rcgiura donum, he absolutely 
 declined having any concern in it at all, that he might not give the shadow 
 of pretence for the allegation that he was warped in his political principles 
 by court favour. 
 
 Mr. Pickard died after a short illness, in February 1 778, in the sixty-seventh 
 year of his age. And very few in a similar situation have been more justly, 
 more generally, or more deeply lamented. It is much to be regretted that 
 his great humility and modesty, together with his numerous avocations, did 
 not permit him to instruct and edify the Christian world from the press, as 
 well as from the pulpit. But he has left one splendid and lasting monument 
 of his philanthropy and piety, the Dissenters' Orphan School in the City 
 Road ; of which noble and useful institution, I believe that I am correct in 
 saying, that the idea originated with him ; at least, it will be allowed that 
 he was one of its first founders, and of its most able, most unwearied, and 
 most successful managers and advocates. 
 
 t The anonymous assailant was Dr. Priestley, who has, to the author 
 himself, acknowledged his error with respect to the qualifications and merits 
 of Mr. Pickard; and the gentleman who requested that the speech might 
 fee published, was Mr. Turner, of Wakefield.
 
 48 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. II. 
 
 one was permitted to go to heaven in their own way, re- 
 marked, that had a similar application been made by the 
 dissenting clergy, who derived no emoluments from the 
 church whose articles they were compelled to subscribe, 
 he could see no reasonable objection to it. These two 
 reverend gentlemen, talking the matter over with each 
 other after the debate was closed, and consulting with 
 some others of their brethren, summoned the General 
 Body of dissenting ministers of the three denominations, 
 who concurred in an application to parliament the next 
 year, for relief from the obligation to subscribe the arti- 
 cles of the established church, in order to secure the be- 
 nefits of the Toleration Act. And though they were for 
 a time vehemently opposed by bigots both of their own 
 body and of the establishment, and though the bill for 
 their relief, having twice passed the House of Commons, 
 was twice rejected by the Lords ; yet a few years after- 
 wards, A. D. 1778, the times becoming more favourable, 
 the bill for their relief passed both Houses almost una- 
 nimously, and received the royal assent. So that at pre- 
 sent dissenting ministers, tutors, and schoolmasters, are 
 entitled to all the benefits of the Toleration Act, by 
 making a declaration, in addition to the oaths usually 
 required, that they receive the Scriptures of the Old and 
 New Testament as containing a divine revelation. 
 
 The associated clergy having resolved, notwithstand- 
 ing their late defeat, to renew their application for re- 
 lief the next session of parliament, Mr. Lindsey, though 
 his hopes of success were less than ever, did not deem it 
 expedient at this juncture to carry into effect his resolu- 
 tion of resignation. This, however, he plainly foresaw 
 must soon happen ; and in the mean time he fortified 
 his mind by reading Calamy's Account of the Ministers 
 who were ejected for Non-conformily in the year 1662, 
 and by collecting materials for a history of persons who
 
 CH. II.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 49 
 
 had suffered for their profession of Unitarian principles. 
 Upon the former subject he thus expresses himself, in a 
 letter to a friend, dated April 12, 1772 : 
 
 " I never was more affected with any book than with 
 Calamy's History of those worthy confessors that gave 
 up all in the cause of Christ, and for a good conscience, 
 at the Restoration. No time or country ever did furnish 
 at once such a list of Christian heroes ; and I fear our 
 own country now would fall far short of furnishing so 
 large a number upon a like trying occasion. But it was 
 the effect of their Puritan education. They had learned to 
 fear God from their youth, and to fear nothing else." 
 
 He further adds to the same correspondent, in refe- 
 rence to the plan which he was himself pursuing, of' col- 
 lecting materials for a similar history, 
 
 " As it was your own obliging offer, I need not ask 
 you, as it falls in your way, to inquire out, and to note 
 down for me, any such good witnesses of our own days. 
 And I will endeavour that their names and example may 
 not be wholly lost." 
 
 In another letter, dated May 10, 1772, he observes, 
 " If I did not sufficiently in my last, I ought to acknow- 
 ledge myself highly indebted to you for the pains you 
 have taken, and are taking, in the inquiry first started to 
 me by you, though thought of by me, and to which you 
 so willingly lend your aid. Their names have gone up 
 for a memorial before God, who have suffered for the 
 testimony of Jesus, and nobly refused to worship the 
 beast and his image. But surely their memory should 
 live, and be preserved upon earth for the benefit of the 
 present and succeeding times. But such materials are 
 slowly collected, and hardly to be come at by us of the 
 church ; and, to our shame be it said, fall more in your 
 way. Therefore I will beg you, at your utmost leisure, 
 to go on as you have begun." 
 

 
 OF THE i^Tfi [cw. H. 
 
 Mr. Lujdsey, thougli hjs own mind was fully made up 
 as to the &tep which he would take if the application of 
 the Associated Clergy did not succeed, was very cautious 
 of dropping a,uy hint of his intention, even to his most 
 intimate friends, titi the time approached when it would 
 he necessary for him to take public and decisive mea- 
 sures. The r.st allusion which he inakes to his own 
 secret purpose, in his corresp.ond.ence with Mr. Turner, 
 is in a letter dated June 2, 17/2. 
 
 " What will further be attempted in o.ur affair," says 
 lie, " I know not ; but I trust we shall agree still to do 
 something.- For my own particular, if n,o disposition 
 to reformation appear, and nothing be dojie, I do not 
 kiuwv where things will end." 
 
 The associated clergy judging it expedient not to re- 
 new their application to parliament at the ensuing sessions 
 in the spring of 177.3, Mr. Lindsey, who never expected 
 any reformation to be introduced which would relieye 
 his scruples with respect to conformity, conceiving that 
 he had now protracted his resignation to the utmost limit 
 that the most cautious prudence could require, and having 
 now an open course before him, determined forthwith to 
 relinquish his preferment at the close of the current year. 
 And in the mean time he employed himself in prepara- 
 tion for this, to him, very important event no, indeed, 
 by hoarding up a purse of money for tlie support of him- 
 self and Mrs. Lindsey while he continued out of office, 
 and unprovided with the means of subsistence : for this 
 was not his chief concern. True to tlie last to the ge- 
 nerous principle, that the income arising from a parish 
 should be employed for tl>e benefit of the parishioners, 
 both he and Mrs. Lindsey, as we are informed by his 
 amiable biographer, who was eye-witness to the fact, 
 continued their accustomed charijties, and had this year 
 the additional expense of inoculajting all the poqr chil-
 
 CH. II.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 51 
 
 dren in the parish, the small-pox being then very fatal 
 in the neighbourhood. Mrs. Lindsey attended them in 
 person, gave them all their medicines, and was so suc- 
 cessful in her attendance, that she did not lose a single 
 patient*. Mr. Lindsey, in the mean time, employed 
 himself in drawing up and printing a copious and learned 
 Apology to the public, which, in its original state, con- 
 tained a large and comprehensive view of the arguments 
 for the Unitarian doctrine. But upon reconsideration, 
 and by the advice of his friends, he considerably reduced 
 the size of the volume, comprising what was most ma- 
 terial, and what related to himself personally, in a smaller 
 work, which was to be ready for publication immediately 
 upon his resignation ; and judiciously reserving the more 
 elaborate portion of the argument to be published after- 
 wards, at a more convenient season, as a Sequel to the 
 Apology. In the mean time, as opportunity offered, he 
 communicated his purpose without reserve to his confi- 
 dential friends. 
 
 In the beginning of the year 1 773, some letters in a 
 newspaper appeared under the signature Laelius, which 
 discussed the question concerning the conformity of cler- 
 gymen who, in their judgement and conscience, disap- 
 proved of the doctrine and worship of the established 
 church. Upon this subject Mr. Lindsey thus feelingly 
 expresses himself, in a letter to a friend dated March 2 : 
 " The subject of Laelius's last letter may give one many 
 a pang. I cannot say that I have been, for many years, 
 a day free from uneasiness about itjV' 
 
 The interesting posture of his mind, as the crisis ap- 
 proached, he thus pathetically describes to his friend Mr. 
 Turner, who seems to have been almost the only person 
 admitted to his entire confidence. The letter is dated 
 
 * Mrs. Capped Memoir of Mr. Lindsey, Month, Rep. vol. Ui. p. 641. 
 f Monthly Mag. December 1808-, p. 448. 
 
 E2
 
 3T2 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. tl. 
 
 June 13, 1773. " It is not possible to describe to you 
 the straits and anxieties of mind which one person daily 
 passeth through not through any doubts of the thing 
 itself, but lest he should have deserved to be laid by, lest 
 there should be any thing to reproach himself with here- 
 after, lest he should suffer unprofitably as to himself; for 
 a man may give all his goods to the poor, and his body 
 to be burned, and yet want charity; may make the 
 greatest sacrifices, and yet want the proper disposition 
 to make them acceptable. What need has one daily to 
 cry with the psalmist, ' Make me a clean heart, O God, 
 and renew a right spirit within me !' You will hence ob- 
 serve, it was not lightly that the last word said at K. at 
 parting, was * Ora, Orate pro nobis ;' and you gave me 
 comfort in the assurance of this your way of remem- 
 brance. And I would beg another person not to be for- 
 gotten, who has indeed the true spirit of a Christian, 
 and has been more than ready to do every thing ; but 
 who must be exposed to one knows not what, and there 
 must be a great change from what is at present. These 
 things are hinted darkly to you, for which there is a rea- 
 son. But there is a relief in it, and the more, as it is 
 to no one else whatsoever, now Dr. P. is gone." 
 
 To the same friend, at the same time, he sent his 
 Apology and its Appendix, now finished and ready for 
 ,the press, requesting at the same time his free and im- 
 partial strictures. " You will find it run out," says he, 
 " longer than you would think. But one thing drew on 
 another. And it seemed to me necessary to complete 
 my plan. I will not be ashamed to own to you, that it 
 has cost me some pains. And some things seem to be 
 set in a stronger light than I have seen them ; and some 
 I had not seen observed before. When I have borrowed, 
 I have fairly owned it. You know what severity of 
 judgement, perhaps unkind, it is to pass through ; and
 
 CH. II.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LTNDSEY. 53 
 
 therefore I beg you will be severe before hand, and also 
 suggest any improvements which may occur to you." 
 And in his next letter, dated June 21, he says, " I beg 
 you will particularly mark any expression or sentiment 
 that savoureth of pride or obstinacy, or contempt of 
 others' opinions, or that is deficient in a proper and 
 humble sense of myself." So solicitous was this excellent 
 man that he might be influenced by none but the purest 
 and most disinterested motives in all he did, or suffered, 
 or wrote, through the whole of this arduous concern. 
 
 At the latter end of July Mr. Lindsey was invited to 
 preach the Assize Sermon at York ; of which oppor- 
 tunity he availed himself to bear his testimony to the 
 cause of the petitioning clergy. This discourse gave 
 great satisfaction to a liberal and enlightened audience, 
 and the preacher was much solicited to print it. But 
 as the bulk of it had been composed only for his country 
 parishioners, to which a few additions had been made 
 for the purpose of adapting it to the occasion, Mr. 
 Lindsey did not think it worthy the public eye. Had 
 it occurred to him that he might possibly be requested 
 to publish, he would have been better prepared. And 
 he expresses his regret to his friend, that " an oppor- 
 tunity of bearing a more public and useful testimony 
 had been lost by him." 
 
 Soon after his return from York he made a visit to 
 Alnwick Castle, " the noble owners of it having invited 
 him in such a'way, that in this Juncture he thought it 
 wrong to decline it, however inconvenient." He re- 
 garded it as proper upon this occasion to drop a hint to 
 his illustrious friends of the important measure which 
 he had in contemplation, not without some faint hope 
 that, in some shape or other, some little effort might 
 have been made to serve him, some temporary relief 
 might have been offered. Happily, no such idea entered
 
 54 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [<JH. If. 
 
 into the minds of the noble inhabitants of that princely 
 mansion. On the contrary, " his words seemed to them 
 as idle tales." Nor did it fall within the comprehension 
 of persons of their high rank and dignity, that it was 
 possible for a person of Mr. Lindsey's good understand- 
 ing, for the sake of a few trifling scruples, to quit a si- 
 tuation of respectability and affluence, and expose him- 
 self and the person in the world who was the dearest to 
 him to all the miseries of poverty and dependence. The 
 disappointment of his expectations from the Duke and 
 Dutchess of Northumberland does not appear to have 
 given Mr. Lindsey one moment's uneasiness. Before 
 he set out for Alnwick he had written to his friend, " If 
 God be with us and go along with us in all we do, and 
 wherever we go, we shall prosper. I trust, I desire to 
 do his will more ardently than ever." And after his re- 
 turn, August 10, he briefly states : " My late journey 
 was undertaken in view of my approaching affair, and to 
 try something towards procuring a viaticum for the pil- 
 grims. But I cannot say it has answered. Nobody will 
 believe any one can be in earnest to take such a step*." 
 Mr. Lindsey was no fanatic who fancied merit in vo- 
 luntary poverty. He had enjoyed and had duly valued 
 
 * This disappointment was not owing to any personal dislike, or to any 
 indifference in his noble patrons to the concerns of their venerabk: friend. 
 On the contrary, they took a very lively interest in his future fortunes. And 
 after he came to reside in London, on the very day in which he opened the 
 chapel in Essex-street, when there was some apprehension that Mr. Lindsty 
 might incur personal danger, the Dutchess herself called at his humble 
 apartments, after the morning service, to inquire after the safety of the re- 
 vered confessor. But these illustrious persons, having offered him the 
 highest preferment which it was in their power to confer, when Mr. Lindsey 
 resigned his connexion with the established church, probably considered him 
 as having placed himself without the sphere of their patronage. Nor did it 
 occur to them, nor would Mr. Lindsey's delicacy permit him to insinuate 
 the most distant hint, to what a state of depression and dependence he had 
 reduced himself by his magnanimous conduct. Afterwards, when his situa- 
 tion came to be better understood, a liberal present was made to his vene- 
 rated preceptor by the late illustrious possessor of the title, which was con^ 
 tinued annually till Mr. Lindsey's decease.
 
 Ctt. II.] REVEREND ?HEOPHILt7 r S LfNDSEY. #5 
 
 and improved the blessings of affluence. Not could any 
 thing but an imperious sense of duty have induced, him 
 to forego them. He is not, therefore, to be blamed for 
 using any prudent and honourable mean's of saving him- 
 self and Mrs. Lindsey from falling at once infio an abyss" 
 of poverty, in which they would be left to struggle with 
 difficulties unaccustomed and unknWwn . It c6vrM' be no 
 offence to say, " Father, if it be possible, let this cir pffs3 
 away from me ;" provided that it was added, as ift this 
 case it certainly was, with the most entire resignation of 
 spirit : " nevertheless, not our will but thirte be done." 
 And it was the wise and merciful design of Provi'd<ence 
 that this venerable confessor's faith and principle should 
 be tried to the utmost. Nor indeed would it have been 
 possible for Mr. Lindsey's character to have appeared witK 
 equal brilliancy and effect, nor could the purity of Ms owrt 
 motives have been so evident, even to ; himself, if immedi* 
 ately upon his resignation of the vicarage of Catterielc h^ 
 had found a safe and splendid asylum in Northumberland 
 House. It was therefore expedient for him, and' for the 
 cause which he had at heart, that he should be taught' not 
 only to be ready, but actually to suffer the loss of all 
 things for the sake of truth and of a good conscience'. 
 
 The disappointment at Alnwick Castle ptfodticed* a very 
 slight and momentary impression. A far severer cbnflicf 
 awaited Mr. Lindsey when he came to reveal 1 hrs ; purpose 
 to Mrs. Lindsey's relations, o Archdeacon RIadkburne, 
 her stepfather, who loved her as hfe own 1 daughter, whti 
 from principle utterly disapproved the measure of leaving 
 the church, and who could express" his disapprobation 
 with a strength and energy of language, Which, though 
 it could not shake Mr. Lindsey's purpose, might greatly 
 agitate his feelings'; ami to" Mrs. Btackburne, who, if she 
 did not disapprove the principle of Mt . Lindsfey's con- 
 duct-, \vou'ld> feel most bitterly tbe inevitable conseqirence
 
 56 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. II. 
 
 that of tearing from her arms a beloved daughter who 
 was the chief solace and support of her advancing years. 
 This disclosure, so much dreaded, was indeed deferred 
 by Mr. Lindsey perhaps beyond the time which strict pro- 
 priety would justify, of which his friend at Wakefield ap- 
 pears to have given him a gentle hint. In reply to which, 
 upon his return from Alnwick, he writes, " In my next 
 I shall perhaps be able to tell you how the notification is 
 received by one to whom you wished it to be made." 
 This communication was made in the month of Septem- 
 ber ; and the result of it, and the impression it made 
 upon his mind, he thus concisely but feelingly describes 
 in a letter dated September 17. 
 
 "What 1 said to you then (alluding to his last letter) 
 I can ill recollect ; for I had been then, and was some 
 time after, under such agitations of mind in disclosing 
 a certain important matter to some friends, that I was 
 hardly master of myself to do any thing properly. Some- 
 thing of this kind I could not avoid even at York. But, 
 all such trials are now over. Affliction, great, you will 
 readily believe on the side of a loving mother and justly 
 beloved daughter, on the prospect of so sudden 'a remo- 
 val to such a distance ! But it gives place to better sen- 
 timents, and trust in Providence. I cannot say the matter 
 is so kindly taken by others. But such things are to be 
 expected ; and they may be of service to prepare for cold- 
 ness, neglect, misrepresentation, and unkindness from 
 the world, and to lead to depend only on him who never 
 faileth those who in well doing put their trust in him." 
 
 It was about the same time that he communicated his 
 intention and his motives in a letter to another respect- 
 able correspondent*. 
 
 * See the Memoir in the Monthly Magazine, ibid. p. 448. This corre- 
 spondent was the celebrated Dr. John Jebb, so well kno\rn and so honour- 
 ably distinguished by the learned and instructive Critical and Theological
 
 CH. II.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LFNDSEY. 57 
 
 " I think," says be, " you must have perceived in my 
 letters, perhaps in my conversation, a dissatisfiedness 
 with our ecclesiastical impositions, and a tendency to re- 
 lieve myself from them. This indeed had taken place 
 long before our association was formed, and the execu- 
 tion only suspended and retarded by it, though some 
 pleasing expectation was formed, that Providence might 
 unexpectedly give such a turn to our endeavours as might 
 make me easy, or give me liberty to make myself easy. 
 But as my chief dissatisfaction is with those Trinitarian 
 forms which pervade the whole liturgy, all hope of that 
 kind is entirely cut off. The resolution I have formed 
 of retiring has been absolutely fixed for some time, and 
 will take place in a few months. It was absolutely ne- 
 cessary for my own peace with God, which is to be pre- 
 ferred above all considerations. But I have found great 
 difficulties and opposition already, and expect to find 
 
 Lectures which he delivered at Cambridge ; by his zealous, active, and in 
 part successful exertions to improve the system of education in the univer- 
 sity, and to excite a laudable spirit of emulation among the students by fre- 
 quent examinations and honorary premiums j and to abolish or to mitigate 
 the yoke ofsubscription to the thirty-nine articles. This gentleman, how- 
 ever, rinding his efforts for reformation in a great measure fruitless, resigned 
 his preferment in the church, and afterwards took his degree in medicine, 
 and entered upon practice in the metropolis with great reputation and suc- 
 cess ; but he died a few years afterwards, in the meridian of life, at the age 
 of fifty-three. See Dr. Disney's interesting Memoir of Dr. Jebb, prefixed 
 to the collection of his works. Dr. Jebb did not actually quit his situation in 
 the church till some time after the resignation of his friend Mr. Lindsey. 
 But it is remarkable that the letters of the two friends, communicating to 
 each other their respective resolutions to that effect, crossed upon the road. 
 Dr. Jebb, as he was the active and energetic coadjutor of Mr. Lindsey in the 
 business of the clerical association, so he was, with Mr. Turner, his confi- 
 dential friend and adviser in all his subsequent proceedings and difficulties, 
 particularly concerning the opening of the chapel in Essex-street, and the 
 alterations in the Liturgy. Mr. Lindsey also submitted his various publica- 
 tions to the revisal of Dr. Jebb, and derived much benefit from his critical 
 remarks upon difficult and disputed texts. It was the earnest d^.iire of Mr. 
 Lindsey that his pious and learned friend should have been associated with 
 him as his colleague in Essex-street. But this Dr. Jebb declined ; though 
 afterwards, when he was settled in London, he was a constant worshiper in 
 Mr, Lindsey's chapel, and a most zealous and decided advocate for Unkarian 
 principles, and supporter of the sole worship and unrivalled supremacy of 
 the Oije God, the Father of our Lord Jesus. Christ,
 
 58 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. II. 
 
 more. My greatest comfort and support, under God, is 
 my wife, who is a Christian indeed, and worthy of a bet- 
 ter fate in worldly things than we have a prospect of ; 
 for we leave a station of ease and abundance attended 
 with many other agreeable circumstances. But, thanks 
 be to God, we have not given way to ease and indulgence, 
 and can be content with little." 
 
 In the month of October Mr. Lindsey writes to his 
 friend, " that their courage and trust in God did not re- 
 lax, though difficulties and discouragements increased ; 
 and that, if these produced the effect of bringing them 
 nearer to God, and to more entire reliance upon him, 
 whatever might befall them they would have reason to 
 be thankful." 
 
 On the twelfth of November Mr. Lindsey wrote to his 
 diocesan Dr. Markham, then bishop of Chester, after- 
 wards archbishop of York, to inform him of his intention 
 to resign his vicarage ; and that in a few days he should 
 wait upon his Lordship with the legal instrument of his 
 resignation. On the same day he wrote a long letter to 
 Dr. Jebb, in which he says, " I have never had the least 
 doubt, from the first moment I resolved on the step I am 
 now about to take, but that it was right, and my duty. I 
 have had some subsequent hope too, that it might serve 
 our cause, and the cause of God's truth. I bless the God 
 of heaven for myself, and my wife, who is destined to bear 
 a great part of the burden, that as difficulties increase, 
 (and they must increase the nearer the time approaches,) 
 our resolution and courage increase. And I have no 
 doubt but the promises made to 1 the faithful servants will 
 fee fulfilled to us ; that we shall have strength propor- 
 tioned to our trial and want of it*." 
 
 * In artotHer letter to the same friend, dated December 5, 1773, Mr. 
 kimtsey writes, "I have always htid great .satisfaction and ihfoirtisftion'iri 
 your letters, and in your later ufies imich comfort' and- encotiragciut-iit. If I
 
 CH. II.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 59 
 
 On the same day he wrote a letter to his friend Mr. 
 Turner, who had proposed to recommend him to a con- 
 gregation of liberal dissenters at the Octagon Chapel, 
 Liverpool, which was then in want of a minister. In 
 this letter he expresses his deep sense of his friend's kind- 
 ness, and his own further views and purposes, in the fol- 
 lowing terms: 
 
 " I must ever say that I have had no such consolation 
 from any one as from you, during the conflict and trial 
 which the providence of God has cast upon me. You 
 have ever been leading to the right point of view, in 
 which to consider it, and suggesting the most animating 
 motives for encouragement under it. And not satisfied 
 with doing this, your last convinces me of your earnest 
 desire to contribute your endeavours to procure me an 
 establishment when I quit this, which may preserve some 
 degree of usefulness which I anxiously wish, and serve 
 for that worldly support which we shall want. But with 
 regard to what you kindly suggest, I believe it will be 
 best to wait, and not lay out for any thing of this kind 
 at present, though no less obliged to you than if you pro- 
 cured me success in it. My reason is, that my design*, 
 which I specify very particularly in my Tract, is to fry to 
 gather a church of Unitarian Christians out of the esta- 
 blished church. My hope is, that it may plase Provi- 
 
 had been opposed and condemned by all my friends, by all the world, in what 
 I have been long meditating and have now accomplished, I must have done 
 it. The track of duty was so plain and straight, I must Have been abandoned 
 to every moral principle not to have gone in it. I have no doubt I shall have 
 iucreasing joy in what I have done, to the latest day of my life. And I feel 
 mysvlf delivered from a load which has long lain heavy upon me, and at 
 times nearly overwhelmed me. I shall be still more happy if what I thought 
 myself called upon to speak to the public in my own behalf, but more in the 
 cause of oppressed truth, may but serve its interests. The bishop of Ches- 
 ter, my diocesan, has behaved with great friendliness, and kindly wished and 
 sought to have prevented my taking such a step. And the same has been 
 endeavoured by other great friends lately, arid various expedients proposed. 
 But I now only wonder I did not sooner make my retreat ; and I' am per- 
 suaded that will be the general cry of many when they see my book."
 
 60 . MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. II. 
 
 dence to excite some Philadelphmns in our church to 
 favour such a design. And when I go to town, which 
 will be in the beginning of the winter, I shall do all I can 
 to. forward it; with hope, I said before, not very sanguine 
 however, for serious religion is not the tone and temper 
 of the times. But attempts must be made in such mat- 
 ters oftentimes when there are even greater improbabili- 
 ties of accomplishing them. I could wish, and I think 
 it my duty, to be instrumental in bringing those who are 
 now in the darkness in which I was bred up, to the ac- 
 knowledgement and worship of the One true God, through 
 the mediation and according to the true doctrine of our 
 Saviour Christ, rather than attach myself to those who 
 are already emancipated from that darkness. And we are 
 willing to expend what little we have for that end for a 
 year or two in town, and make the trial. Should it fail, 
 I should be glad to be useful in any congregation where 
 the worship of the true God is allowed and professed. 
 As to future provision, though gloomy thoughts for a mo- 
 jnent have sometimes come across the mind, we have no 
 doubt but our own industry and the friends that Provi- 
 dence will raise will furnish every thing needful for it. 
 
 " On Sunday last I took my leave of two of the chapels 
 in my parish that lie at a good distance off, near the moors, 
 a poor simple-minded people, who much affected me by 
 the concern they showed and expressed in words at my 
 telling them that I should never more speak to them from 
 that place ; and all desired to have the little Tract which 
 I mentioned I should distribute amongst them, and which 
 would give them an account of the reasons why I left 
 them*." 
 
 * This excellent and affecting little Tract, from which large extracts have 
 >een made in the preceding part of this Memoir, was originally intended for 
 private circulation only among Mr. Lindsey's parishioners, but by the desire 
 of many judicious friends it was afterwards published. Mr. Turner in a
 
 CH. II.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 61 
 
 "With such deliberate and cheerful resolution," says 
 his worthy correspondent in a letter to a friend dated a 
 few days afterwards, "does this confessor to what he con- 
 ceives to be the truth of the gospel resign a certain esta- 
 blishment for dependence and poverty. The glorious 
 
 letter to a friend (Mr. Astley of Chesterfield) to whom he sent a copy of this 
 Farewell Address, says, " I think you will be ple.ased with the simplicity of 
 the composition, as well as with the integrity and goodness of heart mani- 
 fested in it. In short, it bears the very spirit and character of the man." Of 
 the effect produced by it in the district where it was first circulated Mr. Lind- 
 $ey thus express.es himself in a letter to Dr. Jebb, dated December 5, 1773: 
 " I may not omit to mention, though I ought not perhaps to do it, but you 
 will be glad to know that my resignation has excited a spirit of serious in- 
 quiry not only in this parish but in this neighbourhood to a pretty wide ex- 
 tent. The little sheet I gave away is much sought for, and all seem to think 
 it a sore thing that we should not be ruled by the Bible alone, and that their 
 ministers should be put on praying to any but the true God whom the holy 
 prophets prayed to, and our Saviour Christ not only prayed to himself, but 
 ordered us to pray to the Heavenly Father and no other." He adds : " To 
 my great surprise I have found, at this trial of them, all my large parish, even 
 the honest and serious day labourers, not only petitioners, but Unitarians." 
 It may perhaps be doubted whether this excellent man was not somewhat too 
 sanguine in the credit he gave to the effect produced by his doctrine and ex- 
 ample upon the mass of his parishioners. At any rate, it is to be feared that 
 the valuable impression is now almost if not altogether effaced. The good 
 seed fell by the way side and the fowls of the air devoured it, or among thorns 
 which grew up and choked it, or on stony ground where it soon withered. 
 Haply some may have fallen on good ground, where in the shade of obscurity, 
 unknown and unnoticed by the world-, but not unobserved by that eye to which 
 all things are open, it may still diffuse a refreshing fragrance and bring forth 
 abundant fruit. 
 
 How much the parishioners were affected by their separation from their 
 beloved and venerated pastor, may be learned from the following testimony 
 of one who was present at his valedictory discourse. " Indeed," says the 
 writer, " I think no one could hear that sermon without being struck and 
 affected. The whole congregation was dissolved in tears ; even children 
 caught the infection ; and the old men crowded about the church door when 
 the preacher passed along, as if the peace of their few remaining days de- 
 pended on a farewell benediction." " His life," says one of his near neigh- 
 bours, a man of sense and education, in reply to some foolish and anonymous 
 calumnies in the York Chronicle, " and conversation have been uniform and 
 consistent, without spot or blemish, and his active and devout disposition of 
 mind has rendered him no less eminently great than useful. Those who 
 knew him best admired him most. He did not, like too many of his profes- 
 sion, merely preach, but he practised virtue. His example was as worthy 
 imitation as his precepts. Most assiduous and attentive in every department 
 of his holy function, he was an ornament to the church, and the most rare ex- 
 ample of disinterested integrity which this age or perhaps this country has 
 produced. Far unlike our modern churchmen, whose views are all directed* 
 on preferments, the kingdom that he sought was not of this world. HQ 
 yearly expended in acts of noble benevolence the whole revenue of his vicar-
 
 62 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. II. 
 
 triumvirate, Robertson, Chambers*, and Lindsey, do ho- 
 nour to Christianity and the present age. You will be 
 surprised and grieved at the following particulars which 
 Mr. of lately gave me in a letter. Archdea- 
 
 age, which he reluctantly resigned because he could not reconcile himself 
 to the glaring inconsistencies ot'a liturgy to which, while he continued in the 
 church, he found himself obliged to conform." See a letter in the York 
 Chronicle for February 1 774, signed A Layman, written by Mr. Metcalfe, no- 
 tary public, of Richmond, who received Mr. Lindsey's resignation. In a let- 
 ter to a friend at York, dated December 3, 1 773, Mr. Lindsey with his usual 
 humility and kindness of heart expresses himself thus : " Great are their la- 
 mentations at our leaving them, far more than we expected. But I attribute 
 it chiefly to the great loss they will have in my wife, who will not soon be re- 
 placed." 
 
 * William Chambers, D.D. Rector of Achurch near Oundle in North- 
 amptonshire, formerly of St. John's College in the university of Cambridge, 
 where Mr. Lindsey commenced a friendship with him which continued un- 
 abated through life. Dr. C. is described by his friend as having a mind 
 above all sordid love of gain, who knew no other use of his fortune than to 
 make others happy. He was remarkable for a constant cheerfulness and 
 innocent pleasantry which much enlivened conversation. His mind was al- 
 ways open to conviction ; he had a thirst after all useful knowledge, and 
 spared no pains nor cost to attain it. Yet still he was most concerned about 
 what related to God, how best to serve and make him known. He was 
 deeply impressed with a sense of the truth and importance of the doctrine 
 of the divine Unity ; and was zealous to diffuse and impart his light and 
 knowledge to others. He had long determined never to renew his sub- 
 scription to the articles, and upon this ground had declined considerable 
 Ereferment in London, which had been offered him by a noble Earl his re- 
 ition. He did not, however, think it necessary to follow his venerable 
 friend's example of resigning his living ; but he altered the liturgy in accom- 
 modation to his own views of scriptural worship, and he made it so perfectly 
 Unitarian that Mr.'Lindsey professes that the only time that he visited his 
 friend after his own settlement in London, he attended public worship in his 
 church with great satisfaction. If these innovations had been officially no- 
 ticed, Dr. Chambers was fully prepared to have given up his living rather 
 than have violated his conscience. But such were the popularity of his ch.a- 
 racter and the moderation of his worthy diocesan Dr. Hinchcliffe, that he met 
 with no molestation. This excellent man died of an apoplexy September 4, 
 1777- He left a widow who survived him upwards of thirty years, and 
 three children, two sons and a daughter, who inherit his virtues. Dr. Cham- 
 bers had a near relation who was a merchant in London, who had a country 
 house at Morden in Surry, where he lived with two unmarried sisters, ladies 
 possessed of uncommon intellectual attainments, and whose characters were 
 most exemplary. In this family Mr. and Mrs. Lindsey were accustomed to 
 pass the greater part of the summer ; and to these ladies Mr. Lindsey de- 
 dicated his last work, Conversations upon the Divine Government, " in gra- 
 titude," as he expresses it, " for unwearied offices of the most disinterested 
 friendship f r near thirty years to himself and Mrs. Lindsey, and in testimony 
 for theiv enlightened zeal for the worship qf the one true Gpd, and a constant 
 unostentatious readiness to do good." SeeM.r. Lindse/s Historical 
 p. 486.
 
 CK. II.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 63 
 
 con Blackburne thinks Mr. Lindsey wrong ; that his re* 
 signation will not benefit the common cause; that he 
 should have made it sooner ; that the public has nothing 
 to do with his reasons and apologies ; and says, that when 
 he has quitted Catterick he and his wife will have no more 
 than twenty pounds a-year, and the interest of a very 
 small sum of money." 
 
 This is a noble testimony from the best authority to 
 the disinterestedness of Mr. and Mrs. Lindsey, and to 
 the difficulties which they had to struggle with ; but for 
 a good conscience they left all, and for the sake of Christ 
 and his word they forsook father and mother. And hap- 
 pily the learned archdeacon himself, who now so much dis- 
 approved their conduct, afterwards saw reason to retract 
 his judgement, and if he could not altogether approve, 
 at least he ceased to condemn and learned to acquiesce. 
 
 The venerable diocesan received the intelligence of 
 Mr. Lindsey's intended resignation with much regret, 
 a,n,d endeavoured, by every argument and motive which 
 zeal and friendship could suggest, to retain in the church 
 so bright an ornament to the established priesthood. But 
 his efforts, though well intended, were unavailing. Mr. 
 Lindsey's resolijtion had been formed upon deliberation 
 too mature, and uppn principles too sacred and too firmly 
 riveted, to be in the least degree shaken by the argu- 
 ments or expostulations of the worthy prelate ; who 
 franjdy and Uonpurably acknowledged, when the deed of 
 resignation was at last delivered in at the end of the 
 month, that he had lost the most exemplary parochial 
 minister in his diocese*. 
 
 Thus did Mr. and Mrs. Lindsey, in obedience to the 
 voice of enlightened conscience, resign their beloved re- 
 sidenpe at Catterick, with all its secular advantages and 
 comforts, and with their little pittance of private property 
 
 * N. B. For the interesting correspondence between Mr. Lindsey and his 
 worthy diocesan, see Appendix, No. IV.
 
 64 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. III. 
 
 set out in the bleak month of December in search of a 
 resting-place where they might be able to maintain them- 
 selves by honourable industryv and might best promote 
 the great doctrine of the Divine Unity and the sole un- 
 rivalled supremacy of the Father. 
 
 The world was all before them, where to choose 
 Their place of rest, and Providence their guide. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 FROM MR. LINDSEY'S RESIGNATION OF CATTERICK, TO 
 THE OPENING OF THE CHAPEL IN ESSEX-STREET. 
 
 INDEED they soon found that the diminution of income 
 was not the only difficulty with which they had to con- 
 tend. In the days of their prosperity, and while they 
 continued in connexion with the established church, they 
 had many warm friends who gladly received them at all 
 times into their houses, and entertained them hospitably, 
 and many of whom concurred with Mr. Lindsey in the 
 application to parliament for relief from subscription. 
 But now the case was quite altered. Former friends 
 looked coldly upon them ; and some, of whom better 
 things might have been expected, whose conduct was 
 silently reproved by the magnanimous example of Mr. 
 Lindsey, were not sparing in loud and strong expressions 
 of disapprobation of what they were pleased to term the 
 precipitancy and imprudence of his conduct in aban- 
 doning a situation of respectability and usefulness in the 
 church ; and not a few were willing to leave them to 
 their fate. Some indeed of Mrs. Lindsey's more opu- 
 lent relations offered to provide for her an asylum and 
 competence, if she would abandon the society and the 
 fortunes of her husband. It is needless to say that such a 
 proposal was rejected with the indignation it deserved.
 
 CH. III.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 65 
 
 From Catterick "the pilgrims" first went to Bedale 
 to Mrs. Harrison's, and the next day to Wakefield, ac- 
 companied by their accomplished friend who had drank 
 deeply into the same spirit, Miss Harrison, now Mrs. 
 Cappe, to pass a day or two in the society of the venera- 
 ble Mr. Turner, to enjoy the benefit of his sympathy, 
 his counsels, his consolations, and his prayers. Of this 
 delightful and instructive visit this excellent man gives 
 the following account in a letter to an intimate friend : 
 
 "Since I wrote to you last I had the pleasure of Mr. 
 and Mrs. Lindsey's company one whole day and part of 
 another. They both appeared very cheerful, consider- 
 ing that they were launching into untried scenes of an 
 uncertain world, with hopes far from sanguine of the 
 success of the scheme they had proposed, and conse- 
 quently of obtaining the very means of subsistence. But 
 confiding in the care of him who promised, * Whosoever 
 shall confess me before men, him will I also confess,' 
 &c. they both, and particularly Mrs. Lindsey, seemed 
 to exult in having broke loose from ecclesiastical thral- 
 dom and gained mental liberty, and expressed much in- 
 dignation against those who, having been educated in 
 liberty of inquiry, and instructed in the value of it, have 
 for the sordid considerations of this world submitted to 
 shackles and to servitude." 
 
 From their hospitable friends at Wakefield, where they 
 took an affectionate leave of their amiable fellow-traveller, 
 Mr. and Mrs. Lindsey proceeded to Aston, near York, 
 the residence of the reverend William Mason, the cele- 
 brated poet, the friend and biographer of Gray, who 
 entertained them for a week at his house with great cor- 
 diality ; though the conduct of Mr. Lindsey in resign- 
 ing his living was much canvassed at York, where Mr. 
 Mason was precentor of the cathedral, and was much 
 condemned by some who were in repute for wisdom, who
 
 66 - MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. III. 
 
 spoke of him " as a well-meaning person, who would 
 have done much less harm to society if he had never 
 gone into the church at all*." 
 
 To York Mr. Lindsey had sent his library, which he 
 consigned to the care of his friend Mr. Cappe, to be sold 
 in order to raise a temporary supply for the support of 
 himself and Mrs. Lindsey ; having reserved for himself 
 a small number of books only for immediate use^." 
 
 * Whatever might be the language of these wise judges in their select 
 parties concerning Mr. Lindsey, none of them were so indiscreet as to pub- 
 lish their censures of his character and conduct excepting one, Dr. William 
 Cooper, a dignitary of the cathedral at York, and brother to Grey Cooper, 
 Esq. M.P. who had also been a college friend of Mr. Lindsey. This Dr. 
 Cooper, amongst others, made great interest to obtain the vicarage of Cat- 
 terick upon Mr. Lindsey's resignation. But not being successful in his 
 suit, the living being given to Dr. Chaytor, the brother-in-law of Mr. 
 Robinson, Lord North's private secretary, this worthy dignitary grew very 
 angry that the living was resigned at all : and in the York Chronicle of Ja- 
 nuary 28, 1774, under the signature of Erasmus, he published a most foolish 
 and furious invective against Mr. Lindsey. It begins thus : " Before you 
 attempt to amend the liturgy, amend the articles, or amend any thing else, 
 you would do well, in the judgement of all rational beings, to amend your 
 mode of writing, and, what is of more consequence, to amend your mode of 
 thinking. But I cry your mercy. You cannot err, illuminated sir ; you 
 have had a divine impulse," c. And again : " If you had either the courage, 
 or the goodness of heart, to let us know what your real sentiments are, tis 
 more than probable that we should deservedly hold you in extreme con- 
 tempt," &c. 
 
 Such despicable and outrageous rant merited nothing but " extreme con- 
 tempt." However, it had its use. It brought forward a host of advocates 
 in defence of the fair fame of the absent and calumniated confessor. In the 
 foremost rank of these were the reverend N. Cappe, of York, and the re- 
 verend W. Turner, of Wakefield. To the credit of the order, and the still 
 greater credit of Mr. Lindsey's unimpeachable and spotless character, not 
 one of the clergy of the established church, how much soever they might be 
 offended with Mr. Lindsey's doctrine or his secession, stood forward to join 
 in the attack, or to assist a distressed brother. They prudently and silently 
 left him to his fate. And the miserable assailant, having in vain attempted 
 under different signatures to maintain his ground and to defend his charge, 
 after being detected, defeated, and exposed in every shape that he assumed, 
 was in the end'compelled to retire from the field, humbled, confounded, and 
 disgraced. Nor does it appear that this officious, and malignant, zeal for 
 the church was at that time thought worthy of additional preferment. 
 
 That every body did not entertain the same opinion of Mr. Lindsey's con- 
 duct as Dr. Cooper and his associates at York, appears from some letters 
 written to Mr. Lindsey upon this interesting occasion, which are inserted in 
 the Appendix ; one of which is from Mr. Grey Cooper himself, the brother 
 of Dr. C. and the friend of Lord North. App. No. V. 
 
 t This, no doubt, select and valuable collection, at that time produced no 
 more than the scanty pittance of 38.
 
 CH. III.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. (>7 
 
 From Aston, Mr. and Mrs. Lindsey went to Swinder- 
 by, near Newark, where they made a transient visit to 
 Mr. afterwards Dr. Disney, a clergyman of great learn- 
 ing and respectability, who was an active member of the 
 Association at the Feathers Tavern. He shortly after- 
 wards married Miss Blackburne, the daughter of the 
 learned Archdeacon of Cleveland, and half-sister to Mrs. 
 Lindsey, who, much to her honour, expressed upon all 
 occasions her high approbation of the step which Mr. 
 Lindsey had taken ; and with the generosity and ardour 
 which belonged to her character, she defended the prin- 
 ciples and the conduct of her calumniated friends. Dr. 
 Disney himself was at that time much dissatisfied with 
 many things in the established liturgy ; but he contented 
 himself with making the alterations which he thought 
 necessary, leaving it to his ecclesiastical superiors to ani- 
 madvert upon him as they might think fit. This con- 
 duct, however, did not prove ultimately satisfactory to 
 his ingenuous mind, and a few years afterwards he bore 
 his faithful testimony to Christian truth by following the 
 shining example of Mr. Lindsey, in resigning his prefer- 
 ments and prospects in the established church. Of the 
 process of mind which led to this honourable conclusion, 
 Dr. Disney has given an interesting narrative in a small 
 tract which he published upon the occasion*. 
 
 While Mr. Lindsey continued at Swinderby he met 
 with and transcribed the alterations proposed by Dr. 
 Clarke in the established liturgy, which he at that time 
 intended to print, but which he afterwards made the 
 foundation of the improvements in the reformed liturgy 
 which he introduced at Essex- Street. 
 
 From Swinderby the travellers directed their steps to 
 Achurch, in Northamptonshire, the rectory and residence 
 
 * This tract is in the Catalogue of those which are circulated by the Lon- 
 don Unitarian Society. 
 
 F2
 
 68 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. III. 
 
 of their highly valued friend Dr. Chambers. In their 
 road, they passed one day with Mr. Lindsey's sister, who 
 was married to Mr. Harrison, an eminent grazier in 
 Leicestershire. This venerable lady, three years ol'der 
 than her brother, and the exact model of him in piety 
 and benevolence, is still living, (A. D. 1810,) meekly 
 and with humble resignation bending under the infirmi- 
 ties of ninety years. 
 
 . From Achurch, he writes to Dr. Jebb in a letter dated 
 January 1, 1774, " I cannot but rejoice in your full ap- 
 probation of my conduct hitherto, and future plan, and 
 feel myself continually encouraged by it. I have from 
 the first entertained a feeble imagination that, perhaps, 
 I might have an honourable coadjutor in the friend I am 
 writing to for an Unitarian chapel, if it should meet with 
 the patronage which some promise it." He adds, " Our 
 common friend and present host is most heartily with 
 us in every thing." The patronage to which Mr. Lindsey 
 alludes, was probably that of which he received intelli- 
 gence from Dr. Priestley, who was then in London with 
 Lord Shelburne, and indefatigable in his exertions to 
 serve his friend, and to promote his design of opening a 
 chapel in London, and whose sanguine spirit led him, 
 perhaps, to rely rather too much upon the promises of 
 the great. In a letter to Mr. Turner he writes : " All 
 my friends are very sanguine in favour of Mr. Lindsey's 
 Unitarian Chapel. Dr. Franklin says he knows several 
 persons of distinction who will wish to encourage it, and 
 several have proposed to subscribe to it. His Farewell 
 Address I have just read, and was much affected with it: 
 and so was Lord Shelburne, to whom I showed it. He 
 is very desirous to see him as soon as he comes to Lon- 
 don." This, no doubt, was encouraging. But it will 
 appear in the sequel that the persons to whom Dr. 
 Priestley alludes, were not those to whose exertions and
 
 CH. III.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 69 
 
 support Mr. Lindsey was most indebted fqr the execu- 
 tion of the scheme which he had so much at heart. 
 
 At Achurch Mr. Lindsey finished the revisal of the 
 last sheet of his Apology, which was published the be- 
 ginning of January, notwithstanding the remonstrances 
 of Archdeacon Blackburne, who was apprehensive that 
 it might be of disservice to the cause of the petitioning 
 clergy. To this objection Mr. Lindsey paid no atten- 
 tion, justly remarking, that if the Apology was to pro- 
 duce any effect, its publication must be immediate, while 
 the occasion of it was fresh in memory. " To suspend 
 it now," says he in a letter to a friend, " would be to 
 sink it for ever." And as he conceived that such a work 
 was- necessary for his own vindication, and, what in his 
 estimation was of far greater moment, that it would be 
 of use for the promulgation of truth, he also hoped that 
 it would contribute to promote, rather than obstruct, the 
 object of the associated clergy. 
 
 The design of this excellent treatise, as set forth in 
 the preface, " was not barely to offer a vindication of the 
 motives, conduct, and sentiments of a private person 
 upon the subject of it, however important to him, but 
 to promote that charity without which a faith that can 
 remove mountains is nothing, and to excite some to 
 piety, virtue, and integrity." 
 
 It begins with some strictures upon the origin of the 
 doctrine of the Trinity, and the opposition it met with 
 to the time of the Reformation. It then treats of the 
 state of the Unitarian doctrine, in our own country more 
 especially, from the sera of the Reformation, with an ac- 
 count of those Christians who have professed it; and 
 proceeds to prove that there is but One God, the Father, 
 and that religious worship is to be offered to this One 
 God, the Father, only. In the next chapter it states the 
 causes of this unhappy defection among Christians, from
 
 70 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [til. III. 
 
 the simplicity of religious worship prescribed in the scrip- 
 tures of the New Testament. It then shows how union 
 in God's true worship is to be attained, and concludes 
 with a modest and concise but affecting detail of the 
 writer's particular case and difficulties. The work, the 
 first in which the venerable author publicly adventured 
 to defend his unpopular tenets, is drawn up with great 
 care, and with much simplicity and candour. It breathes 
 throughout an excellent spirit of piety and benevolence. 
 It was revised with great attention by Mr. Turner ; and 
 in the judgement of every serious and impartial person, 
 whether agreeing or disagreeing with the writer in his 
 peculiar principles, it contains a complete and masterly 
 vindication of his conduct in withdrawing from his si- 
 tuation in the established church. This Apology, in 
 less than ten years, passed through four editions. 
 
 On the 10th of January, 1774, Mr. and Mrs. Lindsey 
 arrived at London, having spent a day or two in their 
 way at Paxton with Mr. Lindsey 's old college friend, 
 Richard Reynolds, Esq. who having imbibed the prin- 
 ciples and the spirit of the virtuous protector of his youth, 
 and his esteem and affection for his venerable friend 
 having been if possible increased by his late noble act of 
 disinterested virtue, received him and his fellow-traveller, 
 and fellow-sufferer upon the present occasion, with re- 
 doubled satisfaction*. 
 
 * While he was at Paxton, Mr. Lindsey received intelligence of the sudden 
 decease of Thomas Hollis, Esq. the celebrated and zealous friend to liberty, 
 civil and religious. Of this gentleman Archdeacon Blackburne published an 
 interesting Memoir in two volumes in quarto. lie was the friend and con- 
 fidential correspondent of Mr. Lindsey, under the assumed title of Pierce 
 Delver. He was the ready and liberal patron of all who were in distress, 
 and particularly of those who suffered in the cause of civil and religious li- 
 berty, or for the sake of truth and a good conscience. It cannot be doubted 
 that, had his life been continued, he would have extended a liberal patron- 
 age to Mr. Lindscy. Happily the venerable confessor did not stand in need 
 of it. Some curious extracts from the correspondence of this virtuous and 
 honourable man are cited in the notes to this work, and a specimen or two 
 in the Appendix, No. VI.
 
 CH. III.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 7\ 
 
 Upon their arrival at London they proceeded by par- 
 ticular invitation to Dr. Ramsden's, then in an inferior 
 situation, afterwards the worthy Master of the Charter 
 House, a gentleman of great learning and probity, and 
 of the most liberal principles ; who rose to the honour- 
 able office which he occupied by no other interest than 
 that of personal merit, and who was not afraid of ha- 
 zarding his reputation and his preferment by affording 
 an asylum to his ex-beneficed friend. Here they were 
 very hospitably entertained for ten days or a fortnight, 
 till they had provided themselves with decent but humble 
 lodgings, being two rooms on a ground-floor, in Fea- 
 therstone Buildings, Holborn, where they now fixed their 
 abode, and sold the plate which they had brought with 
 them to London to purchase necessaries for present sub- 
 sistence. 
 
 But the scene soon began to brighten. Though few 
 comparatively of Mr. Lindsey's former friends visited or 
 noticed him in his voluntary retirement ; though some, 
 whose principles nearly coincided with his own, but 
 whose timidity and half-measures were condemned, not 
 by his language, for he was the humblest and most 
 candid of mankind, and very far indeed from making his 
 own conduct a law to others, but by his bright and edi- 
 fying example, not only gave no encouragement to the 
 plan he had in contemplation, but openly and without 
 reserve expressed their disapprobation of it : he neverthe- 
 less met with great approbation and support from quarters 
 where it was least expected. Many persons both of the 
 establishment and among the dissenters, perfect strangers 
 to Mr. Lindsey, deeply impressed with veneration for 
 his character, and admiration of the noble sacrifice which 
 Tie had made for the sake of truth and conscience, vi- 
 sited him in his humble lodgings to testify their regard 
 to him, and to offer their services in any way in which
 
 7*2 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. III. 
 
 they might be of use. And when they heard of Mr. 
 Lindsey's design of opening a chapel for the worship of 
 the one God, the Father of Jesus Christ, many expressed 
 their warm approbation and their active hearty concur- 
 rence in the execution of the design. Some promised 
 to indemnify Mr. Lindsey in making the experiment. 
 Others, and chiefly among the rational dissenters, sub- 
 scribed liberally towards the design. Dr. Priestley and 
 Dr. Price were active and zealous friends. Samuel Shore, 
 Esq. then of Norton Hall, now of Meersbrook, in York- 
 shire, whose name ranks high among the advocates for 
 civil and religious liberty, the patrons of truth and sci- 
 ence, and the friends of pure and practical Christianity, 
 called upon Mr. Lindsey with a present of a hundred 
 pounds from a friend whose name was then concealed, 
 but since known to have been Robert Newton, Esq. of 
 Norton House*, whose delight was to spend the income 
 of a large estate in doing good in the most private 
 manner possible, and from the shade of retirement to 
 
 * Robert Newton, Esq. of Norton House : of the character of this emi- 
 nently benevolent man, the following interesting sketch is given by his in- 
 timate acquaintance the reverend W. Turner, of VVakefield, to Mr. Lindsey, 
 in a letter dated June 14, 1/77 : 
 
 " Robert Newton, Esq. is a near neighbour to Mr. Shore in the same 
 village, aged about sixty-six or sixty-seven, and a bachelor of large fortune. 
 I have known him since the year 173-, when, and for two or three years 
 afterwards, we were fellow-pupils under Dr. Latham, at Findern, near Derby. 
 His mother lost her husband when she was pregnant of this son, and gave 
 so much way to grief for that event, as was supposed to have an ill effect 
 on the constitution of her child. He has always had very weak nerves and 
 uneven spirits, but generally a prevailing hypochondria. For many years 
 past he has been telling his friends that he should soon give them the slip : 
 but in the mean time he has looked well and grown bulky. When any ex- 
 traordinary case, particularly for the service of his friends, called for it, he 
 could exert as much vigour, activity, and resolution as any man. To an ex- 
 ertion of this kind the two Miss owed their fortunes. They had an un- 
 happy brother, of ekher defective understanding or capricious or bad tem- 
 per, or both, who being passed his majority, and a student at Edinburgh, 
 died there. Immediately an episcopal clergyman, in whose house he had 
 
 boarded, pretended that Mr. had married his daughter, and made a will 
 
 by which he had bequeathed all his fortune to her absolutely. When the 
 tai:,Hy was informed of this, Mr. Newton, having furnished himself with 
 proper power, and being also a guardian and trustee, set off express, met
 
 CH. III.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 73 
 
 scatter blessings upon his fellow creatures. To this 
 princely donation of Mr. Newton, Mr. Shore generously 
 added a very liberal present of his own ; and to the end 
 of Mr. Lindsey's life he continued the warm personal 
 friend, and the firm and liberal supporter of him and his 
 cause. In this way a sum was very soon subscribed 
 adequate to every purpose which Mr. Lindsey had in 
 view. And by the exertions of the late Mr. Joseph 
 Johnson of St. Paul's Churchyard^ a room was soon 
 found and taken in Essex House, Essex-street, which 
 having before been used as an auction -room might at a 
 moderate expense be fitted up as a temporary chapel. 
 In a letter to Mr. Turner dated February 9, 1774, Mr. 
 Lindsey thus expresses himself: 
 
 " Dr. Priestley is indefatigable in his endeavours ; and 
 to him, Dr. Price, and other friends of theirs, it will be 
 owing that the matter is brought to bear at last, as they 
 kindly offer by subscription of their friends to indemnify 
 
 the corpse on the road which they were bringing to be deposited in the fa- 
 mily burying-place, arrested and secured it ; went forward to Edinburgh, 
 made diligent inquiry, discovered many suspicious circumstances, and partly 
 by remonstrances, and partly by threats of a legal discussion at the expense 
 of his own whole fortune, prevailed upon the Scotch pretenders, in consi- 
 deration of a few ready thousands, to relinquish their whole claim. He then 
 returned with great satisfaction and honour, and ordered the corpse to pro- 
 ceed to the family burial place. For such a service, all the connexions of 
 the family owe and pay him great esteem and gratitude. Mr. S. says, Na- 
 ture formed him for a soldier ; and that as a commander, and especially as 
 a partisan, he would certainly have distinguished himself. When younger, 
 he made little of riding from his own house to Scarborough in one day ; 
 supping, and perhaps dancing there till midnight with a party of his friends, 
 and would then remount and return next day. Like sudden excursions and 
 returns, to and from London, Bath, Bristol, and even abroad, were common 
 with him, and all the while he was dying. From all the above circumstances 
 you will easily conclude he must have had some humours, and even whims ; 
 but they have always been very innocent, and only laughable. He has al- 
 ways been very steady in his friendships, of which Mr. H. a dissenting mi- 
 nister at Mansfield, who for many years has been his most familiar friend 
 and companion both when at home and in many of his excursions, has had, 
 I doubt not, ample experience. So much for your generous back-friend Mr. 
 Newton, who, as a friend of mine said of another person, delights to do such 
 extraordinary good deeds and nobody must know ! I need not caution you 
 not to draw the curtain behind which he chooses to conceal himself."
 
 74 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. III. 
 
 me on the first outset. If it be of God, as I trust it is, 
 it will succeed. But should it fail, some good I still 
 persuade myself will result, and others will easier take it 
 up and proceed better. I desire the help of your prayers 
 for illumination and direction now and always." In 
 another letter dated March 17, to the same friend in re- 
 ference to his Apology, he writes, " Your earnest prayers 
 are desired for the writer, that he may persevere to the 
 end and be found faithful unto death : and with him one 
 other also to be joined, whose trial has been and is the 
 same or greater." And in the same letter, after ac- 
 knowledging Mr. Turner's kind and successful recom- 
 mendation of his undertaking to some generous friends 
 at Wakefield and elsewhere, he adds, " I have reason to 
 say, and have said it to more persons than one of late, 
 that I have had the gospel promise of the hundred fold 
 in the number of friends increased in this world ; and 
 should an evil day of persecution come, they would be 
 a great consolation in it. This, indeed, is what some 
 forebode, especially when our new form of worship is 
 set up." In his next letter dated April 5, after acknow- 
 ledging the liberality of Mr. Milnes, and relating the 
 munificence of the gentlemen of Norton, he writes, " We 
 compute that two hundred pounds will nearly fit up and 
 pay the rent of our chapel for two years. Behold then 
 this sum nearly supplied by a few generous hands. I am 
 thankful. But I am sorry to say they are all, one ex- 
 cepted, not of the established church." 
 
 In this letter Mr. Lindsey notices to his friend a very 
 honourable invitation which he had lately received to 
 settle with a dissenting congregation at Norwich, which, 
 however, it did not comport with his present plans and 
 purposes to accept. 
 
 As soon as Mr. Lindsey was settled, and especially 
 after he had met with such great encouragement to pur-
 
 CII. III.] REVEREND TIIEOPHIhUS LINDSEY. 7^> 
 
 sue his primary purpose, he began in good earnest to 
 draw up his Reformed Liturgy, very much upon the plan 
 of Dr. Clarke's, but with considerable variations and im- 
 provements adapted to his own more correct and ex- 
 tended views of Christian doctrine, and of the mode of 
 conducting Christian worship. Many of his timid and 
 lukewarm brethren earnestly recommended to him to 
 adhere without any variation to Dr. Clarke's copy, that 
 every innovation might be introduced under the sanction 
 of the venerable name of that learned and eminent theo- 
 logian. But Mr. Lindsey had advanced too far to be de- 
 terred by the fear of calumny, or to adopt error because 
 it was supported by a great name. Indeed, though he 
 was far from wishing to introduce any unnecessary change 
 in the public service, he justly thought that it would be 
 very inconsistent in him, who had resigned a lucrative 
 situation in the established church principally because of 
 his objections to the public liturgy, now that he was at 
 full liberty to choose for himself, to compromise his 
 principles by adopting a form which was open to many 
 objections, solely because it was the work of Dr. Samuel 
 Clarke. Rejecting therefore every proposal of this na- 
 ture, and judiciously resolving upon carrying Dr. Clarke's 
 own principle of reform to what appeared to him to be 
 its proper extent, he requested the assistance of his friend 
 Mr. Turner in this important undertaking; but he chiefly 
 relied upon the able cooperation and prudent advice of 
 his friends Dr. Jebb, Mr. Tyrwhit, and a few other learned 
 and liberal members of the university of Cambridge; and 
 with their aid, in conjunction with his own indefatigable 
 exertions, the Reformed Liturgy was compiled and printed 
 ready for use by the middle of April 1774. 
 
 When it came to be generally known that it was Mr. 
 Lindsey's intention to open a chapel upon principles 
 strictly Unitarian, with a reformed liturgy, great offence
 
 /6 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. III. 
 
 was taken by many, and means used but without effect 
 to intimidate this magnanimous confessor from the exe- 
 cution of his purpose. It was even intimated to him 
 that the civil power would interpose to frustrate his de- 
 sign. But none of these things moved him ; nor could 
 any worldly consideration induce him to abandon what 
 he regarded as the line of duty. " Our church -superiors," 
 says he in a letter to Mr. Turner dated February 9, " are 
 said to glory in laying every thing to sleep. I doubt not 
 but it will appear that their policy is as much mistaken 
 as their Christian principle is certainly defective in this 
 respect. Our design of a reformed liturgy is much spoken 
 against by them, arid highly condemned as forward, schis- 
 matical, and I know not what, and intimations given as if 
 such an attempt would not be suffered. But these things 
 deter not one person, and I hope they will not others." 
 Of the methods which were used to intimidate and di- 
 vert him from his purpose Mr. Lindsey mentions an ex- 
 ample in a letter to Dr. Jebb, dated February 28 : "If 
 it were not making an obscure man of too much import- 
 ance, I might tell you that two of the Commons' House 
 have desired to see me, and to divert me from a design 
 which will turn that general compassion now shown to- 
 wards me, into open hostility and hatred. I wish no 
 other situation but that in which I may be made instru- 
 mental in removing the shocking snares that are in the 
 way of conscientious men, and the impure idolatries of 
 Christian worship." 
 
 That many of the friends of the established hierarchy, 
 and that some persons who were of great consideration 
 in the government, entertained no small anxiety with re- 
 spect to the consequences of Mr. Lindsey's public se- 
 cession from the church, there is great reason to believe. 
 The spirit of inquiry and of reformation was then abroad, 
 and it could not be foreseen how far the generous con-
 
 CH. III.J REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 77 
 
 tagion would spread. And who could say that another 
 glorious Bartholomew day might not be added to the ca- 
 lendar of English martyrology, and that hundreds might 
 not be stimulated by the noble example of this truly pri- 
 mitive confessor to resign their preferment, like their pre- 
 decessors in the preceding century, for the sake of a good 
 conscience ! The time however was not yet come. And 
 there is no reason to believe that there ever existed in 
 the minds of men in power a design or a wish to molest 
 Mr. Lindsey. They had too much understanding, and 
 too accurate a knowledge of human nature and of hrs- 
 tory, not to be aware that persecution, if it does not ex- 
 tend to extermination, promotes the interest of the per- 
 secuted sect. And in fact Lord North, who was then at 
 the head of the administration, and the rigour of whose 
 high-church principles was counterbalanced by the sua- 
 vity of his temper, avowed his wish without hesitation 
 that every one should be permitted to go to heaven in 
 his own way, provided that the public peace was not dis- 
 turbed. And though, upon the opening of the chapel 
 in Essex-street, an emissary of Government was known 
 for some time to attend the public service regularly, in 
 order to communicate information to persons in power ; 
 yet when it was discovered that nothing was either taught 
 or done contrary to the allegiance due to the state, and 
 likewise that few of the dissatisfied clergy were disposed 
 to follow Mr. Lindsey's example, and that the obnoxious 
 principles were not likely to gain over many proselytes, 
 ministers of state wisely ceased to trouble themselves 
 about Essex Chapel, and suffered the new sect quietly to 
 immerge and to find its level in the vast mass of religious 
 dissentients. Nor indeed, if the governing party had 
 been so unwise as to have urged a prosecution, can it be 
 with reason supposed that a sovereign who began his 
 reign with the memorable declaration that he would
 
 78 MEMOIRS OK THE LATE [dl. III. 
 
 " maintain the toleration inviolable ;" and who in the 
 course of a long, an agitated, and an eventful admini- 
 stration has never in a single instance violated liis pro- 
 mise, would for a moment have lent his countenance to 
 so unjust and cruel a procedure. 
 
 But though the tolerant spirit of the ti; "ther 
 
 with the wisdom and lenity of the superior and more 
 enlightened functionaries of the state, imposed a re- 
 straint upon the spirit of persecution, there were not 
 wanting some busy ignorant people in the inferior de- 
 partments of magistracy, who, "dressed in a little brief 
 authority," were anxious to show their zeal for the church, 
 their loyalty to the crown, and their own official conse- 
 quence, by crushing Mr. Lind.sey's design at the moment 
 of its execution, and by attempting with equal malignity 
 and folly to nullify the provisions of an Act of Parliament 
 by the decrees of a petty sessions. The Westminster Jus- 
 tices hesitated to grant a license for opening the chapel. 
 
 The place was fitted up, the Liturgy was printed, and 
 all was in readiness for performing divine service early 
 in the month of April ; but as the Justices did not meet 
 till Easter Tuesday, April 5th, the place could not be 
 legally registered till that day, and it was necessary to 
 defer opening the chapel till the Sunday following. On 
 the day of meeting, application was made in due form 
 to the Ju-.tir.-- ;i~-.< mbled at Hicks's Hall to register the 
 chapel as a place of dissenting worship. But these gen- 
 tlemen returned for answer, that they were holding a ses- 
 sions for the county of Middlesex, and that, the chapel 
 being situated in Westminster, the application for a 
 license must be made to the Westminster magistrates, 
 who would not sit till Monday. This was a great dis- 
 appointment; and many of Mr. Lindsey's friends urged 
 him to open the chapel without waiting for the license. 
 But his great legal adviser John Lee, Esq. warmly re-
 
 CH. III.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 79 
 
 monstrated against it, as giving his opponents an undue 
 advantage, and earnestly recommended to him to keep 
 as closely as possible within the limits of the law. It 
 was therefore agreed to defer performing divine service 
 in the chapel till the Sunday following. 
 
 On the day appointed, application was made to the 
 Bench of Justices holding their session for Westminster, 
 at Hicks's Hall, for a license to open the chapel in Essex- 
 street as a place of worship. What passed upon that 
 occasion was so remarkable and instructive, that I shall 
 set it down as it is detailed in a letter from Mr. Lindsey to 
 Dr. Jebb, dated the very day that the license was promised. 
 
 " I have the pleasure of assuring you that our difficul- 
 ties are over, and we certainly begin (may it be with the 
 divine blessing upon us!) on Sunday next. But we 
 have not succeeded without striking with the great ham- 
 mer, if I may so speak. For this morning Mr. Johnson 
 the bookseller went, according as he was appointed, to 
 Hicks's Hall, and was there at the opening of the court. 
 He got the clerk to move for him that he was waiting to 
 have our entry recorded as the court had given him rea- 
 son to expect. But Lord Ward, who was that day in 
 the chair, said it was a matter of some deliberation, and 
 must be set over till the next meeting, i. e. Saturday. 
 It appeared from hence that they would put us off civilly, 
 and leave us in the lurch at last. I met Johnson com- 
 ing out of the court, and took him with me to Mr. Lee, 
 who was engaged at Guildhall, where I found him plead- 
 ing before Chief Justice De Grey. I got to him, how- 
 ever, and told him our situation. He said it did not 
 look well ; but that the Chief Justice's Court would soon 
 be up, and he would go immediately to Hicks's Hall and 
 see what was to be done. He came like a lion soon ; 
 ' desired to see the entry that had been given in to the 
 ,' court to license a place of worship for a society of dis-
 
 SO MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. III. 
 
 * senters ; was sorry such unusual obstructions had been 
 
 * put to so legal a demand ; that he understood it was 
 ' said by some that the Justices had a discretionary power 
 
 * in such cases ; that they were mistaken ; that, on the 
 
 * contrary, they were merely official ; and if they refused, 
 ' a Mandamus from the King's Bench would compel 
 ' them ; that he hoped the great Magna Charta of the 
 
 * religious liberty of Englishmen was not now going to 
 
 * be attacked.' Upon this one or two of the Justices 
 said it was their opinion, and always had been, as Mr. 
 Lee's, that they had no discretionary powers. On some- 
 thing being said concerning the doctrine to be preached, 
 and the officiating minister, that some inquiry was to be 
 made about them, he told them that ' those were sub- 
 ' sequent facts and matters of inquiry ; that the house of 
 ' worship was the object before them, and they were 
 ' bound to make record of it as desired.' After this, on a 
 pause being made, he desired to know ' whether the court 
 ' would give him the trouble to come again the next day 
 
 * and move the matter and argue it before them, or would 
 
 * now grant it.' The latter was conceded, and our certifi- 
 cate it was said should be ready next court-day. We begin 
 however without it on the authority of our counsel*." 
 
 Such was the triumph of firmness and good sense over 
 the narrow spirit of bigotry and persecution. And much 
 to the credit of the improved liberality of the times, and 
 of the government, this was the only obstruction which 
 Mr. Lindsey ever met with from the civil power during 
 the whole course of his ministry. All difficulties were 
 now surmounted. The vessel was afloat, and commenced 
 its voyage under the happiest auspices and with the most 
 propitious gales. 
 
 * The fact however was, that the certificate was never granted, nor was 
 the chapel registered or licensed as a place of worship till after the defect 
 had been noticed by Dr. Horsley in his Letters to Dr. Priestley ; after which 
 the neglect was immediately and without any difficulty rectified.
 
 CH. IV. J REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 81 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FROM THE FIRST OPENING OF THE CHAPEL TO THE PUR- 
 CHASE OF THE PREMISES AND THE ERECTION OF THE 
 PRESENT BUILDING IN ESSEX-STREET. 
 
 ON Sunday April 17, 1774, the chapel was opened, and 
 divine service was performed before an audience as nume- 
 rous as could in reason be expected, and as respectable 
 for rank and character as were ever collected together 
 upon a similar occasion. In a letter to his friend Dr. 
 Jebb, dated the next day*, Mr. Lindsey writes : " You 
 will be pleased to hear that every thing passed very well 
 yesterday ; a larger and much more respectable audience 
 than I could have expected, who behaved with great de- 
 cency, and in general appeared, and many of them ex- 
 pressed themselves, to be much satisfied with the whole 
 of the service. Some disturbance was apprehended, and 
 
 * It will not be uninteresting to compare Mr. Lindsey 's account of this 
 memorable event with that of his warm friend and supporter the late John 
 Lee, Esq. in a letter of the same date to Mr. Cappe at York. 
 
 " After a little difficulty in getting his chapel registered at the Quarter 
 Sessions, which I had the good luck to remove, he entered upon his ministry 
 yesterday. His chapel is a large upper room in Essex House, Essex-street, 
 in a very central part of London, and in my neighbourhood. The place is 
 convenient for the purpose of containing about 300 persons ; a greater num- 
 ber would crowd it. He was well attended, considering that no public notice 
 was given of the intended service. There were about ten coaches at the door ; 
 which I was glad of, because it gave a degree of respectableness to the con- 
 gregation in the eyes of the people living thereabouts. Of those that I knew 
 and remember were Lord Despenser, Dr. Franklin, Dr. Priestley, Dr. Calder, 
 Mr. Shore, jun., Mrs. Shore, Mrs. Robert Milnes, Miss Milnes, and Miss 
 Shore ; Dr. Hinckley, Dr. Chambers, Dr. Primatt, and two or three other 
 clergymen, with a few barristers whom you do not know. All the rest were 
 to all appearance persons of condition, and in the whole were I think near 
 two hundred, and mostly of the Establishment. We were all pleased with 
 the service and with his manner of . performing it. His sermon, which I 
 thought very good, will be printed, and you will of course see it. I begin 
 to conceive hopes that his scheme will be patronized, so far at least as to 
 produce him a comfortable subsistence. Indeed, I hope it will teach those 
 who ought not to have needed such teachings, that Reformation is both a 
 safe and an easy work.'*
 
 82 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. IV. 
 
 foreboded to me by great names, but not the least move- 
 ment of the kind. The only fault found with it was, 
 that it was too small. From the impressions that seemed 
 to be made, and the general seriousness and satisfaction, 
 I am persuaded that this attempt will, through the divine 
 blessing, be of singular usefulness. The contrast be- 
 tween ours and the church-service strikes every one. For- 
 give me for saying, that I should have blushed to have 
 appeared in a white garment. No one seemed in the 
 least to want it. I ain happy not to be hampered with 
 any thing, but entirely easy and satisfied with the whole 
 of the service: a satisfaction never before known. I 
 must again say it, and bless God for it, that we were 
 enabled to begin well. And we only desire to go on as 
 through his blessing we have begun. I must mention 
 one circumstance of yesterday to you and Mrs. J. and 
 confidential friends : that Lord Le Despenser was at our 
 chapel yesterday : whether he will come again we cannot 
 say : but he has subscribed handsomely towards indem- 
 nifying us for the expenses of the chapel*, &c." 
 
 As Mr. Lindsey's professed design was to gather a con- 
 gregation from the members of the established church, 
 it was his desire and endeavour that the form of worship 
 should recede no further from that of the establishment 
 than was necessary to edification, and to reconcile it to 
 the pure scriptural doctrine concerning the supremacy 
 and the sole worship of the Father. The clerical dress 
 
 * This nobleman, as might naturally be expected, soon discontinued his 
 attendance. But it was considerate and liberal in him to contribute to the 
 expenses of the chapel at a time when assistance was particularly needed. 
 Other noblemen of still higher rank attended much longer and professed 
 great approbation, but contributed nothing. Not that the late Duke of 
 Richmond, or the present Duke of Norfolk, would have hesitated to have 
 given whatever was right and liberal, if the idea had occurred, or if applica- 
 tion had been made to them. But to attend a place of .worship supported 
 by voluntary contribution, was to them a novelty ; and delicacy, perhaps 
 misplaced, prevented the friends of the new sanctuary from suggesting a 
 hint to the illustrious visitors. Such hints have not always been needful : and 
 liberality unsolicited has been sometimes as ample a's it was unexpected.
 
 CH. IV.] REVEREND TIIEOPH1LUS LINDSEY. 83 
 
 was retained with the exception of the surplice only. By 
 the recommendation of his friend Mr. Turner, a prayer 
 was introduced before and after the sermon *. And upon 
 this memorable occasion Mr. Lindsey composed an ap- 
 propriate discourse, which was immediately published 
 together with the prayers. The Liturgy also was pub- 
 lished at the same time. Both these works, as well as 
 the Apology, had a rapid and extensive salef. 
 
 The subject of the discourse was Ephes. iv. 3. "Endea- 
 vouring to keep the unity of trig-spirit in the bond of 
 peace ;" and the preacher shows, that by unity of spirit 
 is intended, " the kind affection, good order, and atten- 
 tion to mutual edification, which ought to subsist among 
 those who profess the doctrine of Christ. The way in 
 which this is to be preserved, is * in the bond of peace.' 
 To illustrate which principle it is observed, that it is a 
 maxim of undoubted truth, that in their religious capa- 
 city, mankind are subject only to the authority of God 
 and of their own consciences, that it has nevertheless 
 been the doctrine of too many in all periods of the church, 
 that peace and unity are not to be attained unless you 
 bring all Christians to be of one opinion in religion, 
 that when other arguments have failed, the Scripture has 
 been pressed into the hard service of enslaving mankind 
 to one system of religious opinions, though such system 
 has been oft in direct opposition to it, that God never 
 designed that Christians should be all of one sentiment, 
 but that there should be different sects of Christians and 
 
 * In a letter to Mr. Turner, dated April 5, Mr. Lindsey says, " I am highly 
 obliged to you for your hint about prayers before ana after sermon. The 
 latter I have practised for some years, and shall attend to the other." In a 
 letter dated June 13, he writes : " I am happy that I adopted the idea which 
 you suggested, of introducing a short prayer of my own before and after 
 sermon. And I am more happy to find that it is not only approved by, but 
 seems to have a good effect in solemnizing the minds of the hearers." 
 
 f Of the Sermon five hundred copies were disposed of in four days, and 
 of the Liturgy seven hundred copies were sold in six weeks, The Apology 
 passed through four editions.
 
 84 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. IV. 
 
 different churches, that while a friendly benevolent tem- 
 per is cultivated towards each other, the different sects 
 and churches among Christians, far from being a hurt or 
 discredit to religion, are an honour, and of singular ser- 
 vice to it : nor can it with truth be said, that different 
 sects of religion in a country have a tendency to disturb 
 the public peace and quiet. And though it must not be 
 dissembled, that the disputes and contentions of Chris- 
 tians with each other have caused great miseries and dis- 
 turbance in the world, yet the blame lies not on the mild 
 and gentle doctrine of the gospel, but on the civil powers 
 who have given life and importance to these disputes by 
 interfering with them. But that wise experience has now 
 taught them a better lesson." The sermon concludes 
 with stating, that "the peculiar reason of forming a sepa- 
 rate congregation distinct from the national church is, 
 that we may be at liberty to worship. God alone, after the 
 command and example of our Saviour Christ. So that 
 if any ask what we are, or for what purpose we are joined 
 together in a Christian Society, our answer is with the 
 apostle, * we are a people that worship God in the spirit, 
 and make our boast in Christ Jesus.'" Phil. iii. 3. 
 
 To this discourse is annexed a Summary account of 
 the Reformed Liturgy used in the chapel in Essex-Street: 
 the principal object of which is to vindicate the devia- 
 tions of this liturgy from that of Dr. Samuel Clarke, to 
 which many respectable friends of the author wished him 
 to have strictly confined himself, but which advice Mr. 
 Lindsey with his usual correctness of judgement and firm- 
 ness of spirit declined to follow. 
 
 Upon this occasion Mr. Lindsey, by the advice of Dr. 
 Jebb and his Cambridge friends, but as he soon dis- 
 covered without due consideration of the subject, pledged 
 himself in pretty strong language not to introduce dis- 
 puted points into his public discourses. " Far will it be
 
 CH. IV.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 85 
 
 from my purpose," says he, " ever to treat of controversial 
 matters from this place." But if popular and pernicious 
 errors are not to be combated, and if the plain simple 
 doctrine of Christianity is not to be taught from the pul- 
 pit, it is difficult to say how public attention is to be ex- 
 cited: how the mass of hearers are to be instructed, and 
 how truth is to make its way. In fact it appears, that 
 where public teachers have confined themselves to mere 
 moral instruction, and have either not touched at all upon 
 Christian doctrine or have veiled their real opinions under 
 ambiguous language, the consequence has often been, 
 that the teacher by reading and reflection has become 
 enlightened while the hearer has been left in darkness ; 
 the preacher has reformed his speculative creed while the 
 hearers have retained all the erroneous and unscriptural 
 notions which their pastor has long ago renounced. And 
 as a natural consequence, when a vacancy has occurred, 
 a successor has not unfrequently been appointed whose 
 system has been directly opposite to that of the person 
 who immediately preceded him*. Those who hold sen- 
 
 * Dr. Doddridge's congregation refused to invite Dr. Ashvvorth, whom 
 be recommended as his successor both in the pulpit and in the academy, and 
 whose sentiments were in perfect unison with his own, and chose a gentle- 
 man, a very worthy person, but whose orthodoxy was of a much higher tone 
 than that of his predecessor. A late minister, well remembered by many, 
 made his boast, that though he had officiated twenty years at the same cha- 
 pel, he defied any of his hearers to know what he believed concerning the 
 person of Christ. And it is a fact of sufficient notoriety, that a flourishing 
 congregation in the metropolis, in appointing a colleague to their respected 
 pastor, who had officiated among them with great acceptance for more than 
 thirty years, fixed their choice upon a person so opposite in sentiment that 
 he would not even hear his colleague preach, or ever join in communion with 
 him. Could such a case have happened had the hearers been properly in- 
 structed in their religious principles, and rationally grounded in their Chris- 
 tian faith ? It is absurd to say, that if these people had been better in- 
 structed they would not have been equally serious. How does it appear that 
 they would have been less virtuous if they had been more consistent ? 
 
 The writer of this note can bear testimony, from his own experience, to 
 the very opposite effects of different modes of public instruction. While he 
 resided in the country as minister of a congregation and divir,ity tutor in the 
 academy upon Mr. Coward's foundation, he gradually changed his theolo- 
 gical views from an affinity to those of Dr. Doddridge, to perfect Unitariaiiism,
 
 86 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. IV. 
 
 timents to which they give the pompous name of ortho- 
 dox or evangelical, never decline to avow their systems 
 in the most manly and explicit manner. And they do 
 right while they believe those sentiments to be true and 
 important. How unbecoming then is it for those who 
 hold a better and a purer faith to shrink from the public 
 profession and defence of it, and to leave the adversary 
 master of the field ! It is a silly objection which is urged 
 by some weak, or timid, or indolent, I will not say in- 
 terested persons, that speculative preaching, as they call 
 it, tends to diminish a serious and pious disposition, and 
 promote a sectarian spirit. As to the latter part of the 
 objection, let them read Sir George Savile's remark upon 
 the subject of sectaries: and with respect to the former, I 
 
 and a belief in the proper humanity of Jesus Christ. But not being at that 
 time so clearly convinced as he was afterwards of the duty of an explicit 
 avowal of important truth, he, like many others, satisfied himself with using 
 language, which though not contradictory to, was certainly not explanatory 
 of his new opinions. The consequence was, that when he thought it his duty 
 to resign the connexion, a successor was chosen, a worthy young man, one 
 of his own pupils, but one who in Trinitarian orthodoxy far exceeded all his 
 predecessors from the first foundation of the chapel. Not so when he re- 
 signed his place at Hackney to succeed at Essex Street. That intelligent 
 Society, trained up under the candid and liberal instructions of Dr. Price and 
 the enlightened zeal of Dr. Priestley, to which his own humble efforts for 
 ten years in the same good cause had not been wanting, when a vacancy was 
 declared, acted in a manner worthy of themselves and of their teachers. To 
 them it was an object of the first consideration, to look out for a minister 
 who should be disposed and qualified to support the doctrines in which they 
 had been instructed, and which from conviction they embraced and cherished. 
 Happily divine Providence directed them to a choice which fulfilled their ut- 
 most wishes and hopes. And the very prosperous state of the congregation, 
 which required a larger chapel to accommodate the increasing number of 
 worshipers, demonstrates the energy and, if I may so express it, the omni- 
 potence of plain, simple, uncorrupted truth, when taught with openness, with 
 firmness, with ability, and real. May this glorious cause continue to pro- 
 sper among the rising generation there and elsewhere, under the same or a 
 similar able, active, and eloquent ministry, when those who are now past the 
 burden and the heat of the day, and upon whom the shadows of the evening 
 are fast lengthening themselves out, shall be at rest with their fathers in the 
 land of silence and oblivion. And may the conduct of all who profess to hold 
 the pure and uncorrupted doctrine of Christ, at all times, silently, but power- 
 fully and irresistibly, repel the unfounded and ungenerous charge, so trium- 
 phantly advanced by ignorance or malignity, that Unitarian principles and a 
 zeal for truth are inconsistent with seriousness of spirit, with fervour of 
 devotion, and with holiness of life.
 
 CH. IV.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS L1NDSEY. 87 
 
 confess I could never see how the increase of knowledge 
 had a tendency to produce deterioration of practice; and 
 he would be a very injudicious teacher who did not com- 
 bine practical exhortation with doctrinal instruction. 
 
 11 Yesterday," says Mr. Lindsey, in a letter to Dr. Jebb 
 dated May 23, "I ventured to deviate from the idea 
 which you and my friends with you seemed to entertain 
 as right, of preaching merely practical discourses, and 
 enlarged with much earnestness on John xvii. 3. I find 
 it was acceptable to many, and that it was even looked 
 for, that I should sometimes treat upon the great object 
 and principle on which our new church is formed, in order 
 to confirm some that are already come out, and awaken 
 others to come out of Babylon. But I expect the greatest 
 effects by and by through the nation, from the thunder 
 
 of your's, of Mr. 's, and Mr. 's apologies, for 
 
 you can never go out in mute silence and without bearing 
 your testimonies against her witchcraft and idolatries." 
 
 Among the earliest hearers of M r. Lindsey was Mrs. 
 Rayner, a near relation of the Dutchess of Northumber- 
 land, and of Lord Gwydir. This lady was married te a 
 gentleman of large fortune, and was attracted by curiosity 
 and the invitation of a friend to hear the new doctrine at 
 Essex Street, on the day when the chapel was first opened. 
 Through the whole service her eyes were fixed, and her 
 attention riveted upon the preacher; and when it was 
 over she and Mr. Rayner introduced themselves to Mr. 
 and Mrs. Lindsey, and from that time to the end of life 
 she became a constant hearer at the chapel, and a firm 
 and generous friend to Mr. Lindsey, and to the cause 
 which he supported and for which he suffered. Mrs. 
 Rayner was a lady of open and unaffected manners, of su- 
 perior intellect, and of a well-informed mind. She pos- 
 sessed unbounded generosity of spirit, and especially after 
 the death of Mr. Rayner denied herself almost what was
 
 88 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. IV. 
 
 necessary to support her rank and station in life, that she 
 might spend her money in acts of great but not indis- 
 criminate munificence. She became a liberal and power- 
 ful patroness of the cause of truth. And to this lady the 
 Christian world is indebted for the publication of one of 
 the most learned and most useful theological works which 
 the age has produced : Dr. Priestley's History of Early 
 Opinions concerning Christ : a work which demon- 
 strates in a manner which never has been and never can 
 be confuted, that from the earliest age of the Christian 
 religion down to the fourth century, and to the time of 
 Athanasius himself, the great body of unlearned Chris- 
 tians were strictly Unitarians, and consequently that this 
 was the original doctrine concerning the person of Christ. 
 This most valuable treatise was a work of great labour 
 and expense, the demand for which would by no means 
 have defrayed the charge of the publication. But Mrs. 
 Rayner, with exemplary generosity, supplied the money, 
 and to her the work is with great propriety dedicated. 
 Many other acts of this lady's princely munificence might 
 be mentioned which almost exceed belief in a selfish and 
 irreligious age. But she sought not worldly applause; 
 and she is now gone where her works and virtues will follow 
 her to receive their appropriate and everlasting reward*. 
 The cause now began to flourish beyond all expecta- 
 tion. The chapel was always crowded with attentive 
 
 * One instance out of many, and that by no means the greatest, of this 
 benevolent lady's extraordinary .munificence is related by Dr. Priestley in 
 his Memoirs, p. 77, London edition. The Doctor mentions, that upon his 
 separation from Lord Shelburne he was barely able to support the expense 
 of removal. He adds, " But my situation being intimated to Mrs. Rayner, 
 besides smaller sums with which she occasionally assisted me, she gave me 
 a hundred gu'neas to defray the expenses of my removal ; and deposited with 
 Mrs. Lindsey, which she soon after gave up to me, four hundred guineas, 
 and to this day ha> never faili-d giving me every year marks of her friend- 
 ship. Hers is, indeed, I seriously think, one of the first Christian charac- 
 ters I was ever acqua ntfd with, having a cultivated comprehensive mind, 
 equal to any subject of theology, or metaphysics, intrepid in the cause of 
 truth, and most rationally pious,"
 
 CH. 1V.J REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 80 
 
 hearers, so that many who came late were obliged to go 
 away for want of room. Considerable numbers of very 
 respectable names were continually given in as subscri- 
 bers to the expense of the chapel and to the support of 
 the minister. Among the rest were the late distinguished 
 patriot Sir George Savile, member for Yorkshire; Mr. 
 Serjeant Adair, with his father and mother; the late 
 learned and eminent scripture-critic Mr. Dodson, the 
 translator of the book of Isaiah; and the present Sir 
 Thomas Bernard, the benevolent treasurer of the Found- 
 ling Hospital. Nor must I omit to mention the name 
 of my respected friend Robert Martin Leake, Esq. the 
 present worthy Master of the Report Office in the Court 
 of Chancery ; who being then a young man, and having 
 by reading and reflection emancipated himself from the 
 Trinitarian and high-church prejudices in which he had 
 been educated in his father's house, the late Garter king 
 at Arms, was one of the first who called upon Mr. Lind- 
 sey at his lodgings in Featherstone Buildings, and en- 
 couraged him to persist in his design of opening a chapel 
 for Unitarian worship; and though not then in affluent 
 circumstances, offered a liberal contribution to the ob- 
 ject, and has ever since remained a firm and enlightened 
 advocate of the cause : he is now senior Trustee of the 
 chapel, and one of the few surviving original founders 
 and supporters of the place. 
 
 But nothing of this kind gave Mr. Lindsey more plea- 
 sure than a letter which he received in the beginning of 
 June from the late Sir Barnard Turner, who afterwards 
 distinguished himself so much in quelling the riots in 
 London in 1780, at the head of the London Association. 
 Of this letter the following is an extract communicated 
 by Mr. Lindsey to his friend Mr. Turner, to whom he 
 knew that it would give the same satisfaction which it 
 gave to himself.
 
 90 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. IV 
 
 " I have long been held from associating with any sect 
 of Christians with that sincerity which my conscience 
 and gratitude to the Supreme Being tell me are needful 
 in religion, from a thorough conviction that the adora- 
 tion of any but the one true God was highly sinful. It 
 is therefore with the utmost earnestness that I beg to be 
 considered as one of your congregation, and also that 
 you will do me the favour of accepting my annual sub- 
 scription of five guineas towards the welfare of the so- 
 ciety and the making you some amends for the loss and 
 expense to which your love of truth will make you liable. 
 I- shall, besides, be always ready with cheerfulness to bear 
 a reasonable share of any further expense that the future 
 exigencies of the society may make necessary." 
 
 In reference to this application from Sir Barnard Tur- 
 ner, Mr. Lindsey expresses himself thus in a letter to 
 Dr. Jebb : "I have found this institution a means of 
 drawing out, and I hope will be of encouraging and per- 
 fecting many excellent characters. Your heart would 
 rejoice in reading a letter I received this very week from 
 one of these desiring to become a member of our church. 
 We are still crowded on Sundays." 
 
 The satisfaction and comfort which this excellent man 
 experienced upon his deliverance from the galling yoke 
 of an establishment which he disapproved, in the perfect 
 liberty which he enjoyed of conducting the services of 
 religion in the manner which best approved itself to his 
 understanding and to his heart, and in the success of a 
 scheme for the accomplishment of which he had made such 
 strenuous exertions and such great and costly sacrifices, 
 a success so far beyond his most sanguine expectations, 
 may be more easily conceived than described. He often 
 gives vent to the pious and grateful emotions of his heart 
 in his communications to his confidential friends. 
 
 In a letter to Dr. Jebb dated March 3 1 , a week before
 
 CH. IV.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 91 
 
 he expected to open the chapel, he writes, " No one has 
 more fears or diffidences, and I think justly, of what I do. 
 I sometimes wonder how I came into the service in which 
 I am embarked. But I have met with such friends and 
 encouragement that I go on cheerfully and without fear." 
 
 In another letter to the. same friend, dated July 24, 
 three months after the grand experiment had been tried, 
 and the success of it was complete, he thus expresses him- 
 self : " I have not known what entire quiet of mind and 
 perfect peace with God was for many many years, till now; 
 and I would not exchange it for a thousand worlds. En- 
 couraged also as I am that good, extensive good to glo- 
 rious Truth does arise and will arise from it. I must have 
 died much in the dark had I been called away before this. 
 How thankful ought I to be for that good Providence 
 which has conducted and preserved me ! You will be 
 glad to hear that last Sunday we had a more respectable 
 audience at the chapel than I ever saw, except the first 
 day. And to-day quite full." So mightily did the word 
 of God, and the cause of pure and uncorrupted Christia- 
 nity grow and prevail under the ministration of this ve- 
 nerable confessor, and so abundantly did his heart over- 
 flow with consolation and delight in the success of his, 
 benevolent and pious exertions. 
 
 It is not however to be concluded, that all was now 
 sunshine with Mr. Lindsey, and that the season of clouds 
 and darkness was completely over. The tide of preju- 
 dice at that time set so strongly against the Unitarian 
 doctrine, that there was some reason to apprehend, at 
 least, many of Mr. Lindsey's friends did apprehend, that 
 some popular disturbance might take place at the open- 
 ing of a chapel professedly upon Unitarian principles, 
 and that some personal insult might be offered to the 
 minister, or some interruption attempted in the service. 
 This, however, gave Mr. Lindsey little concern. He
 
 92 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. IV. 
 
 did not indeed court, but neither did he shun persecu- 
 tion in the performance of duty. But in truth, though 
 he had received many anonymous libels in the form of 
 letters, he had no considerable apprehension of personal 
 violence. Happily, under the mild administration of the 
 House of Brunswick, religious toleration was the wise and 
 liberal principle of government, and lawless outrage was 
 kept under severe restraint. 
 
 It gave Mr. Lindsey more concern that his motives 
 should be mistaken by some of his associated brethren, 
 who regarded the decisive step which he had taken as in- 
 jurious to the object of their petition, a reformation in 
 the subscription and in the service of the established 
 church. Mr. Lindsey, though he much regretted that 
 offence was taken where none had been intended, con- 
 soled himself with the conviction which he felt that his 
 brethren had formed an erroneous judgement in the case, 
 and that his secession from the establishment, so far 
 from being of disservice, would eventually be very bene- 
 ficial to the cause of the petitioning clergy, by exciting 
 attention to it, and by interesting many in their favour. 
 " You and Jebb," says an eminent leader among the as- 
 sociated clergy, in a letter to Mr. Lindsey, " have obliged 
 the Balguys and Randolphs by your integrity, but none 
 else, though more may commend. It has been the utter 
 ruin of the plan of the petitioners." Mr. Lindsey thought 
 far otherwise. "A few," says he to his friend Dr. Jebb, 
 " of our petitioning friends, and but a few, will have it 
 that my retreat has hurt our cause. But I am embold- 
 ened to say from fact and knowledge in this great city 
 and a wide range elsewhere, that it has and does serve it 
 greatly nay, has been a great means of keeping it from 
 dying entirely." And upon another occasion, alluding to 
 the same misconception of some of his petitioning friends, 
 he says, " These things must not move us. I hope to
 
 CH. IV.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 93 
 
 be enabled to go on in a way which promises to be of 
 some present use, nay, actually is so already, in removing 
 prejudices and enlarging the minds of some, and rnay be 
 of unknown benefit." 
 
 But nothing appears to have hurt Mr. Lindsey's mind 
 so much as the malignant reports which were industri- 
 ously circulated by some that he had been influenced 
 throughout by mercenary views, that he was now in a 
 better situation than that which he had left, and that he 
 had a promise of this before he resigned his benefice. 
 Mr. Lindsey could not but feel indignant at the impu- 
 tation of motives which his soul abhorred, of which his 
 conscience entirely acquitted him, and, to which the whole 
 tenor of his life was a palpable contradiction. Upon this 
 subject he expresses himself with a very becoming and a 
 truly Christian spirit in a letter to his kind friend at 
 Wakefield, dated June 13, 1774. 
 
 " We have about thirty names upon the list of our 
 society as members, who have signified their intentions, 
 and some of them what they shall contribute. This gen- 
 tleman's (Sir Barnard Turner's) is much the largest. I 
 mention this not as if I had any doubt of a sufficient 
 provision for myself and the society, but that you may 
 know in a general way the whole of our state : because, 
 I find that it is said I have already an establishment of 
 four hundred pounds a year, and that I knew what a good 
 exchange I should make when I left Catterick. Such 
 reports we must expect. It is here spread about, and be- 
 lieved by many, that my wife's uncle at our quitting Catte- 
 rick, settled 200 pounds a year on me, though he has 
 never seen us, nor admitted us to write a letter to him 
 from that time to this. I believe that with Mr. Shore's 
 and his friend's benefaction, and those of other friends, 
 I have received upwards of four hundred pounds. But 
 upwards of two hundred out of this was given purely ,to
 
 94 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. IV. 
 
 indemnify me for the expenses of fitting up the chapel ; 
 its rent, fifty pounds a year ; clerk's wages, &c. I am a 
 little sorry I have blotted so much paper and taken up 
 so much of your time on such a subject, but I was de- 
 sirous you should be acquainted with it. And as I have 
 hitherto done, I desire to keep my hands and heart clear 
 of all mercenary views, though I cannot bind others from 
 imputing them to me." 
 
 Mr. Lindsey alludes feelingly to the same reports in 
 his correspondence with Dr. Jebb*. How little founda- 
 tion there was for them is manifest from the following 
 extract of a letter from a friend, who about that time 
 visited them at their lodgings : "I had the satisfaction 
 of finding our worthy friends in pretty good health and 
 spirits : but by no means in the affluent situation in 
 which common fame in Yorkshire had placed them. 
 The lodgings they are in at present are close, inconve- 
 nient, and expensive : nor have they yet been able to 
 meet with any thing more suitable to them. But the 
 cause in which Mr. Lindsey is engaged has power to 
 soften every difficulty, and he has need of such support." 
 
 It became now incumbent upon Mr. Lindsey to de- 
 fend his principles from the press as well as from the 
 pulpit. The Apology was not permitted to pass without 
 animadversion and attempts at refutation. The first who 
 entered the lists was Mr. Burgh of York, a member of 
 the Irish parliament, a young man of some talents, of 
 estimable character, and of liberal political principles, 
 
 * " Nothing," says Mr. Lindsey in a letter to Dr. Jebb, dated May 22d, 
 " is yet settled with regard to those who are or will be members of our 
 church, and their contributions, though several of them have spoken to me 
 about it. But I am in no hurry on that account. And I wish ever to keep 
 at a distance from the suspicion of attention to money; though such sus- 
 picions have been, are, and will be imputed by those who judge of others 
 by themselves." In another letter dated June 7th, he writes : '\Yoii shall 
 know every thing when I see you, how we go on. In the mean time though 
 I have the highest cause to be thankful to God's good providence, there is 
 no foundation for reports which some put about with no good design."
 
 CH. IV.] REVEREND THEOFHILUS LINDSEY. 95 
 
 but little versed in theological controversy. He published 
 so early as the month of June 1774, a work entitled A 
 Scriptural Confutation of the Arguments against the 
 One Godhead of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, pro- 
 duced by the Rev. Mr. Lindsey in his late Apology. 
 This treatise as an argumentative work was trifling in 
 the extreme, and must immediately have passed into the 
 oblivion to which it has long been consigned, had it not 
 been supported and puffed off by some persons of note, 
 who no doubt thought it was calculated to make an im- 
 pression upon the numerous class of readers to whom 
 sounds are a ready substitute for sense*. Of this work 
 Mr. Lindsey thought it quite sufficient to take a slight 
 notice in the preface to the Sequel to his Apology. In 
 the same preface he also replied, as far as it was judged 
 
 * Of Mr. Burgh's argument the following are curious specimens. Because 
 we read in Scripture of the grace of God, and also of the grace of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ ; because Paul calls himself a servant of God, and also of Jesus 
 Christ ; and because the gospel is called the gospel of God, and also the go- 
 spel of CkrJst ; and "that which is God's is not another's," as the author 
 sagaciously remarks, " therefore Christ is God, one with the Father." Se- 
 quel. Prep. p. x. xi. To attempt a refutation of such arguments would be 
 a prostitution of reason. Mr. Lindsey in a letter to Mr. Turner, dated June 
 13, 1774, mentions that the pamphlet, then anonymous, had been sent him 
 by the author ten days before. " I really took the book," says he, "to be 
 the work of some methodist at first perusing it, and nothing in it solid or that 
 might require an answer. But I was much surprised the other day in con- 
 versing with Mr. Mason, to find that he had been privy to the publication! 
 had revised some of the proof sheets, and approved the doctrine in the highest 
 degree. Nay, he told me that Dr. Hurd had just then told him that the 
 writer expressed his own sentiments upon the Trinity. But I could not 
 help telling Mr. Mason that he and his friend were easily pleased. That he 
 boasted too much of the author's freedom from prejudice as being a young 
 man who had never read any controversy on the Trinity : as if we received 
 no prejudices but from reading. Mr. Mason added, ' the book must make 
 a great noise,' which I would easily believe if they cried it up." In a letter 
 to Dr. Jebb, dated June 1 7th, he writes : " The zeal to propagate the Lay- 
 mans (Mr. Burgh's) pamphlet is most extraordinary. A friend of mine on 
 Sunday, dining with a very high personage, found the book brought to the 
 Lady of the house by a noble Lord of the company, a friend of Mr. Mason. 
 With regard to the two origina Icommenders of it, I declare 1 am amazed 
 they can find no better salvo for their consciences in the use of our Trinitarian 
 forms. And it has much lessened them both in my estimation. If \ipon 
 perusal of it you should put a few thoughts together, and be disposed to let 
 them be printed, 1 should be very glad : not for the importance of the piece 
 itself, but for the vogue which it is to have given to it."
 
 96 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. IV. 
 
 needful, to two other pamphlets which had been pub- 
 lished against his Apology ; one of which, by Mr. B ing- 
 ham, of Dorsetshire, was .entitled A Vindication of the 
 Doctrine and Liturgy of the Church of England, occa- 
 sioned by the Apology of Theophilus Lindsey, M. A. : the 
 other by Dr. Randolph, Lady Margaret's Professor of 
 Divinity in the University of Oxford. These treatises 
 were written with more knowledge of the subject than 
 Mr. Burgh's, but their arguments contained nothing of 
 novelty which required particular attention*. The pas- 
 sages of scripture which were alleged by these writers in 
 favour of Trinitarian doctrine and worship, and which 
 had not been adverted to in the Apology, were explained 
 in the Sequel. 
 
 This able and learned work appeared early in the year 
 1776. It is much more copious than was originally in- 
 tended, and contains, as the author expresses it, " a full 
 inquiry into the questions concerning the nature and 
 person of Christ, and what is the worship due to him ;" 
 also, " a further illustration of some things advanced in 
 the Apology to which objections had been made." In 
 his preface Mr. Lindsey acknowledges his obligations to 
 Dr. Jebb, who had lately resigned his situation and pro- 
 spects in the church, for his trouble and assistance in re- 
 vising the greater part of the work. 
 
 In this volume, the most elaborate of all Mr. Lindsey's 
 publications, the learned author in his first chapter states 
 the design of his work, and relates the sufferings and the 
 testimony of Mr. Elwall, who was tried for heresy and 
 
 * Save that Mr. Bingham discovered that the word Father, when used by 
 our blessed Saviour in prayer, signifies the first person of the godhead, but 
 when used by us it signifies the same first person, together with two other 
 equal persons, the Son and the Holy Ghost. And that the learned Margaret 
 Professor found out that every thing which the candid VVhitby had to say in 
 his " Disquisitiones modestae," in reply to Bishop Bull, had been " fully an- 
 swered by Dr. Waterland," though he acknowledges that he had never been 
 able " to obtain a sight of the book." See preface to the Seq. p. xvi. xxi.
 
 OH. IV.] REVEREND TIIEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 97 
 
 blasphemy before Judge Denton at the Stafford Assizes, 
 in the reign of George the First ; and gives an account 
 of Hopton Haynes, a zealous and learned Unitarian, the 
 friend of Sir Isaac Newton, with copious extracts from 
 Mr. Haynes's excellent treatise on the attributes of God, 
 which was then very scarce, but which has since been 
 published and very widely circulated by the Unitarian 
 Society, c. ii. The author treats at large of the Arian 
 and Socinian worship of Christ, and shows that it has no 
 foundation in the New Testament, c. iii. He argues, 
 that the Logos or word is not a divine person or intelli- 
 gent agent, but that it is the wisdom and power of the 
 Father by which the world was made, and by which Christ 
 and his apostles were inspired and were enabled to per- 
 form their mighty works, c. iv. This doctrine, concern- 
 ing the divine Logos, word, or wisdom, is further illus- 
 trated by comparing it with various passages in the New 
 Testament, in which Christ is represented as being guided 
 and assisted by the spirit of God, which the learned writer 
 assumes to be the same as the Logos, c. v. He examines 
 distinctly and critically those passages in the New Tes- 
 tament which have been supposed to favour the pre-ex- 
 istence of Christ, and particularly those in St. John's 
 gospel, c. vi. He argues very forcibly and successfully 
 against the strange and unscriptural doctrine of two Je- 
 hovahs, the one supreme, the other subordinate: the 
 latter a great angel who personated the character and 
 assumed the name of the Supreme, who was the medium 
 of all the divine dispensations to mankind, and the im- 
 mediate object of religious worship to the Jewish church : 
 which angel animated the body of Christ. This hypo- 
 thesis, which had always been maintained by learned 
 Arians, ancient and modern, had lately been very plau- 
 sibly stated, and very ably defended, in a learned work 
 by the reverend Henry Taylor, the rector of Crawley, 
 
 H
 
 1)8 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. IV. 
 
 under the assumed character of Benjamin Ben Morde- 
 cai, a converted Jew. To this treatise Mr. Lindsey 
 makes a calm, detailed, and satisfactory reply, c. vii. The 
 work goes on further to plead from the language of Moses 
 and the prophets, and from the explicit declarations of 
 the apostles and evangelists and even of Christ himself, 
 that he was really a man, and that the truth of this doc- 
 trine is not impeached by the great and lasting errors of 
 Christians concerning it. c. viii. The author comments 
 upon the testimony of the Apostolical Fathers concern- 
 ing the nature and person of Christ ; and, Lastly, he 
 concludes with a critical examination of those passages 
 in St. Paul's epistles, in which creation is supposed to 
 be ascribed to Christ, and clearly shows that creation is 
 the proper work of God himself without any instrument 
 or deputy ; that this is the uniform doctrine of the scrip- 
 tures, and that those expressions of Paul which are 
 thought by many to teach a different doctrine, are to be 
 understood of the new creation, and of the renovation of 
 the moral world by the gospel of Christ. 
 
 In his interpretation of some of the controverted texts 
 all may not be entirely agreed, who nevertheless coincide 
 with the learned and worthy author in his views of the 
 person of Christ. But as long as that important con- 
 troversy shall continue, Mr. Lindsey's Sequel must al- 
 ways be regarded as a standard work, and as a bright 
 example of free and fearless discussion, blending itself 
 with that amiable spirit of Christianity which softens the 
 asperities of theological controversy, and which allows to 
 all the equal right of private judgement. 
 
 From the commencement of his arduous undertaking, 
 and especially from the time when success appeared pro- 
 bable, Mr. Lindsey, modestly diffident of his own powers 
 and qualifications both of body and mind, was anxiously
 
 CH. IV.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 99 
 
 solicitous to secure the aid of an able coadjutor. The 
 first person upon whom he cast his eye was Dr. Jebb, 
 to whom he suggested a hint of the business before he 
 left Yorkshire. But afterwards, when the prospect bright- 
 ened at Essex-Street, and Mr. Lindsey was assured that 
 his friend intended speedily to execute his long-formed 
 determination of resigning his preferment and his pro- 
 spects in the church, he made the proposal to him in 
 more direct terms*. "I must not forget to add," so 
 he writes in a letter dated October 20, 1775, "as it 
 need be said to yourself alone, that with Mr. Tayleur's, 
 Sir George Savile's and Mr. Smith's subscriptions, our 
 amount, all things paid, is one hundred pounds f, which 
 I should be most glad to share annually, and more that 
 I am sure would accrue with such a coadjutor. I men- 
 tioned this formerly, but your plan did not lead to the 
 pastoral line in London ; but I thought I would name it 
 again." Dr. Jebb, however, rather chose the profession 
 of medicine ; and though, after he had retired from the 
 
 * In the mean time Mr. Lindsey, probably in consequence of Dr. Jebb's 
 delay to secede from the church, appears to have made an overture to Dr. 
 Robertson of Wolverhampton. This is hinted at in a letter to Dv. Jebb, 
 written in May 1775. 
 
 f* This was but a very moderate income, even \vh~ en" the necessaries of liffe 
 were at less than half the price which they bear at present, and far short of 
 what Mr. Lindsey relinquished at Catterick. His willingness to divide this 
 pittance with his colleague is an ample confutation, if such were needful, 
 of the calumnies which represented him as acting from mercenary motives. 
 But the tenor of his whole life demonstrated that his soul disdained the im- 
 putation. It is but justice to the liberality of Mr. Lindsey's friends and sup- 
 porters to add, thafhis income was rapidly increased, and that he was soon 
 placed in a situation, not only to live with comfort, but in which both he and 
 Mrs. Lindsey could gratify to a considerable extent the favourite wish of 
 their hearts, to do good to others. The third name in Mr. Lindsey's list, 
 Mr. Smith, is probably that of Lord Carrington, who continued his liberal 
 but unostentatious patronage of Mr. Lindsey as long as Mr. Lindsey lived. 
 And it may now, March 1812, be added, that his lordship's bounty was con- 
 tinued to the widow of the deceased confessor, by contributing largely to 
 an annuity of 100, which was settled upon her for life, to enable that ex- 
 cellent lady to continue her extensive and judicious charities, in which his 
 lordship was joined by a few other friends of Mr. Lindsey, whose names 
 were never made known to Mrs. L. 
 
 H2
 
 100 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. IV. 
 
 church he was regular in his attendance at the chapel, 
 and retained all his zeal and his activity in the cause of 
 Christian truth, he declined to officiate as a nonconfor- 
 mist minister. 
 
 Mr. Lindsey was also disappointed in his application 
 to another most truly excellent and learned person, emi- 
 nent for his piety, benevolence, and zeal for truth, whose 
 assistance would have been most acceptable to Mr. Lindsey 
 and to his friends, but who declined the office from prin- 
 ciples most honourable to his feelings, and no doubt per- 
 fectly satisfactory to his own ingenuous and enlightened 
 mind. Thus this venerable confessor was left to sustain 
 the conflict, and to fight the battle alone. But his God 
 was with him : a good conscience and a good cause bore 
 him up and carried him through, and " his strength was 
 equal to his day." For ten years he continued the sole 
 pastor of a numerous and flourishing congregation, all 
 the members of which held their revered instructor in 
 the highest estimation, and many of them gladdened his 
 heart by their visible improvement in Christian know- 
 ledge and virtuous practice. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 FROM THE ERECTION OF THE BUILDING IN ESSEX-STREET 
 TO THE APPOINTMENT OF DR. DISNEY TO BE THE COL- 
 LEAGUE OF MR. LINDSEY, 1783. 
 
 As the congregation increased, and the interest appeared 
 likely to be permanent, it became necessary to provide 
 a suitable place of worship ; and after much inquiry and 
 deliberation, it was agreed to purchase the premises in 
 Essex-Street, which by the liberal contributions of the
 
 CH. V.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 101 
 
 friends of the cause* Mr. Lindsey was enabled to ac- 
 complish, and to repair and fit them up in their present 
 commodious form for the purpose of a chapel, and for a 
 residence for himself and Mrs. Lindsey. This great 
 work was completed early in the spring of 1778, and the 
 new chapel was opened March 29. Upon this occasion 
 Mr. Lindsey delivered an excellent discourse from John 
 iv. 23, 24, upon the unity of God and the spirituality of 
 divine worship, which, with the prayers before and after 
 the sermon, were immediately published. 
 
 Among the most zealous advocates of the divine unity, 
 and for the erection of a place of worship upon the avowed 
 principle that the Father alone is to be worshiped as 
 God, the late William Tayleur, Esq. of Shrewsbury, holds 
 a distinguished place. This gentleman, who by a careful 
 study of the scriptures had become a decided Unitarian 
 forty years before, who had in vain attempted to form a 
 society for Unitarian worship in his own vicinage, and 
 who began to despair that he should ever live to see the 
 accomplishment of his favourite object, concurred most 
 cordially in Mr. Lindsey's design ; and though from the 
 remoteness of his residence it was impossible that he 
 should derive any personal benefit, he was nevertheless 
 
 * In the foremost rank of these were the generous inhabitants of Norton 
 Hall and Norton House, whose great and unexpected liberality to Mr. Lindsey 
 upon his first coming to town has been before mentioned. Upon the present 
 occasion, having communicated the intelligence to a friend, to whose kind 
 offices he thought himself much indebted for "the friendly disposition of 
 these worthy persons," he adds, " I cannot describe the feelings I had on 
 such an unexpected instance of generous and public spirit, especially when 
 contrasted with some from whom much might have been expected, but who 
 are too poor to do any thing." In a letter to the same friend, dated May 14, 
 1778, after having mentioned Mrs. Lindsey's frequent indispositions, he adds, 
 " but nothing hinders her indefatigable attention to what she takes in hand. 
 It was owing to her that our new chapel was ready so soon. And she is 
 now no less busily engaged in the habitation underneath, which we are to 
 inhabit, and which requires much more to be done at it than we expected ; 
 in short, a new house and chapel might have been built for much less expense. 
 But it was convenient to have one place to assemble in while the other was 
 building : and we had no idea that the house was in such a ruinous way aa. 
 we have found it."
 
 102 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. V. 
 
 extremely solicitous that the affairs of the chapel in Es- 
 sex-Street should be placed upon a respectable and per- 
 manent foundation. He hoped that the honourable ex- 
 ample would be followed by many others both in the 
 metropolis and in the country, and that houses for the 
 worship of the One God would be multiplied through 
 the nation. To this end he contributed very liberally 
 upon the present occasion ; and a few years afterwards 
 he had the satisfaction to see his pious and benevolent 
 expectation in some measure realised. A congregation 
 of Unitarian dissenters at Shrewsbury were induced by 
 his exhortations and encouragement to adopt a reformed 
 liturgy ; and the last years of the life of this exemplary 
 Christian were consoled and delighted by the quiet pos- 
 session of a privilege, the hope of which he had hardly 
 permitted himself to indulge, that of joining at stated 
 seasons in the public worship of the One God, the Father 
 of all, in the way that his conscience dictated as most 
 rational, scriptural, and edifying*. 
 
 * " It is now forty years," writes this excellent man in a letter to Mr. 
 Lindsey, dated May 1777, "since I was clearly convinced that the Father 
 alone ought to be worshiped as the only true God. Had any one then told 
 me lhat I should live to see a society of Christians openly professing that 
 doctrine, meeting together in a chapel of their own, and using a form of 
 prayer avowedly drawn up to perpetuate the honour due to the only true 
 God, I should have treated such a person as a well meaning visionary. Much 
 yet remains to he done, but what may not be expected from so prosperous 
 a beginning ?" In another letter, dated November 13, after having made 
 over ,500 in the 3 percent. Stock towaids building the chapel, Mr. Tayleur 
 adds, " I have many opportunities of declaring that I cannot give my assent 
 to the Atlianasian forms of worship, or join in the use of them ; but still it 
 is very disagreeable to appear to do this by frequenting the service of the 
 church. I have long sought a remedy against this inconvenience, but hitherto 
 I can find none ; for there is no dissenting congregation here, or here-about, 
 who profess to worship the Father as the only true God, or who would not 
 be offended if any of their members should make such a declaration. Could 
 such a congregation be found, I should think it ny duty to join them, though 
 I think it too much, at least for an old man, to hear, judge, and pray, at the 
 same time : and there ore wish for a form of prayer on the Unitarian plan. 
 I have endeavoured to prevail on some few persons, laymen, who think as I 
 do, to meet one Sunday at least in a month, to read together your liturgy, 
 and to declare openly, without blaming those who are otherwise minded, our 
 reasons for doing this j but hitherto I have met with no success, nor have I
 
 CH. V.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 103 
 
 Of this excellent person Mr. Lindsey gives the follow- 
 ing interesting account in a letter to a friend, dated Sep- 
 tember 1, 1783, immediately after his return from making 
 him a visit : 
 
 " We took a long flight, you will call it, thence, (. <?. 
 from Richmond, in Yorkshire,) to Shrewsbury; but were 
 well repaid when we arrived there by the sight and so- 
 ciety of one of -the most valuable of mankind, Mr. Tay- 
 leur, in whose house we lodged. He was educated at 
 Westminster, and went off Captain of the school tq 
 Christ Church, Oxford, where he resided as Student or 
 Fellow seven years, a hard and real student all the while; 
 thence to the Temple for nearly as long a space. But 
 an elder brother then dying, and the family estate coming 
 to him, he married the late Sir Rowland Hill's sister and 
 settled at Shrewsbury. An excellent classic scholar both 
 
 much prospect of it till the laity take the matter more to heart than they at 
 present do." 
 
 What an exemplary spirit of piety, zeal, and moderation ! It is easy to 
 conceive how delighted this worthy man must have been when his own plan, 
 which he had so long laboured in vain to accomplish, was at last, when he 
 was ready to abandon it in despair, unexpectedly carried into effect. Thus 
 we learn not to desist from generous efforts to promote truth and virtue, 
 though they may for a time be ineffectual. This excellent man modestly 
 assigns his reasons for preferring a liturgy to free prayer. Let those blush 
 who judge harshly of their brethren for differing from them in forms of prayer 
 or modes of worship. The prayer of the upright will be accepted, whether 
 it be offered in language which occurs upon the occasion, or in a written or 
 a printed form. 
 
 Mr. Tayleur was possessed of a large estate, and his generosity was un- 
 bounded. He settled a handsome annuity upon the chapel at Shrewsbury for 
 t~he support of Unitarian worship. And Dr. Priestley acknowledges himself 
 indebted to the liberality of this gentleman for the most material assistance 
 in the publication of many of his theological works, without which he would 
 not have been able to publish them at all. Dr. Priestley's Memoirs, p. 104. 
 English edition. 
 
 This excellent Christian died May 6, 1796, in the eighty-fourth year of 
 his age. An eloquent and instructive discourse was delivered upon the oc- 
 casion at the High Street Meeting, in Shrewsbury, by his accomplished friend 
 Theophilus Houlbrooke, LL.B. F.R.S. Ed. originally a clergyman in the 
 established church, but who became one of the honourable band of confes- 
 sors in the glorious cause of the Divine Unity. This sermon was published. 
 It is much to be wished that the learned author had fulfilled his original in- 
 tention of prefacing his discourse with an account of Mr. Tayleur, as the 
 public has in vain waited for the Memoir expected from another quarter.
 
 104 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. V. 
 
 in Greek and Latin, which he retains, and not unskilled 
 in the Hebrew language. A very good mathematician 
 also. His time and talents have been always much turned, 
 but entirely of late years, to the scriptures, of which he 
 is a great master. A strict Unitarian, but of deep piety 
 at the same time ; without which, opinions are of little 
 value. If you have not heard of it you will be glad to 
 know, that some years past, when he could no longer 
 attend the Trinitarian worship of the Church of England, 
 and could not through long association join with edifi- 
 cation in extemporary prayer, he had service for many 
 Sundays in his own house in which he officiated, at which 
 some gentlemen of the Church of England attended, and 
 some of Mr. Fownes's congregation who preferred a form 
 of prayer ; and this continued till Air. Fownes yielded to 
 the requests of many of his congregation to admit the 
 form they now use, with some additions made by him. 
 One cannot but wish that other gentlemen of the Church 
 of England would follow his example. Were there to 
 be many instances in different places, I apprehend it 
 would be one of the most likely means to put the church- 
 men on reducing their liturgy nearer the scripture model 
 of worship." 
 
 Another very eminent person, who was indeed from 
 the beginning a zealous encourager and supporter of Mr. 
 Lindsey's design, was Richard Kirwan, Esq. F.R.S. the 
 late venerable President of the Royal Society in Ireland; 
 a gentleman of the first eminence in Europe in chemical 
 and geological science, and of whom Dr. Priestley was 
 wont to say, that he was the best general scholar he ever 
 knew, and particularly able in theology. This distin- 
 guished philosopher, being from principle and a profound 
 study of the sacred scriptures zealously attached to the 
 great doctrine of the divine unity, and that the Father 
 alone is the proper object of religious worship, constantly
 
 CH. V.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 105 
 
 attended divine service in Mr. Lindsey's chapel during 
 his residence in London. 
 
 ... From the summer of the year 17/8, when he took 
 possession of the premises in Essex-Street, Mr. Lindsey 
 may be considered as fully settled. All difficulties were 
 completely removed ; every thing went on comparatively 
 in a smooth, easy, and equable tenour : and the suc- 
 ceeding years of life were not more diversified than those 
 of other studious persons and ministers of religion com- 
 monly are. Mr. Lindsey was in general blessed with a 
 good share of health, and a natural equal flow of good 
 spirits. His circumstances, if not affluent, were at least 
 easy and comfortable. His friends were numerous, and 
 he was in the habit of daily familiar and delightful in- 
 tercourse with persons of the highest respectability for 
 rank, talent, character, and information. His public 
 services were attended by as large a congregation as the 
 chapel would admit, all of whom revered and loved their 
 venerable pastor, and listened to his words as though he 
 were an apostle of Christ. He was engaged in an office, 
 to himself the most delightful, and to others the most 
 instructive and edifying; at full liberty to search the 
 scriptures without any controul, and to speak his senti- 
 ments without the least reserve to a people candid, af- 
 fectionate, and warmly prepossessed in favour of what- 
 ever he addressed to them, as the result of his own pious 
 and diligent researches, and of what he seriously and 
 conscientiously believed to be the genuine doctrine of 
 Christ. Happy in a consort who felt a lively sympathy 
 in all his sorrows and his joys, whose principles were in 
 perfect unison with his own, and whose prudence, acti- 
 vity, and energy of mind relieved him from every secular 
 care, and left him at perfect liberty to devote all the powers 
 of his mind to the great object in which his whole soul 
 was engaged. If ever any person resigned a situation
 
 106 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cil. V. 
 
 of ease and affluence from principles the most pure and 
 disinterested, with expectations the most humble, and 
 with prospects the most gloomy and uninviting, it was 
 Mr. Lindsey. And if any person ever experienced the 
 accomplishment of the evangelical promise, that he who 
 should voluntarily forsake all for Christ and for his words, 
 should even in the present life receive remuneration a 
 hundred fold, Mr. Lindsey was the man. Of this mark 
 of divine goodness this truly excellent man, who from 
 his cradle had been taught to see the hand of God in 
 every thing, was most deeply sensible ; and without any 
 affectation of humility, or parade of piety, he was ever 
 most ready upon every proper occasion, and especially in 
 correspondence with his intimate friends, to express the 
 gratitude and admiration which he felt for blessings so 
 far beyond his expectations and deserts. 
 
 In the autumn of the year 177$ Mr. Lindsey was 
 seized with a violent fever, which for some days excited 
 the greatest alarm amongst his friends, lest they should 
 lose their revered and beloved instructor, while, for a time, 
 
 the important die 
 
 Of life and death spun doubtful, ere it fell 
 And turned up, life. 
 
 The pious and becoming posture of his mind upon 
 this trying occasion he thus describes in a letter to his 
 friend Mr. Turner, dated October 4, 1778. 
 
 " I never remember to have had an illness, and I have 
 had many, for which I could not see reason to thank the 
 hand that sent it. I have reason to say so of this last 
 on many accounts ; but I would add to you on this ; 
 because it has given me such convincing proofs not only 
 of the tenderness of my old friends, but of the kindness 
 and attachment of all the congregation to their minister ; 
 and of others not so nearly connected. I desire the help 
 of your prayers that I may live, while I do live, if it so
 
 CH. V.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LJNDSEY. 1Q/ 
 
 please God, to be useful in promoting the truth of the 
 gospel." After expressing his great concern at Mrs. 
 Turner's illness, and his joy at her recovery, he adds, * f I 
 do not know whether the tender husband or wife that is 
 a by-stander, does not endure more than the patient on 
 the sick bed. My wife I am persuaded slept as little as 
 I did for the three weeks nearly that I was confined to a 
 bed ; and during all that space, when my head was so 
 apprehensive and sore with continual watchfulness, that 
 the least noise was a torture to me, she admitted no one 
 into the room but the physicians. During my illness 
 happily she kept very well ; since she has been much 
 otherwise, which is not to be wondered at, considering 
 what she underwent, but I bless God she is now tole- 
 rably recovered." 
 
 May the writer of this memoir be permitted to men- 
 tion, that soon after this, in January 1779, being at that 
 time the minister of a congregation in the country, and 
 upon a visit in London, he was taken by a friend to 
 attend the evening service in Mr. Lindsey's chapel. The 
 subject of the discourse was a good conscience ; and the 
 seriousness and gravity with which it was treated con- 
 firmed him in the opinion which he had already formed 
 from the perusal of some of Dr. Priestley's writings, that 
 it was pos^ib/e for a Socinian to be a good man. At 
 the same time he felt a very sincere concern, th'at persons 
 so highly respectable as Mr. Lindsey and Dr. Priestley, 
 should entertain opinions so grossly erroneous as he then 
 conceived, and so disparaging to the doctrines of the gospel. 
 This he ignorantly imputed to the little attention which 
 they paid to the subject of theology. Little did he then 
 suspect that further and more diligent and impartial in- 
 quiry would induce him to embrace a system from which 
 his mind at that time shrunk with horror. And had it 
 been foretold to him that in the course of years, and the
 
 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. V, 
 
 revolution of events, he should himself become the dis- 
 ciple, the friend, the successor, and the biographer of the 
 person who was then speaking ; that it should fall to his 
 lot from that very pulpit to pronounce before a crowded 
 assembly of weeping mourners the funeral oration of 
 Theophilus Lindsey, he would have regarded it as an 
 event almost without the wide circle of possibilities, and 
 as incredible as the incidents of an Arabian tale. So 
 strange are the vicissitudes of human life, and so little 
 does man know of what lies before him, or of the path 
 in which the mysterious wisdom of divine providence 
 may conduct him. 
 
 At the time when Mr. Lindsey came to settle in Lon- 
 don the American contest was carrying on with the 
 greatest animosity. It was an awful crisis for the country. 
 The nation was torn asunder by the conflicting parties, 
 and it was on all sides portended that the separation of 
 the colonies must be inevitably followed by national 
 bankruptcy, if not with the loss of national independence. 
 Not to be deeply interested in a state of affairs so gloomy 
 and alarming, would have indicated a deficiency in some 
 of the most generous and honourable feelings of human 
 nature. Mr. Lindsey felt deeply for the miseries of his 
 country, and for the errors or misconduct of the govern- 
 ment. And though, standing at the head of a religious 
 party which was exposed to popular prejudice, and ame- 
 nable to the laws of the land, he wisely abstained from 
 rendering himself personally obnoxious by taking a public 
 partin political meetings; andthough, being chiefly intent 
 upon the great object which he had in view, to restore the 
 simplicity of Christian truth, he seldom or never made the 
 pulpit the vehicle of party politics, he nevertheless thought 
 and felt as a man and a Briton, and hesitated not to express 
 his opinions upon all proper occasions with freedom and 
 warmth. The part he took in the political contests may
 
 Ctt. V.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 109 
 
 easily be inferred from his intimacy with Dr. Priestley, 
 Dr. Jebb, Dr. Price, Dr. Franklin, Mr. John Lee, and 
 many other eminent writers and partisans of the times : 
 and Mr. Lindsey was one of those patriotic alarmists 
 who augured much worse of the issue of the contest than 
 the event justified, and who perhaps attributed worse 
 motives to the authors of these unfortunate measures 
 than in fact they deserved. " For my own part," says 
 he, in a letter to Dr. Jebb, dated June 1774, " I must 
 own I have been so much dejected at the present mea- 
 sures and condition of our country, that it has broke my 
 rest and peace both night and day. Instead of teachers 
 of knowledge, wisdom, virtue, and true religion, which 
 we might and ought to have been, to be a nation the 
 most debauched in principle and practice, exerting its 
 powers to extinguish light and liberty wherever its vast 
 power reaches, is a melancholy reverse of what we ex- 
 pected." 
 
 Happily the American war terminated in the indepen- 
 dence of the United States : and this event, contrary to 
 the predictions of boding politicians, so far from proving 
 the ruin of the two countries, has been found by expe- 
 rience to be the greatest blessing which could have hap- 
 pened to both. America for upwards of twenty years 
 has enjoyed peace and liberty, both civil and religious, 
 to an extent unknown in the world before. And Britain, 
 exonerated from the expense and trouble of governing a 
 distant empire, and forming a liberal commercial con- 
 nexion with her emancipated colonies, far from sinking 
 into bankruptcy and servitude, soon emerged from her 
 difficulties and rose to a state of opulence and prosperity 
 unparalleled in the annals of history. Thus she stood 
 the admiration and envy of the world, till the portentous 
 Revolution of France involved her as some think un- 
 wisely, and as others believe inevitably, in a contest infi -
 
 110 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. V. 
 
 nitely more hazardous, and the termination of which it 
 is impossible to foresee*. 
 
 The gentle and pacific spirit of Mr. Lindsey was averse 
 to all personal and angry controversy : nevertheless, he 
 regarded it as his duty to watch over the cause of which 
 he had avowed himself the advocate, and particularly to 
 notice any remarks which might be made upon his own 
 publications, and which might give birth to any further 
 corrections or illustrations of his arguments'. The feeble 
 and intemperate attacks of Burgh and Randolph had 
 been sufficiently exposed by the Rev. A. Temple, M.A. 
 a worthy clergyman of Richmond in Yorkshire, and so- 
 lid evidence produced by him to prove that the universal 
 church for a good part of the two first centuries was de- 
 cidedly Unitarian. This gentleman, however, was not 
 satisfied with Mr. Lindsey's interpretation of the proem 
 to St. John's gospel ; and in the year 1 770 he published 
 a pamphlet entitled " Objections to Mr. Lindsey's In- 
 terpretation of the first fourteen Verses of St. John's 
 Gospel, &c." And two years afterwards another pam- 
 phlet was published entitled "A Letter to Dr. Jebb about 
 the unlawfulness of all religious Addresses to Jesus 
 Christ." These works gave rise to a publication by Mr. 
 Lindsey, in the year 17/9, entitled "Two Dissertations, 
 i. On the Preface to St. John's Gospel, ii. On Praying 
 to Jesus Christ." In the first of these Dissertations the 
 learned writer has alleged further evidence in favour of 
 the interpretation of this difficult passage, which, after 
 Le Clerc, Lardner, and others, he had advanced in the 
 Sequel to his Apology, viz. " that the Logos in this 
 Preface to St. John's Gospel is not Christ, but the word, 
 wisdom, and power of God, communicated to him and 
 manifested by him." This interpretation, though adopted 
 
 * This was written in 1812. The unexpected issue of this disastrous con- 
 flict is now well known.
 
 CH. V.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. Ill 
 
 by many learned moderns, differs from that of the Polish 
 Socinians, who by the Logos understand Jesus Christ, 
 who at the commencement of his ministry was admitted 
 like his great predecessor Moses to intercourse with God, 
 from whom he received his commission, and by whom 
 he was appointed to introduce that great change in the 
 moral world which is figuratively represented by the new 
 creation. This hypothesis has been lately revived and 
 ably defended by Mr. Cappe in the first volume of his 
 ingenious and learned Dissertations, and the arguments 
 on both sides are stated and abridged in the notes to the 
 Improved Version of the New Testament. In the second 
 Dissertation Mr. Lindsey shows with great force of rea- 
 soning that religious worship is not due to Jesus Christ. 
 For, that God is one person, the sole object of prayer . 
 that Jesus Christ is a man, and not God that he never 
 taught men to worship or pray to himself that the 
 worship of Christ is not deducible from his offices and 
 powers that the apostles never teach that prayer is to 
 be offered to him and that there is no sufficient prece* 
 dent or example of praying to Christ recorded in the New 
 Testament : under which head the learned writer gives 
 an able, and, in general, a very satisfactory analysis of 
 those texts which are commonly produced in favour of 
 the worship of Jesus Christ. This pamphlet concludes 
 with a postscript by Dr. Jebb, in which, though he denies 
 the assertion of the letter-writer that he had referred to 
 Mr. Lindsey's book in support of his opinions in the 
 pamphlet containing the reasons for his resignation, he 
 adds, "I will freely own that I entirely assent, both in 
 general and particular, to the arguments by which Mr. 
 Lindsey establishes the proper Unity of God, as well as 
 to those by which he demonstrates the offering of ad- 
 dresses to Christ Jesus to be destitute of all scripture 
 foundation: and that notwithstanding what his oppo-
 
 112 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [dl. V, 
 
 nents have objected, I am persuaded he has sufficiently, 
 and very ably, proved these points." 
 
 In the year 1781 Mr. Lindsey published a small work 
 in duodecimo, called The Catechist*, or an Inquiry into 
 the Doctrine of the Scriptures concerning the Only True 
 God, and Object of Religious Worship. In the preface 
 he obviates the insinuation of Mr. Gibbon, that the evan- 
 gelist John had borrowed the doctrine of the Logos 
 from the philosophy of Plato. The work itself is cast 
 into the form of dialogues between Artemon, an Uni- 
 tarian Christian, and Eusebes, a virtuous inquirer after 
 truth, who being dissatisfied with the popular opinions 
 in which he was educated, is solicitous to gain in- 
 formation concerning the character of God, and the pro- 
 per object of religious worship. The dialogue is well 
 supported, and the argument is treated clearly, popu- 
 larly, and concisely, of which the following is a fair spe- 
 cimen. In the sixth dialogue the question proposed is, 
 " Whether Christ had not two natures, so that he was 
 God and man at the same time, and all the depreciating 
 things which he speaks of himself as being a creature be- 
 
 * " The title, Catechist," says Mr. Lindsey, in a note to a work published 
 two years afterwards, " prefixed to the work, and which occurred to the 
 writer from the idea of the famous Origen being Catechist of the church of 
 Alexandria, has, it seems, misled and disappointed some persons, as if it 
 were a composition fitted only for very young persons : whereas it was in- 
 tended, whether it will answer the purpose others must judge, for those of 
 mature age, who have not had sufficient leisure to attend to the subject ; not 
 without striving at the same time to make the whole plain to ordinary capa- 
 cities." Historical View, Pref. p. 1. In a letter to Mr. Cappe, dated 
 October 22, 1782, Mr. Lindsey says, "the title has long displeased me. It 
 was taken up indiscreetly and in haste at first. A grave man the other day 
 told IDC that he thought it related only to children, and therefore had not 
 sent for it. As soon therefore as I have got off my hands what engages me 
 at present, I shall profit by your hints, and new mould the work in some 
 measure, adding the second part to it, and, if life be continued, may add 
 other parts, and particularly consider the doctrine of the pre-existence in 
 the same way." The title which the learned author proposed to give to the 
 new-modelled work was, " Dialogues concerning the true God, and the 
 Object of religious Worship." He did not however complete his design, the 
 demand for the work net being sufficient to encourage a second edition until 
 it was taken into the catalogue of the Unitarian Society.
 
 tH. V.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 113 
 
 longing to his human nature only, as it is called ?" Arte- 
 mon replies, "The supposition of Christ's having two 
 natures, a divine and a human nature, taketh for granted 
 the very thing in question which ought to be proved." 
 
 " It is a supposal which has no countenance whatever 
 in the sacred writings. Our Saviour most assuredly used 
 no reserve or ambiguity in what he said of himself. When 
 he averred that he received life from the Father and 
 Creator of all things, that he could do nothing of him- 
 self, he meant what he said most sincerely, and would 
 have us so to understand him. When he prayed to God 
 for help and strength, he stood in need of what he prayed 
 for, and wanted that assistance which was given him." 
 
 " It is a thing in itself utterly impossible that a being 
 should be God and man ; creator and creature ; self- 
 existent, eternal, independent, and limited, dependent, 
 and having beginning of existence at the same time; 
 omniscient and omnipotent, and yet ignorant and weak. 
 These things are not compatible : we should be shocked 
 at their absurdity, if they were not instilled into us before 
 we began to make use of our reason, and if many were 
 not afterwards afraid to make use of it about them, suf- 
 fering themselves to be dazzled by great names and au- 
 thorities, and imposed on by high antiquity, which can 
 give no prescription to what is unintelligible and impos- 
 sible. In short, this doctrine of Christ being possessed 
 of two natures, is the fiction * of ingenious men, deter- 
 mined at all events to believe Christ to be a different 
 being from what he really was and uniformly declared 
 himself to be ; by which they solve such difficulties of 
 scripture as they cannot otherwise get over, and endea- 
 vour to prove him to be the Most High God, in spite of 
 his own most express and constant declarations to the 
 
 * See Mr. Lindsey's Answer to Mr. Robinson, p. 172, notr. 
 I
 
 114 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. V\ 
 
 contrary. And as there is no reasoning with such per- 
 sons, they are to be considered and pitied, as being under 
 a debility of mind in this respect, however sensible and 
 rational in all others." 
 
 From the commencement of Mr. Lindsey's connexion 
 with the congregation in Essex-street, it had been his 
 earnest desire to obtain an associate whose principles, 
 views, and feelings were congenial with his own, mighty 
 in the scriptures, zealous and intrepid in the cause of the 
 divine Unity, who might actively co-operate with him in 
 diffusing the light of Christian truth. While he could 
 entertain the least hope of engaging the able assistance 
 of Dr. Jebb, he could fix his attention upon no other 
 person. But when every expectation of this kind vanished 
 upon the determination of his learned and pious friend to 
 enter upon the profession of medicine, his views and en- 
 deavours were directed to another most excellent and 
 amiable person, a very respectable and learned member 
 of the University of Cambridge : but in this application 
 he was also disappointed. He was now almost ready to 
 give up the point in despair, when to his great surprise 
 and joy he received a letter from the Rev. Dr. John Dis- 
 ney, the rector of Panton, and vicar of Swinderby, in the 
 diocese of Lincoln, an intimate friend, and a near relation 
 by marriage, informing him of his resolution to resign 
 his situation in the church, and offering to unite with him 
 in officiating to the congregation in Essex-street. This 
 was in the autumn of the year 1782. Nothing could 
 be more agreeable to Mr. Lindsey than this proposal. 
 He had indeed long been acquainted with Dr. Disney's 
 scruples ; but while his friend could reconcile himself to 
 continuing in the church, Mr. Lindsey did not conceive 
 it to be his duty officiously to solicit him to quit his pre- 
 ferment; especially as he knew how offensive this step 
 would be to Dr. Disney's own connexions, and particu-
 
 CH. V.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 115 
 
 larly to the venerable archdeacon -of Cleveland, whose 
 daughter he had married. The trustees of the chaptl 
 and the friends of Mr. Lindsey cordially concurred with 
 the wishes of their beloved pastor, who with his usual 
 liberality offered his colleague, who had a growing family, 
 a certain income nearly equal to that which he had re- 
 signed. And in return, some of his friends, subscribers 
 to the chapel, had the consideration to increase their 
 annual subscriptions, and Mrs. Rayner, with a liberality 
 peculiarly her own, added to her former annual donation 
 fifty pounds a-year, which she continued till Mr. Lindsey 
 resigned his pastoral office at the chapel. Of Mr. Lind- 
 sey's feelings upon this happy occasion we may form a 
 judgement from the following expressions of them in 
 correspondence with his friends. " I must not delay to 
 tell you," says he, in a letter to a friend* dated Nov. 28, 
 1792, "lest you should hear of it less directly, that Dr. 
 Disney, who left us last week, was here somewhat more 
 than a fortnight, and during that interval resigned two 
 livings to the bishop of Lincoln, preached afterwards with 
 great acceptance both parts of the day to our congre- 
 gation, and the next day was approved as my colleague 
 by as many of the benefactors to our building as were 
 
 * The Rev. Dr. Toulmin, then minister of a small congregation of protes- 
 tant dissenters at Taunton, now settle.d with a very large and flourishing 
 society of Unitarian Christians at Birmingham, the same which formerly 
 enjoyed the privilege of Dr. Priestley's instructions. In this place persecu- 
 tion has 'produced its usual effect of multiplying the persecuted sect. Un- 
 der the prudent, affectionate, and pious labours of their present venerable 
 minister, and of his able and equally zealous colleague, the Reverend John 
 Kentish, the cause of pure uncorrupted truth, and of serious and practical 
 religion, without which knowledge is of no use, is advancing with a celerity 
 most encouraging, and almost without example. Dr. Toulmin for many 
 years kept up a regular correspondence with Mr. Lindsey, of which he has 
 had the goodness to permit the author to avail himself in drawing up this 
 memoir. N.B. This amiable and useful man died July 23, 1815, univer- 
 sally beloved and regretted. He is succeeded in office by the Rev. James 
 Yates, well known by his able and learned reply to Dr. Wardlaw of Glas- 
 gow. 
 
 i 2
 
 116 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. V. 
 
 in town. This you will believe has made me very happy. 
 I am the more so, because it was an event unlocked for 
 a few months ago. In the autumn when I was at his 
 house at Swinderby, I was in treaty with another friend 
 and very eminent person to become my colleague. But 
 I said not a syllable of it to Dr. Disney, for I knew how 
 sore he was; and for six years past have never by letter 
 or in conversation touched the subject of conformity.'* 
 The Doctor, however, having heard by othermeans that 
 this negotiation was at an end, " wrote to me," continues 
 Mr. Lindsey, " to offer himself, and the result has been 
 as I have told you. I have been enabled to allow him 
 something handsome, and some few friends have come 
 forward to enable me, and so I trust every thing will turn 
 out as we wish it. We expect them in January. They 
 have a journey first to make to the good archdeacon, 
 who thinks that the original sin lies with me in drawing 
 his son-in-law out of the church. But I have told you 
 the truth and nothing but the truth." 
 
 In a letter to Mr. Turner, dated January 1, 1783, 
 Mr. Lindsey writes, " My new colleague is this week 
 arrived with his wife and three children. The inclosed 
 (viz. Dr. Disney's Reasons for resigning the Rectory of 
 Panton, and the Vicarage of Swinderby) which I present 
 you with in his name, will give you pleasure, as a mark 
 of good sense and a good heart, and likely to do good 
 in our common cause. I am the more pleased with 
 this connexion, as it was both unthought of and unex- 
 pected."
 
 CM. VI. J REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 117 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 MR. LINDSEY PUBLISHES HIS HISTORICAL VIEW. SOME 
 ACCOUNT OF DR. WILLIAM ROBERTSON. SOCIETY FOR 
 PROMOTING THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SCRIPTURES. 
 
 IN the spring of 1783, Mr. Lindsey being now more 
 at liberty, committed to tbe press a work, the materials 
 of which he had been collecting for some years. This 
 work is entitled " An Historical View of the State of 
 the Unitarian Doctrine and Worship from the Reforma- 
 tion to our own Times ; with some Account of the Ob- 
 structions it has met with at different Periods." This 
 is an elaborate work ; and one of the most interesting 
 and important of Mr. Lindsey's publications*. The 
 
 * The plan and title of this work is somewhat different from the author's 
 original intention, as announced to his friend Mr. Cappe, in a letter dated 
 October 22, 1783. 
 
 " The title of my intended work will be Impediments to the Acknowledge- 
 ment and Worship of the One living and true God the Father, caused by 
 (or arising from) Christians themselves, especially Socinians and Unitarians, 
 from the Reformation to our own Times. 
 
 " Chap. I. will contain, 
 
 " 1. The state of the Unitarian doctrine at the Reformation. 
 " 2. The state of the Unitarian doctrine in England at that time. 
 
 " Under the last section will be an opportunity of comparing the advantages 
 enjoyed from the liberal interpretations of scripture given on the point in 
 question, with the narrow and systematic turn of our interpreters in general. 
 
 "Chap. II. will contain, 
 
 " 1. Impediments from Socinus, and Socinians properly speaking. This 
 will be a large discussion. Socinus will be proved, as tie is really be- 
 lieved to be, an idolater ; and consequences will be intimated with respect 
 to other Christians. 
 
 " 2. Impediments from English Unitarians. Mr. Firmin - } a good deal con- 
 cerning him, and the Unitarians of his day. 
 
 " 3. from Dr. Clarke, Bishop Hoadley, &c. 
 
 " 4. from Mr. Tucker, who was a complete Unitarian, but out 
 
 of good though mistaken motives, endeavoured to quiet himself and others, 
 by giving an Unitarian sense to Trinitarian language, 
 
 " Chap. III. will consider, 
 " 1 . The general pleas for Unitarians attending Trinitarian worship which 
 
 they disapprove. 
 *' 2. The part they ought to take." 
 
 One cannot help wishing that the learned and pious author had more com-
 
 118 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [ciI. VI. 
 
 professed design of it is to establish the great truth, that 
 the One Almighty Father of the universe is the only 
 God of Christians; and that he alone is the proper ob- 
 ject of worship. With this view the author intermixes 
 illustrations of scripture with historical facts, many of 
 which are little known, and are well calculated to excite 
 the attention of those who are interested in theological 
 inquiries, in detecting the corruptions and in recovering 
 the genuine doctrines of the Christian religion. 
 
 " These facts," says Mr. Lindsey, Pref. p. 5, " it is 
 apprehended, will be reckoned curious by such as wish 
 to know what passes and has passed upon the stage of 
 this world of our's, concerning a point, of so sublime a 
 nature, the diversity of opinions that have been enter- 
 tained upon it, the warm passions it has excited, and the 
 singular events to which it has sometimes given occasion, 
 in whatever light they look upon the religion of Christ. 
 But to those who believe that religion to come from 
 God, it is presumed they will appear both important and 
 curious. 
 
 " The history of virtuous upright minds and inquirers 
 after truth, emerging out of the long night of antichris- 
 tian darkness, seeking the great Source of being and be- 
 nevolent Father of all, and having found Him, yielding 
 themselves to torture and death rather than disown him, 
 rather than not confess and maintain, and declare to 
 others his transcendent majesty and excellency, and su- 
 periority to the things he has made, presents the most 
 
 pletely executed his plan, especially under the two last divisions. This is 
 indeed an interesting and a painful subject ; concerning which it is greatly 
 to he feared that many err, not for want of knowledge but of firmness of 
 mind. For, of what avail is the still small voice of reason and duty in oppo- 
 sition to the loud clamours of self-interest, fashion, and the estimation of 
 the world ? How few lay it seriously to heart, that a day is coming when 
 the Man of Nazareth will be " ashamed of those who are now ashamed of 
 him ! "
 
 CH. VI.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. . 119 
 
 instructive, awful, and animating spectacle and lesson of 
 all others, tending to inspire the reader with the like un- 
 shaken courage and love of truth, and loyalty to the 
 righteous and moral governor of the world. 
 
 "It would be great satisfaction to be made an instru- 
 ment in any the least degree, to lead others out of the 
 mazes of impenetrable mystery and polytheism to this 
 parent mind, to the first Good, first Perfect, and first 
 Fair, alone worthy of the highest love, adoration, and 
 gratitude." 
 
 In pursuance of his design, the worthy author begins 
 with representing the state of the Unitarian doctrine at 
 the beginning of the Reformation, and exhibiting the 
 superior advantages then enjoyed for understanding the 
 scriptures in this respect ; he then notices the promising 
 state of the Unitarian doctrine in England at the time of 
 the Reformation, with the violent means used to suppress 
 it; he next treats of the worship of Jesus Christ by So- 
 cinus and his followers, and particularly enlarges upon 
 the controversy on this subject between Faustus Socinus 
 and Francis David, and upon the severity exercised to- 
 wards David, and others, for refusing to acknowledge 
 Christ as an object of religious worship. In this chapter 
 Mr. Lindsey introduces a section in reply to some severe 
 and unfounded remarks of Bishop Newton upon the 
 Unitarians. The succeeding chapter exhibits the state 
 of the Unitarian doctrine in the reign of Queen Eliza- 
 beth and of the Stuarts: and the author here explains 
 the cause of the great silence concerning the Divine 
 Unity during this period, and gives some account of that 
 truly eminent confessor John Biddle, M.A. of the univer- 
 sity of Oxford, who, for the profession of his principles, 
 was banished by Cromwell to the Scilly Islands, and after- 
 wards died in prison. Then follows an account of the 
 state of the Unitarian doctrine and worship from the Re-
 
 120 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [fH. VI. 
 
 storation to the close of the seventeenth century, in which 
 is included a brief memoir of the celebrated Mr. Thomas 
 Firmin, merchant of London, a disciple of Diddle, and 
 his protector and friend; a man eminently useful in his 
 day, the friend of Whichcote, Burnet, and Tillotson, an 
 avowed and zealous Unitarian, but who hesitated not to 
 conform to the worship of the established church, justi- 
 fying his conduct, but surely erroneously, upon the prin- 
 ciples of Dr. Wallis and the Oxford divines in the con- 
 troversy with Dr. Sherlock, that the three persons in the 
 Trinity were nothing more than three different charac- 
 ters or relations of one and the same Being. In the fol- 
 lowing chapter the author describes the state of the Uni- 
 tarian doctrine and worship in the eighteenth century : 
 and here he gives a particular account of the opinions and 
 writings of Emlyn, of Whiston, of Dr. Samuel Clarke, 
 of Bishop Hoadley, of Sir Isaac Newton, and of Abra- 
 ham Tucker, the author of a curious and profound work 
 entitled The Light of Nature pursued, by Edward Search, 
 Esq. The concluding chapter contains a relation of 
 some circumstances favourable of late years to the pro- 
 gress of the doctrine of the Divine Unity, in which the 
 worthy author, after representing the benefit accruing to 
 the cause of truth from an open defence and maintenance 
 of it, records some recent public declarations in favour 
 of the Unitarian doctrine and worship, by an open and 
 avowed separation from the worship of the church of En- 
 gland. And in particular, he relates the circumstances 
 of the first rise of the church of Unitarian Christians as- 
 sembling in the chapel in Essex-street, to which he an- 
 nexes a brief memoir of some eminent persons who had 
 honourably, and from a sense of duty, avowed Unitarian 
 principles, and some of whom had for conscience' sake 
 resigned lucrative situations and fair prospects of prefer- 
 ment in the national church. In this honourable cata r
 
 til. VI.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 121 
 
 logue are the highly respected names of Dr. Robertson, 
 Dr. John Jebb, Dr. Chambers, Mr. Tyrwhitt, of Jesus 
 College, Cambridge ; Mr. Evanson, Mr. Maty, Mr. Har- 
 ris, and Dr. Disney*. 
 
 Of the first of these venerable worthies Mr. Lindsey 
 thus writes in the concluding paragraph of the Introduc- 
 tion: "Whilst I am finishing this sheet, I have an ac- 
 count sent me from Wolverhampton of the decease of 
 my ingenious, amiable friend, Dr. Robertson, mentioned 
 near the close of the following work. He was born in 
 Dublin, October 16, 1705, and died May 20, 1783." 
 
 Of this truly eminent person, " this venerable father 
 of Unitarian nonconformity of our own days," as he is 
 styled by Mr. Lindsey, I will here subjoin a few anec- 
 dotes which may serve to illustrate the uncommon ex- 
 cellence of his character. The following account of him 
 is given by the late celebrated Thomas Hollis, Esq. 
 under the fictitious name of Pierce Delver, which he 
 assumed in his correspondence with Mr. Lindsey, in a 
 letter, dated February 2, 1768. It appears that Mr. 
 Hollis had requested an interview with Dr. Robertson. 
 
 * The following letter from the late learned and venerable bishop of Car- 
 lisle, Dr. Edmund Law, was received by Mr. Lindsey in return for a present 
 of this valuable work, dated Cambridge, September 23, 1783 : 
 
 Dear sir, 
 
 I received the favour of your Historical View, and read it with satisfac- 
 tion. You appear to have cleared up all the passages of Scripture usually- 
 alleged in favour of the contrary opinion, and to have exhausted the subject. 
 As a small return for the obligation, I must desire your acceptance of a new 
 Cumberland edition of my Theory-purged of some ancient prejudices relative 
 to pre-existence, &c. I have recommended to my executors to procure a 
 publication of Dr. Bullock's two Discourses which clear up the doctrine of 
 atonement, and which I think I communicated to you formerly. The Bishop 
 of Clonfert was returned to Ireland before your letter reached us. He 
 would have been delighted with seeing your account of his favourite author 
 A Tucker, whose work I have often said wanted methodizing and abridging 
 to be of more general use. My compliments to your worthy coadjutor, and 
 to my old friend Dr. Jebb. That all the success and satisfaction may attend 
 your labours to which they are so justly entitled, is the most hearty wish of 
 your sincere friend and servant. E. C,
 
 l'2'l MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. VI. 
 
 " The Reverend William Robertson, author of a work 
 entitled An Attempt to explain the Words Reason, &c. 
 &c., was with a certain person lately at his own desire, 
 and stayed with that person from eleven till two. That 
 person talked him over closely, so as to get informed of 
 his family, education, situation throughout life, and pre- 
 sent views. He found him to be in all respects a learn- 
 ed, ingenious, cheerful, polite man ; a voluntary martyr 
 to the Candid Disquisitions, and religious liberty. He 
 presented him with ten guineas, assured him of all his 
 general good offices, with open doors at all times ; and 
 though very sensible, yet a suckling to the world, sug- 
 gested to him the likeliest means of his attaining some 
 civil post, by what interest he possesses. At parting 
 Mr. Robertson was pleased to say, he should esteem that 
 day as one of the most interesting of his whole life. 
 And indeed so., in a certain sense, he might say, as the 
 informations given him must necessarily appear new, 
 many of them useful and determining. 
 
 " He is of a Scottish family, born in Ireland, was 
 bred regularly for the church, was some years at school 
 in Dublin, where his father lived, under Mr. Hutcheson, 
 the after celebrated Scottish Professor at Glasgow, 
 studied several years in Glasgow, was presented so soon 
 as he was capable of holding them to Ravilly and other 
 adjoining livings, by a then bishop, his patron. These 
 livings are worth, on my poor memory, about 150/. a 
 year. On them he resided till about the year 1760, 
 when he resigned them on account of his scruples in 
 relation to some parts of the public service. Some art 
 was used to induce him to resign these livings on his 
 evidencing those scruples, with promise, in case he did 
 quietly, of providing for him decently in some way suit- 
 able to himself. On such resignation no care was taken 
 of him, but at best, much coolness shown towards him ;
 
 CH. VI.] RLVEREND THEOPH1LUS LINDSEY. 123 
 
 nor will, he thinks, and one person believes, any care 
 be taken of him. Before his scruples he was a favour- 
 ite of Lord Primate Stone, who recommended him to 
 Dr. Robinson, then Lord Bishop of Ferns. Became a 
 favourite of the bishop's, who offered him the livings 
 mentioned in his letter, value, I think, about nett 80/. 
 a year, 401. a year being allowed for a curate, with pro- 
 mise of further countenance. And he thinks, had he 
 continued in the church and in favour of the bishop, 
 now Lord Primate of Armagh, he should be probably 
 possessed of church preferment at this time to the amount 
 of i OOO/. a year. When he waited on his patron under 
 scruples, he was told, ' You are a madman : you do not 
 know the world.' 
 
 " He has several children which are all tolerably set- 
 tled, save one daughter single, who lives with another 
 married. Himself alone has no subsistence. After having 
 sought it years at Dublin in vain, he came over here in 
 August last to that end, with tolerable recommendations 
 to two persons 'of some influence, and will to assist him. 
 These, however, had the indiscretion at best, to tender 
 it on the church line, to the amount of 100/. a year or 
 so! which he declined at once, and so matters rest with 
 him at present. One person has put him on a new 
 plan, and hopes it may issue to subsistence. He is aged 
 sixty-three, middle-sized, and tolerably hearty. The 
 same person recommended to him to maintain his cheer- 
 fulness, and was thanked for so doing. 
 
 "My dear sir, I scribble off-hand and tired, but you 
 cannot, I think, but perceive a colossus of a good man. 
 In our age, he should indeed be miserable. There is 
 great simplicity with ease in his behaviour; but I suspect 
 under it, for my time was but short with him considering 
 what I had to throw out to him, strong parts." 
 . The pains which this respectable gentleman took to
 
 124 MLMOIRS Of THE -LATJS [tH. VI, 
 
 serve this worthy friend in procuring for him some civil 
 establishment, were however unsuccessful. But in the 
 same year a provision was made for him by the Merchant- 
 Taylors Company of London, who presented Dr. Ro- 
 bertson to the office of head-master of the free grammar 
 school at Wolverhampton, in Staffordshire. A laborious 
 employment, and not very lucrative at best; and at this 
 time charged with an annuity to a superannuated incum- 
 bent who had retired, and who lived some years after- 
 wards. To this humble station did the venerable con- 
 fessor repair, now in his grand climacteric, when an office 
 requiring less exertion might have better suited his ad- 
 vanced age; and here he resided content and thankful for 
 fifteen years, discharging the duties of his office with great 
 reputation ; and though in this situation he survived all 
 his children, and was left alone and unpropped, he still 
 retained, as Mr. Lindsey expresses it, " that serenity and 
 cheerful trust in the divine Providence, which can only 
 belong to the virtuous and innocent mind*." But the 
 malice of bigotry pursued him even into this retreat. 
 
 It has been before stated, p. 32, upon Mr. Lindsey's 
 own authority, that no consideration pressed more 
 strongly upon his mind, nor urged him more forcibly to 
 
 * In a letter to Mr. Lindsey, dated March 9, 1769, Pierce Delver (Mr. 
 H011is) communicates to his friend the following interesting intelligence con- 
 cerning this venerable confessor : 
 
 " Dr. Robertson, I believe, at first thought the school in Staffoidshire to 
 be better circumstanced than it really was; and afterwards having been 
 chosen to it with great good will and earnestness of the trustees of it, he 
 then thought it a kind of shame to decline it. A little before the Doctor went 
 out of town, he communicated to me the following singular and very line 
 anecdote, but in his own finer manner : ' That a country clergyman, of a, 
 good look and great simplicity of manners, had then lately called upon him 
 one morning at his lodgings, and asked him if his name was Robertson? 
 On being answered in the affirmative, he seized his hand, shook it heartily, 
 said he had heard much of him, had read and approved his book, rejoiced 
 to see him more than any man in England, and that having brought four- 
 score pounds to town to lay out by way of addition to some Stock which he 
 already possessed in the Funds, there it was, pulling out a bag of money
 
 CH. VI.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 125 
 
 resolve upon his resignation, than the sentiments express- 
 ed by Dr. Robertson in his letter to the Bishop of Ferns. 
 And when at last Mr. Lindsey had given up his prefer- 
 .ment, and had succeeded so far beyond his expectation 
 in opening a chapel in Essex-street and establishing an 
 interest which offered a good prospect of permanence, 
 .Dr. Robertson appears to have been one of the first per- 
 sons to whom he directed his thoughts and wishes as an 
 associate in his labours. To this he was prompted more 
 perhaps by motives of veneration and gratitude, than by 
 his usual sense of propriety and expedience; for Dr. Ro- 
 bertson, though vigorous and active for his years, and 
 not unwilling to listen to the application, must at that 
 time have been turned of seventy. To this application 
 Mr. Lindsey appears to allude in a letter to Dr. Jebb, 
 dated May 10, 1775. 
 
 " R. was to have preached for me the last Sunday af- 
 ternoon ; but on Friday he came to tell me he was not 
 quite provided. He is, however, to do the duty on Sun- 
 day next. I shall be glad to engage him if approved by 
 our congregation, and have told him so. But as what I 
 can allow him will not be sufficient for his support, he 
 is looking out for some that may be consistent with it. 
 N.B. Half of what I at present receive from our subscrip- 
 
 from his pocket and laying it upon the table by Dr. Robertson, he could 
 never dispose of it so usefully, so excellently, as to him. The Doctor, as- 
 tonished, entreated him many times to put up his bag again, for that he had 
 no need of it, being without want ; which at length, with very great reluc- 
 tance, he did, after having repeatedly exclaimed, Why ! man, I have no 
 use for it, at least take a part.' The name of this clergyman was William 
 Hopkins, of Cuckfield, a gentleman, it seems, who has long since distin- 
 guished himself for good sense, learning, and public spirit, by his writings. 
 Archbishops of England ! Ireland ! who declare difference of opinion from 
 your small sect to be a misfortune, match, if ye can, in your like, this pair! 
 I could not help saying to Dr. Robertson, that for both's sake, I thought he 
 should have taken ten guineas." 
 
 So far Pierce Delver. After Mr. Lindsey's resignation, when he came to 
 reside in London, Mr. Hopkins became his friend and correspondent. Afow 
 of this excellent man's letters are inserted in the Appendix, No. VII.
 
 126 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. VI. 
 
 tions, the expenses of the chapel deducted, I propose to 
 give him if we engage." 
 
 What steps were afterwards taken do not appear. For 
 when Dr. Jebb had fixed to leave the church and to re- 
 move from Cambridge, Mr. Lindsey could think of no 
 other colleague till he had peremptorily declined. After 
 this, Air. Lindsey's attention appears to have been again 
 turned towards his venerable friend at Wolverhampton, 
 who thus addresses him in a letter dated April 5, 1778: 
 
 " Some weeks ago I had prepared boxes, and had ac- 
 tually packed up some of my luggage, and was saying to 
 myself, Transmigratio hinc sit felix faustaque ! when I 
 was privately informed that there were some people here 
 consulting together, what methods they should take in 
 putting the laws in execution against me for teaching a 
 school without a license. The Company of Merchant- 
 Taylors, London, who presented me to this school, 1 768, 
 had a bill filed against them in Chancery three years ago, 
 by some very troublesome people of this town, to com- 
 pel them to give an account of the issues and profits of 
 the manor of Rushock, which was bequeathed in trust to 
 them for the support of the school. The Company have 
 set forth in their answer, that they have expended 1200/. 
 upon this school more than they received out of the es- 
 tate. And this I verily believe to be true. I have, there- 
 fore, upon every occasion vindicated the Company, and 
 have spoken my mind very freely here with respect to the 
 persons who are plaintiffs in this suit. This, I find, has 
 drawn Upon me their displeasure ; and as religion must 
 be brought into every dispute, public and private, they 
 have now, I am told, taken it into their heads to prose- 
 cute me on account of non-subscription. To this in- 
 deed, I believe, they have been instigated by some ortho- 
 dox clergymen, whose zeal is without much knowledge.
 
 CH. VI.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS L1NDSEY. 127 
 
 And shall I now decline the contest ? No ! I am re- 
 solved either to gain the victory over these assailants, or 
 to fall gloriously in defending the most noble privilege 
 of human nature: LIBERTY OF THOUGHT! To fly now 
 would look like cowardice. I cannot, therefore, avoid 
 abiding the event. If they should proceed, you shall be 
 informed of every step taken on either side. The cause 
 between the Company and their accusers is to be heard 
 by the Lord Chancellor next Term. If he makes a de- 
 cree as is expected, it may either animate or discourage 
 these warm gentlemen. A little time will therefore de- 
 termine that. I long to be with you, but I think it is 
 my duty in present circumstances to continue here a lit- 
 tle longer at least. I am but poorly in health ; both the 
 gout and stone have been lately very pungent. But sub- 
 mission to my God, gratitude to my friends, afford the 
 greatest comfort to your most obliged and most affec- 
 tionate, W.R." 
 
 Who can read this excellent letter without admiring 
 the piety, the fortitude, the magnanimity of this extra- 
 ordinary man, this aged confessor, this veteran champion 
 of Christian truth ? How dignified, how sublime, does 
 Dr. Robertson appear, at the age of seventy-three, clad 
 in the armour of innocence and truth; collecting- the re- 
 maining vigour of his powers, firmly resolved to stand his 
 ground in the day of trial, and to perish in the conflict, 
 rather than tarnish the honours of his former years, or 
 to recede a tittle from that good confession to which he 
 had cheerfully sacrificed all his temporal possessions and 
 prospects ! In comparison with this Christian hero, how 
 mean,, how contemptible do his persecutors appear, in- 
 sidiously and maliciously plotting in their dark cabals to 
 deprive an old man of his bread, and to consign him to 
 the horrors of a gaol'. And why ? Was it because he had 
 offended against the laws of eternal justice and commit-
 
 128 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. VI. 
 
 ted crimes worthy of bonds and imprisonment ? Was 
 Dr. Robertson a bad neighbour, a faithless friend, a dis- 
 honest citizen, a disloyal subject ? This was not even pre- 
 tended. What was it then that provoked the zeal, that 
 roused the malignant passions of these holy inquisitors ? 
 It was this : that Dr. Robertson professed himself a wor- 
 shiper of the Father only ; of that Being whom Jesus 
 worshiped, and of whom he speaks as his Father and our 
 Father, as his God and our God. For the sake of this 
 object, he had quitted his situation and all his hopes and 
 prospects in a church, where this pure primitive worship 
 was not allowed, and had cast himself and a large family 
 upon the wide world to "seek their bread, without any 
 friend but a good conscience, and without any patronage 
 or protection but that of divine Providence. His enemies 
 " could find nothing against him, except it were touch- 
 ing the law of his God." The crime charged upon 
 this venerable confessor was the same which was alleged 
 against the apostle before him ; " after the way which 
 they called heresy, so did he worship the God of his fa- 
 thers." O Persecution, what a hideous fiend art thou 
 in every shape, in every place, and in eveiy age ! But 
 never, surely, more hideous, more disgusting, nor more 
 contemptible, than when enlisted in the service of men 
 calling themselves Christians, to fasten thy venomous 
 fangs upon such a character as Dr. Robertson. 
 
 Happily, in this case the success of the enterprise did 
 not correspond with the malignity of the purpose. A 
 flourishing school of Papists subsisted in the neighbour- 
 hood, zealously patronized by the lord of the domain, 
 the same nobleman who being chairman to the bench of 
 Westminster justices demurred to register Mr. Lindsey's 
 chapel, Lord Dudley and Ward ; and bigotry herself did 
 not think it decent to prosecute a Protestant clergyman 
 for keeping a school, while a popish seminary was left
 
 CH. VI.] REVEREND THEOPHtLUS LINDSEY. 
 
 unmolested. Happily the danger of such persecutions 
 is now passed ; and in this enlightened age, and in this 
 tolerant reign, both Protestants and Catholics are pro- 
 tected by law in the exercise of that indefeasible right, 
 that primary duty of parents to educate their children in 
 the principles and habits which they judge to be most 
 conducive to their virtue and happiness. But now let 
 this excellent man tell his own story in his letter to Mr. 
 Lindsey, dated April 27, 1778: 
 
 " I congratulate you most heartily upon getting again 
 into your chapel. But I hope you have too much pru- 
 dence to go to dwell in the house till it gets the next 
 summer's seasoning at least. My friend Mrs. Abernethy 
 tells me she has got a seat in the chapel, and invites me 
 to sit there. But you invite me to a higher station. 
 It is possible I may accept of both. This day was our 
 visitation, to which I was cited. I expected articles would 
 have been exhibited against me, but none appeared. 
 Our Official very civilly invited me to dine with him, and 
 placed me next himself. I asked him if he had heard 
 any thing of the design against me that was whispered 
 about. He made no direct answer to my question, but 
 said I might be quite easy in that respect. There is a 
 popish school set up in our town within this half year, 
 but one of much greater importance within two miles 
 of us, kept in a house in which the Lords Dudley resided, 
 and was set up by the late lord, whose lady was suspected 
 of popery, for that purpose. This school is supported 
 by large contributions from Catholics both at home and 
 abroad, and contains now one hundred and fifty scholars, 
 who are taught, and most of them clothed and fed, gratis. 
 Now I find that a prosecution could not be carried on 
 with any decency against me, without obliging the same 
 persons to prosecute the masters and supporters of the 
 popish school upon the same principles, and this design
 
 130 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. VI* 
 
 they know would meet with all possible discouragement 
 from the ruling powers. Therefore, under the protec- 
 tion of popery, wonderful event ! I find myself safe. It 
 was the profound policy of the counsellors of James II. 
 to grant an universal toleration to all dissenters from the 
 established church, amongst whom were included the 
 Papists, and thus popery became tolerated at least, and 
 highly encouraged. Protestant dissenters are more the 
 objects of popish persecution than the established epi- 
 scopalians. But though the devil shows sometimes as an 
 angel of light, yet he is a devil still, and only puts on that 
 appearance that he may the more effectually deceive, and 
 in the end more surely destroy*." 
 
 * This expression may be thought harsh, and to savour of a persecuting 
 spirit, in one who was himself at that very time threatened with persecu- 
 tion. But let it be recollected, that the venerable septuagenarian was born 
 in the reign of the last of the Stuarts, who earnestly sought to set aside the 
 Act of Succession and to introduce a popish successor. And through the 
 reigns of the two first princes of the House of Hanover the Papists were 
 regarded, and as a body justly, as enemies to the family upon the throne, 
 and decided partisans of a popish pretender ; and were, therefore, properly 
 considered by the friends of civil and religious liberty as political enemies ; 
 who, if they gained the ascendency, would subvert the government and re- 
 ligion of the country, and introduce popery, tyranny, and persecution. The 
 state of things is now materially changed. The Pretender's family is ex- 
 tinct ; and the present generation of English Catholics are as good and loyal 
 subjects as the Protestants, and equally entitled to civil rights and to reli- 
 gious liberty. And though popery, as a system of faith and an enormous 
 corruption of Christianity, ought still to to be attacked by every argument 
 of reason and scripture, the professors of that corrupt religion ought not to 
 be laid under political restraint. Many of the Catholics themselves have 
 learned in the school of adversity the true principles of religious liberty. 
 And the Christian petition for universal religious freedom, originating with 
 that eminent patriot and clergyman of the established church the Reverend 
 Christopher Wyvill, presented to Parliament in June 1810, and ably sup- 
 ported by Samuel VVhitbread, Esq. and W. Smith, Esq. was signed not only 
 by Protestants of all denominations, but by many gentlemen of distinction 
 among the Catholics. Popery, HS a political system, is no longer an object 
 of terror. Babylon the great is fallen. In this vent the professors of ra- 
 tional Christianity must rejoice, and the friends of civil and religious liberty 
 must share in the triumph. But this is a very different thing from insulting 
 the individuals of the catholic persuasion. And nothing, surely, can be more 
 ungenerous than rejoicing in the calamities of the aged and respectable 
 pontiff; who is now (1812) a victim to a merciless tyranny. We exult in 
 the fall of an antichristian domination ; but we pity the sufferings of the 
 jnan, and execrate the cruelty of the oppressor.
 
 11. VI. J REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 131 
 
 In September 1783 a society was instituted "for pro- 
 moting the knowledge of the Scriptures." The meet- 
 ings were held at Essex-house. Among the original 
 members of the society were Mr. Lindsey, Dr. Disney, 
 who accepted the office of Secretary, Dr. Jebb, Dr. Kippis, 
 Dr. Price, Dr. Calder, Mr. Dodson, Mr. Lee, &c. in 
 London ; and in the country, Mr. Tayleur of Shrewsbury, 
 who generously remitted 100/. to the society for imme- 
 diate use, and entered himself as a subscriber of five gui- 
 neas annually ; Mr. Shore, and Mr. Newton of Norton, 
 Mr. Turner, Dr. Priestley, Dr. Toulmin, Dr. Law, bishop 
 of Carlisle, and others, in all about thirty or forty mem- 
 bers. The society limited its object to the illustration 
 of the Scriptures, and declined all tracts which were 
 wholly controversial, or which were formal defences or 
 confutations of specific doctrines. A very able sketch 
 of the society's plan was drawn up by Dr. Jebb, in which 
 he states and illustrates what he calls the analytic plan 
 of interpretation which the society proposed to pursue 
 and to recommend, viz. Having selected a passage of 
 scripture for the purpose of illustration, to begin with 
 discussing preliminary questions relating to the con- 
 nexion, &c. These being settled, the judicious inter- 
 preter is to proceed, by settling the text by a comparison 
 of various readings; by accurate translation, division, and 
 punctuation ; by a concise, well-digested commentary ; 
 by notes philological and explanatory ; and finally, by 
 adding doctrinal and moral conclusions. This, which 
 is unquestionably a most excellent plan of interpretation, 
 was laid down as a general rule, without meaning to re- 
 quire from their correspondents a rigid conformity to it, 
 or to any other specific model ; but to admit any com-* 
 munication which tended to the advancement of scriptural 
 knowledge. 
 
 This society did not flourish in the degree nor to the 
 
 K2
 
 132 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cil. VI, 
 
 extent of the desires and expectations of its learned and 
 benevolent founders*. Its members were never nume- 
 rous, and they were very sparing in their contributions : 
 the plan was too circumscribed, and interfered too much 
 with the larger, the more comprehensive, and more useful 
 plan of the Theological Repository, at that time resumed 
 by Dr. Priestley : and after languishing a few years, it 
 was altogether given up. Not, however, without be- 
 queathing a valuable legacy to the theological student, 
 consisting of two volumes of Commentaries and Essays. 
 Among these are a curious dissertation of Mr. Lindsey's 
 upon John xiv. 1 3 ; and a gleaning of remarks on Mr. 
 Travis's attempt to revive the exploded text of 1 John v. 7. 
 A translation with notes, by Mr. Dodson, of the twelve 
 first chapters of Isaiah, and likewise of the fifty-second 
 and fifty-third chapters, which were all afterwards repub- 
 lished by that learned writer in a complete translation 
 of the whole book, with notes. Another communication 
 was added by Mr. Dodson in the second volume, in the 
 form of a letter to Mr. Evanson, in defence of his hypo- 
 thesis concerning the spuriousness of the gospels of A Jat- 
 thew, Mark, and John. Also two inestimable dissertations 
 of the Rev. Robert Tyrwhitt, one upon the " Creation 
 of all things by Jesus Christ," and the other upon the 
 " Resurrection of the dead through the Man Jesus Christ." 
 The bulk of the second volume is made up of remarks, 
 many of them very ingenious, upon select passages in the 
 Old Testament, by the late Rev. Henry More, of Leskiard 
 in Cornwall. 
 
 * " This circular letter which our secretary sends," says Mr. Lindsey in 
 a. letter to Mr. Turner, dated December 5, 1785, " will but too much prove 
 that our society does not flourish at present. Not that we- receive no con- 
 tributions to it ; but unless they have something original in them, and are 
 ingenious, it would not answer our design to give them admission. Yaa 
 have well earned your dismission from such labours, though we cannot but 
 lament it."
 
 CH. VII.J REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 133 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 CONTROVERSY WITH ROBERT ROBINSON. ANALYSIS OF 
 THE VINDICIJE PRIESTLEYAN^. MISUNDERSTANDING 
 AND RECONCILIATION WITH DR. RICHARD PRICE. 
 
 IN the beginning of the year 1776 the late celebrated 
 Robert Robinson, minister of a Baptist congregation at 
 Cambridge, published a book entitled " A Plea for the 
 Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ." This treatise, writ- 
 ten with great ingenuity, and which breathes throughout 
 a most amiable spirit of candour, is considered by many 
 as one of the most plausible and imposing defences of 
 the popular doctrine concerning the person of Christ 
 which ever issued from the press. So far indeed as 
 argument is concerned, it is egregiously trifling, and 
 contains a sort of defence of the deity of the Son of God 
 which the learned Trinitarians, the Bulls and Waterlands 
 of a former age, would have blushed to avow. It con- 
 sists chiefly of a collection of texts arranged under dif- 
 ferent heads as suited the author's purpose, without any 
 inquiry into their genuineness, without any attention to 
 the connexion, and even without any attempt to ascer- 
 tain the correctness of the translation. These texts so 
 arranged, the worthy author commented upon and ex- 
 plained agreeably to his own preconceived opinions, and 
 with all the confidence of inspiration itself. He even 
 goes so far as to denounce Jesus and his apostles as 
 " idiots and impostors," if they intended any other meari- 
 ing than what he was pleased to annex to their language*. 
 
 * " Notwithstanding so many reasons for precision, Jesus Christ declares, 
 All things that the Father hath are mine, a very dangerous proposition if he 
 were not God." Robinson's Plea, p. 14. Again, p. 17 : " If they who ascribe 
 the perfections of deity to Jesus Christ have fallen into an error, they 
 have been led into it by the writers of the New Testament. If Jesus Christ 
 be Gcd, the ascription of the perfections of God to him is proper ; if he be 
 not, the apostles are chargeable with weakness or wickedness, and either
 
 134 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. 
 
 Tills specious and dogmatical style, combined with much 
 ingenuity, and wit, and eloquence, and accompanied 
 with great liberality towards those who held a different 
 opinion, and particularly with many expressions of 
 marked respect to Mr. Lindsey and Dr. Jebb, rendered 
 the treatise extremely popular, and made a considerable 
 impression upon many who ought to have been better 
 informed ; but who were not forward to pry with too 
 curious an eye into the validity of arguments in support 
 of doctrines which they dare not disbelieve. " Accord- 
 ingly," says Mr. llobinson's biographer, " a profusion 
 of compliments followed the publication, as well from 
 several dignitaries of the church as from the dissenters. 
 Dr. Hinchcliffe, bishop of Peterborough, Dr. Hallifax, 
 afterwards bishop of Gloucester, Dr. Goddard, master of 
 Clare Hall, Dr. Ogden, Woodwardian professor, Dr. 
 Cooke, provost of King's College, Dr. Beadon, afterwards 
 bishop of Gloucester, at that time public orator, and 
 Dr. Tucker, dean of Gloucester, courted his acquaintance. 
 And it was pretty generally agreed that the Plea was the 
 best defence of the divinity of Christ which had been 
 published." Handsome compliments likewise were paid 
 
 would destroy their claims to inspiration." Further, p. 18 : " Consider now 
 into what contradictions these writers must fall if Jesus Christ be not God. 
 They contradict one another: they contradict themselves. They degrade 
 writings which they pretend are inspired, below the lowest scribbling of the 
 meanest authors." 
 
 Such is the censure which this ingenious and well-meaning but mistaken 
 writer passes upon Jesus and his apostles if they did not mean to teach the 
 doctrine which he imputes to them, not a suspicion of which ever entered 
 into their imaginations, not a single trace of which is to be discovered in 
 their discourses or in their writings ; c.nd from the very idea of which they 
 would have recoiled with horror. 
 
 " The few who examine and decide for themselves," says Mr. Lindsey, 
 " are not to he dazzled and overawed by these confident declarations, know- 
 ing that mo'tals are oftentimes most ignorant where they are most presump- 
 tuous and assured. But it is not so with others ; especially if their pre- 
 judices lean that way already. Such violent language overpowers them be- 
 fore they are aware of it, and puts an end to all cool and fair inquiry, so that 
 they will hear no reason from those of a contrary sentiment : and it will be 
 well if even their resentments are not instantly kindled against them, ' 
 Exam, of Robinson's Plea, p. 4.
 
 Cli. VII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. j 35 
 
 to the author by ministers of his own persuasion, par- 
 ticularly Dr. Stennet, Dr. Evans, Daniel Turner, and 
 several others of the moderate Calvinists. The Rev. 
 Josiah Thompson, late of Clapham, in particular, writes, 
 " I have read your Plea with singular pleasure, but not' 
 more than I expected from it. Every thing you write 
 never fails to entertain and delight me." This good 
 man showed the Plea to Dr. Furneaux and Dr. Kippis; 
 but though these learned and judicious divines express 
 themselves in handsome and becoming terms of the 
 author's superior abilities, and his great talents for ori- 
 ginal composition, they understood the controversy too 
 well to pay any compliment to his argument*. 
 
 Of the admirers of this celebrated Defence of the Di- 
 vinity of Christ, though not in the number of Mr. Ro- 
 binson's correspondents, the learned Archdeacon Black- 
 burne is one of the most conspicuous. This eminent 
 divine, who, it is plain, had paid more attention to the 
 subject of Christian liberty than of theological contro- 
 versy, thought but slightly of the arguments contained 
 in Mr. Lindsey's Apology ; and at the same time, he 
 had too much good sense to be satisfied with the super- 
 ficial replies of Burgh and Randolph. But after he had 
 read Mr. Robinson's pamphlet, which he did not see till 
 it came to a second edition^ the good archdeacon, in the 
 warmth of his zeal, began to think that the controversy 
 was by this unanswerable work completely settled, that 
 Unitarianism was now silenced for ever, and that all her 
 learned advocates were humbled in the dust by " the 
 sling and the stone" of this new champion of the ortho- 
 dox faith. But let the worthy dignitary speak for himself. 
 
 In a tract written in the year 1782, and printed in an 
 Appendix to the Memoir of his Life, (prefixed to an 
 
 * See Dyer's Life of Robert Robinson, p. 109.
 
 136 MEMOIRS OF THE LAtX [cH. VII. 
 
 editjon of the Archdeacon's Works in seven volumes, in 
 the year 1804, published by his son, the Reverend Francis 
 Blackburne,) entitled an Answer to the Question, "Why 
 are you not a Socinian ?" Mr. Blackburne expresses him- 
 self thus : " When Mr. Lindsey's Apology came out I 
 read it, and thought some things in it well enough. In 
 other passages he. seemed to me to be infirm in his proofs: 
 I then read several answers to him, which, among a few 
 tolerable hits, had a considerable mixture of weakness 
 and absurdity. About five years ago, I know not what 
 chance threw in my way a pamphlet entitled A Plea for 
 the Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. I perused this 
 pamphlet with care and attention, and was both surprised 
 and concerned to find so many of my friend Lindsey's 
 arguments and positions totally subverted, a fundamen~ 
 tis, provided the pleadings, reasonings, and authorities 
 were well-grounded. To prove this to myself I consulted 
 a number of the texts he had cited, and found his su- 
 perstructure bottomed upon a rock. It is now six years 
 tince this pamphlet was first published. I have looked 
 in every newspaper, review, magazine, &c. I met with, 
 and could never find an answer to it either from Mr. 
 Lindsey, Dr. Jebb, Dr. Priestley, or even Mr. Evanson, 
 who I think is one of the best writers among the Soci- 
 nians, either ancient or modern. Indeed, so far as con^- 
 cerns the Socinians, I think it unanswerable*." 
 
 Such was the judgement of the venerable Archdeacon 
 of Cleveland ; and in this judgement he was supported 
 
 * Whether the archdeacon was ever convinced of the futility of the argu- 
 ments of the " Plea"' by that forcible train of reasoning which converted the 
 randid author himself, does not appear. His worthy biographer concludes 
 the contrary. It appears, says he, that in the year 1/85 an Examination of 
 Mr. Robinson's Plea was published by the Rev. T. Lindsey, but without a 
 name, and by him presented to Mr. lilackburne. We have not however 
 been able to discover that the archdeacon's sentiments of Mr. Robinson's 
 work underwent any change, as he recommended the serious perusal of it 
 to some young clergymen, "a very few weeks before his death. Blackburne's 
 Works, vol. i. Memoir, p.
 
 rH. VII.] REVEREND THEQPHILUS LINDSEY. 13/ 
 
 by the multitude, who always find it to be less trouble 
 to take a doctrine upon trust than to examine its evi- 
 dence with care. Thus was this spirited assailant for 
 many years left master of the field, and his work not 
 being answered was of course reckoned unanswerable. 
 
 In the mean time the Unitarian divines were not neg- 
 ligent of what was passing, nor inattentive to the tem- 
 porary triumph of orthodoxy in one of the chief seats 
 of science and learning. Mr. Lindsey and Dr. Jebb were 
 the principal persons whose writings were attacked in 
 this popular publication ; and the author with much good 
 nature had sent to each of those gentlemen a copy of his 
 work, accompanied with letters professing his high re- 
 gard for their talents, their learning, and their character, 
 and apologizing for any expression which might through 
 inadvertency have dropped from his pen, and which was 
 capable of being construed into personal disrespect. 
 Courteous answers were of course returned*. But nei- 
 ther of the gentlemen so addressed entertained at that 
 time any thoughts of writing a confutation of the Plea ; 
 Dr. Jebb being fully engaged in preparing for the new 
 profession to which his views were then directed, and 
 Mr. Lindsey being always averse to personal controversy, 
 and neither of them regarding this superficial attack as 
 deserving of a serious reply. 
 
 The " Plea," however, excited greater attention, and 
 made a deeper impression than these gentlemen expect- 
 ed, and than its intrinsic merits deserved, and it soon 
 became apparent that a reply of some kind was advisa- 
 ble. Mr. Lindsey, conceiving that, as the author resided 
 at Cambridge, an answer to his work would come with 
 the best effect from " that famous seat of learning," in- 
 quired from time to time of some of his literary and the- 
 
 * Dyer's Life of Robinson, p. 116.
 
 138 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. VIM 
 
 ological friends at the university whether any notice was 
 likely to be taken from the press of this new " Plea," 
 which for a time had so much vogue. All however that 
 he could learn was, " that it was looked upon as so very 
 superficial, and had so little argument in it, that it could 
 not long deceive any one, and needed no confutation*." 
 Mr. Lindsey's learned friends probably thought, and 
 indeed justly, that his own writings having been the prin- 
 cipal object of attack in the " Plea," it was more parti- 
 cularly incumbent upon him to draw up a reply ; and 
 they knew that they could rely with confidence upon his 
 prudence, his learning, his zeal, and his moderation. 
 Mr. Lindsey himself, perhaps, was conscious that the 
 task properly devolved upon him ; and his sense of duty, 
 and zeal for the cause which was, as he thought, so pe- 
 tulantly and dogmatically impugned, overcame his na- 
 tural aversion to personal controversy, and determined 
 him at length to put on the harness and to enter the 
 lists with his courteous but presuming opponent, and in 
 the year 1785 he published, anonymously, " An Exami- 
 
 * Examination of Robinson's Plea, p. 3. A brief account of the origin of 
 this publication is contained in the following extract from a letter to Mr. 
 Cappe, dated early in the year 1785, in which Mr. Lindsey requests Mr. 
 Cappe to apply to Dr. Leechman, the principal of the university of Glasgow, 
 for some authentic account of Professor Hutcheson. 
 
 " Did you ever read Mr. Robinson, minister of Cambridge's Plea for the 
 Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, printed first in 1776, which has under- 
 gone three editions ? Mr. Archdeacon Blackburne has often asked me, in 
 triumph, how we could go on in Essex-street without confuting this work ? 
 It is also much commended by several dignitaries in the church ; and held 
 as gospel very generally among d'ssenters. I have been formerly and often 
 pressed to take some notice of it. I asked the Cambridge men at the time 
 and since, but they declined. Very much importuned by some persons 
 lately, I have undertaken it, and am actually in the press. Unless I put 
 nay name to the work, about which I am not decided, not loving to appear 
 in controversy, the title will be," &c. In another letter to the same friend, 
 dated the 25th of February, he says, " I often wonder at myself, and am 
 often not a little drooping, to think how I should venture on the public, when 
 certain persons, so much more able and capable, are silent. But then it 
 recurs, that it is fit something should be opposed to such triumphant non- 
 sense and declamation, which seems well received because many know no 
 better."
 
 Clf. VII.] REVEHEND TIIEOPHILUS LI5JDSEY. 139 
 
 nation of Mr. Robinson of Cambridge's Plea for the Di- 
 vinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, by a late Member of the 
 University." 
 
 In his preface, Mr. Lindsey remarks, that " the Au- 
 thor here examined has seldom given himself the trouble 
 of doing any thing more than barely to bring together 
 texts of Scripture, without explaining them, or even 
 showing how they apply to his purpose in proving Jesus 
 Christ to be truly and properly God ; presuming that it 
 would be taken for granted, at sight and upon his au- 
 thority, that they prove the point for which he assigned 
 them ; so that the title of this tract of mine might with 
 very great propriety have been, * An Explanation of all 
 the Texts of Scripture produced by Mr. Robinson in 
 proof of the Divinity of Jesus Christ.' How far it may 
 afford any thing new or useful the reader will judge." 
 
 The learned writer, in his Examination of the Plea, 
 pursues Mr. Robinson's method, and examines and sifts 
 his popular opponent's defence of the divinity of Christ, 
 argument by argument, and text by text. Accordingly, 
 he inquires in order, whether the sacred writers speak of 
 God in peculiar appropriated terms, whether Jesus 
 Christ is the Supreme God, whether the same titles 
 are given to Christ in the Christian Scriptures which are 
 given to God in the Jewish Scriptures, whether the 
 perfections which are ascribed to Christ are the same 
 with . those which are ascribed to the Supreme God, 
 whether the like worship is given, or commanded to be 
 given, in the Scriptures to Jesus Christ as to Almighty 
 God, whether there be any passages in the Old Testa- 
 ment, and applied to Jesus Christ in the New, which 
 prove Jesus Christ to be Jehovah the Supreme God, 
 whether the Scriptures which foretell the destruction of 
 idolatry by the Gospel have not been fulfilled, although 
 Jesus Christ be wrongly worshiped as God, whether,
 
 140 MEMOIRS OF THE LATK [cH. Vfl. 
 
 if Jesus Christ be not the Supreme God, Mahomet has 
 written more clearly on the nature of Jesus Christ than 
 the Apostles have, whether numberless passages of 
 Scripture have no sense, or a very absurd one, if Jesus 
 Christ be a mere man, and, finally, what is the source 
 of men's erroneous opinions concerning the person of 
 Christ, according to the author of the " Plea." After 
 having with great ability and learning discussed these 
 important questions, explained and illustrated the several 
 texts, confuted his opponent's arguments, and occasion- 
 ally animadverted with a warmth and severity more than 
 was usual with him upon the presumption, the ignorance, 
 and the dogmatical spirit of the writer, and particularly 
 upon his unbecoming abuse of the sacred writers if their 
 meaning is different from what he chooses to represent, 
 Air. Lindsey concludes his treatise with some pertinent 
 observations upon the inattention of the author of the 
 " Plea" to those numerous passages of Scripture which 
 in direct terms exclude Christ and every other person 
 from all pretensions to deity, on the general tenor of 
 the Scriptures, from which no man of plain understand- 
 ing would ever suspect more gods than one to be therein 
 revealed, and on the great injury which is done to true 
 religion and the gospel by such representations of it. 
 
 The success of this Examination was complete. From 
 the time that it was published no person who had the 
 least pretension to Biblical learning was heard to open 
 his lips in defence of this famous Plea for the Divinity 
 of Christ ; not a syllable was written in confutation of 
 the Reply. Those who would not retract were at least 
 compelled to be silent ; and it seemed to be universally 
 conceded, that if the divinity of Christ was to be defend- 
 ed at all, it must be upon a very different ground from 
 that which was occupied by this much vaunted perform- 
 ance.
 
 CH. VII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 141 
 
 The impression made by the Examination upon the 
 ingenuous mind of the author of the Plea was very con- 
 siderable. Mr. Robinson was stung to the quick by the 
 grave, and, as his conscience must have testified, the not 
 unmerited rebuke of his unknown opponent. His friends 
 urged him, his opponents challenged him, to stand upon 
 his defence, or to fulfill his promise, that " if ever he 
 discovered his deception he would retract his error." He 
 resolved, however, to keep a prudent silence. " I do not 
 intend," says he., in a letter to a friend, " to answer the 
 anonymous examiner. He hath not touched my argu- 
 ments. ; and his spirit is bitter and contemptuous. His 
 faith stands on criticisms ; and my argument is, that if 
 the doctrine required critical proof, it is not popular, and 
 therefore not divine. Yes, they will have the last word, 
 and let them*." This amiable man, however, soon re- 
 
 * See Dyer's Life of Robinson, p. 1 13. It is said to have been a favourite 
 maxim of this extraordinary man at one time of his life, "Criticism is a 
 good thing in its place ; but woe to the system which depends upon it 1 " 
 And from this it has been weakly inferred by some of Mr. Robinson's ad- 
 mirers, whose zeal exceeded their knowledge, that a doctrine supported by 
 criticism must be erroneous, because, forsooth, the common people could 
 not understand it. These wise men, it seems, are not aware that the main 
 object of Scripture criticism is to discover the sense which would be most 
 obvious to those for whose immediate use the Scriptures were written, which 
 must no doubt be the true sense, however contraiy to modern ideas and pre- 
 judices. That Mr. Robinson was not serious in this sarcastic reflection upoa 
 criticism, or that he afterwards thought more rationally upon the subject, 
 is evident from the following extract of a letter to a friend : 
 
 " I have remarked only a few of the many ministers who are sincerely 
 studying the New Testament* the four gospels I mean. I want a man who 
 vindicates the book, and ascertains the fact, that the history of the incarna- 
 tion is not an addition ; and this, by sober just criticism. I do not want au- 
 thorities of great names ; I want reasons to convince my understanding-, 
 I want one who gives me the genuine doctrine of the four gospels, before 
 the epistles were written ; a man as familiar with Palestine as with his own 
 country. I do not want a quoter of texts and a packer of ecclesiastical news ; 
 I want a good sound logician, who knows how to reason, and who is no 
 novice, a cool, deliberate, honest disciple of Jesus, who pauses and weighs, 
 and admits the refining fire of inquiry to burn freely." Speaking of Mr. 
 Winchester, who taught the doctrine of universal salvation, he says of Ms 
 opponents : "They preach and print against him. They pretend that GoH- 
 is of their temper, and will not bate a day of eternity. They never knew 
 what criticism ivas ; and they do nothing but chaunt for ever, and for ever, 
 and forever. Poor honies-! Servants who know not \vhattheirLorddoethY' 
 Dyer's Life of Robinson, p. 28/. 289i
 
 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. Vl! 
 
 covered the tenor of his mind ; and wisely profiting by 
 rebuke, he paid greater attention to the important ques- 
 tion, not disdaining to call in the aid of sober and just 
 criticism, and in a short time reformed his opinion and 
 became decidedly anti-trinitarian. This is a known fact. 
 I shall mention but one proof of it. In a letter to a friend, 
 dated March 4, 1/89, speaking of an aged minister who 
 had applied for relief to the Baptist-board, he says : "In- 
 stead of sending him charity they sent him faith, and 
 informed him that they had made a law not to relieve 
 any except they subscribed a creed, a human creed which 
 they sent him ; and the first article of which is : There 
 are three divine persons in the Unity of the godhead ! 
 Absolute nonsense ! supported by tyranny over men's 
 consciences *." 
 
 It is not quite clear to what distance from the stand- 
 ard of orthodoxy this ingenuous and inquisitive man 
 carried his speculations upon the subject, of the person 
 of Christ. " For many years," says one of Mr. Robin- 
 son's family and congregation in a letter to Dr. Priestley, 
 dated three days after his decease, " but especially for 
 the last two or three of his life, he taught the doctrine 
 of the unity of the great Cause of all things expressly and 
 effectually." He had promised himself much pleasure 
 from an interview with Dr. Priestley ; and in a letter 
 addressed to Dr. Priestley a few w r eeks before the in- 
 terview, and the only one which Mr. Robinson ever 
 wrote to him, he says : " I am indebted to you for the 
 little I know of rational defensible Christianity. But for 
 your friendly aid I fear I should have gone from enthu- 
 siasm to deism : but a faith founded on evidence rests 
 upon a rock." In the admirable sermon which Dr. 
 Priestley preached and published on the melancholy oc- 
 casion of the sudden death of this excellent man, thr 
 
 * Dyer's Life of Robinson, p. 300, 301.
 
 UH. VII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 
 
 author expatiating upon the character of his deceased 
 friend justly remarks, that " what most of all distin- 
 guished Mr. Robinson was his earnest love of truth, and 
 his laborious search after it. Notwithstanding his long 
 attachment to the doctrine of the Trinity, yet continuing 
 to read and think on the subject, he came at length to 
 change his opinion, and before he died he was one of the 
 most zealous Unitarians. The subject of the Divine 
 Unity was ever uppermost in his mind, and he urged it 
 not only in season, but, as you would observe, out of 
 season. Such also was his power of persuasion, such 
 the excellence of his character and the just esteem in 
 which he was held, that in time his congregation came 
 almost universally to embrace his opinions, as I was my- 
 self informed about a year ago, by one of them who had 
 himself* been a Trinitarian, but who was then a Unita- 
 rian." Dr. Priestley in a letter to a friend, expressing 
 his delight in Mr. Robinson's conversation and his dis- 
 appointment in his preaching, says, " His discourse was 
 unconnected and desultory, and his manner of treating 
 the Trinity savoured rather of burlesque than serious 
 reasoning. He attacked orthodoxy more pointedly and 
 sarcastically than I ever did in my lifef." 
 
 Upon the whole, it is evident that Dr. Priestley and 
 his friends regarded Mr. Robinson as decidedly an Uni- 
 tarian in the sense in which Dr. Priestley always used the 
 word, that is, as a believer in the simple humanity of 
 Jesus Christ. And there can be no doubt that these 
 were the sentiments which he expressed in his last visit 
 at Birmingham. Nor does it appear that Mr. Robinson 
 was ever inclined to the Arian hypothesis concerning the 
 
 * Dr. Priestley's Sermon on the Death of the Rev. R. Robinson, p. 20-21. 
 This excellent man was found dead in his bed on Wednesday morning, Junr 
 9, 1/90, after having preached twice at Birmingham the Lord's day before. 
 
 f Dyer's Life of Robinson, p. 397-
 
 144 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. Vtt. 
 
 person of Christ. His plea for the divinity of Jesus 
 Christ is framed more upon the Sabellian than the high 
 Arian scheme ; and he tells Dr. Jebb, in a letter written 
 at the time of its first publication, " It is not impossible 
 that our sentiments, much as they seem to differ, may, 
 after all, differ less than they appear to do*." And in 
 this very treatise he scouts the Arian doctrine as utterly 
 unscriptural and inadmissible j". 
 
 It is however certain, that Dr. Priestley must have been 
 misinformed with respect to the state of Mr. Robinson's 
 congregation ; for, though many of them had become 
 decided Unitarians, many, and perhaps the majority, 
 thought differently. And this mixture of jarring and 
 inconsistent opinions in a religious society is always to be 
 expected where the eloquence of the speaker, and not the 
 
 * Dyer's Life of Robinson, p. 118. 
 
 f In reply to the proposition which he puts into the mouth of a supposed 
 opponent, "that God may enable an inferior being to create a world; that 
 Jesus Christ is such a delegated God ;" he answers, " My concern is not 
 with what God may do, but with what he declares he has done. I AM JE- 
 HOVAH, AND THERE IS NO GoD BESIDES ME. I AM GoD, AND THERE IS 
 NONE LIKE ME. YEA, THERE IS NO GoD, 1 KNOW NOT ANY. This IS the 
 
 God of my Bible. But besides this God there is in my proposition another 
 God, a delegated God. Mere are two Gods. Here is a supreme God, and 
 a subordinate God ; a natural God, and an artificial God ; a great God, and 
 a little God. A Philosopher has ONE God, a Jew has ONE Got), but a Chris- 
 tian it seems has TWO Gods. What a world of difficulties belong to this 
 proposition ! Is this delegated God entitled to worship ? The idea of a 
 God without a title to religious worship is an idea inadmissible. Is all wor- 
 ship to be paid to the subordinate God, or does the supreme God claim any ? 
 Which acts of devotion belong to the one, and which to the other ? A mis- 
 take would be dangerous, and I have no guide. Every inspired writer for- 
 sakes me. Jesus Christ, it seems, created all things in heaven and earth ; 
 and a Creator, it seems, proves by creating his eternal power and godhead. 
 The proposition says, God may empower a creature to create. Perhaps he 
 may : but God declares he hath not done so. Hast thou not heard that the 
 Lord, the everla*tiiiff God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, &c. 
 I am then obliged to reject the notion of a subordinate God, a delegated' 
 Creator, and to admit that the living and true God united himself to the 
 man Jesus." Robinson's Plea, pi 6G 68. 
 
 It seems very improbable, that a person who argues so forcibly and un- 
 answerably against the Arian hypothesis should himself soon afterwards be- 
 come an Arian. The natural process of such a mind, after discarding the 
 divinity of Christ, would be to adopt that of his simple humanity. Such 
 vras the progress of Mr. Lindsey's reflections, and such probably was that 
 of Robert Robinson.
 
 CH. VII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 145 
 
 truth of principles, is the bond of union. The advocates 
 of Mr. Robinson's expiring orthodoxy maintain that he 
 never did in the pulpit directly avow the doctrine of the 
 mere humanity of Jesus Christ ; and that, if he professed 
 this opinion at Birmingham either in the pulpit or in the 
 parlour, it is to be recollected that at that time he la- 
 boured under great infirmity both of body and mind ; 
 and that of this he was himself so very sensible, that to 
 a person who was then introduced to him he made the 
 affecting declaration, " You are only come to see the 
 shadow of Robert Robinson*." It is argued therefore, 
 and with some degree of plausibility, that, in this debi- 
 litated state of health and intellect, it is not easy to col- 
 lect the last deliberate result of the calm judgement and 
 mature reflection of his better days. It is however said 
 that Mr. Robinson had avowed Unitarian principles in 
 conversation before his constitution was impaired: at 
 the same time he might not be so far confirmed in these 
 principles, or think them of such great importance, as 
 to feel it to be his duty explicitly to avow and to defend 
 them before a mixed assembly of persons holding a great 
 diversity of sentiments. 
 
 Dr. Priestley, in his Defences of Unitarianism for the 
 year 1786', having taken occasion, from his controversy 
 with Dr. Home, then dean of Canterbury and president 
 of Magdalen College Oxford, afterwards bishop of Nor- 
 wich, to address a series of letters to the young men who 
 are in a course of education at the Universities of Oxford 
 and Cambridge, upon subscription to articles, the doc- 
 trine of the Trinity, and on the difficulties attending an 
 open acknowledgement of the truth, a smart letter, in 
 reply to Dr. Priestley was published under the signature 
 
 * Dyer's Life of Robinson, p. 397. 
 L
 
 1-16 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. VII. 
 
 of an Undergraduate, which was however soon discovered 
 to have proceeded from the pen of the worthy President 
 of Magdalen. To this letter the learned champion of 
 the -Unitarian faith made a very suitahle and spirited 
 answer in his Defences of Unitarianism for the succeed- 
 ing year, under the impression that the pamphlet had 
 been really written by a youth of the lowest form in the 
 University. But Dr. Home, though a good-natured 
 man, and upon the whole a candid disputant, had oc- 
 casionally followed the illiberal practice introduced by 
 those controversial bravos, who having first entered 
 the lists with Dr. Priestley, soon discovered that it was 
 by much the easiest and shortest method of dealing with 
 their formidable antagonist to assume a lofty and super- 
 cilious air, and to arraign his literary character, instead 
 of disproving his stubborn facts, and refuting his potent 
 arguments. In this crisis Mr. Lindsey generously stood 
 forward in defence of his insulted friend ; and in the 
 year 1/88 he published a volume entitled "Vindici.e 
 Priestleianse, an Address to the Students at Oxford and 
 Cambridge, occasioned by a Letter to Dr. Priestley from 
 a Person calling himself an Undergraduate, &c." " The 
 idea of drawing up this tract first arose," as he informs 
 his readers in the preface, " from observing a studied af- 
 fectation in many persons of treating Dr. Priestley's the- 
 ological and metaphysical writings with slight and con- 
 tenipt, and an endeavour in others particularly to infuse 
 the like sentiments of him in the rising generation. 
 
 " I had no view therein," continues Mr. Lindsey, " was 
 I capable of it, of lending him any aid against the attacks 
 made upon him, as if he were in danger of being over- 
 powered by his opponents. For he is more than equal 
 to a whole host of them, which they have all experienced 
 in their turns ; Bishop Horsley, one of the most violent 
 of them, the least of all excepted. But I thought it might
 
 f'H. VII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 147 
 
 be possible for another to suggest some circumstances, 
 and to say certain things in his behalf, which he would 
 never think of offering, and which indeed could not so 
 properly come from himself, by which the edge of pre- 
 judice might be taken off, and a juster estimate formed 
 of him and his writings." 
 
 In the progress of the work the learned author vindi- 
 cates Dr. Priestley's conduct in addressing his letters to 
 the youth of the two universities, and represents sub- 
 scription to articles and creeds as a grievance which had 
 long been complained of. He enters at large into the 
 defence of his friend's character as a philosopher and a 
 theologian. In the department of philosophy he intro- 
 duces a very high encomium upon him by Mr. Kirwan, 
 the late venerable and learned president of the Royal 
 Society of Ireland, drawn up in the year 1787, of which 
 I shall take leave to transcribe an extract. 
 
 "To enumerate Dr. Priestley's discoveries," says this 
 eminent philosopher, " would be to enter into a detail of 
 most of those that have been made within the last fifteen 
 years. How many invisible fluids whose existence evaded 
 the sagacity of foregoing ages has he made known to us ! 
 To him pharmacy is indebted for the method of making 
 artificial mineral waters, as well as for a shorter method of 
 preparing other medicines ; metallurgy, for more power- 
 ful and cheaper solvents ; and chemistry, for such a va* 
 riety of discoveries as it would be tedious to recite : dis 
 coveries which have new modelled that science, and drawn 
 to it and to this country the attention of all Europe." 
 
 Mr. Lindsey adds, " that Dr. Priestley's genius is 
 equal to all subjects ; that he is remarkable for selecting 
 only the strongest and most suitable arguments, and ap- 
 plying and arranging them with exquisite method and 
 simplicity, and seldom to fail to work conviction in the 
 unprejudiced mind." 
 
 L2
 
 148 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. Vll. 
 
 He then proceeds to vindicate a declaration of Dr. 
 Priestley's in his debate with Dr. Price, that he could 
 not pretend to say when his creed would be fixed ; a 
 declaration which the soi-disant undergraduate affects to 
 ridicule, but which Mr. Lindsey plainly proves to be a 
 truly just and philosophic maxim, and confirms by the 
 testimony of Archbishop Tillotson, who mentions it to 
 the commendation of his deceased friend, Dr. Whicheote, 
 "that he was so wise as to be willing to learn to the last." 
 
 The learned author next proceeds to justify Dr. Priest- 
 ley's sentiments concerning the inspiration of the Scrip- 
 tures, the imperfection of the Mosaic account of the fall 
 of man, and the occasional inaccuracy of the apostle 
 Paul's reasonings. And upon these subjects he intro- 
 duces some curious extracts from a work of the celebrated 
 Castellio, but little known, entitled ' De arte dubitandi et 
 confitendi, ignorandi et sciendi,' and which was published 
 by Wetstein at the end of the second volume of his New 
 Testament. " The title itself," says Mr. Lindsey, " has 
 more in it to be learned than you find in many large 
 books. For it is no ordinary attainment to know when to 
 doubt, and when to be assured, and when to be ignorant." 
 
 In the course of this excellent little treatise, amongst 
 other pertinent observations, the learned and liberal writer 
 remarks, that " men with difficulty admit at first, what 
 they have been ignorant of, however most true it be. For, 
 as Christ says, thos& that are used to old wine d.o not 
 immediately take to the new, though it be better. But 
 we must not be discouraged in our attempts, when per- 
 suaded of the truth of what we have to offer, if we would 
 in ; earnest serve mankind. Otherwise, if we go on in the 
 same track with those who have never benefited the world, 
 we shall like, them be wholly useless." 
 
 The Dean of Canterbury having in his undergradu- 
 ate's letter represented Dr. Priestley's notion concerning
 
 CH. VII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS I.INDSEY. 149 
 
 the simple humanity of Christ to be as incredible as the 
 " stories of the Alcoran*," Mr. Lindsey remonstrates 
 upon the indecorum of the remark, and shows that the 
 simple humanity of Jesus is the doctrine both of the 
 Hebrew and the Christian Scriptures ; and he cites a 
 passage from the Last Sentiments of Pere Le Courayetj 
 a work of that celebrated Catholic refugee given by the 
 author to the late Princess Amelia, and bequeathed by 
 her to Dr. Bell the publisher, in which that learned divine 
 avows his opinion concerning the person of Christ, which 
 nearly coincides with the proper Unitarian doctrine. 
 
 This excellent man was under the necessity of leaving 
 France on account of a treatise which he published in 
 vindication of the validity of English episcopal ordi- 
 nation. " He was a person," says Mr. Lindsey, '* of rer 
 markable simplicity of manners and sweetness of dispo- 
 sition, and of a constant even cheerfulness, befitting the 
 innocence of his life, and his well-grounded hope of ex- 
 changing it for a better. I lived formerly for months 
 together under the same roof with him, in a noble 
 family who had been his friendly protectors from the 
 time of his being forced to fly his country for his reli- 
 gious opinions." This venerable man lived to the age 
 of ninety-three, and continued to the end of his life in 
 the communion of the Roman church t. 
 
 In reply to the supposed undergraduate Mr. Lindsey 
 further pleads, that Christ being a human person, his 
 power and knowledge were necessarily limited, and that 
 Dr. Priestley is right in ascribing to him the frailties 
 and moral imperfection and peccability of human nature. 
 Also, that the question concerning his miraculous con- 
 ception has nothing to do with his qualification for his 
 
 * Undergraduate's Letter to Dr. Priestley, p. 25. 
 f See an excellent letter from this amiable and learned ecclesiastic to 
 Mr. Lindsey, Appendix, No. IX.
 
 150 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. VII. 
 
 office. He maintains, that Dr. Home errs widely from 
 the doctrine of the New Testament, in his notions con- 
 cerning the atonement and intercession of Christ. And 
 he justly rebukes the worthy President of Magdalen for 
 the false and invidious light in which he has represented 
 Dr. Priestley's opinions concerning the nature of the 
 soul and the state of the dead, which nevertheless were 
 perfectly consonant to the doctrine of the holy Scrip- 
 tures, and had been very zealously supported by Luther 
 the great reformer, and more lately by two very learned 
 dignitaries of the established church not long since de- 
 ceased, viz. Dr. Law, bishop of Carlisle, and Archdeacon 
 Blackburne, to both of whom he pays a tribute of de- 
 served applause. The work closes with some just ani- 
 madversions upon Dr. Home's fanciful interpretation of 
 many passages of Scripture, and particularly of his strange 
 and extravagant commentary upon the book of Psalms, 
 in which he applies almost every thing to Christ which 
 the writer addresses to the Supreme Being ; and a neat 
 and very proper form of reply is proposed from the stu- 
 dents of the University to Dr. Home. A postscript is 
 added, containing a very high and justly merited cha- 
 racter of Dr. Priestley's History of early Opinions con- 
 cerning Christ. 
 
 To the large account which I have already given of 
 this work, I will take leave to add a short extract which 
 exhibits a striking view of the feelings and character of 
 the pious and benevolent author. He is remarking upon 
 the sad and sombre view of the physical and moral state 
 of the world, which the learned Bishop Butler exhibits 
 in his celebrated Treatise upon the Analogy of Reli- 
 gion, natural and revealed. Of this eminent prelate Mr. 
 Lindsey had some personal knowledge ; and he speaks 
 of him as a person that had great piety, but of a gloomy 
 cast, and tending to superstition, which he seems to
 
 CH. VII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 151 
 
 have caught from reading the lives of Romish saints. 
 He always appeared dissatisfied with the public state of 
 things and of the world ; which probably originated in 
 the erroneous opinions which he entertained of the cha- 
 racter of the divine Being, and of his governing provi- 
 dence. In his Analogy he represents the world as having 
 the appearance of a ruin, and that mankind, according 
 to the Scriptures, are in a state of degradation *. 
 
 Upon this Mr. Lindsey remarks, p. 253, " Surely this 
 is an exhibition of the dark side of things, giving a par- 
 tial and untrue account of our present state." He adds, 
 p, 254, " Far, very far is it from being a miserable world 
 that we now live in, but very much the contrary : nor, I 
 apprehend, has there ever been any the least reason to 
 call it so in general, however some individuals may have 
 suffered much in it." 
 
 * Mr. Lindsey occasionally met this respectable prelate at the Dutchess 
 of Somerset's. The following extract from a letter written by the Bishop 
 to the Dutchess soon after his promotion to the &ee of Durham, and which 
 she transmits to Mr, Lindsey in a letter dated July 23, 1751, exhibits, as 
 the noble writer expresses it, " a pleasing picture" of the bishop's mind. 
 
 " I had a long letter last Friday," says her grace, " from the good Bishop 
 of Durham, and will transcribe a paragraph of it, as I think you will like to 
 know what his thoughts are amidst the novelty of pomp which surrounds 
 him. 
 
 " ' I had a mind to see Auckland before I wrote to your grace ; and as 
 you take so kind a part in every thing which contributes to my satisfaction, 
 I am sure you will be pleased to hear that the place-is a .very agreeable one, 
 and fully answering expectations, except that one of the chief prospects, 
 which is very pretty, (the river Wear with -hills much diversified rising 
 above it,) is too bare of wood. The park not much amiss as to that. But I 
 am obliged to pale it anew all round, the old pale heing quite decayed. 
 This will give an opportunity, with which indeed I am much pleased, to 
 take in forty or fifty acres competently wooded, though with thixt enlarge- 
 ment it will scarce be sufficient for the hospitality of the country. These, with 
 some little improvements and very great repairs, take up my leisure time. 
 Thus, madam, I seem to have laid out a very long life for myself ; yet in 
 reality every thing I see puts me in mind of the shortness and uncertainty 
 of it : the arms and inscriptions of my predecessors, what they did, and what 
 they neglected, and, from accidental circumstances, the very place itself, 
 and the rooms I walk through and sit in : and when I consider in one view 
 the many things of the kind I have just mentioned which I have upon my 
 hands, I feel the burlesque of being employed in this manner at my time of 
 life. But in another view, and taking in all circumstances, these things, as
 
 152 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. VII. 
 
 " For my own part," says he, p. 256, " I am bound 
 to say, that my condition has been most happy from the 
 beginning of my existence to the present day. Happily 
 preserved from great calamities, I have not been exempt 
 from hardships, reverses, and sicknesses ; but the kind 
 hand of Providence has been discernible in them all, 
 leading to good by them. I have most particularly 
 cause to speak well of those of my fellow-beings whom 
 I have been acquainted with, and among whom my lot 
 has been cast ; and I would desire no better company 
 for ever than those I have known, and loved, and 
 esteemed, and heard, and read of, especially when di- 
 vested more of all selfishness and terrene concretions, as 
 Edward Search calls them, which we expect, nay, rather 
 are persuaded will take place in our future progressive 
 state. Indeed, was there to be no such state, and all 
 was to end here, though so dark and abrupt a conclusion 
 of the fair promising scene is not credible, and would be 
 wholly unaccountable, I must for my part take my leave 
 and depart as a well satisfied guest : satur conviva re- 
 cederem: thankful that I had passed so many happy 
 days, and lived, and seen, and experienced so much of 
 the goodness of my Creator, and been favoured with the 
 knowledge of so many amiable and valuable characters 
 
 trifling as they may appear, no less than things of greater importance, 
 seem to be put upon me to do, or at least to begin : whether I am to live to 
 complete any or all of them, is not my concern." 
 
 TheDutchess adds, in a style that does credit to her piety, " I thought 
 this so pleasing a picture of this excellent prelate's mind, that I could not 
 deny you or myself the satisfaction of sending you a copy of it. Libertines 
 may lay schemes and talk as much as they please of happiness, but it can 
 only reside in the breast of the sincere humble Christian." 
 
 It may not be amiss to add, as one proof among thousands of the vanity 
 of human grandeur, or, to use Mr. Burke's memorable language, " what 
 nothings we are and what nothings we pursue," that this excellent prelate 
 enjoyed his splendid preferment but for a short time. He was translated to 
 the see of Durham in 1750, and died at Bath of a decline in June 1752, 
 within less than a year after he had written the above letter, and in the 
 sixtieth year of his age.
 
 CH. VII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 153 
 
 among my species, though concerned to take a farewell 
 for ever of the one and the other, and to know nothing 
 any more." 
 
 Mr. Lindsey having in this work connected the name 
 of Dr. Price with that of Bishop Butler, p. 249, as 
 having " fallen into and adhered fixedly to this gloomy 
 and unscriptural doctrine, that repentance alone is not 
 sufficient to restore sinful mortals to the favour of their 
 Maker ;" and having, contrary to his usual moderation 
 of language, ascribed this to their " not keeping strictly 
 to the doctrine of Scripture concerning the Divine Unity 
 and the proper humanity of Christ, there delivered in 
 the clearest characters to all who come not to the read- 
 ing of it wider a rooted and fixed contrary persuasion ,-" 
 and having in other parts of his book expressed himself 
 in terms which bore rather hard upon his Arian brethren, 
 this unprovoked attack drew from Dr. Price, who felt 
 himself not a little hurt upon the occasion, the follow- 
 ing spirited letter to Mr. Lindsey, dated Hackney, 
 May 26, 1788: 
 
 " Dear Sir, I know not how to avoid writing to you 
 a few lines to return you thanks for your book in de- 
 fence of our friend Dr. Priestley. I have read it with 
 pleasure, and been instructed by it. If contrary to my 
 apprehensions the Socinian doctrine is true, I wish you 
 success in your endeavours to propagate it ; but whether 
 true or not, good must be done by all fair and candid 
 discussions of it. You have done me honour by join- 
 ing me to Dr. Butler : but will you excuse me if I 
 tell you that I am sorry that, in your animadversions on 
 him, you have not intimated that I do not think as he 
 does on the subject of worshiping Christ, and that I 
 have given an account of the divine character and govern- 
 ment, and human life, very different from that which 
 you censure ? I am afraid that, from your not distin-
 
 154 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [V'H. VII. 
 
 guishing between him and me, those who read you only 
 will be led to very wrong ideas of my sentiments on these 
 points, and also on the dignity of Christ, and our re- 
 demption by him. 
 
 " My convictions, generally, are only a preponderance 
 on one side, attended with a feeling of difficulties ; and 
 I am often ready to wish I was more assured of the 
 truth of my opinions. But in forming this wish I am 
 checked by reflecting, that this assurance is most enjoyed 
 by those who are most in the wrong, Trinitarians, Cal- 
 vinists, Papists, &c. And that were I possessed of it 
 with respect to my opinion of the dignity and offices of 
 Christ, I might possibly be led to a sad loss of candour 
 by charging Socinians, as you do Arians, with ' resist- 
 ing an evidence so insurmountable that all the rational 
 are seeing it every day more and more,' p. 189, and 
 * so vast that every eye must see it that is not wholly 
 blinded by prejudice,' p. 177. And also by saying of 
 some of the ablest and best men who differ from me, 
 but of whom I have every reason to believe that they 
 inquire as fairly and as diligently as myself, that ' they 
 see things through a mist,' that they are * ignorant and 
 gloomy,' that ' they have narrow minds bound down to 
 a system,' and * have never properly searched the Scrip- 
 tures to see what Christianity is.' 
 
 " I am, Dear Sir, 
 " With affectionate and sincere respect, Yours, 
 
 " RICHARD PRICE.'* 
 
 The venerable advocate of the Unitarian doctrine felt 
 the justice of the rebuke, and immediately returned the 
 following answer: 
 
 " Dear Sir, As there is no one living for whom I 
 have a higher respect and esteem than yourself, I am
 
 CH. VII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 155 
 
 proportionably concerned that you should think your- 
 self at all intended or involved in what I say of Bishop 
 Butler and his system. To make what reparation I 
 can, if my book should ever come to a second edition, 
 I will either omit your name entirely, p. 249, and I now 
 wish I had done it ; or, when I publish Part II., which I 
 hope to be able to do in the course of the next year, I 
 will do that justice which is due to your very different 
 sentiments to those of Bishop Butler. 
 
 " For that perhaps too vaunting style in which I 
 speak of Christ being purely one of the human race, 
 and of no other order of beings, I make some apology 
 to my young men, p. 168, and am sorry that any con- 
 clusion should be drawn from it but that of speaking 
 from the fullness of my own mind, without the least 
 thought of casting blame on those of different senti- 
 ments, or impeaching their judgements or understand- 
 ings." 
 
 This letter gave complete satisfaction to the ingenu- 
 ous and liberal mind of Dr. Price, and produced in re- 
 turn the following candid reply, dated June 2, 1788 : 
 
 " Dear Sir, Accept my best thanks for your kind 
 letter. It is extremely satisfactory to me, and leaves in 
 my mind no room for any other sentiments than those 
 of affection and respect which I have always entertained 
 for you. If my letter discovered any degree of unreason- 
 able sensibility, I hope you will forgive me. Indeed, I 
 care not what strong expressions of dislike are applied to 
 my opinions concerning Christ, provided they are pro- 
 perly represented, and I am not understood to hold that 
 he is almost equal to the Supreme God, a sentiment at 
 which I shudder, and which probably no Arian now 
 holds." 
 
 Thus did these two Christian worthies of congenial 
 spirits, equally lovers of truth, of virtue, of unrestrained
 
 156 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. VII. 
 
 freedom of inquiry, and of political and religious liberty, 
 by inutual forbearance, explanation, and concession, put 
 an end to the misunderstanding which for a short time 
 cast a cloud upon their countenance and interrupted 
 their accustomed harmony. 
 
 Mr. Lindsey, agreeably to his promise, performed his 
 amende honorable in the Introduction to his Second 
 Address to the-Students of Oxford and Cambridge, pub- 
 lished in the year 1790, where, p. xxx. he " takes 
 blame to himself for having in the former part, without 
 just grounds, included Dr. Price in Bishop Butler's 
 gloomy conclusions concerning the character of the 
 moral governor of the world, whose notions in this re- 
 spect that excellent person is as far from approving, as 
 from countenancing the bishop's metaphysical super- 
 ficial way of introducing two new deities among Chri- 
 stians, without ever in any proper way consulting the 
 Bible about them." Mr. Lindsey adds, " I should in- 
 deed be in pain if in any thing of importance to morals 
 I should differ from Dr. Price, whose judgement and 
 heart I must ever honour ; who from the first of my 
 coming to settle in this great city has been one of my 
 chief friends, and whom to know is the same as to 
 esteem and love." 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ANALYSIS OF MR. LINDSEY's SECOND ADDRESS. DR. 
 WATTS'S UNITARIANISM. MR. LINDSEY's ALARM AT 
 DR. PRIESTLEY'S BOLD ASSERTIONS, AND ULTIMATE 
 CONVERSION TO HIS DOCTRINES. 
 
 c FT! 
 
 1 HE Second Address to the Students of Oxford and 
 Cambridge, relating to Jesus Christ and the Origin of
 
 CH. VIII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 157 
 
 the great Errors concerning him," was originally de- 
 signed to trace the invention of these errors to the 
 honest enthusiasm of Justin Martyr, and to exhibit a 
 List of false readings and mistranslations of the English 
 Bible which contribute to support them. But in the 
 mean time, the Rev. John Hawkins having published 
 his Bampton Lectures, which contained some curious 
 arguments in favour of the doctrine of the Trinity, Mr. 
 Lindsey regarded it as not travelling much out of his 
 road to introduce a few animadversions upon this gen- 
 tleman's doctrine, and to exhibit to serious and inquir- 
 ing youth a better mode of reasoning from the evan- 
 gelical writings. 
 
 The doctrine of the Trinity, as Mr. Hawkins describes 
 it, maintains the existence of " three efficient living in- 
 telligent persons, the sovereign causes and rulers of all 
 things;" and he strangely presumes that this was the doc- 
 trine of the church previously to 4 the publication of the 
 holy writings ; and that, if this fact be allowed, the Scrip- 
 tures " are sufficiently full and intelligible ;" but if other- 
 wise, they contain " more than enough to perplex and 
 misguide the readers, and to lead them into errors of the 
 first magnitude*." So that, upon Mr. Hawkins's hypo- 
 thesis, the Scriptures do not teach the doctrine of the 
 Trinity, but only allude to it, and that obscurely. From 
 whence it follows, that no one who takes his creed from 
 the New Testament only, will believe in the doctrine of 
 the Trinity. 
 
 . Mr. Lindsey, justly regarding it as a vain attempt to 
 reason with a person who advanced an hypothesis so ar- 
 bitrary and unfounded, thought that he should engage 
 the attention of his readers to better purpose by present- 
 
 * Mr. Lincbey's Second A ddress, Introd. p. vi. Hawkins's Discourses at 
 the Hampton Lecture, p. 59.
 
 158 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. VIII. 
 
 ing them with " a sample of the right method of inter- 
 preting the sacred writings." Accordingly, he exhibits 
 in his first chapter the evidence concerning the person of 
 Christ contained in the four Evangelists and in the Acts 
 of the Apostles, and thanks Mr. Hawkins for putting him 
 upon the inquiry; as, says he, "it has given me an oppor- 
 tunity of drawing forth and exhibiting, even beyond my 
 own expectation, the most overwhelming evidence of the 
 following facts, clear and plain to every understanding, 
 and which all men who believe the Scriptures sooner or 
 later must bow down to and acknowledge : namely, 
 
 1. "That there is ONE GOD, one single person who 
 is God, the sole Creator and Sovereign Lord of all things. 
 
 2. "That the holy Jesus was a man of the Jewish 
 nation, the servant of this God, highly honoured and 
 distinguished by him. 
 
 3. "That the Spirit, or Holy Spirit, was not a person 
 or intelligent being, but only the extraordinary power or 
 gift of God, first to our Lord Jesus Christ himself in his 
 lifetime, and afterwards to the apostles and many of the 
 first Christians, to impower them to preach and propa- 
 gate the gospel with success*." 
 
 In the second chapter the learned author produces evi- 
 dence to prove, " that Justin Martyr was the first person 
 who ascribed divinity to Christ, by maintaining, that be- 
 fore his works of creation God produced from himself a 
 rational power or agent, in scripture God, the Word, the 
 Son, &c. who was his instrument in the creation, and his 
 substitute and representative afterwards in the appear- 
 ances made to the patriarchs, and at the giving of the law 
 to Moses, and was afterwards united to the man Christ 
 Jesusf." 
 
 Justin Martyr was a Platonic philosopher, an honest 
 
 * L'mdsey's Second Address, lutrod. p. xix. f Ibid. p. xx.
 
 CH. VIII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 159 
 
 and zealous iaquirer after truth. He embraced Christi- 
 anity as a more excellent system of philosophy than that 
 of Plato, but he wished to reconcile his new doctrine as 
 nearly as possible to his former opinions. And some pe- 
 culiarities in the phraseology both of the Jewish and 
 Christian scriptures being, as he imagined, favourable to 
 his hypothesis, he easily persuaded himself that this hy- 
 pothesis was true ; and the rather, because the doctrine 
 which he maintained exalted, as he thought, the person 
 and the character of the founder of the Christian philo- 
 sophy, and entirely effaced the reproach to which the 
 Christian religion was exposed from the low birth, the 
 humble circumstances, and the ignominious death of its 
 author. This hypothesis he defends in a dialogue, real 
 or fictitious, with one Trypho, a Jew, whom he intro- 
 duces as declaring that his whole nation expected the 
 Messiah to be a mere human being, brought into the 
 world in the ordinary way : and that " it was to them a 
 thing unheard of, and the height of folly, to suppose him 
 to have, preexisted before the ages as a God, and to have 
 submitted afterwards to have been born and to become 
 man*." Justin, however, undertakes to prove the truth 
 of the doctrine, which to the Jewish nation appeared so 
 extravagant. And to this end he appeals to their own 
 scriptures in a series of arguments which Mr. Lindsey 
 has detailed, and which have been borrowed from age to 
 age by all who have adopted a similar opinion, viz. That 
 it is to the Son that God speaks when he says, " Let us 
 make man ;" that Christ was the Jehovah who appeared 
 to Abraham ; and that he . was the angel who spake to 
 Moses in the burning bush, and who delivered the law 
 from mount Sinai. Nor does this Christian philosopher 
 appeal either to the authority of Christ or his apostles 
 
 * Justin Martyr, Opp. p. 143, 144, Liudsey's Second Address, p, 153.
 
 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. VIII. 
 
 for the truth of his doctrine or the correctness of his in- 
 terpretation, but without any hesitation he declares him- 
 self inspired to explain the Scriptures of the Old Testa- 
 ment, and expects his readers to believe it upon his own 
 word. 
 
 " I shall tell you plain fact," says he, " without any 
 art or embellishment of words, for which I have no talent. 
 But it hath pleased God of his especial favour to impart 
 to me the gift of understanding his Scriptures. And of 
 this his grace to me I call all to partake freely and with- 
 out reward, lest for not communicating so great a benefit 
 to others I should myself be condemned in the judge- 
 ment which the Creator of the world will exercise by our 
 Lord Jesus Christ*." 
 
 Mr. Lindsey upon this with his usual candour and 
 judgement remarks, that "as Justin was a person of 
 unquestioned probity, we. cannot doubt of his sincerity 
 in believing himself to have had an extraordinary insight 
 into the Scriptures given him by the Almighty, though 
 he most .wretchedly imposed upon himself in it. His 
 alleging that he himself was inspired, is no proof to us 
 of it; and we can no more admit any new revelation from 
 his own word without the stamp of divine authority, than 
 we can pay respect to the waking dreams and revelations 
 of Baron Swedenborgt-" 
 
 The third part of the work contains a copious cata- 
 
 * Justin. Dialog, cum Tryphon. p. 154. Second Address, p. 176. 
 
 f Second Address, p. 177. 1/8. Mr. Lindsey, in a note, mentions aa 
 anecdote which he had " received from a person of great worth and credit: 
 that a friend of his several years ago walking with Baron Swedenborg along 
 Cheapside, the baron suddenly bowed very low down to the ground ; when 
 the gentleman lifting him up and asking what he was about, the baron re- 
 plied by asking him, if he d.d not see Moses pass by, and told him that he 
 had bowed to him." After this anecdote, one may easily admit that the ba- 
 ron himself was a sincere believer in his own doctrines and visions. But 
 that any persons who are not in the same state of mind can be induced tr> 
 give credit to his extravagant reveries, and to profess themselves his dis- 
 ciples, is a problem of very difficult solution. It 13 not, however, more won~
 
 CH. VIII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEV. 161 
 
 logue of False Readings and Mistranslations in the En- 
 glish Bible which countenance the doctrine of the divi- 
 nity of Christ ; in the room of which the learned writer 
 substitutes those readings which are supported by the 
 best authorities, and the translations which appear to him 
 to be the most correct. This very valuable portion of his 
 work was afterwards republished in a separate pamphlet, 
 in order to give it a more extensive circulation. 
 
 In the First Part of this Second Address to the Youth 
 of the two Universities, Mr. Lindsey introduces some 
 curious and affecting passages from Dr. Watts's " So- 
 lemn Address to the great and ever -blessed God, on a re- 
 view of what he had written in the Trinitarian Contro- 
 versy." It is well known that this learned and pious 
 writer, (who paid very great attention to the ques- 
 tion,) in the latter part of his life receded very far from 
 those mystical opinions concerning the doctrine of the 
 Trinity, and particularly the person of Christ, which he 
 held in his youth. His well-known volume of Hymns 
 and Spiritual Songs, so much used in Calvinistic con- 
 gregations, was published when he was very young, and 
 contains many expressions and many sentiments from 
 which, though regarded by great numbers as the standard 
 of Christian verity, his judgement revolted in maturer 
 years, and which he would gladly have altered if he had 
 been permitted by the proprietors of the copyright, who 
 knew their own interest too well to admit the proposed 
 improvements. 
 
 His sentiments concerning the person of Christ were 
 believed by many to approximate very nearly to those of 
 
 derful than the .confidence which has been placed of late years in the inspira- 
 tion of Richard Brothers and Johanna Southcote, and that not only by per- 
 sons of the lowest rank in society, but by men of sense and education. How 
 lamentable is it that religion, which is the most rational thing in the world, 
 should thus, by the errors and weaknesses of its friends and advocates, be 
 brought into contempt and made the laughing-stock of unbelievers ! 
 
 M
 
 162 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. VIII. 
 
 the old Socinians. But it is not certain that Dr. Watts 
 ever regarded himself as a Socinian. 
 
 On the contrary, there can be little doubt that, owing 
 to early prejudice, he would to the latest day of his life 
 have started from the imputation with horror. How 
 nearly soever his opinions might really approach to the 
 Socinian scheme, possibly he himself apprehended that 
 he still kept at an inaccessible distance from them, by 
 contending for a mystical personal union by which a true 
 and proper deity was communicated to the human na- 
 ture of Christ. Absurd as this supposition is in itself, 
 and as it must be viewed by all unprejudiced minds, it 
 did not appear in that light to Dr. Watts, nor to many 
 others who, influenced by his authority, have since em- 
 braced the same strange hypothesis. He and they were 
 serious believers in this modern notion, and have thought 
 that they have discovered in it a salvo for their falling 
 orthodoxy. And they have no doubt as good a right as 
 others to retain and to defend their own system. Dr. 
 Watts's latest opinions concerning the Trinity are sup- 
 posed to have been contained in some papers prepared 
 for the press, which were left to the discretion of Dr. 
 Jennings and Dr. Doddridge, and which were committed 
 to the flames, (very much, as the author of this Memoir 
 has been credibly informed, against the judgement and 
 inclination of the latter,) probably because it was sus- 
 pected that they would give offence to the zealots of or- 
 thodoxy. At any rate, Dr. Watts's last sentiments con- 
 cerning the person of Christ cannot, perhaps, now be 
 absolutely ascertained ; but the feelings of his humble, 
 pious, and inquisitive mind are beautifully exhibited in 
 that devout Address to the Deity from which Mr. Lind- 
 sey has made some copious extracts, of which the follow- 
 ing are an interesting specimen : 
 
 " Hadst thou informed me, gracious Father, in any
 
 Crt. VIII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 163 
 
 place of thy word that this divine doctrine is not to be un- 
 derstood by men, and yet they were required to believe 
 it, I would have subdued all my curiosity to faith. But 
 I cannot find thou hast any where forbid me to under- 
 stand it, or make these inquiries. I have, therefore, been 
 long searching into this divine doctrine, that I may pay 
 thee due honour with understanding. Surely I ought to 
 know the God whom I worship, whether he be one pure 
 and simple being, or whether thou art a threefold deity, 
 consisting of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.'* 
 " Thou hast called the poor and the ignorant, the 
 mean and foolish things of this world, to the knowledge 
 of thyself and thy Son. But how can such weak creatures 
 ever take in so strange, so difficult, and so abstruse a 
 doctrine as this, in the explication and defence whereof, 
 multitudes of men, even men of learning and piety, have 
 lost themselves in infinite subtilties of disputes and end- 
 less mazes of darkness? And can this strange and per- 
 plexing notion of three real persons going to make up 
 one true God be so necessary and so important a part of 
 that Christian doctrine which, in the Old Testament and 
 the New, is represented as so plain and easy even to the 
 meanest understandings*?" 
 
 * See Mr. Lindsey's Second Address, p. 5, 6. The extracts are taken 
 from a work published in 1785, entitled " The Life of the Rev. Isaac Watts, 
 D.D. by Samuel Johnson, LL.D. with Notes, containing Animadversions and 
 Additions." 
 
 The following extract from a letter written by the late reverend and learned 
 Samuel Merivale of Exeter, to Dr. Priestley at Leeds, exhibits the most 
 authentic account of Dr. Watts's last sentiments concerning the person of 
 Christ ; from which it appears that, in Dr. Lardner's estimation, Dr. Watts 
 became in the strict and proper sense of the word an Unitarian. 
 
 " What I mentioned to Mr. Aikin," (the late Rev. Dr. Aikin, Professor of 
 Divinity at Warn ngton,) " concerning Dr. Watts, I had from Dr. Lardner, 
 who told it me as a thing known to few, though without enjoining me se- 
 crecy. Having mentioned in the course of my correspondence with the lat- 
 ter the difficulty of fixing my sentiments with regard to the person of Christ, 
 though I had formerly thought the doctrine of his preexistence sufficiently 
 proved by Dr. Clarke, Dr. Watts, and others, he replies, ' I think Dr. Watts 
 never was an Arian, to his honour be it spoken. When he first wrote of the 
 Trinity, I reckoned he believed three equal divine persons. But in the latter 
 
 M2
 
 164 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. VIII. 
 
 Dr. Priestley, who was very sensible that his ardent 
 spirit, his haste in writing, and his reluctance to revise 
 and to correct, occasionally betrayed him into inaccu- 
 racy in his reasonings and sometimes in his facts, and 
 into an unguardedness of language of which his enemies 
 were glad to avail themselves to the utmost, was accus- 
 tomed to submit his more important publications to the 
 cooler judgement of his calm and prudent friend, and 
 
 part of his life, for several years before his death, and before he was seized 
 with an imbecility of his faculties, he was an (Jnitariavt. How he came to 
 be 80 I cannot certainly say, but I think it was the result of his own medita- 
 tions on the Scriptures. He was very desirous to promote that opinion, and 
 wrote a great deal upon the subject. But his papers fell into good hands, 
 (meaning Mr. Neal's,) and they did not think them fit for publication. I also 
 saw some of them." " 
 
 "As there seemed some ambiguity in the word Unitarian, though I knew 
 very well in how strict a sense the Doctor generally used it, and being. aware 
 that Dr. Watts in his later publications quite gave up the notion of a three- 
 fqld Deity, though he contended earnestly for the preexistence of. Christ's 
 human soul, originally possessed of powers superangelical, on which how- 
 ever he i silent in his solemn Address to the Deity, printed in-, tire quarto 
 edition of his Works, I begged leave to be informed, whether in his unpub- 
 lished papers he had appeared to have giveh up that point ; in answer to 
 which Dr. Lavdner wrote : 
 
 . " 1 question whether you have any where in print Dr. Watts's last 
 Thoughts upon the Trinity. They were known to very few. My nepfrew 
 Neal, an understanding gentleman, was intimate with Dr. Watts, artd often, 
 with the family where he lived. Sometimes in an evening when they were 
 akme, he would talk to his friends in the family of his new thoughts con- 
 cerning the person of Christ, and their great importance ; and that, if he 
 should be able to recommend them to the world, it would be the most con- 
 siderable thing that ever he performed. My nephew, therefore, came to 
 me and told me of it, and that the family was greatly concerned to hear him 
 talk so much of the importance of these sentiments. I told my nephew that 
 Dr. Watts was in the right in saying they were important, but I was of opi- 
 nion that he was unable to recommend them to the public, because he had 
 never been used to a proper way of reasoning on such a subject. So it 
 proved. My nephew being executor had the papers, and showed me some 
 of them. Dr. Watts had written a good deal, but they were not fit to be 
 published. DR. WATTS'S LWT THOUGHTS WERE COMPLETELY UNITARIAN.' " 
 
 One cannot help regretting that such should have been the judgement of 
 Dr. Lardner, and such the decision of the executors with respect to the pub- 
 lication of Dr. Watts's last essays upon a subject on which he had thought 
 and written so much. The judgement of Dr. Doddridge, one of the trustees 
 for Dr. Watts's papers, himself a professed Trinitarian, but a lover of truth 
 and a friend to inquiry, was, as I have mentioned above, very different, and, 
 as many think, more correct. How interesting and instructive would it have 
 been to have traced the mind of this great and good man through the various 
 steps of his progress, from the darkest shades of error to the clear light of 
 rational and evangelical truth!
 
 CH. VIII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 165 
 
 very frequently he yielded at discretion to every erasure 
 or alteration which Mr. Lindsey recommended. But he- 
 was not always equally passive. Where he believed the 
 cause of truth to be at stake, no advice of friends, no- 
 earnest expostulation, no serious representation of the 
 offence which would be taken, or the supposed injury 
 which might accrue to himself or to the cause, could de- 
 ter the learned, zealous, and inflexible detector of the 
 Corruptions of Christianity from exhibiting what he be- 
 lieved to be important truth, and from exposing what 
 he thought gross and pernicious error, in language the 
 most direct and explicit, without giving himself the least 
 conpern about personal consequences, or the offence which 
 might be taken by the political supporters of corrupt 
 systems or the partisans of orthodox creeds. 
 
 And it is happy for the interest of rational Chris- 
 tianity, that this intrepid champion of truth had the 
 resolution at times to persist in his own judgement, in 
 opposition to the remonstrances of his less informed 
 and more timid friends. In the year 1784 Dr. Priest- 
 ley, then residing at Birmingham, resumed the Theolo- 
 gical Repository, a work which had been discontinued 
 for upwards of twelve years, chiefly it should seem with 
 a view to bring forward for open discussion some origi- 
 nal ideas which he had long entertained concerning in- 
 spiration, the gradual formation and improvement of the 
 character of Christ, and the history of the miraculous 
 conception. These papers, as usual, he put into the 
 hands of Mr. Lindsey for his perusal and correction. 
 And it is amusing to see how anxious this venerable 
 confessor, who had exposed himself to so much hazard 
 by the frank and unreserved avowal of the proper huma- 
 nity of Jesus Christ, was, to warn his friend, and to 
 save him from the odium which he apprehended would
 
 166 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. Vlll. 
 
 accrue from pursuing this principle to its just con- 
 sequences, which at any rate could not be so obnoxious 
 as the principle itself. For, if Jesus Christ be in truth 
 one of the human race, can any thing be more reason- 
 able than to admit that his character, however exalted, 
 was the result of the discipline through which he passed; 
 and that his inspiration, how superior soever to that of 
 other prophets and messengers of God, did not extend 
 beyond the purposes of his mission, and might leave 
 him involved in the common misapprehensions of his 
 contemporaries and countrymen upon physiological or 
 philosophical subjects ? And as to the case of the mira- 
 culous conception, which is a mere insulated fact upon 
 which no one important conclusion depends, it is surely 
 a very fair question of historical research. 
 
 These questions, however, were at that time quite 
 new, and the discussion of them alarmed Mr. Lindsey 
 lest it should be attended with ill consequences to his 
 friend, by creating enemies, injuring his character, or 
 impeding his usefulness. In a letter to Mr. Cappe, 
 dated Dec. 2, 1784, in reference to the papers in the 
 Theological Repository concerning the Inspiration of 
 Moses and of Christ, he adds : " He was so good as to 
 send me the whole; but I expressed myself so vehe- 
 mently against the latter part, that he yielded to defer 
 the publication in the first Number, but I apprehend it 
 will be brought forward in the next." 
 
 "Concerning it I would first say, in general, that 
 granting him to have proved his fact, that our Saviour 
 was as much in the dark as the most vulgar among the 
 Jews about possessions, and believed them in the gross 
 literal sense ; and if also he was in ignorance of the 
 Scriptures of the Old Testament and misapplied them : 
 
 " Yet our friend has no call whatever to tell this to
 
 CH. VIII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 167 
 
 the world, because it would increase the prejudices of 
 multitudes against him, and hinder others less indis- 
 posed from reading his works." 
 
 " I do not, moreover, apprehend that the persuasion 
 of Christ being an infallible teacher, and perfectly sin- 
 less, does now stand in the way of any one's embracing 
 Christianity. If our friend had been pushed upon this 
 point in the way of controversy, I should have said 
 nothing against his delivering the sense of his own 
 mind; but as things now stand, to go on to attack a 
 character held in such different universal estimation, 
 unprovoked, seems to me likely to do harm and no 
 good." 
 
 " But still more will the outcry be increased against 
 him, if it should appear that he has not proved his facts, 
 and made good his accusation; which may be reason- 
 ably questioned in some instances. And not only my- 
 self, but Dr. Jebb, and one other whom I have con- 
 sulted, are persuaded that his chief argument fails him, 
 when he would prove Christ's mistaken imperfect cita- 
 tion of the Old Testament similar to that of the rest of 
 his countrymen, from Luke xxiv. 27." 
 
 " I own I am unwilling that he should let any thing 
 fall from his pen that might cooperate with the endea- 
 vours of many to prevent the reading of his works, which 
 are so calculated to open the eyes of many, and have 
 had and have that effect with all that can be brought to 
 read them." 
 
 These animadversions, which are tinged with some- 
 thing which appears more like asperity than was usual 
 with Mr. Lindsey, prove at least, that if he was partial 
 to the merits of his inquisitive and learned friend, he 
 was not blind to his failings, and that he did not hastily 
 adopt all his opinions. Nor was he deficient in that 
 sure criterion of true and virtuous friendship, faithful
 
 168 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. VIII. 
 
 reproof, where he thought it needful ; for there can be 
 no doubt that the sentiments which he here expresses 
 to Mr. Cappe he had previously expressed in language 
 at least equally strong to Dr. Priestley himself. 
 
 Yet, after all, it may be doubted whether the over- 
 cautious spirit of the friendly monitor, and his anxious 
 apprehension lest the uncommon boldness of his friend's 
 remarks should swell the tide of popular prejudice 
 against him, have not induced him to overcharge the 
 picture. Dr. Priestley was as far as his friend could be 
 from desiring to make an unprovoked attack upon the 
 character of Christ. But holding the character of Jesus 
 perhaps in as high estimation as Mr. Lindsey himself, 
 he did not think it necessary to presume, nor did he find 
 evidence to prove, that our Lord, being in all other re* 
 spects a man like other men, was born into the world a 
 perfect character, or that his character was miraculously 
 superinduced. On the contrary, believing that Jesus 
 was in all respects like unto his brethren, and pursuing 
 his principles to their just consequences, he argued that 
 our Saviour came into the world with the frailties and 
 infirmities of a human being, moral as well as physical, 
 and that, by the peculiar process of mental discipline to 
 which he was subjected, he grew up to that consummate 
 dignity and elevation of character under which he ajn 
 pears in the writings of the evangelists. And this truly 
 Christian philosopher believed it to be not only a more 
 rational way of accounting for the excellence of our 
 Lord's character, and more agreeable to the language of 
 the New Testament, which represents him as growing 
 in wisdom and in favour with God and man, but, in 
 truth, more honourable to our Lord himself, that his 
 perfect moral excellence should be the result of his own 
 exertion, vigilance, and fortitude, rather than of a su* 
 pernatural operation. And upon this supposition, the
 
 CH. VIII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 160 
 
 example of Jesus becomes far more interesting and 
 efficacious than upon the common hypothesis. Dr. 
 Priestley's doctrine was new and original, and at first 
 very obnoxious and startling even to those who thought 
 with him upon most subjects. And as his generous 
 mind was above courting popularity, he took no pains 
 to avoid offensive language in expressing his ideas : but 
 in the present day, the alarm having subsided, and a 
 cooler examination of the subject having taken place, it 
 would I believe be hard to find any considerate and con- 
 sistent Unitarian who does not adopt Dr. Priestley's 
 ideas concerning the formation of our Lord's moral cha- 
 racter, and who does not rejoice that he did not yield to 
 \\\e prudent timidity of his worthy but less adventurous 
 friends. Mr. Lindsey acknowledges to his learned cor- 
 respondent that " he had not then paid much attention 
 to the subject." Afterwards, when he reflected more 
 deliberately upon it, there is reason to believe that his 
 alarm ceased, and that he became convinced that his 
 difference with his friend was more nominal than real. 
 
 Whether, as Dr. Priestley apprehends, our Lord was 
 mistaken with respect to the cause of epilepsy and insa- 
 nity, or whether, as Mr. Farmer maintains, knowing the 
 falsehood of the popular opinion, he still thought fit, 
 and indeed found it necessary, to use the popular lan- 
 guage, is a more doubtful question than that concerning 
 the natural perfection of our Lord's character. But 
 surely it is a question highly worthy of public discussion 
 among those who are desirous of obviating objections to 
 the credibility of the New Testament. The language of 
 Jesus to those who were believed to be possessed by 
 demons, that is, by human ghosts, and especially in the 
 case of the Gadarene demoniac, Luke viii. is hardly re- 
 concileable to the simplicity and sincerity of our Lord's 
 character, if he at the same time knew that the sym-
 
 170 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. VIII. 
 
 ptoms were occasioned by natural disorder, not by demo- 
 niacal possession ; nor can it be regarded as any objec- 
 tion to his prophetic authority, or to the reality of the 
 miracle, that his inspiration did not extend to the know- 
 ledge of the nature and causes of the diseases which he 
 
 o 
 
 was empowered to heal. On the contrary, it may be 
 urged with great appearance of truth, that it cannot 
 with any reason be admitted that our Lord was so grossly 
 ignorant of the state of the dead, as to believe that the 
 souls of bad men were permitted to enter into the 
 bodies of living men and to torment them. Upon the 
 whole, with the exception of the case of the Gadarene 
 demoniac, it seems more easy to admit that our Lord 
 used the popular language without adopting the popular 
 philosophy, than to suppose him chargeable with such 
 an egregious error upon a subject so closely connected 
 with the proper object of his mission. The contrary 
 hypothesis is, however, more generally adopted by those 
 who inquire freely into the subject, as I believe I am 
 warranted to say it certainly was by Mr. Lindsey, not- 
 withstanding the alarm he expresses at his friend's insi- 
 nuation, that " our Saviour was as much in the dark as 
 the most vulgar among the Jews, about possessions ; 
 and believed them in the gross literal sense." 
 
 That our Lord misunderstood and misapplied the 
 prophecies of the Old Testament, relating to the Mes- 
 siah, is a position maintained by Dr. Priestley, which 
 did not meet with the general concurrence of those who 
 were disposed to think with him upon other subjects. 
 Dr. Jebb and Mr. Lindsey had some reason to say that 
 " here his main argument failed him." Our Lord so 
 expressly asserts his knowledge of the true sense and 
 application of the prophetic scriptures ; he so frequently 
 interprets without the least hesitation, and with the 
 highest tone of authority, those prophecies which relate
 
 CH. VIII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 
 
 to the Messiah ; he so gravely rebukes his disciples for 
 not understanding what he had so plainly and repeatedly 
 taught ; and after his resurrection he so explicitly as- 
 sumes an authority to " open their understandings that 
 they might understand the Scriptures ; " that to deny to 
 Jesus a power which he so directly challenges, looks 
 like an attack upon his veracity, and is little less than 
 charging him with vanity and arrogance. Nor are we 
 by the necessity of the case driven to this conclusion. 
 For it is not allowed that Dr. Priestley, though he has 
 attempted it, as indeed his argument required, has suc- 
 ceeded in any one instance in proving that our Lord has 
 actually fallen into error, in his explanation and applica- 
 tion of the prophetic scriptures. This however is a fair 
 and interesting topic of discussion ; and the friends of 
 scriptural knowledge will rejoice to have the question 
 set in a satisfactory light. 
 
 Dr. Priestley, unawed by the remonstrances of his 
 friends, and fearless of personal consequences in the pur- 
 suit of Christian truth, and in the detection and expo- 
 sure of the corruptions of the Christian doctrine, or of the 
 sacred text, and justly thinking that nothing would prove 
 more favourable to the discovery of truth than fair and 
 animated discussion, proceeded in his open and manly 
 way, under the signature of Ebionita in the Theological 
 Repository, to urge his objections against the narrative 
 of the Miraculous Conception in the introductory chap- 
 ters to the gospels of Matthew and Luke. This bold at- 
 tack upon an article of faith which had maintained its 
 ground undisputed for upwards of a thousand years, not 
 only renewed the clamours of bigots against the insolence 
 and impiety of the hardy assailant, but excited consider- 
 able apprehensions among.many professed friends to free 
 inquiry, who -not only feared that the author's own re-
 
 172 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. VIII. 
 
 putation might suffer, and his writings be brought into 
 discredit, and that his usefulness might thereby be greatly 
 impeded, but that the credibility of the Gospel history 
 itself might be impeached, if so large a portion of it should 
 be regarded as spurious. Nor were the apprehensions of 
 any one upon this occasion more vivid than those of the 
 venerable subject of the present Memoir; who thus ex- 
 presses his feelings and his fears, in confidence, to his 
 learned and estimable friend the Rev. Newcome Cappe, 
 at York. 
 
 April 30, 1 785. " I wish some able hand would send 
 him some remarks on his account of the miraculous con- 
 ception; for no one I believe would sooner relinquish 
 any opinion, was he made to see cause for it. A friend 
 told me that he thought the Doctor seemed somewhat 
 moved, when he remarked to him that an extraordinary 
 event of that kind might be most important in forming 
 the character of Christ, by inducing his parents to pay 
 particular attention to him in this respect, and by the 
 early impressions it might make upon his own mind ; 
 neither of which had occurred to him. However, whether 
 he or any one retains or rejects the notion, is of little con- 
 sequence. A man may be most fully persuaded that Jesus 
 is the Christ, whether he holds him as the son of Mary, 
 orof Joseph also. Only, I have much wishedDr. Priestley 
 could restrain himself from appearing the patron of the 
 latter, opinion, lest it might hurt his usefulness in pre- 
 venting the reading of his many valuable theological 
 writings." 
 
 These are the natural and liberal reflections of Mr. 
 Lindsey's candid mind upon the first proposal of the sub- 
 ject. But his own correct feelings appear to have been 
 in some degree aggravated, and, if I may so express it, 
 acidified, by the less candid observations which he oc-
 
 CH VIII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEV. 
 
 casionally heard from others. He thus expresses him- 
 self in a letter to his friend at York, dated December 8, 
 1785. 
 
 " I am exceedingly gratified by your leaving your let- 
 ter to Dr ; Priestley unsealed, and permitting me the 
 perusal of it* When you but barely intimated your senti- 
 ment at York, but now much more from your further 
 enlargement upon it, I think I see a new light thrown 
 upon our Saviour's language and manner of address to 
 Almighty God throughout the gospels, though I have 
 not considered yet at all, how the idea of his extraordi- 
 nary birth at times pervades the language of his apostles 
 concerning him. I shall, however, most earnestly long 
 for your full discussion of the subject, and I hope it will 
 please Providence that nothing will prevent your going 
 on to finish this disquisition in the manner in which you 
 have planned it. I do not however imagine, as you for- 
 merly expressed yourself, that the suggestion of any ar- 
 gument of this kind will have such an effect on our friend 
 as to work any change in his sentiments ; though I hope, 
 if he attends to it, as I trust he will, the remarks on 
 Ebionita pointing out so many mistakes, and several less 
 fair (however undesigned) methods of application to his 
 readers, will prevent him exhibiting his opinion in such 
 a disgusting form, and with so wrong a spirit, in his 
 greater work now printing." 
 
 " Besides the ardour of his own natural temper, I am 
 sure that he has been hurried on further than that would 
 have carried his judicious mind, by the vehemence of 
 some persons about him, so as to look upon the mira- 
 culous conception as one of the great corruptions of 
 Christianity. So that he set out without weighing the 
 consequences ; and as his method of treating the subject 
 did not affect himself nor disturb him, he thought it 
 would be the same with others. And having happily got
 
 174 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. VIII. 
 
 over the outcries raised against him on other like points, 
 as he conceived, he believed it would be the same here. 
 I will, however, entertain hope that your most candid 
 but strong manner, at the conclusion of your letter, of 
 representing to him your own and the opinions of others 
 concerning his treating the subject, will prevail with him 
 to treat the matter with a better temper, as not a day 
 passes but I meet with one or other friends that earnestly 
 wish it for his own, and for the truth's sake." 
 
 Dr. Priestley, in his Essay upon the Miraculous Con- 
 ception, in the Repository, expresses his sentiments upon 
 this subject, as upon all others, unequivocally, and with- 
 out disguise ; and certainly, though not with intention 
 to give offence, yet without any precaution to guard 
 against it. But surely his language, and his manner of 
 treating the subject, hardly deserve the severe censure of 
 making "unfair applications to his readers, and of exhibit- 
 ing his opinion in a disgusting form, and with a wrong 
 spirit." In an argument so novel, the prejudices of some 
 would undoubtedly be shocked. But there were many 
 who, though not converted to his opinion, were by no 
 means offended with the argument or the spirit of the 
 writer, but rather admired the ingenuity which could 
 give plausibility to an hypothesis in their apprehension so 
 unfounded, and so inconsistent with what they judged to 
 be the plain declaration of the New Testament. Such 
 was unquestionably the first impression upon the in* 
 genuous mind of Mr. Lindsey ; and nothing but a too 
 great facility in yielding his own judgement to that of 
 his friends, could have induced him to think and to ex- 
 press himself with such unusual asperity upon the temper 
 and spirit of his honest and able fellow-labourer in the 
 field of truth. 
 
 It is, however, of more consequence to remark, how 
 widely Mr. Lindsey differed from his inquisitive friend
 
 CH. VIII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS UNDSEY. 175 
 
 upon the subject of the miraculous conception, and how 
 unlikely he was at that time ever to be reconciled to his 
 sentiments. But an upright inquirer will never think it 
 too late to learn, and will be always ready to embrace doc- 
 trines the most opposite to his preconceived opinions, if 
 after mature examination he sees reason to believe that 
 they are founded in truth. Such was the character of the 
 venerable subject of this Memoir ; and in the following 
 extract from a letter to his friend Mr. Cappe, he ex- 
 presses himself in a more hesitating tone. 
 
 April 10, 1787. " I am much concerned to find you 
 have such a multiplicity of business and of avocations ; 
 but I hope you will steal time to give us your arguments 
 for the miraculous conception, which I have not hitherto 
 seen any cause to give up, though some inconsistencies 
 with which the evidence for it is encumbered have dis- 
 turbed me a little ; and I should be happy to see your 
 further positive scriptural proofs for it made out at full 
 length." In a letter dated nine months before, in July 
 1786, Mr. Lindsey had importunately urged the same 
 request : " I cannot conclude without entreating you, my 
 most worthy friend, to give us, and give the public, your 
 valuable thoughts on the miraculous conception. If Dr. 
 Jebb had been alive, he would have joined with me, and 
 would have told you it was a duty for you to do it. He 
 had not attended much to the argument ; but he had no 
 doubt about the fact, or the genuineness of those scrip- 
 tures which relate to it, any more than you have. Adieu, 
 But I beg you will think of this seriously and in earnest." 
 
 Notwithstanding, however, these repeated and urgent 
 calls, the oracle remained silent. Whatever might be the 
 reason, whether, upon further inquiry, he found that, when 
 he first promised the answer, like his precursor Dr. Jebb, 
 he had not attended much to the argument ', or from some 
 other unknown cause, this truly learned and acute theolo-
 
 176 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. VIII, 
 
 gian, who was looked up to as the only person competent 
 to advocate the sinking cause of the suspected narrative* 
 declined to enter the lists *, and the historian and 
 detector of the corruptions of Christianity was left the 
 undisputed master of the field. His venerable friend, 
 thus deserted by his principal ally, after a few more inef- 
 fectual struggles, found himself compelled, by the power 
 of truth and the irresistible force of argument, to lay 
 down his arms and surrender at discretion ; and, like 
 the man of Tarsus, to become the champion of the faith 
 which he once disapproved. In other words, Mr. Lind- 
 sey, upon further consideration of the subject, and seeing 
 no satisfactory reply to his friend's arguments, gave up, 
 though not without some reluctance, his belief in the 
 miraculous conception : and in the next edition of his 
 Liturgy, in the year 1789, he omitted that creed, erro- 
 neously called the creed of the apostles, which contains 
 this unscriptural article. 
 
 This doctrine, that Jesus of Nazareth, the great 
 prophet of th.e Most High, was the son of Joseph 
 and Mary, which was so alarming when it was first 
 asserted by Dr. Priestley, is now perfectly familiar- 
 ised, and is I believe generally received by those who 
 maintain the proper humanity of Jesus Christ. In- 
 deed the direct assertion of Luke, which can by no 
 fair and legitimate criticism be set aside, that our Lord 
 had just completed his thirtieth year f, in the fifteenth 
 
 * Mr. Cappe's first remarks upon Dr. Priestley were published in the 
 fifth volume of the Theological Repository, under the signature of Nazaraeus. 
 The principal object was to prove that the miracle, though in its own na- 
 ture necessarily private, might nevertheless have its use. Dr. Priestley 
 in the same volume adverts to this objection, in a paper signed Nazarenus. 
 Whether Mr. Cappe, like his ingenuous correspondent, ever abandoned the 
 miraculous conception, does not appear from any of his posthumous publica- 
 tions. The " Connected History of the Life of Christ," published by his 
 excellent widow, leaves the fact in a state of considerable doubt. 
 
 f- Aj*|K( at tra Tfi*T, est iticlpio jam csse triccnariut, quod non dici- 
 tur nisi, post impletuin annum tricessiomni. Grotius.
 
 CH; VIII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 177 
 
 year of Tiberius, fixes the birth of Christ at least two 
 years after Herod's death. This single undeniable chro- 
 nological fact at once invalidates the introductory narrar 
 tive to Matthew and Luke. And the uselessness of the 
 
 <j . 
 
 train of splendid miracles there recorded ; the very little 
 attention which they excited to the object of them; the 
 apparent fabulousness of many of the circumstances ; 
 the irrelevance, not to say the absurdity, of the quota- 
 tions from the Old Testament ; the inconsistency of the 
 two narratives with each other; the entire omission of the 
 whole transaction by Mark and John ; the want of the 
 introduction to Matthew in the Ebionite copies, and to 
 Luke in those of Marcion ; the rejection of the miracu- 
 lous conception by the Gnostics, with whose system it 
 would so well have harmonized, and by the Ebionites or 
 Jewish Christians, whose history supplied so many prior 
 accounts of miraculous births ; the prevailing desire of 
 Christians to aggrandize their master, and in every pos- 
 sible way to diminish the disgrace of his extraction and 
 the reproach of his cross ; and, in fine, the general 
 credit given to the narrative in distant countries, and 
 the discredit under which it laboured in those regions 
 which are represented as the very scenes of these extra- 
 ordinary events ; all concur to establish the conclusion, 
 that the introductory narratives to Matthew and Luke 
 were not written by the evangelists to whom they are 
 ascribed. By whom they were written, and at what 
 time they were prefixed to their respective histories, it 
 may not be easy to ascertain : but as we are certain, 
 from the date of Luke's history, that the facts cannot be 
 true, we may be equally certain that they could not have 
 been related by the apostle of Jesus, or the faithful and 
 accurate companion of Paul.
 
 17$ MEMOIRS OF THE LATR [cH. fx. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 UNITARIAN LITURGY ADOPTED BY THE CONGREGATION 
 AT THE KING'S CHAPEL AT BOSTON IN NEW ENGLAND. 
 MR. LINDSEY CORRESPONDS WITH DR. FREEMAN, MR. 
 VANDERKEMP, ETC. PROGRESS AND PRESENT STATED 
 OF THE UNITARIAN CHURCHES IN AMERICA. 
 
 1 HE grand theological controversies which' excited so 
 much attention, and were conducted with so much 
 animosity, in England, could not fail to attract notiee 
 in America, and especially in the New England States, 
 where a manliness of character, a decency of morals, 
 and a serious though not universally enlightened spirit 
 of piety, dispose the minds of considerable numbers to 
 religions inquiries, and where freedom of investigation 
 suffers no restraint from the civil power. It was with 
 great pleasure that Mr. Lindsey received information in 
 the year 1786, from a respectable correspondent, (the 
 Rev. J. Smith, afterwards librarian to the University of 
 Cambridge in New England,) that the principal episco- 
 palian church in Boston had consented to the introduc- 
 tion of a Liturgy reformed nearly upon the plan of that 
 which had been adopted in Essex-street, and perfectly 
 Unitarian*. The minister of this congregation, which 
 
 * In Mr. Freeman's first letter to Mr. Lindsey, dated July 7, 1786, he 
 tells his venerable correspondent, " The Liturgy of our church was during 1 
 4 long time unpopular. But your approbation, the note of Dr. Price an- 
 nexed to a letter of Dr. Lush, and the jinention which Dr. Priestley is pleased 
 to make of it in his sermon upon the fifth of November, have raised it in 
 esteem. It now seems to be acknowledged that that book cannot be very 
 absurd which is praised by gentlemen of such great learning and abilities, 
 vho have been so long known and so justly admired in this country. 1 
 wish the work was more worthy of your approbation. I can only say that I 
 endeavoured to make it so by attempting to introduce your Liturgy entire. 
 But the pe iple of the chapel were not ripe for so great a change. Some 
 defects and improprieties I was under the necessity of retaining, for the 
 sake of inducing them to omit the most exceptionable parts of the old ser- 
 vice, the Athanasian prayers. Perhaps in some future day, when their 
 minds become more enlightened, they may consent to a further alteration."
 
 C. IX.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 179 
 
 assembled at what was called the King's Chapel, was 
 the Rev. James Freeman, and is described by his friend 
 as " a young man of a great deal of knowledge and 
 good sense, and of an excellent disposition." Some of 
 his hearers left him on account of the change introduced 
 into the service ; but the majority adhered to him, and 
 the congregation flourished under him. He was for 
 some time under considerable embarrassment for want 
 of episcopal ordination, upon which some of his hearers 
 laid much stress, though in the estimation of the more 
 judicious members of his congregation, as well as of Mr. 
 Freeman himself, it was rather a matter of expedience 
 than necessity. To avoid, however, giving unnecessary 
 offence, he applied for orders first to Bishop Seabury> 
 who had lately been consecrated by the non-juring 
 bishops of Scotland, and who exercised his jurisdiction 
 over the episcopal churches in Connecticut. But this 
 prelate, being a rigid Calvinist, would not lay hands 
 
 The writer of this Memoir is happy to add, that the day of increased light 
 and liberality, foretold by this enlightened reformer, is now arrived, and that 
 Dr. Freeman has himself lived to see his own prediction verified. In anew 
 edition of the Boston Liturgy, printed in the year 1811, a copy of which 
 the writer has had the honour to receive as a present from the Ministers, 
 Wardens, and Vestry of the King's Chapel, nothing Is to be found which, 
 is inconsistent with the purest principles of Unitarian worship as such, and 
 with a very few alterations, chiefly verbal, it might be made perfectly unoJ>- 
 jectionable. May it long be the efficacious means of supporting the purity 
 and simplicity of Christian worship, and diffusing a spirit of rational piety \ 
 
 Mr. Freeman further proceeds to state the progress which Unitarian prirt- 
 ciples were making in the United States, and particularly in New England. 
 Tbis he imputes to the many excellent books published in England, and to 
 Mr. Lindsey's Works in particular, which weve much read and, with, greajt 
 effect. The sermons and conversation of some clergymen in New England 
 also contributed their share : and amongst these he mentions the Rev. Mr. 
 Hazlitt, a pious, zealous, and intelligent English minister, who after his rer 
 turn to England settled at Wem in Shropshire. Mr. Freeman speaks of 
 himself as particularly indebted to the instructions and conversation o!f this 
 respectable person. " I bless the day," says he, "when that honest man 
 fii-st landed in this country." In another letter, dated June 1/89, Mr. Free- 
 man \yrites, " Before Mr. Hazlitt came to Boston, the Trinitarian doxology 
 was almost universally used. That honest good man prevailed upon several 
 respectableministers to omit it. Since his departure, the number of those 
 who. repeat only scriptural doxolo^ies has greatly increased, so tha,t th<jve 
 are now many churches in which the worshrp is strictly Unitarian. 
 
 N2
 
 180 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. IX. 
 
 upon his suspected brother. Application was then 
 made to Dr. Provost, who had been elected bishop of 
 the province of New York, and who, together with Dr. 
 White, had been consecrated to the episcopal office by 
 the prelates of the Church of England. This gentle- 
 man, who had been a pupil of Dr. Jebb, was a man of 
 great learning, of liberal sentiments, and of deep piety. 
 At the Convention of the episcopal clergy at Philadel- 
 phia, he had himself proposed a very important altera- 
 tion in the Litany, viz. to leave out the invocations to 
 the Son, the Holy Ghost, and the Trinity ; and to re- 
 tain only the first, which is addressed " to God the 
 Father Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth." To 
 this worthy prelate, therefore, the members of the con- 
 gregation at the King's Chapel repeatedly applied to 
 obtain episcopal ordination for their respected minister. 
 But the bishop, perhaps unwilling to give offence to his 
 weaker brethren, referred the matter to the next Conven- 
 tion at Philadelphia ; which determined Mr. Freeman's 
 friends, who had reason to apprehend, that, whatever 
 might be the information and liberality of some in- 
 dividuals, the majority would decide against him, to 
 ordain their own pastor at home. This solemn rite, 
 therefore, was performed, with the previous approbation 
 of many persons of high character and worth who had 
 been consulted upon the occasion, on Sunday the 18th 
 of November, 1787, according to a form suggested by 
 Governor Bowdoin, a gentleman whose learning, good 
 sense, and merit, as Mr. Freeman expresses it in his 
 letter to Mr. Lindsey, " would give a sanction to any 
 sentiment which he espouses," though the honourable 
 Governor was not a member of the King's Chapel con- 
 gregation. " The whole ceremony," says Mr. Freeman, 
 " was performed with great decency and solemnity in the 
 presence of a very numerous assembly. Deep attention
 
 CH. IX.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 181 
 
 was impressed upon every countenance, and many of the 
 advocates for religious liberty, of our own and other 
 churches, could not forbear expressing their sensibility 
 by tears of joy." The form used upon this interesting 
 occasion is published by Mr. Lindsey in his Vindiciae 
 Priestleianae, who there expresses his entire approbation 
 of it. All difficulties were at length surmounted : the 
 remaining scruples of those who were advocates for epi- 
 scopal ordination gradually subsided *, and the cause of the 
 congregation continued to flourish under the auspices 
 of this pious and exemplary preacher for upwards of 
 twenty years. Since January 1809, Mr. now Dr. Free- 
 man has been associated with a colleague, the Reverend 
 
 * In tenderness to the prejudices of some worthy members of the con- 
 gregation, a vote was passed by the Society, that Mr, Freeman's ordination 
 should be confirmed by an episcopal imposition of hands, if it could be at 
 any future time conveniently procured without sacrificing their own religi- 
 ous sentiments. But a circumstance occurred shortly afterward* which 
 contributed more effectually to overrule the scruples of those who were 
 unsatisfied, than any thing which Mr. Freeman or his friends could say or 
 write upon the subject. This was the ordination of a clergyman at Boston 
 by Bishop Seabury. 
 
 " If any prejudices remained upon the minds of my people in favour of 
 episcopal ordination," says Mr. Frteman in a letter to Mr. Lindsey, dated 
 October 15, 1788, " what you say in your book, the Vindicise Priestleianae, 
 would effectually remove them, But they are already cured of all prepos- 
 sessions of that nature. I mentioned in a former letter, that Bishop Sea- 
 bury had ordained a priest in Boston. The members of my congregation in 
 general attended. They were so shocked with the service, particularly with 
 that part where the bishop pretends to communicate the Holy Ghost and 
 the power of forgiving sins, which he accompanied with the action of 
 breathing on the candidate, that they now congratulate me upon having 
 escaped what they consider as little short of blasphemy. Few of them had 
 ever read, or at least attentively considered, the Ordination service. Since 
 they have heard it, I have frequently been seriously asked by them, whether 
 I would have submitted to so absurd a form. I confess that I am convinced 
 I should have acted wrong if I had done it. I shudder when I reflect to 
 what moral danger I exposed myself in soliciting ordination of the American 
 bishops, for I certainly never believed that they had the power of conveying 
 the Holy Spirit." 
 
 Bishop Seabury might be, and probably was, a very honest man. How 
 far his wisdom kept pace with his honesty, the following anecdote may as- 
 sist the reader to judge. This venerable prelate, after having been invested, 
 or imagined himself to be invested, with extraordinary powers by the ma- 
 nual imposition of a few obscure priests in Scotland, when he had returned 
 to. Connecticut, wrote to Dr. Styles, the president of the college, the learned
 
 182 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. IX. 
 
 Samuel Gary, who, if we may judge by the specimen of 
 his talents and spirit in the sermon which he delivered 
 on the day of his ordination, and by the esteem and af- 
 fection expressed in the charge of his n j vered associate, 
 is worthy of the honourable situation which he occupies, 
 and is well qualified to carry on the cause in wich his 
 excellent colleague has been so long and so successfully 
 engaged. May this holy cause continue to prosper in 
 their hands, and when the chief Shepherd shall appear 
 may they receive a crown of glory * ! 
 
 As a further means of diffusing the important doc- 
 trines of the proper Unity of God and the simple hu- 
 manity of Jesus Christ, Mr. Lindsey made a present of 
 his own and of Dr. Priestley's Theological Works to the 
 library of Harvard College, in the University of Cam- 
 bridge in New England ; for which, " as a very valuable 
 and acceptable present," he received the thanks of the 
 President and Fellows. These books were read with 
 great avidity by the students. But though there is great 
 
 friend and correspondent of Dr. Price, that it was his intention to be at the 
 annual meeting of the Institution, but that he " hoped he should be re- 
 ceived with proper distinction, and that his precedency would be allowed in 
 the place allotted to him." To which the learned president sent back a 
 courteous answer : " That they should be very glad to see Bishop Seabury, 
 but that he could nol promise him any such mark of distinction as he ex- 
 pected. One thing, however, he could engage for and would assure him 
 of, that he would meet with a hundred and ninety-one as good bishops as 
 himself." 
 
 * This sincere and ardent wish it was not the will of Providence to ratify. 
 Mr. Gary's connexion with his affectionate flock and his revered colleague 
 was of very short duration. In the autumn of 1815, he fell into a deep 
 decline from a neglected cold ; and being advised to try a milder climate, he 
 came to England with his wife in October. For a few days he appeared : a 
 little revived; but the disorder soon returned with increased violence, and 
 on Sunday October 22, he expired at Royston on his road to London, in the 
 thirtieth year of his age. H< % was interred in the burial ground belonging 
 to the Unitarian Chapel at Hackney, and the service by his particular de- 
 sire was performed by the minister of Essex-street Chapel, who delivered a 
 discourse upon the melancholy occasion the next Lord's day. Mrs. Gary, 
 whose Christian fortitude and pious resignation under this severe trial was 
 the admiration of all her friends, returned to Boston in the spring. The 
 removal of such a person as Mr. Cary, in the prime of life and in the midst 
 <?f usefulness, is one of the unsearchable mysteries of divine Providence.
 
 CH. IX.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 18.3 
 
 reason to believe that the seed thus sown took deep root, 
 and that in many instances it produced a correspondent 
 harvest ; and though many persons eminent for rank and 
 talent in the New England States* openly avowed the 
 Unitarian creed, it does not appear that any numerous 
 societies of Christians have hitherto followed the exam- 
 ple of the congregation at the King's Chapel in making 
 a public profession of the Unitarian doctrine. 
 
 In March 1792, an Unitarian congregation was formed 
 at Portland, a considerable town of the district of Maine, 
 in the north-eastern part of the State of Massachusetts. 
 The worthy founder of this society was the Reverend 
 Thomas Oxnard, a man of good talents, of sincere piety, 
 and of ardent zeal, who had for some years officiated as 
 minister of the episcopalian church at Portland, and who 
 had been convinced of the truth of the Unitarian .doo 
 trine by reading the works of Dr, Priestley and .Mr. 
 Lindsey, with which he had been supplied by his friend 
 Mr. Freeman. Through the same means, and by the 
 public and private instructions of this good man, in the 
 course of a few years, many other persons of property 
 and respectability of character embraced and av.owed the 
 same principles. " I cannot," says this worthy man in a 
 letter dated November, 1788, "express to you the avi- 
 dity with which these Unitarian publications are sought 
 after. Our friends here are clearly convinced that the 
 Unitarian doctrine will soon become the prevailing opi- 
 
 * " Governor Bowdoin," says Mr. Lindsay's worthy correspondent, " is a 
 critic in biblical learning. General Knox, one of the most distinguished 
 officers in the late war, is an admirer of such authors as Edward Search. 
 General Lincoln, our present worthy Lieutenant-governor, appears uniform- 
 'ly and openly the friend of those doctrines that you approve. There are 
 many others besides, in our legislature, of similar sentiments. While so 
 many of our great men are thus on the side of truth and free inquiry, they 
 will necessarily influence many of the common people. As we have K> 
 establishment to oppose, the same zeal which is felt in England cannot be 
 expected in this country ; but rational Christianity will, I doubt net, make a, 
 rapid though not very visible progress." This letter was written in
 
 184 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CM. IX. 
 
 nkm in this country ; which must afford great pleasure 
 to those good men Mr. Lindsey and Dr. Priestley. Three 
 years ago I did not know a single Unitarian in this part 
 of the country besides myself : and now, entirely from 
 the various publications you have furnished, a decent so- 
 ciety might be collected from this and the neighbouring 
 towns. When you again write to Mr. Lindsey, you may 
 assure him in the most positive terms that his and Dr. 
 Priestley's publications have had, and probably will have, 
 great effects in this part of the country ; which I am 
 sure must afford him great satisfaction." 
 
 Agreeably to this account, the doctrine of the proper 
 Unity of God made a progress so rapid in the town and 
 vicinage of Portland, that in the beginning of the year 
 1792 an effort was made to introduce a reformed Liturgy 
 into the episcopal church ; whicli being resisted by one 
 or two leading members of the congregation, the Uni- 
 tarians, who constituted a considerable majority of the 
 society, seceded from the rest ; and forming themselves 
 into a separate church, they chose the Reverend Mr. 
 Oxnard to be their minister ; and being denied the use 
 of the episcopal chapel, they assembled for religious wor- 
 ship at one of the public school-houses which was large 
 and commodious, and where they carried on the worship 
 of the One God with increasing popularity and success. 
 
 About the same time another society for Unitarian 
 worship was formed at Saco, a populous village about 
 twenty miles distant from Portland, under the auspices 
 of Mr. Thatcher, a gentleman of considerable property 
 and of excellent character, who was repeatedly returned 
 as representative in Congress for the northern district of 
 the State of Massachusetts. Mr. Thatcher it is said was 
 originally an unbeliever; but possessing a candid and 
 inquisitive mind, he became a very sincere and rational 
 Christian in consequence of. reading Dr. Priestley's
 
 (JH. IX.] REVEREND TBEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 185 
 
 Works ; and, as Mr. Lindsey's correspondent expresses 
 it, " the influence of our divine religion became very 
 evident in his life and manners." This gentleman, by his 
 conversation, his occasional publications, by lending 
 Unitarian books, and by the great influence of his moral 
 and religious character, contributed much to diffuse ra- 
 tional and pure Christianity in the vicinity of his resi- 
 dence, and formed at Saco a congregation of Unitarian 
 Christians which was for some time connected with that 
 at Portland, but afterwards became sufficiently numerous 
 and respectable to maintain a separate minister. In 
 England the spirit of the times is more liberal than the 
 spirit of the laws. In America it is the reverse ; and the 
 bigotry of individuals sometimes labours to counteract 
 the unlimited freedom of faith and worship, which is 
 the glory of the Constitution of the United States. The 
 active zeal of Mr. Thatcher, in promoting the worship 
 of One God in opposition to unscriptural formularies 
 and creeds, excited the malignant efforts of some of his 
 bigoted neighbours to oppose his re-election to a seat in 
 Congress. But the high character, the approved pa- 
 triotism, and the distinguished talents of that honour- 
 able gentleman secured him an easy triumph over the 
 mean attacks of ignorance and envy, and he was again 
 returned by a great majority. 
 
 Upon the formation of the first Unitarian Society in 
 the district of Maine, Mr. Lindsey's intelligent corre- 
 spondent makes the following just and important obser- 
 vations, in a letter dated May 21, 1792 : 
 
 "I consider the establishment of this society as an 
 event peculiarly favourable to the progress of Unitarian- 
 ism in this country. The eastern division of this State, 
 commonly called the province of Maine, of which Port- 
 land is the capital, is one of the most flourishing parts of 
 the United States. It is rapidly increasing in population
 
 186 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [en. IX. 
 
 and in wealth. Portland, which under the name of Fal- 
 mouth was almost totally destroyed during the last war, 
 has now become a large and respectable town, and bids 
 fair in the course of half a century to rival Boston. Like 
 other capital towns, it will probably influence the opi- 
 nions of the surrounding country. It may be expected, 
 therefore, that Unitarianism will grow with its growth, 
 and be widely diffused. What favours this expectation 
 is, that one of the ministers of the town, a very liberal 
 and enlightened man, is upon very good terms with the 
 Unitarian Society, and not disposed to discountenance 
 them. In sentiment he professes to be a Sabellian. The 
 other ministers in the neighbourhood are in general ig- 
 norant, and some of them vicious. The consequence is, 
 that there is less appearance of religion in the province 
 of Maine than in any other part of New England. I have 
 no doubt, therefore, that a number of Unitarians pos- 
 sessing that purity of morals for which they are generally 
 distinguished will have a great effect, not only in dif- 
 fusing rational sentiments, but also in reforming the 
 practice of their fellow-citizens. I give this not merely 
 as my own opinion, but as the opinion of some gentle- 
 men who are best informed in the State of the province 
 of Maine. The establishment of a rational Christian 
 society, and the happy changes which are to be expected 
 in future, must, sir, in a great measure be ascribed to 
 the books which you have sent over. What, therefore, 
 must be your triumph when you reflect that you have en- 
 lightened the minds of your fellow-christians, and that 
 you will probably be the means of turning many to 
 righteousness !" 
 
 How far this worthy and ardent correspondent of Mr. 
 Lindsey was warranted in the sanguine expectations he 
 expresses of the success and beneficial effects of the 
 Unitarian doctrine in the New England States, does not
 
 CH. IX.] REVEREND 4TBEOPHELUS LINDSEY. 
 
 very distinctly appear. In 17-88 he states to his venerable 
 friend, that the Socinian scheme is less frightful than it 
 was some years ago, and begins to have some public ad- 
 vocates. The only minister, however, who then preached 
 in favour of it was Mr. Bentley, of Salem, a fellow- 
 collegian and intimate friend of the writer, who describes 
 him as " a young man of a bold independent mind,' of 
 strong natural powers, and of more skill in the learned 
 languages than any person of his years in the State." 
 This gentleman had the good fortune to be connected 
 with a congregation uncommonly liberal, who were not 
 alarmed at any improvements, and who were pleased with 
 the introduction of Bishop Lowth's translation of Isaiah, 
 and of other improved translations of the prophetic 
 Scriptures, in preference to the common English version, 
 which was a liberty that few of the ministers in New 
 England would be allowed to take. In 1793, Unitarianism 
 remained at Portland in the state in which it had been 
 settled the preceding year : but the clergy in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Saco having passed a censure upon these 
 opinions as unsound and heretical, the consequence of 
 this attack was an able defence of the doctrine by its ad- 
 vocates in that vicinage, and a subscription for building 
 an Unitarian church. In the year 1794, the same re- 
 spectable correspondent communicates to his venerable 
 friend the progress which the doctrine and worship of the 
 One true God, the Father, were making in the southern 
 districts of the State of Massachusetts. " The counties 
 of Plymouth, Barnstable, and Bristol, were the first part 
 of New England settled by the English ; and till the 
 year 1692, when they were annexed to Massachusetts, 
 constituted a distinct province. The first settlers were 
 a religious and industrious people, of more candid minds 
 ;md less disposed to persecution than the settlers of 
 Massachusetts. Though the country is barren, yet it
 
 188 MEMOIRS OF IRE LATE [cH. IX. 
 
 has become one of the most populous districts of the 
 United States. The inhabitants are enlightened and vir- 
 tuous. Crimes are unknown ; and there has not been a 
 capital execution for upwards of sixty years. Such cha- 
 racters are valuable acquisitions to the cause of truth. It 
 must give you pleasure, therefore, to learn that two 
 ministers, one in the county of Plymouth, and the other 
 in the county of Barnstable, have lately come forward 
 and openly opposed the doctrine of the Trinity. Their 
 preaching has made a deep impression, and converts have 
 been multiplied. In Barnstable county in particular, 
 there is a very large body of Unitarians." 
 
 This letter was written not long after the worthy writer 
 had received intelligence of Mr. Lindsey's resignation of 
 the pastoral office on account, not of declining health, 
 but of advanced age ; and I cannot deny myself the grati- 
 fication of transcribing Dr. Freeman's excellent and ju- 
 dicious reflections upon that occasion: " I fervently pray, 
 dear sir, that your health may long be preserved, and that 
 your old age may be as happy as the meridian of your 
 life has been active and useful. You now enjoy the fruits 
 of your labours. You have reclaimed many from the 
 errors of idolatry and superstition. You have diffused 
 knowledge and truth not only in England but in America. 
 But what is most to your honour, though you have 
 displayed all the zeal of a reformer, yet you have pos- 
 sessed none of that bitterness of spirit with which re- 
 formers are too often infected. In your numerous works 
 I find no harsh expressions or malignant censures. I con- 
 template this part of your character with peculiar pleasure ; 
 and though I am conscious I am frequently more angry 
 with error and bigotry than a Christian ought to be, yet 
 I ardently desire to imitate your candour and mildness of 
 temper. Excuse this praise ; it is suggested to me by 
 your two last excellent discourses." This is a high and
 
 OH. IX.] REVEREND THEOFHILUS- LINDSEY. 18i) 
 
 at the same time a discriminating and justly merited 
 eulogy, and must no doubt have been gratifying to the 
 venerable person to whom it was addressed ; whose great 
 humility would, however, lead him to disclaim in part, 
 at least, his title to it. 
 
 In a letter dated May 24, 1796, the amiable and can- 
 did writer expresses some little doubt, whether his zeal 
 may not have induced him inadvertently to exaggerate 
 the success of Unitarian principles in the United States ; 
 and he endeavours to give a correct account of the actual 
 state of the public mind upon this subject. As this is 
 the last of Dr. Freeman's letters upon the state of Uni- 
 tarianism in America which is in my possession, and as 
 it contains a more general view of the case than he had 
 before exhibited, I shall make no apology for the length 
 of the extract : 
 
 " I consider it," says this intelligent correspondent to 
 his venerable friend, " as one of the most happy effects 
 which have resulted from my feeble exertions in the 
 Unitarian cause, that they have introduced me to the 
 knowledge and friendship of some of the most valuable 
 characters of the present age ; men of enlightened heads, 
 of pious and benevolent hearts ; ' quibuscum vivere 
 amem, quibuscum obire libens.' 
 
 " Though it is a standing article of most of our social 
 libraries, that nothing of a controversial nature should 
 be purchased, yet any book which is presented is freely 
 accepted. I have found means, therefore, of introducing 
 into them some of the Unitarian Tracts with which you 
 have kindly furnished me. There are few persons who 
 have not read them with avidity ; and when read, they 
 cannot fail to make an impression upon the minds of 
 many. From these and other causes, the Unitarian doc- 
 trine appears to be still upon the increase. I am ac- 
 quainted with a number of ministers, particularly in the
 
 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cif. IX. 
 
 southern part of this State; who avow and publicly 
 preach this sentiment. There are others more cautious, 
 who content themselves with leading their hearers by a 
 course of rational but prudent sermons gradually and in- 
 sensibly to embrace it. Though this latter mode is not 
 what I entirely approve, yet it produces good effects. For 
 the people are thus kept out of the reach of false opi- 
 nions, and are prepared for the impressions which will be 
 made on them by more bold and ardent successors, who 
 will probably be raised up when these timid characters 
 are removed off the stage. In the eastern part of this 
 State, or what is called the district of Maine, the Uni- 
 tarian doctrine also makes progress, as I have just been 
 informed by a worthy and judicious minister from that 
 quarter. Trie clergy are generally the first who begin to 
 speculate : but the people soon follow, where they are so 
 much accustomed to read and inquire. 
 
 " In the accounts which I give you of the state of re- 
 ligious opinions in this country, I always endeavour not 
 to exaggerate, sensible that every zealous man (and I 
 confess that I am zealous) is naturally disposed to rate 
 his own party as highly as he can. It is possible thai 
 Unitarianism may be losing ground in one quarter while 
 it is gaining it in another, and that I may not perceive or 
 may not attend to the former. Indeed, I confess and 
 lament that the opinion is scarcely known in the largest 
 part of this vast republic. It flourishes chiefly in New 
 England ; but not much in Connecticut, Rhode Island, 
 New Hampshire, and the western counties of Massa- 
 chusetts. A few seeds have been sown in Vermont, and 
 an abundant harvest has been produced in the vicinity 
 of Boston and the counties directly south of it. In 
 Pennsylvania, much may be expected from the labours 
 of Dr. Priestley." 
 
 It was in the year 1796 that this ktter was written ;
 
 CH. IX.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 191 
 
 and though it cannot reasonably be doubted that the im- 
 portant doctrines of the unrivalled supremacy and sole 
 worship of the Father, and of the proper humanity of 
 Jesus Christ, have since that time been gradually ad- 
 vancing in a country so favourable to freedom of inquiry; 
 yet it may justly be questioned whether the progress of 
 truth has been quite so rapid, visible, or extensive, as 
 the zeal of this ingenuous and ardent lover of truth 
 prompted him to expect. Dr. Priestley's personal mi- 
 nistry in the United States was attended with very lit- 
 tle apparent success. In Northumberland, where he re- 
 sided, he collected but few proselytes ; and in Philadel- 
 phia, where the chapel in which he preached was at first 
 crowded with the principal characters in the United 
 States, he was afterwards for some reason or other al- 
 most deserted. Yet here his labours were not wholly 
 ineffectual. Since Dr. Priestley's decease a small but 
 highly respectable congregation has been formed, in 
 which, till a regular minister can be procured, a few of 
 the most intelligent and best informed members conduct 
 the service by turns ; and the society, upon the whole, 
 is increasing, though some who once professed zeal in 
 the cause have turned their backs upon it. The Uni- 
 tarians in Philadelphia have erected a chapel for religious 
 worship, to which many of different persuasions contri- 
 buted liberally. 
 
 Another Unitarian congregation has been formed at 
 Oldenbarneveld, a new settlement in the back country 
 of the State of New York, under the patronage of Co- 
 lonel Mappa, a gentleman of a truly respectable cha- 
 racter, and of considerable property and influence in 
 that district, aided by the exertions of the Rev. Frederic 
 Adrian Vanderkemp, a learned and pious emigrant from 
 Holland, whose zeal for the doctrine of the Divine 
 Unity has exposed him to many difficulties and priva-
 
 19'2 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. IX. 
 
 tioris. This chiirch was, for a few years, under the 
 pastoral inspection of the ReverendJohn Sherman, who 
 in the year 1805 was dismissed, on account of his Uni- 
 tarian principles, from his office as minister of the first 
 church at Mansfield in Connecticut, where he had offi- 
 ciated upwards of eight years with great and increasing 
 acceptance and success. Of the circumstances which 
 led to this separation, and of the inquisitorial spirit 
 which was exerted against him by the bigoted clergy 
 in his neighbourhood, he published a plain and affect- 
 ing account, a copy of which now lies before me. And 
 if some expressions of irritation have escaped him, which 
 it would perhaps have been better to omit, it requires 
 but little charity to make allowance for them where the 
 provocation was so great and unmerited. 
 
 This gentleman, in consequence of an attentive per- 
 usal of the works of Mr. Lindsey and Dr. Priestley, be- 
 came a sincere and zealous convert to the doctrine of the 
 proper Unity and sole Supremacy of God, to the simple 
 humanity of Jesus Christ, and to the appropriation of 
 religious worship to the Father only. A doctrine of such 
 high importance, and so materially differing from the 
 popular creed, he justly conceived it to be his duty to 
 avow and teach*. And in the first place, he commnni- 
 
 * This worthy confessor's plain and artless narrative of the feelings of his 
 mina upon this occasion is well deserving of being here transcribed, and may 
 jt make a due impression upon all who are placed in similar circumstances 
 and called out to similar trials ! 
 
 " Settled," says he, " in the sentiment that God is one person only, and 
 that Jesus Christ is a being distinct from God, dependent upon him for his 
 existence and all his powers, I was involved in much trial and perplexity of 
 mind with respect to the course which duty required me to pursue. I was 
 aware of the prejudices of my brethren in the ministry, and foresaw that, 
 should my sentiments be made public, they would certainly exert themselves 
 to destroy my ministerial and Christian standing ; that my standing with the 
 people of my charge, whose confidence I was so happy as to possess, would 
 be endangered, if not by their own prejudices, yet by the influence and exer- 
 tions of others ; and, considering the state of the American churches, that I 
 could hardly expect an invitation to -minister to any people on this side of the
 
 CH. IX.] REVEREND THEOPH1LUS LINDSEY. 193 
 
 cated his change of sentiments to the congregation with 
 which he was connected; when, to his great surprise and 
 satisfaction, he found that, with a single exception, they 
 were all earnestly desirous that he should continue his 
 connexion with them, and that each should quietly allow 
 to others the right of private judgement in this and every 
 other case. This however did not satisfy his clerical 
 brethren, with whom, as residing in the neighbourhood, 
 he had joined in a voluntary association. Being duly in- 
 formed by Deacon Southworth, the dissatisfied member 
 before alluded to, of his reverend pastor's departure from 
 the faith, they first in a formal session, held in October 
 1 804, excluded him from their society, and disavowed 
 ministerial connexion with him. And in this measure 
 was no injustice; for the associated ministers had as good 
 
 Atlantic. Poverty, a diminution of my usefulness, and the unhappy condi- 
 tion of my beloved family, stared me in the face, and conjured me to be si- 
 lent respecting my opinions. 
 
 " On the other hand I considered that, having avowed different sentiments 
 at my Ordination, it could not be reconciled to a frank and open honesty to 
 allow the world to be deceived as to my real belief; that it is the duty of 
 the minister of the Gospel to instruct men in the knowledge of its important 
 doctrines ; that I was accountable to God for my conduct in this matter, 
 who requires of stewards that a man be found faithful, and who certainly 
 must desire his people to be acquainted with the truth, or he would never 
 have revealed it; that no reformation from prevailing errors could take 
 place, if those who are acquainted with the truth should, through the fear 
 of persecution, conceal it from public view ; and, finally, that it is base, and 
 unbecoming the dignity of man, in this 19th century of the Christian sera, in 
 thia land of liberty and free inquiry, to bow down to popular absurdities and 
 superstitions, and quietly to abandon the unalienable right of private judge- 
 ment. These considerations determined me to put all temporal things at 
 hazard, and to place my trust in that wise Providence which had always been 
 kind, and which will either deliver us from the evil, or inspire us with forti- 
 tude to endure it." Upon these generous and pious principles did this Chris- 
 tian confessor act throughout the whole of this arduous conflict ; and how. 
 ever his ignorant and caaUgnant persecutors might injure his good name, ami 
 deprive him and his family of the comforts of society, and leave them desti- 
 tute of the necessaries of life, they could not rob him of the inestimable trea- 
 sure of an approving conscience. How rapidly and extensively must the 
 cause of Christian truth prevail, if all v/ho were convinced of it possessed the 
 fortitude and zeal of Mr. Sherman! But this is an elevation of character to 
 which every one cannot attain. Different persons have different gifts, and 
 ar? called to different duties. Let every one judge impartially for 
 a;vi candidly foi
 
 194 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. IX. 
 
 a right to judge of the truth and importance of their opi- 
 nions as Mr. Sherman of his. But the zeal of these pious 
 inquisitors did not stop here : they wrote an official let- 
 ter to the church at Mansfield, stating, that they had 
 judged it to be their duty to withdraw from their hereti- 
 cal brother their own ministerial connexion, and pretty 
 plainly intimating their expectation that the society would 
 follow their example, and dismiss their pastor, who stood 
 convicted by his own confession of many capital errors. 
 This advice, though treated with merited neglect by a 
 majority of the church, nevertheless made a considerable 
 impression upon a small number of feeble-minded mem- 
 bers, who in April 1 805 addressed a letter to the vene- 
 rable Association, expressing their dissatisfaction with 
 their worthy pastor for denying, as they express it, that 
 "the man Christ Jesus is truly and properly GOD ;" which, 
 say they, "is a doctrine which we cannot be persuaded 
 to give up but with the Bible which contains it." And 
 they further profess that " the doctrine of a trinity of 
 persons in the Godhead, as held by Calvinistic divines 
 for ages, is a doctrine clearly taught in the holy Scrip- 
 tures;" and that, "however mysterious and incompre- 
 hensible, it lies at the very basis of Christianity." Under 
 these difficulties they implore the advice of the reverend 
 Association. But notwithstanding all the activity of 
 Deacon Southworth, and the artifices and intrigues of 
 some bigots in the neighbourhood, only ten signatures 
 could be procured to this address. Such however was 
 the eagerness of the venerable body, and such their zeal 
 to exterminate heresy, that they immediately directed an 
 answer to be sent to the complainants, advising them to 
 have recourse to a Council or Consociation, which is an 
 ecclesiastical court consisting of ministers and messen- 
 gers, and invested by law with great and indefinite powers. 
 But as the Consociation was to consist in a great mea-
 
 til. UC.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LJNDSEY. 195 
 
 sure of the same ministers of whom the Association was 
 formed, who had already prejudged the cause, and as the 
 congregation at Mansfield had never acknowledged the 
 jurisdiction of this court, they rejected the advice with 
 the contempt it deserved. Nevertheless, as this worthy 
 confessor saw that his unrelenting adversaries were de- 
 termined to pursue every possible method to disturb the 
 peace of the society, and to accomplish his ruin,, and be- 
 ing desirous of preventing the disastrous consequences 
 of religious discord, he came to the resolution of resign- 
 ing his pastoral office. This resolution he communi- 
 cated to his friends ; and at his desire the church and con- 
 gregation concurred with him in inviting, according to 
 the custom of the country, a Mutual Council of respect- 
 able ministers to give their advice in the case, and, if 
 they should judge it expedient, to grant Mr. Sherman 
 an honourable dismission and recommendation. 
 
 This council assembled in October 1805, and Mr. 
 Sherman first stated his case, and the reasons which led 
 him to wish to resign his connexion with the congrega- 
 tion at Mansfield. After which a deputation from the 
 church, that is, from the communicants*, were heard oa 
 
 * It may not perhaps he known to the generality of readers, that in the 
 strict independent form of church government, the whole power of ecclesi- 
 astical discipline, the entire management of the property, and the sole right 
 of choosing or dismissing a minister, is vested in the church, that is, in the 
 body of communicants, of those who have been admitted into the communion 
 of that church in particular, according to its prescribed forms, or who have 
 been received by regular dismission from other churches. Mere subscribers 
 have no vote, however numerous and opulent. Mr. Howard the celebrated 
 philanthropist was the richest member and the most liberal supporter of the 
 congregation at Bedford ; he also joined statedly in communion with the 
 church : but not having been regularly admitted into the church, he was 
 only regarded as an occasional communicant ; and in the choice of a minister 
 not the least attention was paid to his expressed opinion and desire, and a 
 minister was chosen who was by no means acceptable to him. 
 
 In Northamptonshire I recollect another instance in which a venerable 
 minister of irreproachable character, of most amiable manners and unim- 
 peached orthodoxy, was dismissed from his office by the church Tinder some 
 trifling pretence, in opposition to the sense of by far the most respectable 
 part of the congregation. His friends appealed to a court of law to reinstate 
 their respected minister in his office. But Lord Mansfield, who, whatever 
 
 o 2
 
 196 MEMOIRS 01 THE LATE [_CH. IX. 
 
 their own behalf; who stated, that though the discon- 
 tented party did not constitute more than one third of 
 the church, yet they plainly perceived that their design 
 was first to exclude their pastor, and then to excommu- 
 nicate their brethren. That, in order to prevent this 
 schism, they had offered to the complainants either that 
 they should remain unmolested with the majority ; or, 
 that the majority, for the sake of peace, should dismiss 
 their pastor, in order to remain unmolested with them ; 
 or, if this would not satisfy their opponents, Mr. Sher- 
 man's friends would retain and maintain their own mi- 
 nister, and let the discontented party have theirs. This 
 concession however, liberal as it was, did not satisfy the 
 dissidents. Lastly, a deputation from the congregation 
 were heard before the Council, who stated, that not less 
 than nine-tenths of the society were well satisfied with 
 their minister, and had no desire to part with him, or to 
 restrain him in his inquiries. "Being," as they express 
 it, " tenacious of the right of private judgement, they 
 wish to indulge their minister in the same: neither would 
 
 might be his political delinquencies, was a most liberal and impartial judge 
 in all cases in which the rights of Protestant Dissenters were concerned, de- 
 manded to see the writings of the place ; and finding that they vested the 
 communicants with the discretionary power of choosing aud deposing a mi- 
 nister, he dismissed the cause immediately, and the worthy veteran was 
 obliged to resign his claims. Another chapel however was provided for him, 
 where he continued to officiate, and was supported by his friends as long as 
 he lived. 
 
 In America, it is presumed that where the Independent form of church 
 government prevails this principle is in general maintained. But in Connec- 
 ticut they have strangely deviated from the original freedom of the separate 
 churches, by the institution of what is called the Consociation, a sort of spi- 
 ritual court, which was established in Connecticut in the beginning of the 
 last century. This court has power to interfere " upon all occasions eccle- 
 siastical," and its censures are authorised and supported by the civil power. 
 Ivtdi Consociation consists of ministers and messengers from every congre- 
 gation which belongs to it. But no congregation is compelled to join it. As 
 far as its power extends it is properly a court of inquisition ; p.nd in some 
 cases the members have discovered too much of an inquisitorial spirit. 
 N.B. 1820, it is said that in consequence of the popular party having gained 
 the ascendancy jja the State of Connecticut, these inquisitorial courts have 
 been put down.
 
 UH. IX.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 197 
 
 they wish that he should act the hypocrite to gain the 
 approbation of any man : and they apprehend that, in 
 case Mr. Sherman is dismissed, the society will soon be 
 found in a most unhappy situation, not likely to be set- 
 tled with another minister for many years." 
 
 Notwithstanding however these strong facts, this 
 noble profession, and this conciliatory spirit, the prudent 
 Council proceed, as a matter of expediency, to dismiss 
 Mr. Sherman from his connexion with the society : and 
 xvhile they bear honourable testimony to his character 
 and talents, and "recommend him to the kind reception 
 of those who may see fit to employ him," they cautiously 
 subjoin, that they " do not consider themselves as giving 
 their approbation of Mr. Sherman's peculiar phraseology 
 or circumstantial difference of sentiment on the subject 
 of the Trinity." And in their subsequent advice to Mr. 
 Sherman they admonish him to " guard against a bold 
 spirit of speculation, and an inordinate love of novelty." 
 
 It is not a little curious to contrast those differences 
 of opinion which this venerable Council coolly describes 
 under the soft expressions of peculiar phraseology and a 
 circumstantial difference of sentiment. The man whom 
 they gravely caution against a bold spirit of speculation 
 and inordinate love of novelty, asserts the doctrine, that 
 there is One God, the sole object of religious worship, 
 and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ 
 Jesus, who is the prophet and messenger of God. While 
 his orthodox opponents, to accommodate whom the 
 Council think it expedient to dismiss their exemplary 
 pastor, maintain as a doctrine essential to salvation, and 
 which they " can never give up but with the Bible which 
 contains it," that " the man Jesus is truly and properly 
 God." Is the venerable Council serious in stating dif- 
 ferences so glaring and so substantial as these, as nothing 
 more than a " peculiar phraseology," and a " circum-
 
 198 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. IX. 
 
 stantial difference of sentiment? No! No! Opinions 
 such as these can no more harmonize with each other 
 than light and darkness, than Christ and Belial. They 
 who hold doctrines so diametrically opposite cannot be 
 fellow-worshipers in the same temple. It was expedient 
 that they should separate. So far the Council judged 
 right. But the difficulty lies in discovering the expedi- 
 ence, the justicej the common sense of making the 
 greater submit to the less ; in deciding in opposition to 
 the 'declared principles and wishes of two-thirds of the 
 church and nine-tenths of the congregation. It is not 
 to be doubted that the members of this Council were 
 upright and honourable men. But as the case now 
 stands it is impossible to approve of their decision. Why 
 is the majority to be sacrificed to the minority? Why 
 is the upright conscientious inquirer after truth to fall a 
 victim to bigotry, ignorance, and intolerance? This 
 surely is a miserable way of promoting either truth or 
 peace. So the members of this truly respectable but 
 too timid and cautious Council have themselves seen 
 reason to acknowledge ; and one of them at least has 
 amply redeemed his character, and has himself very 
 lately become a fellow-sufferer in the cause of truth*. 
 
 * This gentleman is the Rev. Abiel Abbot, late pastor of the first church 
 in Coventry in the state of Connecticut, where he was settled in February 
 1795, and continued to exercise his ministry peaceably and acceptably for 
 fifteen years. In February 1810 some of the membersof his church disco- 
 vered in their worthy pastor symptoms of heresy, anil after some discussion 
 the church applied for advice to the Association which assembled in October, 
 who again referred them to the Consociation which assembled in April 181 1. 
 The Consociation summoned the worthy pastor to reply to the charge: but 
 Mr. Abbot protested against their jurisdiction; neither himself, nor the 
 church of which he was pastor, .nor the congregation having ever joined the 
 Consociation, or acknowledged its authority. The society likewise entered 
 a similar protest. The Consociation however, nothing daunted, voted its 
 own competency and authority, and in their way proceeded to examine the 
 merits of the case ; the result of which was, that the Hev. Abiel Abbot does 
 neither preach nor believe the doctrine of the sacred Trinity; that he does 
 neither preach nor believe, the divinity of Jesus Christ ; that he does 
 neither preach nor believe the doctrine of the atonement by the blood of
 
 CH. IX.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 199 
 
 Mr. Sherman being thus dismissed from a con- 
 !gregation where he had passed eight years in harmony 
 and usefulness, now found himself east out upon the 
 world destitute almost of the necessaries of life, and 
 
 Christ, nor of justification by his imputed righteousness; and that doctrines 
 contrary to these, and subversive of the Christian's faith and hope, are by 
 him taught and inculcated. Voted, That the man who neither believes nor 
 preaches the doctrine specified, is disqualified for the office of the Gospel 
 ministry; for he has essentially renounced the Scriptures, has made ship- 
 wreck of faith, has denied the Messiah, &c. The Council therefore feel 
 themselves required by Jesus Christ, the great God and Saviour, &c. to de- 
 clare, and they hereby do declare, that the ministerial relation between the 
 .Rev. A. A. and the first church at Coventry ought to be and is dissolved, &c. 
 
 Such at the commencement of the nineteenth century was the language, 
 and such were the extravagant claims, of an assembly of Protestant Christian 
 ministers assuming the title of the Consociation of the county of Tolland in 
 the State of Connecticut. Neither the Fathers of the Council of Trent, nor 
 those of Nice, nor of any intervening Council, whether General or Special, 
 ever pretended to higher authority, nor made a bolder claim to mspiratioa 
 or infallibility. 
 
 Mr. Abbot however, and his friends, the great majprity of his society, not 
 feeling themselves inclined to submit to the dictates of the inspired Council, 
 resolved that the unwarranted censure of the Consociation should have no 
 effect upon their mutual connexion; and he still continued to officiate among 
 them as before. Nevertheless, to guard on the one hand against the inter- 
 position of the secular arm, and on the other to testify his respect to the 
 Council itself, the members of which were individually respectable, this 
 amiable and persecuted confessor thought it advisable to invite a mutual 
 Council of grave and learned divines from the State of Massachusetts to 
 deliberate how far it was his duty to respect the decision of the Tolland 
 Consociation. The very sensible and pious answer of Dr. Osgood, who de- 
 clined attending, contains many very just and pertinent observations. "For 
 myself," says he, " I have little faith in, or respect for, Ecclesiastical 
 Councils. I have long thought them unauthorised in Scripture, and for the 
 most part worse than useless, excepting as mere referees or arbiters mutu- 
 ally chosen by parties at variance to settle their disputes." Speaking of the 
 censure of the Consociation, he adds, " It is indeed a most extraordinary 
 procedure in this land of republican liberty, where all Ecclesiastical Esta- 
 blishments are explicitly disclaimed. This consideration, however, assures 
 you, that though the tongues and pens of Ecclesiastical Councils be as free 
 and unrestrained as those of any other description of citizens, yet they have 
 no power to execute their decrees ; and you have no more reason to tremble 
 at the anathema of the Consociation of Tolland county, than at a bull of the 
 Roman Pontiff. It might therefore, perhaps, be advisable to let it pass with 
 as little notice ; suffering it to have no other effect than to render you p. 
 better Christian and a better man." 
 
 These are the observations and advice of a wise and good man; which 
 perhaps it would have been most prudent to have followed. The Mutual 
 Council, however, convened by Mr. Abbot and his friends, assembled at 
 Coventry on the 5th of June 1811, the venerable Dr. Lathrop in the chair; 
 and after due deliberation they conclude that " the Consociation had no right 
 to dissolve the connexion between the pastor and the society, the great ma-
 
 200 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. IX. 
 
 under the ban of a powerful party, who were determined 
 to the utmost to obstruct his future exertions, and to 
 drive him from the ministry. Happily, though the will 
 was good, the power was wanting. The pastor and the 
 congregation appear to have regarded it as their duty to 
 acquiesce in the decision of the Council, however pain- 
 ful : and in an affecting address which was presented by 
 the society to Mr. Sherman, they express their deep 
 regret at the unexpected dissolution of their connexion, 
 when they most wished for its continuance, when they 
 most wanted his ministerial services and friendly counsels, 
 and when he stood highest in their esteem, and had 
 engaged their warmest affections. This address was 
 voted November 12, 1805, and the answer to it is dated 
 from Oldenbarneveld, January 1, 1806. Mr. Sherman's 
 talents were not suffered to remain long unemployed ; 
 and he appears almost immediately after his dismission 
 to have been invited to undertake the pastoral charge of 
 the small congregation which had been collected chiefly 
 by the labours of the excellent Adrian Vanderkemp. 
 And to enable him to remove his family to this distance 
 
 jority of whom manifest a warm attachment to his person and ministry; bat 
 that from considerations of expediency they do dissolve it, and declare that 
 it is dissolved accordingly." Thus again we see the sacred cause of Christian 
 truth sacrificed to a mean and temporizing policy; and the faithful champion 
 cf truth, the amiable, useful, and beloved pastor torn from his weeping 
 ock, and consigned to poverty and solitude for the sake of preserving a 
 hollow, deceitful, temporary peace. But this cannot last long ; nor can such 
 a measure be approved by the great Head of the Church. Of this strange 
 event the virtuous sufferer has published a fair aud interesting narrative, 
 which is written with a temper and spirit truly Christian. " I will bring," 
 says he, " no railing accusation. The men from whom I have differed, I 
 have loved: the men from whom I have suffered, I have respected; and to 
 none am I conscious, to this hour, of feeling an unfriendly sentiment. From 
 the heart I wish them grace, mercy, and peace." It is however but justice 
 to the members of this perhaps too cautious Council, to add, that they do 
 not presume to judge of the faith of their unfortunate brother; that they 
 express the highest respect for his moral character, and that they cordially 
 recommend him to the pastoral office in some other church. And if there 
 be, as I am sure there is, a love of truth, virtue, and liberty, in the New 
 England States, this able, honest, and pious sufferer for truth will not be 
 suffered to remain long in silence and occlusion.
 
 CH. IX.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS UNBSEY. 201 
 
 he received a very handsome pecuniary present from his 
 friends at Mansfield, which he acknowledges with warm 
 gratitude. At last this respectable society seems to have 
 roused itself from its slumber, and to have taken the 
 step which it might have been expected that their affec- 
 tion would have dictated immediately upon their worthy 
 pastor's dismission. The church and the congregation 
 invite him to resume the pastoral office at Mansfield. 
 This invitation was dated December 19, but it was then 
 too late. A scene of greater usefulness had, in his esti- 
 mation, opened before him, and to this consideration 
 he regarded it as his duty to sacrifice personal gratifica- 
 tion and social enjoyment. But, in his reply to this ap- 
 plication, he introduces a very judicious summary of the 
 evidence of the Unitarian doctrine, and concludes with 
 expressing his grateful sense of the kindness of his friends, 
 and with a very impressive address to the youth of the 
 congregation*. For some years afterwards Mr. Sherman 
 remained at Oldenbarneveld; and in a letter to Mrs. 
 Lindsey, dated Novembers, 1807, the worthy Mr. Van- 
 derkemp expresses himself thus favourably of the exer- 
 tions and success of his respected coadjutor: 
 
 * The conclusion of this worthy confessor's address to the youth of his late 
 congregation at Mansfield is so excellent, that no apology can be necessary 
 for inserting it. 
 
 " To the great question in dispute undoubtedly your minds are also 
 directed. The subject is of primary importance, and demands your serious 
 and attentive consideration. Surely you ought to know whether you are to 
 be the worshipers of Three Gods, or of One God only. Let me exhort you 
 to search the Scriptures diligently on this point, and see whether they teach 
 you that three divine persons, three distinct moral agents, make, when added 
 together, only one individual being. Should the result of your investigation 
 comport with the doctrine which I have taught you from the Scriptures, I 
 wish you may be duly impressed with the importance of openly avowing it, 
 and appearing as its advocates ; that as you rise into public life you will 
 never be ashamed of the interesting truth, but boldly and faithfully stand in 
 its defence, though the multitude should be against you. Let your zeal, 
 however, be well tempered with Christian charity. Be moderate and can- 
 did, liberal and catholic, in your treatment of those who may differ. Above 
 all, always remember that the best orthodoxy is a faithful observance of the 
 sacred precepts of that One God, whom you profess and acknowledge."
 
 202 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [c'H. IX. 
 
 " It must fill Mr. Lindsey's heart with gladness that 
 his labours are blessed here in the wilderness, through 
 the means of those whom he enlightened and confirmed 
 in the gospel doctrine by his writings. Our pastor with 
 his amiable and worthy wife has the greatest reason for 
 gratitude to the Divine Being, being beloved, respected, 
 and useful in spreading religious knowledge far and 
 wide. Our situation, in a religious point of view, is 
 very gratifying. Notwithstanding, our pastor has to 
 struggle with furious bigotry and ignorant superstition, 
 which blacken his character and slander his innocence, 
 while infidelity has her adherents through the whole 
 country. That kind of writings are spread every where, 
 and peddled round the country by hawkers in the wil- 
 derness, sometimes under spurious titles. Volney and 
 Paine and Hollis are found in miserable cots and hovels, 
 while it is often difficult to meet the sacred Scriptures. 
 This evil has been nursed through the misconduct of 
 high-flying Calvinist teachers in New England, in choos- 
 ing their missionaries from the most stupid andbigoted; 
 -perhaps from necessity: while men of talents among 
 them decline the task. It is therefore not surprising 
 that our pastor is heard with delight wherever there re- 
 mains any claim to virtue and religion. His plain affa- 
 ble manners, his energetic manner of preaching, his vast 
 superiority over his antagonists in disputes whenever 
 they attack him, increase his influence every day. He 
 preaches in the week twenty miles round, and is sanguine 
 in his expectations that he shall form another society 
 twelve miles from hence. Few weeks are passing in 
 which some one or other of the vicinity do not join our 
 church, and those by far the most respectable among 
 them. Disney's Tracts and Seddon's Sermons have ope- 
 rated a great deal of good : so too have the works of my 
 worthy friend, who now ere long shall receive the glo-
 
 CH. IX.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 203 
 
 rious reward of his labours. Our minister has instituted 
 a school of moral instruction, in which every subject of 
 natural and revealed religion is discussed freely." 
 
 In a letter dated April 1 809, Mr. Vande.-kemp writes 
 in a less sanguine, yet not altogether discouraging strain. 
 " The Gospel cause gains slowly here and at Philadel- 
 phia. We have at length succeeded to re-engage our 
 worthy minister," who it should seem was about to leave 
 them for want of necessary support for his family. " His 
 ministerial labours are not in vain. Well supplied with 
 a tolerable library, he has seen it enlarged, by Mr. J. 
 Priestley and Mr. J. Taylor from Philadelphia, by some 
 valuable additions. He deserves fully this encourage- 
 ment. His talents are bright : his sermons are plain and 
 persuasive ; his prayers devout and ardent ; and his con- 
 duct struck his slanderers dumb." 
 
 Unfortunately, whether it were owing to the inability 
 of the congregation at Oldenbarneveld to raise an ade- 
 quate income for the support of their worthy pastor ; or 
 whether, as is often the case with persons of genius, and 
 whose minds are devoted to intellectual pursuits, there 
 might be on his part too little attention paid to cecono- 
 mical arrangements ; in the next account we learn that 
 Mr. Sherman was under the necessity of dissolving his 
 connexion with this society, and that the flock was at 
 that time left without a shepherd, and in a state by no 
 means encouraging. " The best that I can say about 
 our situation is," says the excellent Mr. Vanderkemp, 
 in a letter to Mrs. Lindsey, dated August 1810, " that 
 we are in a very torpid state. Since March we have no 
 minister. Though a few doubled their subscriptions, 
 though twice we took the defalcations of others on our 
 account, we could not raise a sum adequate to his sala- 
 ry : so the connexion was dissolved, to our gteat grief 
 and the irreparable loss of this community. We have
 
 204 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. IX. 
 
 resolved, however, and continue steadfastly our religious 
 meetings. Some of us have engaged to read in turns ; 
 so that we are edified sometimes by Clarke and Tillot- 
 son, sometimes by Blair, and sometimes by Lindsey, 
 Priestley, Price, and Toulmin."* 
 
 Of the present state of the Unitarian doctrine in the 
 district (now the state) of Maine, the author of this Me- 
 moir is not informed. Whether the congregation at 
 Portland collected by the worthy Mr. Oxnard, or that 
 at Saco, under the patronage of the truly excellent Mr. 
 Thatcher, still exist, or in what state they now are, he 
 has not heard. At Hallowell the first families in the 
 place are in their principles decidedly Unitarian ; and it 
 is hoped that they will find some opportunity of erect- 
 ing an altar to the ONE GOD, and that by the powerful 
 influence of instruction and example they will diffuse 
 the blessings of rational religion in a district which, 
 under their auspices, is rapidly rising into opulence and 
 distinction. 
 
 In the State of Massachusetts, and particularly in the 
 environs of Boston, the great cause of Christian truth is 
 making a silent but rapid and irresistible progress. From 
 the inquisitive and liberal spirit which prevails in the 
 University of Cambridge, which has never been checked 
 at any time, but which there is reason to expect will 
 receive every requisite aid and encouragement from the 
 present learned and accomplished Principal Dr. Kirkland, 
 the happiest consequences may be expected to ensue. 
 
 * In a letter which I received from Mr. Sherman, dated Oldenbarneveld, 
 August 25, 1818, he states that his sole reason for resigning his connexion 
 with the congregation, was the necessity of providing for a large and grow- 
 ing family. He now keeps a flourishing academical school, by the profits 
 of which his circumstances have been retrieved ^ and he expresses a hope 
 that, if life be spared, he may again be called to preach the Gospel of the 
 grace of God. Mr. S. likewise states, in justification of the Council at Mans- 
 field, that it was at his own desire that he was dismissed ; this fact, how- 
 ever, bhould have been more clearly stated in his publication.
 
 CH. IX.] REVEREND THEOPHIIAJS LINDSEY. 205 
 
 The edition of Griesbach's Greek Testament with se- 
 lect various readings, and with the accurate and laborious 
 author's latest corrections, a copy of which was procured 
 in Germany by the late reverend, learned, and eloquent 
 Joseph S. Buckminster, which under his inspection was 
 elegantly and correctly reprinted in America as a text- 
 book for the students of Harvard College, cannot feil to 
 contribute essentially to the true interpretation of the 
 Sacred Oracles. And a large and beautiful impression 
 of the Improved Version with the Notes, published by my 
 intelligent, learned, and valuable friend and correspondent 
 Mr. W. Wells, of Boston, whose zeal for truth is be- 
 yond all praise, will, it is hoped, contribute to the better 
 understanding of difficult and doubtful passages in holy 
 writ. The Monthly Anthology, the General Repository, 
 and of late the Christian Disciple, and other valuable 
 periodical publications conducted by gentlemen of di- 
 stinguished talents and liberality, tend very much to dif- 
 fuse a spirit of inquiry. Bigotry is discountenanced ; 
 and divine worship in many of the principal churches 
 at Boston is carried on upon principles strictly, if not 
 avowedly Unitarian*. Being myself a friend to inge- 
 
 * A very correct, certainly, not a partial account of the present state of 
 professed Unitarianism in the State of the Massachusetts, and particularly 
 in Boston, has lately been published in the Monthly Repository for March 
 and April 1812, in a letter addressed by my highly esteemed friend the 
 Reverend Francis Parkman, of Boston, to the Reverend John Grundy, in 
 reply to a flattering account of the state of Unitarianism in Boston and its 
 vicinfty, contained in the Appendix to Mr.Grundy's eloquent Discourse at the 
 opening of a new place of worship at Liverpool. This account appears to have 
 been communicated to my worthy friend by some person whose zeal in a 
 good ca;;se led him to see the objects of his wish in rather too favourable a 
 light. See Appendix, No. X. 
 
 The following extract from a letter written by a minister in America to 
 his friend in England, dated October 1810, though somewhat long, will, it is 
 hoped, be found both entertaining and important ; it will throw much light 
 upon the state of religion in Boston, and may give rise to some, useful re- 
 flections. 
 
 " In ray return home I spent the Sabbath at Templeton, and I preachf d 
 twice. There are not more than forty or fifty families near the meeting ; 
 .but they come in all directions from the woods and mountain;, in sucU nuin-
 
 4 2()() ML.U01K3 OF TOE LATB [cil. IX. 
 
 nuousuess and candaur, I could wish to see all who are 
 truly Unitarians openly such, and to teach the doctrine 
 
 bers, as to make all together a goodly company. There being in almost 
 every parish, especially in Massachusetts and Connecticut, a settled minister 
 always of good morals, and generally of real piety, to administer divine or- 
 dinances to them and lead them in the way of truth and duty, can scarcely 
 fail having a good influence upon the people at large, in preserving them; 
 from that gross ignorance and grievous profligacy so prevalent in many coun- 
 tries that are called Christian. Nothing would satisfy my son but I must, 
 whilst in Boston, have my picture drawn : this cut up my time so very much 
 that. I could not attend so many of their private meetings as I otherwise 
 should. It was the genera! election for the State ; the Democrats gained the 
 ascendancy. I heard the Election Sermon preached by Dr. P., a very warm 
 Federalist. He made it his business to expose the nefarious proceedings of 
 the opposite party, in truth, a most copious, subject ; and was heard by the 
 people in the galleries with high approbation, and almost clapping. The 
 Convention Sermon (i. e. the sermon preached before the general Assembly 
 ef< Ministers) was preached by Dr. Porter. Full two hundred ministers were 
 in town. Their public business is transacted in the Court House. The 
 Convention has no ecclesiastical authority. Their proceedings and resolu- 
 tions are merely advisory, but are not without coasiderablc effect. The 
 principal thing that came before them was a. complaint against some Mission- 
 aries for going into parishes where there were settled ministers, holding 
 meetings without their knowledge, and even in opposition to their advice. 
 The conduct of the Missionaries was highly disapproved. The Monday after 
 the General Election for the State, there is always a sermon preached to the 
 Artillery Company. Mr. L., I vvas informed, gave them an excellent dis- 
 course, but I did not hear it. I went to the Meeting door, but the crowd 
 was so great that I did not go in. The two Legislative Bodies, the Go- 
 vernor, and a number of the principal Gentlemen and Clergy, after the ser- 
 vice: WHS over, dined at Fanuel Hall, a large building over the market-house, 
 where they have their town meetings and transact their town business. Mr. 
 Jackson the late British minister was there. I was invited to dine with 
 them, but declined it. I was, however, introduced to Mr. Jackson at his 
 lodgings, and once dined with him at Mr. B.'s. Mrs. Jackson with four 
 other ladies were there, the rest of the party were gentlemen, about thirty 
 in all. We had a splendid entertainment. Two courses of all the delicacies 
 money could procure. Among the rest a dish of green pea.i, the first brought 
 to market, which, the papers said, cost four dollars a bushel. The Bosto- 
 nians paid Mr. Jackson great attention, and were much pleased with his 
 behaviour while among them. I preached for Dr. E. Mr. B. Mr. L. and 
 Mr. F. at the Stone chapel. The last-mentioned gentleman was never epi-> 
 scopally ordained ; of course, the ministers who have been so never exchange 
 with him. In his place the Governor used to worship when the State was 
 a British colony. It is a large stone building, just like an English church. 
 The other three are large and costly buildings, and have numerous assem- 
 blies meet in them. The galleries were designed principally for Negroes ; 
 but there is now a meeting built for the Africans to worship in by them- 
 selves. A mulatto minister preaches to them. There are said to be eleren 
 or twelve hundred people of colour in the town. It was Communion day at 
 Mr. B.'s ; there were about one hundred and fifty communicants. At Dr. E.'.* 
 there must have been two hundred. Never did I see such a display of plate 
 on the Communion Table. At Dr. E.'s there were five or six flagons which 
 held from three to four quarts each ; six toakurds, each containing a full
 
 Cft. IX. ] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 
 
 of the simple indivisible Unity of God as well as to prac- 
 tise the rites of Unitarian worship. But I would not 
 
 quart; two dozen of cups of various sizes and forms, with six large plates 
 for the bread ; all handsome, and as bright as silver can be made. No per- 
 son of a grain of sense can suppose these things to be of any importance. 
 But as many of these people display great opulence in their own houses, I 
 see nothing improper in their expending a portion of their superfluous 
 wealth upon the house of God. A Chanty Sermon is preached once a quarter 
 for the benefit of the poor belonging to the congregational Societies in this 
 town. The ministers of that denomination preach it in their turns, and the 
 money is equally divided among the Societies for distiibution. About four- 
 teen hundred dollars are collected in this way in the year. Mr. C. preached 
 an excellent discourse, and is in truth a charming preacher ; being remark- 
 ably serious and sensible, and universally liked. The place was quite full, 
 though it will accommodate upwards of two thousand people. There is al- 
 ways a collection at the Convention Sermon for the relief of poor ministers 
 and their families. About six hundred dollars were collected on that occa- 
 sion. Though the people in Boston have lost much of their ancient rigidity 
 respecting the Sabbath, great attention is paid to that day. Few resort into 
 the country, and those who do, go early in the morning that they may not 
 be noticed. Very few visit on that day, and but few are to be seen in the 
 streets, except when going- to or from public worship, and then the streets 
 are crowded. At sun-set their Sabbath is considered as ended ; the gentle- 
 men often visit their friends, and the ladies sometimes take their work. In 1 
 religious families the Saturday evenings are observed with strictness; but 
 some, as might be expected, under pretence of keeping Saturday evening 
 in preference to the other, keep neither. It is customary in the gayest, and 
 even the most profligate, to connect themselves with some religious Society, 
 so far as' to contribute to its support, and occasionally to attend. This is ne- 
 cessary if they would be thought of any consequence in society, and even to 
 preserve themselves from ridicule and reproach. Dr. E., who has been a 
 minister at Boston above thirty years, tells me, he never knew a greater re- 
 gard'paid to religion in that town than now, nor does he think there ever was 
 in his time more real goodness among them. On Election day I dined with 
 about thirty gentlemen at Mr. P.'s, one of the deacons of Dr. E.'s church. 
 We had a most sumptuous entertainment. When they had drunk two or 
 three glasses of wine after dinner the company dispersed. This I find is a 
 pretty general practice, and thus all temptation to drink to excess is avoided. 
 Their graces before and after meals are generally longer than with you. 
 That office is assigned to the minister of the host, or to the oldest minister 
 present. Episcopalianism is at most only upon- a level with other denomi- 
 nations. The Bostonians are very commendable for keeping veiy much to* 
 their own places of worship, and for speaking of their own minister as one 
 of the best preachers in the town. The clergy seem to be comfortably sup- 
 ported, their salaries being from 1500 to 2000 dollars a yt-ar, and they are 
 constantly receiving handsome presents. They very generally wear in the 
 Summer a silk gown andcassock, with a band; in the winter a cloth one ; and 
 altogether their worship is kept up in a 1 splendid style. The pulpits through- 
 out the country will hold from four to six ministers ; and in Boston their 
 rich cushions and curtains, or Venetian blinds, ornamental pillars and splen- 
 did chandeliers, give their Meetings a magnificent appearance. . I think 
 those which have been lately built are too large ; a minister iinust have a. 
 good voice to fill them. Boston is said to contain 30,000 people, and is in- 
 creasing very fast. The ground on which the town stands is greatly elevated
 
 208 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. IX. 
 
 presume to judge for another. There may possibly be 
 reasons for caution which do not occur to me, and of 
 
 on the south-west. It makes a noble appearance from the country. The 
 State House on Beacon Hill is a magnificent structure. AH their Meetings 
 have steeples with one bell. That to the new Meeting in Park-street is very 
 lofty, and one of the handsomest I ever saw. It stands on high ground at 
 the top of the Mall, is seen all round the country, and indeed beyond the 
 Light-house far into Massachusetts Bay. The High Calvinists who built 
 this Meeting expected to have lessened the other congregations, but I am 
 told they have not yet done it. Should they get a popular minister, I have 
 no doubt there wiil be a large Society : the disposition of the people for *t- 
 tending public worship being such, that I expect all their Meetings will be 
 well attended. In the old part of the town the streets are narrow and crook- 
 ed, but are much improved and improving in that respect. Formerly they 
 were much exposed to depredations from fire, the houses being mostly built 
 of wood. The danger from this quarter is lessening daily, as no buildings 
 higher than fourteen feet are permitted to be erected of wood now. The town 
 stands on a peninsula, joining to the main land only by a narrow neck on the 
 south. They were, therefore, obliged to make use of boats to get to and 
 from town. But since the war, five bridges have been built over the different 
 waters that surround Boston and Charleston, which are a vast convenience 
 to the inhabitants. These bridges are all built of wood, and some of them 
 are above a mile in length. The ministers of Boston and that vicinity discover 
 considerable accuracy and taste in their compositions, and, generally speak- 
 ing, may be considered as well furnished divines. Dr. O. is a man of very 
 strong powers of mind ; and though he distinguishes himself upon all public 
 occasions, and especially those of a political nature, his general manner of 
 preaching is very pious and edifying. The clergy are invited to a great many 
 good dinners. A Boston merchant would hardly think of making a dinner 
 for his friends without inviting three or four clergymen. Some that I once 
 knew I believe injured their health and shortened their days by eating and 
 drinking too much. Those now on the stage do not give into any excess." 
 
 For this long, but curious and interesting extract, I trust that the reader 
 will require no apology. I will only add two brief reflections : First, that 
 the ministers of the church of England are not the only persons who dislike 
 itinerant intruders into parishes which are served by regular clergymen. 
 The spirit of all establishments is the same, whether the favoured sect be 
 episcopalian, presbyterian, or congregational. Secondly, May it be per- 
 mitted to put the question without offence : Can it upon the common prin- 
 ciples of human nature be reasonably expected of a body of clergy, nursed 
 in the lap of ease and affluence, and placed in a statien of such high secular 
 consideration and comfort as that of the ministers of Boston, that they 
 should come forward and by an open profession of unpopular truth volunta- 
 rily risk the loss of all their temporal dignity and comfort, and incur th2 
 contempt and enmity of many who are now their warmest admirers and 
 friends ? I say not this by way of disparagement to the present body of mi- 
 nisters in Boston and 5 Is neighbourhood. Some of these I have the pleasure 
 to call my friends, and know them to be possessed of talents the most di- 
 stinguished, of piety the most fervent, and of benevolence and zeal the most 
 ardent, active, and laudable ; and of the rest I have heard a most favourable 
 character. It is the situation, not the men, which excites my apprehension. 
 And who will venture to say of himself, that his virtue would be equal to the 
 trial ? Yet still it cannot reasonably be hoped that Truth will make any 
 risible and rapid progress till her advocates rise above the fear of man and
 
 CH. IX.J REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 209 
 
 which I am not competent to judge. The time must 
 however come, perhaps it is near, when Truth will no 
 longer endure confinement, but will burst forth in all her 
 glory. The dull hollow rumbling at the bottom of the 
 sea, which is scarcely noticed by the inattentive traveller 
 who is gliding carelessly over the solid plate of ice which 
 encrusts the surface, is, to the wary and experienced ob- 
 server, a sure presage of the speedy and sudden explosion 
 of the immense superincumbent mass, and of the resto- 
 ration of the imprisoned waves to their native freedom, 
 to the consternation and often to the utter destruction of 
 those who refuse to listen to the friendly premonition*. 
 
 APPENDIX TO CHAPTER IX. 
 
 I HAVE republished this chapter without any material alterations; 
 though I ,have learned with regret, that some worthy persons 
 have taken offence at it, and that it has given birth to a warm, 
 not to say an angry controversy on the other side of the Atlantic. 
 It should seem that many who claim the honourable title of 
 Unitarians in the American States, are very desirous to have it 
 known that they are not " Unitarians in Mr. Belsham's sense of 
 the word." Of this I have no right to complain: I never desired 
 to set myself up as the head of u party : nor have I the slightest 
 pretensions to it ; being nothing more than a humble disciple 
 in the school of Lardner, of Lindsey, and of Priestley ; having 
 learned of them and of a few others, particularly Locke, how to 
 read and examine the Scriptures, and being a follower of them 
 
 the love of ease, and are willing, with the apostles of Christ and the re- 
 formers of every age, to forsake all and to sacrifice their dearest interests 
 in her glorious cause. The encouragement and success which such faith- 
 ful confessors would meet with in that populous and opulent city would, I 
 doubt not, be very great. The harvest truly is plenteous, it is ripe and 
 ready to be gathered in. Highly honoured will that servant be to whom 
 the great Master of the field shall communicate a portion of his energetic 
 spirit, and shall say, " Put in thy sickle and reap. " 
 
 * See the interesting narrative of the very narrow escape of two Mora- 
 vian missionaries in travelling over the ice, in consequence of neglecting 
 the advice of some friendly Esquimaux, in the History of the Mission of the 
 United Brethren to Labrador.
 
 210 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. IX. 
 
 so far as they appear to me to be followers of Christ and his 
 apostles. But I do complain of palpable misrepresentation of 
 my. opinions, and of an exaggerated account of my sentiments 
 concerning the person of Christ, to which I am by no means 
 disposed to subscribe. 
 
 In perfect concurrence with the three first-named venerable 
 men, I believe that Jesus of Nazareth was a human being, in all 
 respects like unto his brethren, only distinguished from the rest 
 of mankind as the greatest of all the prophets of God, chosen by 
 the Most High to be the founder of a new and universal dispen- 
 sation, the prince and the leader of life, the first begotten from 
 the dead, to whom the spirit was communicated without measure. 
 By which I mean, that he was fully instructed in the nature, ob- 
 ject, and extent of his divine mission, and that he was endowed 
 with a voluntary power of working those miracles which were 
 necessary to excite attention, and to demonstrate the divinity of 
 his mission. 
 
 In this definition of Unitarianism I perfectly harmonize with 
 Dr. Lardner, Mr. Lindsey, and Dr. Priestley: it is no more my 
 definition than it is theirs : and I have no right to the honour of 
 being represented as its author. They who disclaim Unitariauism 
 according to my definition, disclaim the Unitarianism of Lardner, 
 Liudseyj and Priestley men of the greatest distinction for t'oeo 
 logical learning, for their researches into the Scripture, and for 
 the unblemished sanctity of their character. 
 
 I agree with Mr. Lindsey and Dr. Priestley in rejecting upon 
 critical grounds the story of the miraculous conception, and in 
 believing that Jesus Christ was the son of Joseph and Marv. 
 And being in all respects like other men, he must originally have 
 been a peccable, or he could not have been a moral agent : and the 
 perfection of his characterwas owing to moral discipline. Though 
 he was a Son, he learned obedience by the things he suffered ; 
 and he grew in wisdom as he grew in stature. And though in- 
 spired with a perfect knowledge of every thing relating to his 
 divine mission, it would be absurd to suppose that a human being 
 was inspired with omniscience. In those philosophical, histori- 
 cal, and other topics which were not immediately connected with 
 the objects of his mission he probably entertained opinions siir.i'a: 
 to those of his countrymen in similar circumstances. This is all 
 that is meant, when it is said that Jesus was fallible: and in this 
 conclusion all consistent believers in the proper humanity of Jesus 
 Christ must agree. Dr. Priestley thought that Jesus had erred 
 in the interpretation of Scripture prophecy, and in the case of the 
 Gospel demoniacs. I do not completely agree with my late 
 learned and pious friend in all his conclusions upon these subjects : 
 but if they were true, they would not at all affect the authority
 
 CH. IX.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 21 1 
 
 of Christ in those points to which his divine mission properly ex- 
 tended. 
 
 If Unitarianism is a belief in the existence of one God only, in 
 opposition to a plurality of deities, I am decidedly of opinion, 
 with Dr. Lardner, Mr. Lindsey, and Dr. Priestley, that genuine 
 Arians have no claim to the title of Unitarians. Dr. Lardner, with 
 all his mildness, had such a dislike to Arianism that he could 
 hardly speak of it with temper. " Dr. Watts," says he, " to his 
 honour be it spoken, never was an Arian." And though he lived in 
 an age when Arianism was triumphant, so profound was his know- 
 ledge of Christian antiquity, and so clear his discernment of Scrip- 
 ture theology, that it was a well known maxim with him, ' The 
 pride of Arianism will have a fall.' ' Mr. Lindsey, " to his ho- 
 nour be it spoken," never was an Arian. Dr. Priestley and others 
 descended from the heights of orthodoxy to the plains of Unita- 
 rianism through the medium of Arianism. I am therefore very 
 far from intending the slightest disparagement to those who hold 
 the Arian doctrine, as 1 myself for many years very honestly did, 
 with perhaps a slight modification of what is now called the in- 
 dwelling scheme, in whatever language I may now think it right 
 to enter my protest against it. No one surely who thinks rightly 
 concerning the Unity of God will ever admit that Dr. Clarke's 
 scheme, of an eternally begotten Logos, or the proper Arian 
 doctrine of a created Logos, who is the sole former, preserver and 
 governor of the whole created universe, which completely ex- 
 cludes God from all concern in his works, is consistent with just 
 notions of the Unity of the Supreme Being. Upon both these 
 hypotheses, if the Father is nominally God, the Logos is really 
 and the only God. And as to modern Arianism, such as that 
 of Dr. Price, which supposes the Logos to be only the former, 
 supporter, governor and judge of this world, or of the 
 planetary system, if ever polytheism existed in the world, this 
 doctrine is such. For not only does it exclude God from his 
 works, like the theories of Arius and Dr. Clarke, so far as this 
 world is concerned ; but it naturally and necessarily leads to the 
 conclusion that there are as many Logi as there are systems, and 
 that each Logos is endowed with infinitely more power than all 
 the gods and goddesses of the heathen world put together ; who 
 yet were also subject to one great Supreme. Arianism therefore 
 is polytheism in its strictest sense. But modern Arians, as if they 
 were determined to recede as far as possible from the letter of 
 Scripture, having thus deified their Lord and Master, and raised 
 him into the situation of a substitute for the Supreme Being, 
 strangely, and in direct opposition to the dictates of common 
 sense and to the plainest language of Scripture, deny him the 
 worship and homage due to the rank and character to which they 
 
 P2
 
 212 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. IX. 
 
 have elevated him. For while the Scripture expressly requires 
 that we shall worship and bow down and kneel before the Lord 
 our Maker, for HE is OUR GOD ; the modern Arian replies " No, 
 \ve will not worship the Lord our Maker, for he is not our God; 
 and to worship him would be an act of downright idolatry: but 
 we will worship our Maker's Maker, for he alone is our God :" a 
 strange doctrine; for which if any one can find any foundation 
 in the Scripture, he must read with very different eyes from mine. 
 It is indeed astonishing that so many wise and good men should 
 be so blind to the plain consequences of their own opinions, and 
 should fancy that they are Unitarians, when they believe not only 
 in two, but in two hundred thousand gods. But, as Dr. Price 
 says, we are apt to wonder at one another : and it is almost im- 
 possible to make sufficient allowance for the strength of early 
 prejudice and the influence of fixed principles. But at least I 
 think it will he allowed me that, while I entertain these sentiments 
 of the Arian hypothesis, I cannot very consistently class Arians 
 with Unitarians*. As to the very modern doctrine of the simple 
 pre-existence of Christ, the abettors of it have certainly no 
 claim to the title of Arians, but have a very good right to be num- 
 bered with Unitarians, though, as I think, under a cloud of error. 
 No small share of credit is claimed by many on both sides the 
 Atlantic for being what they call practical preachers, and for not 
 troubling their hearers with what they represent as speculative no- 
 tions. And not unfrequently, a sarcasm or an innuendo is thrown 
 out against those of their brethren who think it their duty to in- 
 struct, as well as to exhort. If such practical teachers satisfy their 
 own consciences, and are useful to others, it is well. Happy is 
 
 * Nothing can be more extraordinary and unaccountable than the zeal 
 with which modern Arians explode the worship of Jesus Christ. For up- 
 wards of twenty years of my life I was an Arian, or a Clarkist. I believed 
 that the spirit, the Logos which animated the body of Christ, was the maker 
 of heaven and earth and sea, and all things therein : I believed that he was 
 my maker, supporter, benefactor and governor, in whom I lived and moved 
 and existed : I believed that he descended from his celestial glories ; that he 
 became incarnate ; that he took the form of a servant ; and that by under- 
 going the severest pains of body and mind he satisfied Divine justice and 
 expiated the sins of men. I believed that after his resurrection he ascended 
 into heaven ; that he resumed his original glory ; and that he ever lives to 
 make intercession for us, in the usual sense of the words. I believed that 
 the first duty of a Christian was to commit his immortal interests into the 
 hands of Christ, who wa.s ever willing to take the charge of them ; and who 
 was always at hand to sympathize, to strengthen, to console, to advise, and 
 to keep what was committed to him to that day. With these views of 
 Christ, was it possible to suppress the feelings of veneration, of gratitude, 
 of hope, of confidence, of joy and the like; or to restrain the natural ex- 
 pressions of those feelings, in the language of prayer and praise ? It was 
 utterly impossible. And never shall I forget the delight with which I have
 
 Ctf.-lX.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDEY. 213 
 
 he who condemned! not himself in the thing that he alloweth. 
 Theirs is comparatively an easy task. Others are placed in cir- 
 cumstances of greater difficulty and severer trial. Enlightened by 
 a serious, long, and painful study of the Scriptures in the know- 
 ledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, they feel themselves not only 
 called to resign their most cherished prejudices, but to abandon 
 their dearest connexions, to exchange affluence for poverty, and 
 reputation for contempt. Being themselves happily possessed of 
 the simplicity of evangelical truth, discerning its inestimable 
 value, and feeling its enlivening arid consolatory power, they be- 
 lieve it to be their duty to enter their solemn protest against 
 popular and prevailing errors, and to be as explicit in teaching 
 God's sacred truth, as others are in publishing their unscriptural 
 and pernicious errors. In thus fearlessly obeying the dictates of 
 conscience they often incur severe privations, and are censured 
 and even abandoned by some from whom they would have ex- 
 pected more liberal treatment. It is however enough for them that 
 God knows their heart j and that his approbation will make am- 
 ple amends for every loss which they may sustain, for every 
 pang which they endure, for all the calumny and reproach 
 which they encounter from the world, and from the unkind cen- 
 sures of their mistaken brethren. If they are honoured as the 
 humblest instruments of promoting the truth of God and the 
 purity of the Gospel, none of these things move them. 
 
 As to the rest, I trust that this discussion has been the happy 
 means of promoting the great cause of the proper Unity and the 
 sole unrivalled glory of God in the United States. I am happy to 
 
 a thousand and a thousand times repeated the language of Grove's Sacra- 
 mental Meditations : " Do I not love thee, O my Saviour ! thou knowest all 
 ihings, thou kuowest that I love thee. I love thee, O Jesus ! but not as I 
 would, not as I ought to love thee," &c. Or of that beautiful hymn of Dr. 
 Doddridge : 
 
 " Do I not love thee, O my Lord ! 
 
 Then let me nothing love ; 
 Be dead, my heart, to every joy, 
 If Jesus cannot move." 
 
 And even now I hardly dare trust my feelings with those recollections ; 
 c\en though, in consequence of having acquired corrector notions of the 
 person of Christ, I am fully convinced that our exalted Master would not 
 think himself honoured by those affections and addresses which are alone 
 due to his Father and our Father, to his God and our God. But how it is 
 that modern Arians can possibly entertain these sentiments of Jesus Christ, 
 and yet refuse him the correspondent homage ; and not only so, but make 
 their boast of it, and glory in it as a circumstance which entitles them to 
 the honourable title of Unitarians, is utterly beyond my comprehension. 
 When I entertained their sentiments concerning the person and offices of 
 Christ, I should rather have said, " Perish Unitiu ianism ! if it requires a sa- 
 crifice so costly as that of the affection and homage which are due to the 
 Redeemer."
 
 214 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [tH. IX. 
 
 learn that ministers both of the Arian and Unitarian persuasions 
 are now in the habit of openly professing the doctrines which they 
 believe: and I do not wonder that, in consequence of this fearless 
 integrity in a land of perfect religious liberty, Christian truth is 
 flashing like lightning through that highly favoured empire, from 
 Boston to Baltimore, and from Philadelphia to the Illinois. And I 
 doubt not that in less than a century the belief of one God even 
 the Father, and of one Mediator between God and man, the MAN 
 Christ Jesus, will become the prevailing religion of the Western 
 world*. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 ACCOUNT OF THE NEW COLLEGE AT HACKNEY. THE 
 AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION TO, AND INTIMACY WITH, 
 MR. LINDSEY AND DR. PRIESTLEY. LONDON UNITA- 
 RIAN SOCIETY. WESTERN UNITARIAN SOCIETY. REV. 
 
 TIMOTHY KEN RICK. UNITARIAN FUND SOCIETY. 
 
 .TROM this long but I trust not irrelevant nor unin- 
 teresting digression, concerning the present state of the 
 Unitarian doctrine in America, it is now time to return 
 to the venerable subject of the present Memoir. 
 
 In the year 1786, the Dissenting Academical Insti- 
 tutions at Exeter, Warrington, and Hoxton, having 
 been lately dissolved, and no place of education for dis- 
 senting ministers remaining where freedom of inquiry 
 upon theological questions was allowed, excepting that 
 at Daventry, which was by no means equal to supply the 
 demands of the nonconformist churches, some gentle- 
 men in London formed a plan for erecting an Acade- 
 
 * The admirable discourse of the Rev. W. E. Charming, delivered at the 
 Ordination of the Rev. Jared Sparks, the respectable minister of the new 
 Unitarian church at Baltimore, in May 1819, and the explicit language used 
 upon that occasion, are amply sufficient to redeem the liberal theologians in 
 America from the censure of concealing what they believe to be the truth : 
 and the discussion excited by this eloquent address cannot fail to be greatly 
 conducive to the cause of free inquiry and the propagation of Christian 
 knowledge.
 
 CH. X.] REVEREND THEOPHTLUS LINDSEY. 215 
 
 mical Institution in the vicinity of London for the pur- 
 poses of general eo &a!t?6n, and to supersede the necessity 
 of sending the sonV ^dissenting parents to the English 
 Universities, where they are under an obligation of sub- 
 scribing to articles which they do not believe, and of at- 
 tending upon forms of worship which they do not ap- 
 prove. The design was generous and noble ; and it 
 could not have failed to produce the most beneficial and 
 permanent effects, had the wisdom of the execution been 
 proportionate to the beneficence of the plan, and to the 
 disinterested liberality, the zeal, and the public spirit of 
 the original founders. The Dissenters through the coun- 
 try took up the case most warmly, and subscribed most 
 liberally; so that, if the sums raised had been judiciously 
 applied, an Institution might have been founded and 
 endowed which would have bid defiance to opposition 
 and calumny, and the duration of which would have been 
 equal with that of the nation. Some have objected to its 
 vicinity to London : but the true and conclusive answer 
 to this is, that other very flourishing Academical Insti- 
 tutions have existed, and do exist, in the vicinity of the 
 metropolis : there is, therefore, no impossibility, phy- 
 sical or moral, why an Institution of this kind, established 
 upon liberal principles and aided by a vigorous system 
 of discipline, might not have been equally successful. 
 And the advantages of the vicinity of London are obvious 
 and numerous, particularly as it affords the greatest fa- 
 cility of obtaining the best means of instruction in every 
 art and science. If the funds of the Institution had been 
 permanently established and oeconomically applied, any 
 error, however great, in the internal management might 
 have been corrected without affecting its existence. It 
 was a grand experiment; in the conduct of which it 
 might reasonably be expected that, from the want of
 
 21(5 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. X. 
 
 experience, errors would arise witjiput any imputation 
 of blame to individuals. And&oityefly own knowledge 
 of the case, having been persona%^'6nnected with the 
 Institution for the last seven years of its existence, I will 
 presume to say, that it did not fail from any deficiency in 
 attention or zeal, either on the part of the committees or 
 the tutors. The spirit of the times was against the In- 
 stitution. And the mania of the French Revolution, 
 which began so well and ended so ill, pervaded all ranks 
 of society, and produced a general spirit of insubordi- 
 nation. The ferment of the times gave birth to insi- 
 dious and even to daring attacks upon natural and re- 
 vealed religion, which produced mischievous effects upon 
 uninformed and undisciplined minds. And the founders 
 of the Institution, with the best intentions in the world, 
 introduced a principle which they held up to the public 
 as the peculiar and distinguishing excellence of the plan, 
 and which was to render this Institution paramount in 
 discipline and order to all others ; but which, in fact, 
 sapped the very foundation of all discipline, and was the 
 bane of all salutary authority, viz. that a superintending 
 committee should be always at hand to watch over the 
 conduct of the students, and to support the authority of 
 the tutors. This regulation, in fact, left the tutors totally 
 destitute of all authority ; for whatever happened amiss, 
 they had no other power to rectify but by an appeal to 
 this committee. Every one who is in the least degree 
 acquainted with the dispositions of young men, must see 
 at once that such a constitution is directly and neces- 
 sarily productive of anarchy. And in fact it did produce 
 it to a considerable degree ; and it was owing to the good 
 principles and habits which many of the students brought 
 with them to the college, that this spirit was not more 
 prevalent.
 
 CH.-X.] REVEREND THEOFHILUS LINDSEY. 217 
 
 Yet, after all, every thing might have been rectified 
 had the funds been properly managed. The principal 
 and in truth the only cause of the failure of the Insti- 
 tution was the unfortunate purchase of the estate at 
 Hackney, which involved the committee in an expense of 
 building and a load of debt which the funds of the In- 
 stitution never were nor could have been able to support. 
 The creditors became clamorous, and it was necessary to 
 sell the estate to great disadvantage in order to pay off 
 the debt. 
 
 The principal of this debt has been long since dis- 
 charged ; and by the accumulating interest of the resi- 
 duary funds, during the suspension of the Institution, 
 under the management of the worthy and respectable 
 treasurer John Towgood, Esq., a sum has been raised 
 sufficient to discharge the interest of the debts, and to 
 relieve the College honourably and faithfully from every 
 just demand upon its assets. A considerable permanent 
 fund still remains, agreeably to the Resolution of the 
 General Meeting, July 1, 1786 *, which is now vested 
 
 * The Resolution is expressed in the following words, extracted from 
 the Minutes annexed to the Discourse delivered by Dr. Price in April 1/87 
 before the Supporters of the College : viz. " That one-third of the present 
 and future donations, benefactions, and bequests to the New Academical In- 
 stitution in the neighbourhood of London, the same not being annual subr 
 scriptions, shall go to create a Permanent Fund, the capital whereof shall 
 be preserved for ever INVIOLABLE and UNALIENABLK, in the hands of 
 Trustees." A subsequent Resolution purports, " That the annual income 
 arising from the Permanent Fund shall ALONK be paid from time to time as 
 it arises towards the support of the said Institution, in such manner as the 
 General Committee shall direct. Or if the said Institution shall at any time 
 hereafter be dissolved, or be discontinued for the space of three years, to 
 theTounding or to the support of any other Academical Institution, or of any 
 Institution preparatory to such among the Protestant Dissenters for the 
 liberal education of youth in any part of England or Wales ; or in giving ex- 
 hibitions to students for the ministry, or in supporting one or more tutors at 
 any such Institution or Institutions within the same limits as the, General 
 Committee shall direct." 
 
 As the annual subscriptions have been discontinued for many years, the 
 only persons who now have any interest in or control over the hinds of the 
 Institution are the Life-Governors, out of whose donations the Permanent 
 fund has been formed.
 
 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. X. 
 
 in public securities in the names of four trustees : the 
 dividends upon which are applied by them to the pur- 
 poses for which that fund was appropriated. 
 
 Of this Institution Mr. Lindsey was from the begin- 
 ning a sincere well-wisher, and an active and liberal sup- 
 porter : no one more ardently desired its success, nor did 
 any one more sincerely lament the circumstances which 
 led to its suspension. 
 
 It was his connexion with this Institution which first 
 introduced the writer of this Memoir into an intimacy 
 with the revered friend who is the subject of it. As a 
 minister whose principles were known to be what is com- 
 monly called evangelical, the author of this Memoir had 
 been appointed in the year 1781, Theological Tutor in 
 the academy at Daventry, which was a continuation of 
 the .academy under the late pious and celebrated Dr. 
 Doddridge at Northampton, and was supported by the 
 trustees of the late William Coward, Esq., who be- 
 queathed a considerable estate for the education of dis-< 
 senting ministers, and for other religious purposes *. 
 The office of pastor of the independent congregation at 
 Daventry was at that time held in connexion with the 
 
 * William Coward, Esq. was a merchant in London, a man of large pro- 
 perty, and a zealous Calvinist. He left his great fortune to pious purposes, 
 intending however that it should be limited to the support of the Calvinistio 
 doctrine. But the professional gentleman who drew up the will, who was 
 a man of great talent and liberality, expressed it in such terms as to leave 
 the trustees at full liberty to apply it to the support of whatever they might 
 judge to be the cause of Christ among Protestant Dissenters. The trustees 
 consist of three dissenting ministers and one lay-gentleman j and when a 
 vacancy occurs the survivors appoint a successor, and this important trust 
 has always hitherto been filled by persons of high respectability. For many 
 years this fund supported two very respectable and flourishing institutions 
 for the education of dissenting ministers ; one in the vicinity of London, 
 trst under the direction of Dr. David Jennings, and afterwards of Dr. Savage, 
 and Dr. Kippis, and Dr. Rees ; the other in the country, first at Northamp- 
 ton, under the care of Dr. Doddridge, and afterwards at Daventry, under Dr. 
 Ashworth, the Rev. T. Robins, and finally the writer of this Memoir. And 
 it was during this interval that Mr. Coward's trust was in the meridian of 
 its glory. To them the whole dissenting interest looked up as its patrons 
 and benefactors ; and from one or other of their institutions most of the ro
 
 CH. X.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 219 
 
 office of divinity tutor, and to this he was also invited. 
 The Unitarian controversy, revived with so much ani- 
 mation by the writings of Mr. Lindsey and Dr. Priestley, 
 and brought home so closely to the feelings by the truly 
 Christian and disinterested conduct of the former, in the 
 resignation of his vicarage, was at that time in its zenith. 
 And the tutor regarding it as a question of the highest 
 importance, conceiving it to be his duty to state it fairly 
 before the theological students, and observing that the 
 question concerning the simple humanity of Christ, 
 which was now become the great controversy of the age, 
 was scarcely glanced at in Dr. Doddridge's Lectures, 
 which were the text-book of the Institution, he deter- 
 mined to draw up a new course of lectures upon the sub- 
 ject. And to this he was impelled by an additional 
 motive, namely, the hope of putting a speedy termi- 
 nation to this newly revived controversy ; since, what- 
 ever respect he entertained for the abilities, the learning, 
 and the character of the great champions of the Uni- 
 tarian faith, he felt a perfect confidence that their argu- 
 ments would be found capable of an easy and satisfactory 
 
 spectable congregations were supplied with well-educated ministers. Indeed 
 it may be questioned whether more good has ever been done for so great a 
 length of time at so moderate an expense. For though they exerted them- 
 selves to the utmost of the powers with which they were vested, the allow- 
 ance which they were able to make to the tutors was never such as to 
 enable them to make any considerable provision for their families, never 
 amounting, I believe, upon an average, including board, tutors' salaries, 
 house-rent, &c. to more than 30/. a head for each pupil, and in the country 
 not so much. But there was no complaint, and the tutors performed the 
 duties of their office with cheerfulness, looking for remuneration of a dif- 
 ferent kind, having never entered upon the dissenting ministry with the ex- 
 pectation of aggrandizing their fortune. In the year 1785, upon the resig- 
 nation of the tutors of the Hoxton Academy, Mr. Coward's trustees, feeling 
 the support of two institutions as a burden too oppressive, determined upon 
 uniting them together at Daventry, under the charge of the writer of this 
 Memoir, under whose direction the United Institution remained till his re- 
 signation in 1789 ; after which it was placed for some years under the care 
 of the Rev. John Horsey at Northampton ; and upon his resignation it was 
 removed to Wymondely in Hertfordshire.
 
 220 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. X. 
 
 reply ; and whatever might be the errors of his own edu- 
 cation, he had been happily instructed and firmly fixed 
 in the grand principle, that freedom of investigation 
 must ultimately be favourable to truth. The method 
 which he pursued in instituting this inquiry he has de- 
 tailed at large in another place. It is therefore suffi- 
 cient at present to mention, that he first selected all the 
 texts of the New Testament upon which the controversy 
 is allowed to depend ; most certainly not omitting any 
 which appeared to him favourable to the pre-existence 
 and divinity of Jesus Christ. These he arranged under 
 distinct heads ; and under each text he introduced the 
 explanations of the most approved commentators of the 
 Trinitarian, Arian, Socinian, and Unitarian hypotheses, 
 very rarely introducing any theological comments of his 
 own, choosing rather to leave the remarks of the different 
 expositors to make their own impression upon the 
 minds of his pupils. The labour was considerable ; but 
 it was not thought burthensome either by the teacher 
 or the learner ; the consciousness of honest unbiassed 
 inquiry, and the gradual opening of light, was ampli 1 
 compensation for all. But the result was widely dif- 
 ferent from what had been expected. First, the pupils, 
 whose ingenuous minds not so firmly bound by preju- 
 dice were more open to conviction, began to discard the 
 errors of education ; and some of them, much to the 
 regret of their worthy friends, and not least to that, of 
 their tutor, became decided Unitarians. The tutor's 
 habits of thinking were more firmly riveted ; and though 
 from the beginning of the inquiry he was a little sur- 
 prised at discovering so few direct, and, as he thought, 
 unequivocal, assertions of his favourite doctrine, and 
 though in the process of his labours he found himself 
 obliged to abandon one text because it was spurious,
 
 CH X.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 221 
 
 another because it admitted of a different and more pro- 
 bable interpretation, and so on, and was thus driven by 
 degrees out of his strong holds ; yet such was the as- 
 cendancy which the associations of education had ob- 
 tained over his mind, that he does not believe it would 
 have been in the power of argument to have subdued it, 
 had not the nature of his office, which made it neces- 
 sary for him to repeat the lectures to successive classes, 
 and which thereby compelled his attention again and 
 again to the subject, eventually, and almost imperceptibly 
 over-ruled his original prepossessions, and brought him 
 over to the faith to which he had certainly no previous 
 partiality, to the profession of which he had no interest 
 to induce him, and which he had fondly flattered him- 
 self that he should without much difficulty have over- 
 thrown. Those who have never changed their opinions, 
 who are not much in the habits of inquiiy, or who have 
 not watched the vacillations of the mind when it is deli- 
 berating upon subjects of high importance, when it is 
 anxious to form a correct judgement, when much de- 
 pends upon the decision, and when it once begins to 
 suspect as erroneous what it has long regarded as sacred 
 and essential truth, may wonder that the teacher should 
 be so long in making up his own mind, and that he 
 should not be able to mark the day and the hour of 
 his conversion. The fact is, that he was not himself 
 aware of it, till, upon the repetition of a sermon which he 
 had preached a few years before, and in which the pre- 
 existence of Christ and its concomitant doctrines were 
 assumed as facts, he found himself so embarrassed from 
 beginning to end, by his sceptical doubts, that he deter- 
 mined from that time to desist from teaching, what he 
 now first discovered that he no longer believed. This 
 was in the autumn of 1788. And conceiving that, his
 
 222 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. X. 
 
 mind being now made up upon the subject, it was his 
 duty no longer to hold his peace, but to bear his public 
 testimony to the truth ; and at the same time being 
 conscious that he no longer possessed the qualifications 
 which were deemed essential to the offices he sustained, 
 and regarding it as both unhandsome and unjust to put 
 his friends under the disagreeable necessity of dismissing 
 him from his office, which they probably would have 
 thought it their duty to do ; at least, being fully per- 
 suaded that it was right to give them their option in 
 the case, he determined to resign both the Academy and 
 the congregation. His resignation of the former he 
 sent into the trustees in January 1789, requesting them 
 to keep it concealed till March, as it would be impos- 
 sible for him to quit his situation till midsummer ; and 
 he had no desire to make himself the topic of conver- 
 sation till it became absolutely necessary. The trustees 
 with great propriety expressed their acceptance of the 
 resignation, in a respectful letter of form by the late ex- 
 cellent and benevolent Joseph Paice, Esq. the lay trustee, 
 accompanied with a kind, affectionate, sympathetic let- 
 ter of his own, like himself *. Nor were the rest of 
 the trustees deficient in expressions of sympathy and 
 friendship. 
 
 In March 1789 the writer of this Memoir went up to 
 
 * Of this gentleman, so long and so well known in London, and so highiy 
 esteemed for his amiable manners, his unimpeachable integrity, and his un- 
 bounded, disinterested, and almost romantic benevolence, an elegant memoir 
 was printed by his intimate friend and executor James Gibson, Esq. address- 
 ed to Mr. Gibson's only child. Mr. Paice was a dissenter upon principle ; 
 and for many years a distinguished ornament of the highly respectable con- 
 gregation at Carter-lane, under the pastoral care of Mr. Pickatd and Mr. 
 Tayler, and now of the Rev. Joseph Barrett. He was eminently pious, and 
 of a truly catholic spirit. He died on the fourth of September 1810, and 
 on the 16th of the same month an excellent and impressive discourse was 
 delivered upon the occasion, by the Rev. T. Tayler, at Carter-lane, before 
 a numerous, respectable, and much-affected auditory, at whose request it was 
 given to the public.
 
 CH % X.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 223 
 
 London to officiate at the ordination of his friend and 
 pupil the Rev. Edmund Butcher*, at Leather Lane, and 
 for a few days he resided in lodgings in Essex-street. It 
 was upon this occasion that he took the liberty of intro- 
 ducing himself to the venerable patriarch of the Unita- 
 rian church. His visit was short : as a stranger he was 
 received With the politeness and benignity which were 
 inseparable from Mr. Lindsey ; but nothing confidential 
 passed. It was a visit of form, perhaps it may be said 
 of curiosity, not, it is hoped, wholly unwarrantable, in 
 the nevy proselyte, to see the holy confessor and cham- 
 pion of truth, whose doctrine he had embraced^ and 
 whose dignified example he had endeavoured, in his hum- 
 ble measure, to follow. But his intended resignation 
 was not then known ; and he did not choose to be the 
 first notifier of it to this excellent man. While he con- 
 tinued with Mr. Lindsey a gentleman came in, who, 
 without knowing the stranger present, announced to Mr. 
 Lindsey that the ordination was to take place at which 
 that stranger was to officiate. Upon this solemnity Mr. 
 Lindsey attended : hut no further personal intercourse 
 passed between them while the writer of this Memoir con- 
 tinued in town ; and he returned into the country gratified 
 with the opportunity which he had enjoyed of visiting 
 Essex House, but little expecting that this interview would 
 be introductory to the happy intimacy with which he was 
 afterwards honoured by its distinguished inhabitants. 
 
 For at that time Unitarianism was far from being a 
 popular doctrine; and the highest ambition of the tutor, 
 
 * This gentleman in the course of a fevr years was obliged to resign bis 
 office on account of ill health, and the weakness of his voice. Happily, by 
 the blessing of Divine Providence, on the use of proper means, he gradually 
 recovered both. He is now the respected and useful minister of a congre- 
 gation of liberal dissenters at Sidmouth ; and having upon more mature in- 
 vestigation seen reason to abandon the system of Arianism, to which he was 
 formerly much attached, he very honourably made a public profession of his 
 conversion to the pure Unitamn doctrine, m a sermon preached before the 
 Western Unitarian Society two years ago, 1810.
 
 224 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. X. 
 
 when he quitted a connexion which had existed for eight 
 years with great harmony and comfort, and to which from 
 principle and from habit he was fondly attached, was to 
 reside in a cottage in the vicinity of Birmingham, where 
 he had many kind and excellent friends, and where he 
 flattered himself that he should enjoy the society and 
 the interesting and instructive conversation of Dr. Priest- 
 ley. But Divine Providence ruled otherwise. It was 
 thought by many of the respectable friends and sup- 
 porters of the New College at Hackney that his labours 
 might be of use to that rising Institution. Some, in- 
 deed, of the old school objected to the new proselyte ; 
 and his own expectations of usefulness or of comfort, in 
 a situation so materially different from that which he had 
 left, were not sanguine. But being now in an uncon- 
 nected and insulated state, he had nothing to lose, and 
 he sacrificed nothing, though his labours might be in 
 vain. He was urged by many respectable persons to em- 
 bark in the undertaking. Many objections were obvi- 
 ated, sacrifices made, and difficulties removed, to make 
 room for him. Dr. Priestley and Mr. Lindsey both con- 
 curred in pressing his acceptance ; and what perhaps 
 weighed more than all the rest, a prospect was opened, 
 by residing in the neighbourhood of London, of culti- 
 vating the friendship of Mr. Lindsey. This, it must be 
 confessed, was the favourite wish of his heart ; and in the 
 accomplishment of this wish his mind was completely 
 gratified, and every sacrifice which he had been called 
 upon to offer upon the altar of truth and integrity was 
 compensated a hundred-fold. He settled at the College 
 in August 1789 ; and from that time his intimacy with 
 the venerable subject of this Memoir commenced, and 
 continued without interruption or abatement till the end 
 of his days. Two years afterwards, in the year 179-1, 
 Dr. Priestley, the most spotless and innocent of men, as
 
 CH. X.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 225 
 
 well as the most sagacious of philosophers, and the 
 most laborious and ingenuous of theologians, having 
 been driven from his home by the insane riots at Bir- 
 mingham, and having been invited to succeed his learned 
 and virtuous friend Dr. Price in the pastoral care of 
 the congregation at Hackney, he voluntarily and gra- 
 tuitously undertook to deliver to the students at the Col- 
 lege his admirable lectures upon history and chemistry. 
 This was the consummation of every wish which the 
 writer of this Memoir could form for intellectual, moral, 
 and social felicity and improvement. To be received into 
 the familiar intercourse and admitted to share the confi- 
 dence of these venerable men, whose honourable exertions 
 and generous sacrifices in the cause of truth had placed 
 them so much above the level of ordinary characters, and 
 even of celebrated divines, was a blessing to which he had 
 indeed earnestly aspired, but the enjoyment of which he 
 had never ventured to anticipate. Few days passed with- 
 out some personal intercourse with one or other of these 
 estimable men, and often with both. And the usual to- 
 pics of conversation, besides the great events of the time 
 which arrested every one's attention, were some subject 
 in theology, some passage of Scripture, the elucidation 
 of some point of doctrine, the solution of some objection, 
 the present slow progress of Christian truth, the antici- 
 pation of a day of greater light and knowledge, and hap- 
 piness and peace. The friends did not entirely agree in 
 opinion upon all points ; but the discussions, sometimes 
 animated, were always amicable, for all were lovers of 
 truth, and they sought after no other object. To dist-o- 
 ver truth was to gain the victory. 
 
 How oft did they talk down the summer's sun ! 
 How often thawed and shortened winter's eve, 
 By conflict kind, that struck out latent truth* ! 
 
 * It is pleasing to see that the society which wa? s truly interesting to
 
 2-20 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. X. 
 
 . -But tins felicity was too pure to last : and in a short 
 time these two eminent veterans in the service, whose 
 friendship had heen the growth of thirty years, and whose 
 writings had, for the greater part of that time, been the 
 food and sustenance of the revived primitive Unitarian 
 church, were destined to be separated, never to see each 
 other's face again. But of this more hereafter. 
 
 In the year 1791 was formed the Unitarian Society 
 for promoting Christian Knowledge, and the Practice of 
 Virtue, by the Distribution of Books. The object of this 
 society was two-fold : the first was, that the few who 
 th<in professed the. unpopular doctrine of the unrivalled 
 supremacy of God, and that the Father alone is to be 
 worshiped, and of the simple humanity of Jesus Christ, 
 might have some common bond of union, that they 
 might know and support one another, and that they 
 might thus publish their profession to the world, and ex- 
 cite that serious inquiry which would lead to the diffusion 
 of truth. The second object of the society was, to print 
 and circulate, at a cheap rate, books which were judged 
 ty be best calculated to propagate right views of the 
 Christian doctrine, and to apply it to the direction of the 
 practice. It was proposed at first to combine this Society 
 witlv that for promoting the Knowledge of the Scriptures, 
 of which some account has been already given. But 
 this combination was opposed by Mr. Lindsey and Dr. 
 
 f. 
 
 the writer of the Memoir, contributed, in a considerable degree, to the gra- 
 tification of the other parties. Upon this subject Dr. Priestley thus expresses 
 himself in the Memoir of his Life, p. 1 07- 
 
 " On the whole, I spent my time even more happily at Hackney than I 
 had.evr done before ; having every advantage for my philosophical and theo- 
 logical studies in some respect superior to what I had enjoyed at Birming- 
 ham, especially from my easy access to Mr. Lindsey, and my frequent inter- 
 course with Mr. Belsham, professor of divinity in the New College, near 
 which I lived. Never, on this side the grave, do I expect to enjoy myself so 
 much as I did by the fireside of Mr. Lindsey, conversing with him and Mrs. 
 Litidsey on theological and other subjects; or in my frequent walks with 
 Mr. lielsham, whose views of most important subjects were, like Mr. Ljud- 
 sey's, the same with my own."
 
 CH. X.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 227 
 
 Priestley, who thought it best that the societies should 
 be kept distinct ; and as the writer of this Memoir was 
 the person who first suggested the plan, it was allotted to 
 him to draw up the preamble to the Rules. And as the 
 object of the society was by no means to collect a great 
 number of subscribers, but chiefly to form an association 
 of those who thought it right to lay aside all ambiguity 
 of language, and to make a solemn public profession of 
 their belief in the proper Unity of God, and of the sim- 
 ple humanity of Jesus Christ, in opposition both to the 
 Trinitarian doctrine of Three Persons in the Deity, and 
 to the Arian hypothesis of a created Maker, Preserver, 
 and Governor of the world, it was judged expedient to 
 express this article in the preamble, in the most explicit 
 manner. This was objected to by some, as narrowing 
 too much the ground of the society, which, as they 
 thought, ought to be made as extensive as possible. But 
 the objection was easily over-ruled, it being the main 
 intention and design of the society to make a solemn, 
 public, and explicit avowal of what in the estimation of 
 its members was Christian truth; to enter a protest 
 against the errors of the day ; to unite those who held 
 the same principles, and who were scattered up and down 
 in 'different parts of the country, in one common bond of 
 union ; and to encourage them to hold fast their profes- 
 sion, and to stand by and support one another. 
 
 A much more plausible objection against the preamble 
 Was urged from the introduction of the word idolatrous. 
 The obnoxious sentence rs thus expressed : " While, 
 therefore, many well-meaning persons are propagatin'g 
 with zeal opinions which the members of this society 
 judge to be unscriptural and idolatrous, they think it 
 their duty to oppose the further progress of such perni- 
 cious errors, and publicly to avow their firm attachment 
 to the doctrine of the Unity of God, of his unrivalled 
 
 '
 
 228 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. X. 
 
 and undivided authority and dominion," &c. Now, as 
 the proper definition of idolatry is the worship of a being 
 who is not truly God, and more especially the worship of 
 a deified man, nothing can be more evident than that the 
 worship of Christ must, in the estimation of Unitarians, 
 be in that sense idolatrous ; and no persons are more 
 ready to allow this consequence than Trinitarians them- 
 selves are, upon the supposition that their doctrine is er- 
 roneous. Yet nothing appears to give greater offence 
 than the use of this epithet by the Unitarians, though 
 they adopt it chiefly to excite the attention of their fel- 
 low-christians to the importance of the question ; and 
 are at the same time solicitous to point out the wide dif- 
 ference between Christian and Pagan idolatry ; the for- 
 mer being solely an error of judgement, upon the culpa- 
 bility of which they presume not to decide ; while the 
 other is essentially connected with the most odious vices, 
 is branded in Scripture with the most contemptuous epi- 
 thets, and justly threatened with the most awful punish- 
 ments. The introduction of this expression into the 
 preamble gave very great offence to many of the friends 
 of the infant Institution, and it was very seriously de- 
 bated, whether it should be retained or not. Perhaps 
 it might have been prudent to omit it, as the doctrine 
 which the society desired to hold forth as their common 
 faith might have been expressed with equal distinctness 
 and precision without it. But as it had been introduced, 
 many were unwilling to abandon it ; they even consi- 
 dered the omission of it as little less than a dereliction of 
 principle. Among these were Mr. Lindsey, Dr. Priest- 
 ley, Mr. Russel, of Birmingham ; and Mr. Tayleur, of 
 Shrewsbury. On the other side were some gentlemen of 
 Cambridge and elsewhere, whose names would have been 
 an ornament to the society, but who either declined 
 joining it, or wjthdrew from it when they heard that it
 
 CH. X.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 229 
 
 was decided to retain the offensive epithet. And, in 
 fact, some who still continued in the society were not 
 well pleased with the expression, which they regarded as 
 having a tendency to fix an opprobrium upon their fel- 
 low-christians*. 
 
 The first annual dinner of the Unitarian Society was 
 held at the King's Head, in the Poultry, in April 1791 : 
 the number assembled was between forty and fifty: 
 among these were Mr. Lindsey, Dr. Priestley, Dr. Kip- 
 pis, &c. and several eminent political characters were 
 
 * As the preamble to the Rules of the Unitarian Society is not of any great 
 length, and has been the subject of much discussion, it may not be amiss to 
 introduce it in this place : 
 
 " Christianity, proceeding from God, must be of infinite importance ; and 
 a more essential service cannot be rendered to mankind, than to advance the 
 interests of truth and virtue j to promote peace, liberty, and good order in 
 society ; to accelerate the improvement of the species j and to exalt the cha- 
 racter and secure the greatest ultimate happiness of individuals, by disse- 
 minating the right principles of religion, and by exciting the attention of men 
 to the genuine doctrines of revelation. 
 
 " This is the chief object of THE UNITARIAN SOCIETY TOR PROMOTINB 
 
 CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE AND THE PRACTICE OP VIRTUE, BY DISTRIBUTING 
 
 suck BOOKS as appear to the members of the society to contain the most jra- 
 tional views of the Gospel, and to be most free from the errors by which it 
 has long been sullied and obscured. Error, voluntary or involuntary, so far 
 as it extends, must have a pernicious influence. The member^ of this society 
 think, therefore, that they are doing signal service to the cause of truth and 
 good morals, by endeavouring to clear the Christian system from all foreign 
 incumbrances, and by representing the doctrines of revelation in their primi- 
 tive simplicity. Truth must ultimately be serviceable to virtue. 
 
 * The fundamental principles of this society are, That there is but ONE 
 GOD, the SOLE Former, Supporter, and Governor of the universe, the ONLY 
 proper object of religious worship ; and that there is one mediator between 
 God and men, the MAN Christ Jesus, who was commissioned by God to in~ 
 Struct men in their duty, and to rereal the doctrine of a future life. 
 
 ff Ttye beneficial influence of these truths upon the moral conduct of men 
 will be in proportion to the confidence with which they are receive4 into the 
 mind, and the attention with which they are regarded. Consequently, all 
 foreign opinions, which men have attached to this primitive system of Chris- 
 tian doctrine, and which tend to divert their thoughts from these fundamen- 
 tal principles, are in a degree injurious to the cause of religion and virtue. 
 While, therefore, many well-meaning persons are propagating, with zeal, 
 opinions which the members of this society judge to be unscriptural and ido- 
 latrous, they think it their duty to oppose the further progress of such per- 
 nicious errors, and publicly to avow their firm attachment to the doctrine of 
 the UNITY of GOD, of his UNRIVALLED and UNDIVIDED authority and do- 
 minion ; and their belief that Jesus Christ, the most distinguished of the 
 prophet*; is the CREATURE and MESSENGER of God, and not his EQUAL, nor 
 jiis VICEGERENT in the formation and government of the world, nor CQPART
 
 230 MEM OIKS OF THE LATE [(JH. X. 
 
 also present .who were not members of the society. It 
 was at a. time when the French Revolution was in its 
 glory, when it excited the highest hopes, and when its 
 success was the object of the most cordial wishes of the 
 best friends to civil and religious liberty in this country. 
 Mr. Burke had published his celebrated book six months 
 before; and Dr. Priestley and Mr. (now Sir James) 
 Mackintosh and others had written or were preparing 
 answers to it. The subject so occupied the public atten- 
 tion, that it almost engrossed the conversation in every 
 company. Unfortunately, upon this occasion many po- 
 litical toasts were given ; and, amongst others, " Mr. 
 Burke, and thanks to him for the discussion which he 
 has provoked." And still more unfortunately for the so- 
 ciety, they were published the next day in some of the 
 Morning Papers, from which they were transferred into 
 the Moniteur and other French Journals. The right ho- 
 nourable gentleman whose namehad been introduced with 
 such distinction animadverted upon the meeting the next 
 day in the House of Commons with great indignation. 
 And twelve months afterwards, when a petition was pre- 
 sented to the House, which, though it originated with 
 
 NER with him in divine honours, as some have strangely supposed. And 
 they are desirous to try the experiment, whether the cause of true religion 
 and virtue may not be most effectually promoted upon proper Unitarian prin- 
 ciples ; and whether the plain unadulterated truths of Christianity, when 
 fairly taught and inculcated, be not of themselves sufficient to form the minds 
 of those, who sincerely embrace them, to that true dignity and excellence of 
 character to which the Gospel was intended to elevate them. 
 
 " Rational Christians have hitherto been too cautious of publicly acknow- 
 ledging their principles ; and this disgraceful timidity has been prejudicial to 
 the progress of truth and virtue. It is now high time that the friends of ge- 
 riuine Christianity should stand forth and avow themselves. The number of 
 such, it is hoped, will be found to be much greater than many apprehend. 
 And their example, if accompanied with, and recommended by, a corre- 
 spondent purity of life and morals, will naturally attract the attention of 
 others, and produce that freedom of inquiry, that liberal discussion, and that 
 fearless profession of principles embraced after due examination, which can 
 be formidable to nothing but fo error and vice, and which must eventually 
 be subservient to the cause of truth and virtue, and to the best interests of 
 mankind."
 
 CH. X.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 231 
 
 the Unitarian Society, had been signed by persons of all 
 persuasions, churchmen and dissenters, for the repeal of 
 the penal laws relating to religion ; though it was intro- 
 duced and supported by Mr. Fox with all his superemi- 
 nent powers of reason and eloquence, it was most ve- 
 hemently opposed by Mr. Burke, who made the house 
 merry, and at the same time alarmed their prejudices, by 
 reading and commenting upon the toasts which had been 
 given at the dinner, and which he, with some humour, 
 described as the articles of the Unitarian creed. This 
 faux pas of the society at its commencement, in mix- 
 ing politics with religion, gave much and reasonable 
 offence to many of its friends and absent members, and 
 induced the society afterwards to hold their meetings 
 more privately, to decline all publicity in their proceed- 
 ings, and to determine that, as a body formed upon a 
 religious principle and directed solely to a religious ob- 
 ject, they would not intermeddle with temporary politics. 
 This society, the dawn of which was thus ushered in, 
 'with clouds, soon emerged from its obscurity. It was 
 joined by numbers of high respectability in different parts 
 of the kingdom, who were not afraid or ashamed to be 
 enrolled in the catalogue of Christians who were the 
 avowed worshipers of the One God, the Father, through 
 the one mediator between God and man, the Man Christ 
 Jesus. And the success of the society, thus constituted, 
 greatly exceeded the most sanguine expectations of those 
 by whom it was originally formed. It made Unitarians 
 known to one another. It diffused the doctrines of un- 
 corrupted Christianity, by the extensive circulation of 
 books which were calculated to check the progress of 
 popular errors. It encouraged the public profession of 
 these long-neglected truths . And what was of the greatest 
 importance, it gave birth to many similar societies in dif- 
 ferent parts of the country; some of which are in a' state
 
 23*J MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. X. 
 
 as prosperous, or even more so than the London Society 
 itself. 
 
 The first of these affiliated societies was the Western 
 Unitarian Society, which was formed under the auspices 
 of that truly excellent man the late Reverend Timothy 
 Kenrick, of Exeter, a gentleman equally distinguished 
 by the soundness of his judgement, the accuracy of his 
 learning, the piety and rectitude of his character, and the 
 warmth and inflexibility of his zeal in the cause of truth, 
 virtue, and liberty. Having after long and rigorous in- 
 quiry seen reason to adopt the doctrine of the proper 
 humanity of Jesus Christ, and the unrivalled supremacy 
 of the Father, he regarded it as an imperious duty to 
 bear his testimony to the truth, to communicate the 
 light which he had received, and to eradicate from the 
 minds of the people of his charge the deeply-rooted errors 
 which they had derived from the writings and instruc- 
 tions of the learned Peirce and the venerable Towgood, 
 of a second and inferior God, a delegated Creator, Pre- 
 server, and Governor of the Universe. This erroneous 
 and unscriptural doctrine Mr. Kenrick gradually under- 
 mined by judicious discourses and plain and practical ex- 
 positions from the pulpit, and attacked still more directly 
 in the familiar lectures which he delivered to the young 
 men of his congregation, and by the formation and zeal- 
 ous support of the Western Unitarian Society. He saw 
 with much regret that few young persons were in a train 
 of education for the Christian ministry among the rational 
 dissenters. And he himself opened an Institution for 
 that purpose at Exeter, in connexion with the Reverend 
 Joseph Bretland, and received students into his family, 
 gave up his time and labour to their instruction, and 
 boarded them upon terms from which it was impossible 
 for him to gain any thing. He can hardly be said to 
 have done justice to his own family in thus expending
 
 CH. X.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 233 
 
 his time, his talents, his vigour, and even his substance, 
 with so little prospect of adequate remuneration. But 
 this was to him an object of light consideration, in com- 
 parison with the great end he had constantly in view, the 
 diffusion of Christian truth, and the extrication of the 
 Christian doctrine from the mass of rubbish in which 
 it has been for many centuries overwhelmed. In this 
 great work he met with much opposition ; with opposi- 
 tion from those who, from early habit and education, 
 were sincerely and zealously attached to the errors which 
 he was labouring to eradicate, and who of course believed 
 it to be their duty to oppose him in all his measures ; 
 and with opposition from some wise men of the world, 
 who, though their opinions perhaps were not much at 
 variance with his own, did not think it prudent to excite 
 religious dissensions and to give public offence ; arguing 
 in the same way, and acting upon the same principles, 
 as the first opposers of the Reformation, and even of 
 Christianity itself. Mr. Kenrick's vigorous mind was in 
 no respect daunted by this opposition ; but persevering 
 in his object with inflexible resolution, he ultimately ob- 
 tained complete success. It pleased the Almighty, in 
 his mysterious providence, to put a stop to this excellent 
 man's exertions by an awful and unexpected stroke in 
 the midst of his career. While in full possession of his 
 health and faculties, and rejoicing in the increasing suc- 
 cess of his pious and benevolent schemes, he was sud- 
 denly cut off by an apoplectic seizure at Wrexham, in 
 Denbighshire, August 22, 1804, in the forty-fifth year of 
 his age. The success of Mr. Kenrick's labours in his 
 congregation appeared by their choice of a successor of 
 similar ability and zeal in promoting the same great and 
 good cause of Christian truth, the Reverend Dr. Lant 
 Carpenter and in his Academical Institution, by the re- 
 verence and affection in which his name and character are
 
 234 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. X. 
 
 held by his pupils, and by their zeal and usefulness in the 
 respectable stations which they occupy in the dissenting 
 churches. The Western Unitarian Society has continued 
 to flourish since Mr. Kenrick's de'cease, and Arianism 
 seems to be nearly expelled from one of her strongest cita- 
 dels. Mr. Kenrick left three sons : the eldest of them, after 
 his father's decease, passed a few years at Birmingham 
 under the tuition of the lleverend John Kentish, His fa- 
 ther's friend ; and, having afterwards finished a brilliant 
 career at the University of Glasgow, is now settled as a 
 tutor in the College at York, an Institution of deservedly 
 high reputation, under the able direction of the Reverend 
 Charles Wellbeloved. And at this Institution Mr. Ken- 
 rick's youngest son is in a course of education for the mi- 
 nistry*. Two volumes of posthumous Sermons and three 
 of Exposition of the Evangelists,, published at the desire 
 of his congregation, are ample proofs how well qualified 
 the learned and pious author was to teach the pure un- 
 corrupted doctrine of Christ. Let the reader pardon what 
 it is hoped may be considered as a not totally irrelevant 
 digression, which the author has introduced to testify his 
 respect and veneration for one in whose education he had 
 the honour to sustain no inconsiderable share, and with 
 whom he had afterwards the happiness to be connected 
 as a colleague, a friend, and a brother. 
 
 His saltern accumulem donis, et fungar inani 
 Munere. 
 
 The Southern Unitarian Society was formed soon after 
 the Western, and a few years afterwards the Northern 
 and other similar societies. These gave birth to Unita- 
 rian Tract Societies in different parts of the kingdom, 
 the design of which was to distribute small tracts for the 
 
 * The Reverend George Kenrick is now (1820) settled with a respectable 
 congregation at Hull, where he is discharging his official duties with a zeal 
 and activity* worthy of the descendant of such a father.
 
 JH. X.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 235 
 
 purpose of diffusing just principles of religion among the 
 interior classes of society. With these have been united 
 what are called Christian Tract Societies, which are in- 
 tended to spread among the inferior classes interesting 
 little compositions wholly practical, and entirely uncon- 
 nected with controversy. These societies have met with 
 great encouragement, and many have contributed to 
 them who. by no means agree in sentiment with the ori- 
 ginal founders of these useful associations. But the So- 
 ciety which at present holds the foremost rank, and en- 
 gages the most general and the warmest support of the 
 Unitarian body, is that which is called the Unitarian 
 Fund Society ; the professed object of which is to encou- 
 rage popular preaching, and to engage missionaries to 
 visit different parts of the country, and, wherever there is 
 an opening, to preach pure and uncorrupted Christianity 
 in opposition to popular and prevailing errors. Some of 
 the ministers employed in these missions, though not 
 possessing the advantage of regular education, are men 
 of very popular talents and very extensive information ; 
 and by the great success with which their labours have 
 been attended they have abundantly proved, that simple 
 unsophisticated truth has charms to captivate even the 
 most ordinary minds, when it is exhibited to them in a 
 clear and affecting light, and have demonstrated the fal- 
 lacy of the commonly received opinion that Unitarianism 
 is not a religion for the common people. This being 
 a new experiment, in which unlearned ministers were 
 chiefly employed, many of the iiiore learned arid regular 
 members of the Unitarian body stood aloof, and declined 
 to give countenance to a proceeding, of the prudence and 
 propriety of which they stood in doubt. Some do, not 
 even yet approve it ; and others who wish well to the de- 
 sign do not regard it as within the field of their personal 
 exertions. But after the success which has attended the
 
 230 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. X. 
 
 efforts of this Society, no person who is a real friend to 
 the cause can consistently be hostile to its principle. 
 How far the venerable patriarch of Unitarianism, who is 
 the subject of this Memoir, would have patronised a 
 Society of this description, cannot now be ascertained. 
 That he was in the highest degree favourable to the main 
 object of it, is evident from the following extract from 
 a letter to a friend, dated October 23, 1789 : " I find 
 that your son's account of the Unitarian street-preachers 
 is true, and that he was with Dr. Priestley at Manchester 
 when he saw them. It will be very desirable to have 
 their numbers increased. We want much to have the 
 common people applied to, as enough has been done, and 
 is continually doing, for the learned and the higher ranks." 
 The parent Institution, the London Unitarian Society, 
 still exists upon a very respectable footing; and though 
 its numbers may not be so large nor its funds so ample, 
 nor its proceedings attended with so much eclat as those 
 of some associations of later date, it still retains the 
 honour of having set the first example of a Society pub- 
 licly professing Unitarian principles, and constituted with 
 an avowed design of supporting and diffusing them. One 
 of its main objects no longer exists. The title of Uni- 
 tarian, then a term of general reproach, is now, in con- 
 sequence of the extensive diffusion of Unitarian princi- 
 ples, become a mark of honour, and is courted rather 
 than shunned. The Society still continues to distribute, 
 every year, a very considerable number of Unitarian 
 books and tracts. And if its numbers should decline, 
 of which however there is no immediate prospect, the 
 members of the Society whose only object is to promote 
 the cause of truth, and who have no personal or party in- 
 terest to consult, will rejoice to see it superseded by any 
 institution which promises to be of greater utility to the 
 general cause.
 
 CH. XI.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 237 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 ANALYSIS OF THE CONVERSATIONS UPO^N CHRISTIAN 
 IDOLATRY. THE DUKE OF GRAFTON CORRESPONDS 
 WITH AND VISITS MR. LINDSEY, AND ATTENDS UNI- 
 TARIAN WORSHIP. A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE PRO- 
 GRESS OF THE DUKE'S OPINIONS, AND OF HIS REASONS 
 AND MOTIVES FOR SECEDING FROM THE ESTABLISHED 
 FORM. REFLECTIONS. 
 
 1 HE introduction of the charge of idolatry into the 
 Society's Preamble having been much misunderstood 
 and given great offence ; to obviate the objections and to 
 correct the error, Mr. Lindsey published a small work in 
 octavo, in 1792, entitled Conversations upon Christian 
 Idolatry. The scene is laid in the house of Marcellinus, 
 a gentleman of large fortune and great liberality of sen- 
 timent, and the conversation is supposed to have taken 
 place in his library after breakfast, between himself; 
 Volusian, an eminent barrister and moderate churchman ; 
 Synesius, a person of great worth, who seldom attended 
 public worship, but who was a zealous friend to a re- 
 ligious establishment ; and Photinus, an enlightened and 
 zealous Unitarian, who writes an account of the conver- 
 sations to his friend Victorin. And the author leads his 
 reader to understand, that the whole transaction had 
 some foundation in fact. 
 
 The dialogue begins with some severe animadver- 
 sions upon the late disgraceful riots at Birmingham, the 
 whole blame of which Marcellinus imputes to the opera- 
 tion of the Test Act, and other laws against the dis- 
 senters ; but is interrupted by Volusian, who, while he ex- 
 presses his entire disapprobation of the Test Laws, and 
 his indignation at the insults and injuries offered to Dr. 
 Priestley, nevertheless expresses his suspicion, that " Dr.
 
 238 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. XI. 
 
 Priestley had contributed to excite the bad spirit which, 
 however wrongly, had appeared against him ;" and par- 
 ticularly by his late sermon at Hackney, in which he had 
 " bluntly and peremptorily declared the worship of Jesus 
 Christ to be idolatrous." Marcellinus defends Dr. P. upon 
 his own principles, and represents him as " worthy to be 
 remembered as a benefactor to mankind, particularly for 
 the light which he has thrown upon theological subjects." 
 But Volusian, without impeaching his moral character, 
 regards a restless love of novelty as " evidently his fail- 
 ing;" and " having been bred up in" the belief that Jesus 
 Christ is God, and to be worshiped, he cannot endure 
 the rudeness and impertinence of the man who tells him 
 that he is an idolater." Here Photinus interposes and 
 puts the question seriously to Volusian, " whether he 
 had ever searched the Scriptures to know how many 
 Gods there are, and whether Jesus Christ was one?" 
 This leads Volusian to the confession, that " he had not 
 made the Scriptures his particular study;" that, " iii 
 general, these theological matters are left to be set- 
 tled by the divines, those especially of the upper ranks;" 
 and that, " at his time of life, he had no leisure, and less 
 relish, for such intricate inquiries." This confession 
 introduces from Photinus a serious remonstrance, and 
 an earnest exhortation to study the Scriptures for him- 
 self, in which he would very soon attain entire satisfac- 
 tion concerning the God he is to worship. This ends 
 the first Conversation. 
 
 Volusian, much impressed with his friend's advice, 
 goes home for a week under pretence of business,' but 
 passes the greater part of his time in reading and 
 studying the Scriptures with the greatest attention; in 
 consequence of which he becomes a sincere proselyte 
 to the faith, that there is but One God, the Father, the 
 only proper Object of religious worship, and that Jesus
 
 CH. XI.] REVEREND THEOPHILTJS LINDSEY. 239 
 
 Christ is the servant and faithful messenger of God, but 
 Hot the object of worship; and, upon his return, he 
 embraces the earliest opportunity of communicating his 
 conversion to his friends. This constitutes the subject 
 of the second day's Conversation; in which Volusian is 
 almost the only speaker, and details to his friends the 
 principal arguments both from the Old Testament and 
 the New, by which he was led to the conviction that " God 
 is strictly One, one person : and the blessed Jesus no- 
 thing but his favoured creature and servant." " Still, 
 however wrong, he could not look upon himself as an 
 idolater in the worship he had hitherto paid to Jesus 
 Christ ; and though mistaken, he could not look upon 
 himself to have been a wicked man, which that language 
 implies." 
 
 This of course forms the subject of the third day's 
 Conversation ; in which Photinus replies at large to 
 Volusian's objection, that " idolatry is represented in the 
 sacred writings as a heinous sin, an idea which he could 
 not entertain of any who are sincere, however erroneous, 
 in their worship of Jesus Christ." Photinus very justly 
 remarks, that the idolatry against which the judgements 
 of God were denounced, was that of the heathen, which 
 was not a mere " speculative error, but attended with 
 the most shocking vice and immorality;" whereas, " no- 
 thmg of this kind can be charged on the idolatrous 
 worship of Christians, though <the Almighty and infinite 
 Being is dishonoured and degraded by it." And 'in 
 answer to the question of Volusian, " to show wherein 
 their idolatry lies," he states, that "idolatry consists in 
 paying divine honours to a creature;" the doing which 
 is a direct violation of the first commandment in the de- 
 calogue, which is not only not repealed, but is solemnly 
 confirmed by Christ. If, therefore, Jesus Christ be a 
 creature, V to call him God, and to worship him, can be
 
 240 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. XI. 
 
 nothing less than idolatry." Synesius now interposing 
 the observation, " that the members of the church of 
 England are not idolaters ; because, though charged with 
 worshiping three Gods, they are themselves persuaded 
 that they worship only One," Photinus replies, that " if 
 men's own thoughts will exculpate them, there never was 
 such a thing as idolatry in the world;" for all idolaters, 
 the worshipers for example of the Virgin Mary, are per- 
 suaded that their worship is allowed by God. " Our con- 
 victions concerning actions cannot make that right which 
 is in itself wrong, though they will excuse us in doing it 
 in proportion to the insuperable ignorance under which 
 we labour." And in answer to Volusian's expression 
 of anxiety at the great prevalence of Christian idolatry, 
 Photinus reminds his friend of the innocence of those 
 who, through the error of education, are involuntarily 
 involved in it; but adds, that " how far those are inno- 
 cent who believing Jesus Christ to be a creature, do 
 nevertheless customarily join with others in the worship 
 of him as the Supreme God, is a very serious question." 
 He then observes, and produces some very remarkable 
 instances to prove, that the most orthodox in our own 
 country have had no scruple of terming the worship of 
 Christ to be idolatrous if he be a creature*; and after a 
 few general remarks the Conversation closes. 
 
 * See Waterland't Defence, p. 231. 252. Dr. Hughes's Sermon at Sailer's 
 Hall, vol. ii. p. 8. Whitaker's Origin of Arianism, p. 4, 5. The expressions 
 of the lait-cited author are very remarkable. " If," says he, " this doctrine 
 of the Trinity be false, then nine-tenths of the Christians throughout every 
 age and every country are guilty of idolatry, of idolatry more gross than that 
 of the Papists at present ; because, not merely the worship of saints and 
 angels in subordination to God, but the worship of a creature along with the 
 Creator; placing him equally with God on the throne of the universe'; giving 
 God e partner in his empire, and so deposing God from half his sovereignty. ' 
 These are the words of a zealous Trinitarian: surely, then, it becomes every 
 one who offers divine worship to Jesus Christ, well to consider the ground 
 upon which he stands: much more does it become the decided believer in 
 the proper Unity of the great Object of worship, to flee from that which must 
 in his own estimation, and even in that of those who arc themselves wor- 
 chipers of Christ, be gross idolatry.
 
 CH. XI.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 241 
 
 Tlie fourth Conversation discusses the question which 
 Volusian tells his friends presses with much weight upon 
 his mind, viz. " how a person should act upon discovering 
 that the established worship of the country in which he 
 was bred was idolatrous?" Synesius gives it as his 
 opinion, that public worship should be abandoned alto- 
 gether. For " all right worship is in the heart, and the. 
 moment you mix with others in the worship of God, 
 you are in danger of being misled by a thousand fancies, 
 and idle superstitious forms and practices." Photinus, in 
 reply, vindicates public worship as a duty enjoined even 
 by natural religion to keep up the knowledge of him in 
 ourselves and others, and to cherish in our breasts that 
 attention to him which is necessary for our present right 
 conduct and comfort, and to qualify us for his favour 
 hereafter;" that it was expressly required under the Mosaic 
 institution, and authorized by the example of Christ and 
 the practice of the apostles. Synesius, conceding this 
 point to Photinus, contends, nevertheless, for joining in 
 the established worship " out of the general principle of 
 doing homage to the Creator. If there be any which 
 you cannot conscientiously join in and repeat, you have 
 only to adopt what you like, and pass over the rest, 
 leaving it to those who are edified by it." Photinus 
 allows that, for lesser matters, it would be peevish and 
 hypercritical to dissent; but he maintains, and he sup- 
 ports his argument by the authority of Archdeacon Paley, 
 that, with respect to the Object of worship, there seems 
 to be no latitude." And having been charged by Synesius 
 with having spoken disrespectfully of the public Liturgy, 
 he expresses high approbation of it as an excellent form 
 of prayer; but at the same time enters his strong protest 
 against many parts of the Litany in particular, *' which is 
 ordered to be read every Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday, 
 throughout the year;" in which a variety of beings are 
 
 K
 
 21 '2 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE |_CH. XI.- 
 
 addressed in a manner utterly inconsistent with the first 
 commandment; and our Saviour in particular " is wor- 
 shiped as the Supreme God, and is addressed in such 
 gross degrading language, as nothing but custom from 
 early youth could reconcile any to use ;" and he con- 
 cludes his argument with asserting that all worship* 
 excepting that addressed to the Supreme Being, is a 
 direct violation of our Lord's express precept to his 
 apostles, that they should teach men to observe all things 
 whatsoever he commanded them . Volusian, who through 
 the whole of this conversation had been a hearer only, 
 now expresses his obligations to Synesius and Photinus 
 for their temperate discussion of this important subject, 
 and declares his entire conviction " that he can no longer 
 with a quiet mind continue to frequent the worship of 
 the church of England, or say one thing with his mouth 
 to the all-seeing God, while his heart and better know- 
 ledge mean another." Here the Conversation ends. 
 
 In the beginning of the next letter Photinus describes 
 to his correspondent Victorin the rise and progress of 
 idolatry in the Christian church, and represents how very 
 imperfectly the Reformation recovered the great body of 
 Christians from this enormous error. He then proceeds 
 to relate the subjects of the fifth day's Conversation, 
 which Volusian begins with expressing his hope that the 
 public sentiment would soon change, and a correspond- 
 ing change be adopted in the public forms of worship. 
 Marcellinus expresses very little expectation of this happy- 
 event, and relates to his friend the steps which Dr. Sa- 
 muel Clarke had taken to reform the Liturgy, and the 
 approbation of his plan fry Archbishop Herring ; and in 
 reply to the animadversion of Volusian he defends the 
 character of Dr. Clarke, in continuing to officiate in the 
 church ; which however it is not improbable that he 
 might have relinquished, if he had not succeeded in his
 
 tH. XI.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 243 
 
 plan of reform. And to the inquiry of Volusian, how it 
 would be advisable to act, especially in the country, with 
 regard to public worship, Photinus refers with high ap- 
 probation to the conduct of a gentleman, Mr Tayleur of 
 Shrewsbury, who had used the reformed Liturgy first in 
 his own house, and afterwards in a separate place of wor- 
 ship; an example which had been followed by sorneothers* 
 and which it was hoped would continue to spread. The 
 Conversation concludes with an interesting quotation 
 from a late publication by a gentleman who had, upon 
 principle, retired from his connexion with the established 
 church. " Christian reader, this is no matter of barren 
 speculation ; it strikes directly on our conduct through 
 life, on a point of serious importance. The public wor* 
 ship of God we all consider as a duty of indispensable 
 obligation : and whether we shall perform this worship 
 in the way most acceptable to him, and most conform* 
 able to the precepts of the Sacred Writings, or in that 
 way which best suits our indolence, or coincides with our 
 interest; whether we shall pay to God the homage of an 
 upright heart, or with gross negligence and solemn 
 mockery publicly repeat what we cannot understand, and 
 join in professing what we do not believe ; are subjects 
 of inquiry which (however easy to determine) every Chris* 
 tian, of whatever denomination, must acknowledge to be 
 of high concern." 
 
 In this work a question of considerable importance is 
 treated with great judgement, impartiality^ and modera- 
 tion ; the characters of the speakers are well sustained* 
 and every argument and objection are allowed their due 
 weight. And no person can rise from a serious and at- 
 tentive perusal of the Conversations upon Christian ido* 
 latry, without feeling the conviction, that whatever al- 
 lowance may be made for error, which is the result of in* 
 vincible prejudice, it is the indispensable duty of every 
 
 R 2
 
 
 244 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. XI r 
 
 one who believes in the Unity and Supremacy of God, 
 and that he is the proper and sole object of religious 
 worship, and in the simple humanity of Jesus Christ, the 
 servant and messenger of God, to withdraw from wor- 
 ship which must to him necessarily be, and appear, ido- 
 latrous, and, wherever opportunity presents, to join with 
 those, however small their number, however humble their 
 condition, who, agreeably to the precept of their great 
 master, associate for the worship of God the Father only. 
 
 Some years before the venerable subject of this Me- 
 moir retired from his office at Essex-street chapel, his 
 ministry was statedly attended by the late Duke of Graf- 
 ton. This illustrious nobleman appears, after his retire- 
 ment from public life, upon the accession of the famous 
 Coalition ministry in 1783, to have devoted a very con- 
 siderable portion of his leisure hours to serious inquiry 
 into the evidences of divine revelation, and into the con- 
 tents of the holy Scriptures. To this he was impelled, 
 as he himself declares in the papers which he drew up 
 and printed chiefly for the information of his family, by 
 the suspicion which his intercourse with the world raised 
 in him, and which the observation of every day confirmed, 
 that many persons, in the more elevated ranks of life 
 especially, had little or no belief in the truth of the Chris- 
 tian religion. The result of this inquiry was, that the 
 Christian religion had been promulgated to mankind by 
 a person sent by, and acting under, the authority of the 
 Supreme Being ; and that this religion, having been cor- 
 rupted from very early times by various means, and these 
 corruptions having been mistaken for essential parts of 
 it, had been the cause of rendering the whole religion 
 incredible to many men of sense. The noble inquirer 
 soon discovered that one of the plainest precepts, both 
 of the Jewish and Christian revelations, was the worship
 
 CH. XI.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 245 
 
 of one God ; and that the public forms of worship in all 
 the established churches in Christendom, not excepting 
 that of our own country, contained a grievous deviation 
 from this fundamental precept, by prescribing the wor- 
 ship of two other persons, called the Son and the Holy 
 Ghost, jointly with that of the Almighty Father, as being 
 in all respects equal to him and consubstantial with him. 
 And it soon occurred to the inquisitive mind of this vir- 
 tuous nobleman, that this was not a speculative discovery 
 of little practical importance, but that to one who was a 
 firm believer in the divine origin of the Christian reli- 
 gion, it was attended with very serious consequences. 
 Convinced upon the highest authority that Christianity 
 required the worship of One God only, the Duke could 
 no longer satisfy his mind to attend the worship of three 
 Gods ; and it became a subject of anxious and even di- 
 stressing inquiry, how far it was his duty, in the situation 
 and rank which he held in his country, not only to de- 
 sert the established mode of worship, but to join a sepa- 
 rate congregation whose sole and professed bond of union, 
 and ground of dissent, was the worship of the Father only. 
 Upon this subject, and upon some others of a personal 
 kind, this nobleman opened a confidential correspondence 
 with the venerable Founder of the Essex-street congre- 
 gation ; in consequence of which, his difficulties being 
 satisfactorily removed, he became a regular attendant at 
 the chapel in Essex-street, and continued a serious and 
 exemplary worshiper there till bad health and increasing 
 infirmities confined him at home. 
 
 It was not till some time after the Duke became a wor- 
 shiper in Essex-street chapel that his peculiar intimacy 
 and personal intercourse with the venerable pastor com- 
 menced, which continued unabated through the remain- 
 der of Mr. Lindsey's life. This will be evident from the 
 following extract of a letter from his Grace dated June 4,
 
 246 MEMOIR* OF THE LVTE [cH. Xt. 
 
 1789 : "The Duke of Grafton is much gratified by the 
 acquaintance of Mr. Lindsey ; and though he would be 
 very desirous to profit from it by taking the liberty of 
 calling on him now and then for half an hour's conver- 
 sation on serious subjects, he would at the same time be 
 very unhappy to obtrude on his time. But if Mr. Lind- 
 sey is so obliging as to allow him that advantage, the D. 
 of G. would be much obliged to him if he would point 
 out about what time of the morning or evening he is com- 
 monly least engaged, and at which he is most likely to 
 be found at leisure." The Duke after this became a fre- 
 quent morning visitor at Essex House, and to the end 
 of life he maintained a character worthy of his profession. 
 After a long and painful decline the Duke expired at 
 Euston, Suffolk, March 14, 1811. A sermon was preach- 
 ed upon the afflicting occasion at Essex-street chapel on 
 the 24th by the author of this Memoir, which was af- 
 terwards published, and which contains some further par- 
 ticulars of this venerable and lamented nobleman. 
 
 The Duke of Grafton at different times set down in 
 writing the result of his inquiries, and his own reflections 
 upon them. These extended from the year 1788 to the 
 year 1797, and they contain a simple and interesting ac- 
 count of the progress of a virtuous and intelligent inqui- 
 rer in his pursuit after truth. These papers were printed 
 in his own lifetime, but not published. A few copies 
 were given by his Grace to select friends, but they were 
 principally intended for the use of his own family. And 
 he desires that six copies may be given to each of his chiU 
 dren, hoping that these may remind them of the true and 
 honest sentiments of their father at different times in his 
 better days, and that they may accustom themselves there* 
 by to improve their lives more and more every day by a 
 Study of the Scriptures. 
 
 The first paper is dated December 1788, The Duke
 
 . CH. XI.] REVEREND THEOPH1LUS LINDSEY. 247 
 
 was at that time, from the best search he was able to 
 make into the holy writings, confirmed in the belief that 
 "there is but One God only who ought to be acknow- 
 ledged and worshiped as such by all his creatures, and 
 that he is the Creator and Governor of the Universe," 
 But at this time he appears not to have completely made 
 up his mind upon the subject of the pre-existence of 
 Christ. "I do," says he, " most sincerely believe in Jesus 
 Christ, and am convinced that he was the Messiah, and 
 sent by our heavenly Father that the glad tidings should 
 be made known to all mankind." The noble writer adds, 
 " Whether Christ pre-existed at all or not, in what man- 
 ner, or from what time, I find in Scripture no sufficient 
 ground or necessity to make this point a matter of faith, 
 and this both comforts and rejoiceth me. It may not, 
 perhaps, be displeasing to God that pious or learned, and 
 well-intentioned persons should ruminate and form their 
 conjectures upon these high subjects ; but I conceive that 
 no man should offer, for the belief of others, his opinions 
 on them, but with the utmost deference, and adducing 
 proof from Scripture sufficient to justify his way of think- 
 ing." He concludes this paper with great humility and 
 piety in the following words : " If I am in any error, and 
 under any mistake in these sentiments, I earnestly beg 
 of Almighty God that I may be convinced of it, and that 
 he will pardon in me my ignorance, and that he will en- 
 lighten my understanding by his Holy Spirit and lead 
 me into the way of truth, establishing me in the same 
 more and more every day," In a sort of postscript to this 
 paper the Duke expresses his " humble judgement," that 
 the example of Christ is more impressive and efficacious 
 upon the supposition of his " having been a man liable 
 as we are to all the weakness of human nature, but to 
 whom God gave not the spirit by measure," 
 
 In another paper dated December 25, 1789, his Grace
 
 
 248 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. XI. 
 
 remarks, " that the service for the Lord's Supper is not 
 cleared from some things which deter numbers from join- 
 in^ in that holy rite. A few omissions in the prayer's 
 would render this service very suitable to comprehend 
 large denominations of Christians, who cannot join with 
 the congregation at present and acquit themselves to their 
 own consciences, and who cannot bring their minds to 
 do as I have this day done, by joining devoutly where I 
 could, and in humble silence submitting myself, where I 
 could not join, to the direction of that light which it has 
 pleased God to grant unto me." 
 
 This practice of joining in a religious service in many 
 respects so very exceptionable, and, as a Unitarian must 
 think, even idolatrous, cannot perhaps* be strictly justi- 
 fied, even with the mental reservation which this virtuous 
 nobleman exercised when he joined in the solemnity. 
 But it is most evident that he acted under a sense of duty; 
 and that, far from condemning those who could not in 
 consciencejoin in communion with the established church, 
 he wishes that the service might be so altered as to ob- 
 viate their objections. Surely, then, it ill becomes those 
 who judge perhaps more correctly, and who act more 
 consistently in abstaining from such worship, to censure 
 others with severity who think it their duty to attend 
 what they justly deem a corrupt, and in many respects 
 an unscriptural form of worship, rather than entirely fore- 
 go the benefit of religious institutions, or exhibit an ex- 
 ample of the total neglect of Christian ordinances which 
 may be misunderstood, and may mislead the lower orders 
 of society. Happy is he who condemneth not himself 
 in the thing which he alloweth. Let every one be a se- 
 vere judge of his own conduct, and candid in his estimate 
 of others. 
 
 In a paper dated December 30, 1790, the noble writer 
 declares his now firm conviction, that " Jesus was a man,
 
 CH. IX.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS I.INDSEY. 249 
 
 one in our own nature, and that his example and pre- 
 cepts were designed to direct us in our duty, as well as 
 to afford the greatest possible consolation and encourage- 
 ment in the regular discharge of it." 
 
 In the next paper, which is dated January 1791, the 
 Duke, having stated that he by no means would be un- 
 derstood to represent the proper humanity of Christ as 
 a doctrine essential to salvation, adds, " yet I cannot but 
 think that a belief in the divinity of Christ, and the invo- 
 cation of him as God, is displeasing to the Almighty, as 
 breaking his first great and unrepealed command ; and 
 that every man who wilfully neglects to inquire has much 
 to answer for ; and much more those who have presumed 
 to fetter his creatures by forcing them in their belief. 
 Let ministers and teachers of religion, let fathers of fa- 
 milies and others who are enforcing the belief of a mys- 
 tical union in the godhead, let them be aware, that they 
 are using a most unwarrantable authority over the con- 
 sciences of their fellow-creatures, for which they will be 
 ultimately to answer to the Father of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, to the One only true God, who on this very head 
 has been pleased to style himself a jealous God; and also, 
 that if they should be in an error, as I conceive them to 
 be, they become dangerously responsible for the restraints 
 which they have presumed to lay upon the consciences 
 of others." 
 
 I transcribe the whole of the memorandum dated 
 March 5, 1791, as expressive both of this virtuous noble- 
 man's enlightened views and deep humility. " On the 
 truth of the Christian dispensation and religion I confi- 
 dently rest my hopes of immortality ; and with thankful- 
 ness for so great a boon I trust to the mercy of God to- 
 wards me, who stand so much in need of it." 
 
 In a paper dated January 1, 1702, the Duke expresses 
 a belief that the exaltation of Christ to dominion and
 
 250 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. XI. 
 
 authority, was the consequence of his submission to those 
 sufferings which "were so efficacious, perhaps so neces- 
 sary, to his own glory and to the future happiness of man- 
 kind." His mind seems at this time to have been per- 
 plexed with some obscure notion of the unscriptural doc- 
 trines of meritorious sufferings, and of the external au- 
 thority of Jesus Christ ; which, however, he regards as a 
 mystery which " it will probably never be given to man 
 in the present state" to understand, and which therefore 
 " must consequently be ranked among those articles the 
 belief of which cannot be necessary to salvation." 
 
 In a paper dated April 2 1 , of the same year, the Duke 
 represents himself as differing from some with whom he 
 generally agrees, in believing that Jesus Christ in his 
 present state can hear and help us. At the same time 
 he adds : " I presume, and do firmly believe, that he 
 would be offended at being addressed by any of his fol- 
 lowers as an object of that divine worship which, as I 
 conceive, the Scriptures represent to be due only to the 
 Almighty Father and Creator, the ever-living God." 
 
 The difference upon this subject between his Grace and 
 the theological friends to whom he refers, was probably 
 merely nominal. Agreeing with the noble writer in the 
 great principle that Jesus Christ is not the proper object 
 of worship, they would be far from presuming to limit 
 the extent of his knowledge or his power in his present 
 exalted state. 
 
 In a paper dated June 10, of the same year, the Duke, 
 after expressing his firm belief in the inspiration of the 
 prophets, and of the information communicated to the 
 apostles by the instructions of Christ and the gifts of the 
 holy spirit, proceeds to state his objections to " the no- 
 tion generally inculcated concerning the perpetual inspi- 
 ration of the apostles and evangelists, which," says he, 
 " I humbly conceive has much more assisted the cause of
 
 CH. XI.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. *25 1 
 
 infidelity : which, in its turn, will recede in proportion 
 as our divines, becoming every day more liberal in their 
 opinions, shall advance to a candid admission that the 
 apostles were fallible, and not at all times directed by the 
 holy spirit." 
 
 In a paper dated June 10, 1794, the noble writer states, 
 that his " own unenlightened reason had ever revolted 
 against the church doctrine of Original sin, as wholly in- 
 compatible with the attributes of a benevolent and om- 
 nipotent God." He adds : " and my mind received great 
 comfort when I found that Scripture, so far from justi- 
 fying an idea so derogatory to the honour and glory of 
 the Deity, does, through its whole tenour, furnish ample 
 ground for concluding against this sad and, I trust, un- 
 supported doctrine." After this he proceeds to state 
 some of those passages which, in his view, appeared to 
 be most irreconcileable to this popular opinion, particu- 
 larly Matt, xviii. 3. xix. 4. Luke xviii. 17. 
 
 The paper dated March 1795, contains rather an ela- 
 borate disquisition upon the subject of the redemption of 
 sinners by the death of Christ, which seems to have 
 pressed very much upon the mind of the noble writer. 
 He discards the common notion of vicarious suffering and 
 satisfaction. He conceives that " Scripture redemption 
 consists in a deliverance from the practice and guilt of 
 sin to be effected by sincere repentance, followed by total 
 amendment of life, to which the merciful goodness of 
 God has vouchsafed to annex the forgiveness of all past 
 sins and offences." *' That which propitiates God, is the 
 forsaking of sin and newness of life. If so, may not 
 Christ, who teaches us this method of being reconciled, 
 be fairly and properly called the propitiation of our sins?" 
 
 In a paper dated April 17> 1796, the noble writer ex- 
 presses his decided conviction, that if doctrines are un- 
 intelligible, the belief of them cannot be necessary to sal-
 
 252 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. XI. 
 
 ration. " Arrogant indeed," says he, " is the theology 
 of those who would inforce the belief of superstitious, or 
 inexplicable, opinions as divine truths, annexing the hard 
 alternative of eternal punishment. Far otherwise, I be- 
 lieve, speaks the conciliating language of the gospel of 
 our benevolent Lord and Master." 
 
 The paper dated March 14, 1/97, represents the ex- 
 pectation of a future life, founded on the natural immor- 
 tality of the soul, as involved in inextricable difficulties ; 
 "whereas he who believes in the truth of Christianity, 
 and who confides in the assurances of the gospel, has no 
 occasion to fly to any metaphysical disquisitions; for he 
 feels at once that God, who was able to create him origi- 
 nally, has promised through Jesus Christ to raise him 
 again to life at the last day ; that he who has done the 
 first has equally power to perform the second, and has 
 given an irrefragable proof of it by the resurrection of 
 Jesus himself from the dead." 
 
 The conclusion, which, though it has no date, appears 
 to have been written in the year 1797, begins with a most 
 ingenuous and affecting apology to the noble writer's 
 friends, acquaintance, and to the ivorld in general, for 
 embracing a form of public worship differing essentially 
 from that of the church in which he was bred; expressing 
 his deep sense of the responsibility which he incurred by 
 it, his entire satisfaction in the choice which he had made, 
 his earnest regret that he had not turned his serious at- 
 tention to the subjects of religion earlier in life, and his 
 ardent desire that what he writes may be instrumental in 
 rousing others to an earlier attachment to the pure reli- 
 gion of the gospel. As this introduction has been cited 
 at length in the discourse which was published by the 
 author of this Memoir upon occasion of the lamented 
 decease of the noble Duke, it is unnecessary to repeat it 
 here.
 
 CH. XI.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 
 
 The noble writer goes on to animadvert upon the egre- 
 gious error of those who, regarding religion chiefly as an 
 engine of state, expect to establish good order by the help 
 of it, without "reviewing the Articles and Liturgy, and 
 presenting to the people a purer Christianity not liable to 
 the formidable attacks which are daily made upon the 
 present system." The remainder of this paper is taken 
 up in commenting upon the first article in the Church 
 of England, which teaches that "in the Unity of the 
 Godhead there be three persons of one substance, power, 
 and eternity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost;" 
 and in showing how repugnant this doctrine is to the de- 
 claration of the apostle that "there is One God, and one 
 mediator between God and man, the MAN Christ Jesus." 
 After this the noble writer severely condemns the dam- 
 natory clauses of the Athanasian creed, which, though it 
 still remains as a creed required from those who profess 
 to be of the Church of England, had no existence till , a 
 hundred years after the Council of Nice, and was not 
 admitted even into the Church of Rome till the tenth 
 century. 
 
 Having expatiated somewhat at large upon these sub- 
 jects, he adds : " My objections are weighty against the 
 Article of the church on original or birth sin, against the 
 doctrine maintained relative to good works done before, 
 justification having the nature of sin, against that on pre- 
 destination, and some others. But I trust I have said 
 enough, without now entering on these, to prove that, if 
 I be in the wrong, it is with an honest and firm desire of 
 searching for the truth." "It is from the Scriptures 
 alone," continues this illustrious inquirer after truth, and 
 with these remarks he closes his interesting volume, "it 
 is from the Scriptures alone that we can know the re- 
 vealed will of God ; and it is from thence I venture to 
 draw my justification for wishing to join in communion
 
 254 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. XI / 
 
 with a church which will admit of no article of faith that 
 is not expressed in the very words of Scripture ; no creed 
 which disclaims the right of private judgement in the 
 concern of religion, and still more, which allows the right 
 of persecuting any human creature for conscience sake." 
 
 As there is little reason to expect that these interest- 
 ing papers will be soon published, the writer of this Me- 
 moir thought that it would be acceptable to his readers 
 to exhibit this brief abstract of their contents, accompa- 
 nied with a few specimens of the observations them- 
 selves ; and in so doing he is convinced that he complies 
 with the expressed desire of the noble writer, that " not 
 only his friends and acquaintance, but THE WORLD IN GE- 
 NERAL, might know that he embraced a form of public 
 worship essentially different from that of the church in 
 which he was bred, not hastily and through levity, but 
 with all the consideration and investigation which so aw- 
 ful a decision required ;" and that what he wrote " might 
 be instrumental in rousing others to an earlier attachment 
 to the pure religion of the gospel, and to remember their 
 Creator in the days of their youth." And it cannot be 
 doubted that the noble writer's vindication of his conduct 
 must be perfectly satisfactory to every serious, liberal, and 
 enlightened mind, how strange and unaccountable soever 
 such conduct and such reasoning may appear to a gay 
 and a thoughtless world. 
 
 Indeed, that a person of the Duke of Grafton's elevated 
 rank in society, who had filled the principal offices of 
 the state, and who was allied by birth, and associated by 
 habits of familiar intercourse, with the first nobility of 
 the land, should, in the vigour of life, sit down calmly to 
 study the Scriptures ; that, in consequence of this, he 
 should embrace a system of Christianity widely different 
 from the popular creed ; that, impelled by a commanding 
 sense of duty, he should secede from the church esta-
 
 CH. XI.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 255 
 
 blished by law, in which he had been educated, and to 
 the worship and constitution of which he was affection- 
 ately attached ; that he should publicly unite himself to 
 a society of Christians not then tolerated by the state, 
 which existed by connivance only, and the principles of 
 which are held in public disrepute ; whose primary prin- 
 ciple and professed bond is the unrivalled supremacy and 
 the sole worship of God the Father, as revealed and 
 taught by his faithful servant and messenger Jesus 
 Christ, indicates perhaps as pure a principle of integrity, 
 and as high a degree of mental vigour and Christian for* 
 titude, as can be conceived to exist. It may even be 
 questioned, whether the noble sacrifice made by Mr. 
 Lindsey of all his preferments in the church and his pro- 
 spects in life, or the calm and dignified self-possession of 
 Dr. Priestley under calumny and persecution, discovered 
 a more generous and intrepid spirit in the cause of Truth ? 
 In all the changes of their fortune, and amidst the se- 
 verest trials of their constancy, these Christian heroes 
 were encompassed with friends who stood by them, who 
 kept them in countenance, who protected them from, or 
 who shared with them in, the contumely and the insult 
 of their misguided opponents. But the Duke of Grafton 
 stood alone the Abdiel of the sacred cause. He had no 
 one to join him, no one to stand by him, no one to share 
 in the reproach ; and yet he persevered. And though he 
 fully understood, and feelingly describes, the delicacy and 
 responsibility of his situation, he at the same time attests 
 the unspeakable satisfaction which he experienced from 
 a faithful adherence to the dictates of an enlightened 
 conscience. Had the Duke been a religionist only, and 
 without inquiry or discrimination continued a believer in 
 the popular creed and a frequenter of the established wor- 
 ship, his conversion, so far from being a subject of re-
 
 256' MEMOIRS OT THE LATE [cH. XI. 
 
 proach, would have been blazoned to the world with 
 every mark of honour and applause. Nor would he have 
 wanted associates even among persons of his own rank, 
 who generally, and almost unavoidably, confounding the 
 Christian religion with the creeds and catechisms and 
 other articles of human device to which they are accus- 
 tomed, when they become religious, too often degenerate 
 into narrow bigots to the tenets of their childhood. But 
 the Duke of Grafton disdained to take his religion upon 
 trust. His superior mind examined the Scripture for it- 
 self. And having discovered Truth, he valued it most 
 highly; he held it fast, and would upon no consideration 
 part with it. By an habitual attendance upon a form 
 of public worship addressed exclusively to the One God, 
 even the Father, he calmly but firmly avowed his princi- 
 ples ; and to all who had the happiness of knowing him, 
 he exhibited their powerful and beneficial influence in a 
 virtuous and Christian life. 
 
 Some have affected to believe that this virtuous noble- 
 man was not thoroughly consistent, and that he did not 
 carry his principles to their proper extent. Suffice it to 
 say, in reply to these ungenerous insinuations, that the 
 Duke of Grafton at all times acted up to his own ideas 
 of consistency and rectitude, though his judgement might 
 not entirely correspond with that of his accusers. Let 
 such persons recollect what this illustrious nobleman did, 
 before they presume to arraign him for what he did not. 
 And it may not be unbecoming those who are so very 
 sharp-sighted in discovering a mote in the eye of ano- 
 ther, to consider well whether there may not at the same 
 time be a beam in their own:
 
 HI. XII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 MR. LINDSEY PUBLISHES A NEW AND REFORMED EDI- 
 TION OF HIS LITURGY ; RESIGNS HIS OFFICE AT ESSEX- 
 STREET CHAPEL. HIS FAREWELL SERMON PUBLISHED, 
 BUT NOT PREACHED. INTERESTS HIMSELF IN FAVOUR 
 OF THOSE WHO SUFFERED BY UNJUST STATE PROSE- 
 CUTIONS. CASES OF FYSHE PALMER, MUIR, AND WIN- 
 TERBOTHAM. 
 
 EARLY in the year 1793, Mr. Lindsey, at that time ap- 
 proaching the term assigned by the sacred writer as the 
 usual limit of human life, or at least of the active and 
 useful portion of it, and being secretly but firmly resolved, 
 though in a high state of health and vigour corporeal and 
 intellectual, to retire from public service in his seventieth 
 year, he revised and printed a fourth edition of the Re- 
 formed Liturgy, that he might bequeath it to his bereav- 
 ed flock, as containing the last corrections, and the most 
 approved sentiments, of their faithful and affectionate 
 pastor. He introduced it with a sermon delivered upon 
 the occasion in the month of April in that year, and 
 which he afterwards published. In this sermon, after 
 giving a judicious account of the duty, the reasonable- 
 ness, and the efficacy of prayer, he proceeds to state the 
 nature and the grounds of the alterations which he had 
 made in this new edition of the Reformed Liturgy. They 
 were indeed not inconsiderable. He had omitted what 
 is called the Apostles' Creed, and the three invocations 
 in the Litany. 
 
 After stating the preference which the Society in Es- 
 sex-street give to Forms of prayer, he observes that "one 
 capital inconvenience belongs to this mode of worship : 
 viz. that forms of prayer drawn up in one age, through 
 greater improvements made by the study of the sacred
 
 258 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. XII. 
 
 writings, may become improper to be used ; and things 
 of this nature once established, are too apt on that very 
 account to be held sacred, and by no means to be changed: 
 by which, serious thinking persons are often brought into 
 great difficulties. The proper remedy would be, fre- 
 quently to revise public devotional forms of human in- 
 stitution, and to correct and bring them nearer to the 
 Scripture model." And having glanced at the ineffec- 
 tual attempts which had been made in the seventeenth 
 and eighteenth centuries for the reformation of the esta- 
 blished Liturgy, he reminds his readers that Dr. Samuel 
 Clarke's amendments of the Book of Common Prayer 
 had been adopted by the Society in Essex-street chapel*, 
 
 * Mr. Lindsey observes in a note, that it is very probable that Dr. Clarke's 
 Reformed Liturgy was approved by King George II., certainly by his consort 
 Queen Caroline ; that Dr. Herring, archbishop of Canterbury, gave it the 
 fullest and highest commendations in a letter to the amiable and excellent 
 Dr. Jortin ; and that it also received very signal tokens of approbation from 
 a learned and venerable prelate^ lately deceased, (probably Bishop Law,) the 
 intimate friend of Dr. Jbrtin. " And I cannot suffer myself to doubt," coiw 
 tinues the venerable writer, " that whenever the people of Great Britain 
 shall calmly weigh the reasons offered, they will be earnest to attain such an 
 important alteration in their public form of prayer, so easily accomplished : 
 a circumstance fervently wished for by many of the clergy of the church of 
 England twenty years ago, when I ceased to be one of them, and now much 
 longed for by many of its lay members." 
 
 May I be permitted to suggest, how much wiser it would be, in the pre- 
 sent critical period, when the church is alarmed, and not without reason, at 
 the rapid growth of nonconformity in various shapes, instead of anxiously 
 devising means to shore up a system of doctrine and worship, which no 
 effort of human ingenuity can support in opposition to the liberal arid inqui- 
 sitive spirit of this enlightened period, to open the doors of the established 
 church to learned and conscientious inquirers, by substituting the Scriptures 
 in the place of the Articles, and reforming the Liturgy upon the plan of Dr. 
 Clarke's, so as to contain nothing unscriptural, or offensive to the judicious 
 and serious worshiper ? The Church of England would then be built upon a 
 rock, and might bid defiance to all assailants^ Nor would it then exhibit the 
 extraordinary phenomenon, of the whole body of the clergy setting them- 
 selves in array against the laudable efforts of a humble individual for the in- 
 struction of the poor, assigning for their conduct this singular reason, that of 
 a system which loathes the Scriptures only, without the aid of the Catechism 
 and Liturgy, "the natural consequence must be to alienate the minds of the 
 people from, or render them indifferent to," the " doctrine and discipline of 
 the established church." Sec the Preamble to the Catalogue of Subscribers 
 to the National Society for the Education of the Poor, in the Morning Chro- 
 uicleforDcc. 23, 1811.
 
 CH. XII .1 REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 259 
 
 -* 
 
 but not without " some alterations and improvements in 
 the different editions of the Reformed Liturgy," which 
 had hitherto met with the approbation of the Society, he 
 had no doubt that the same approbation would be ex- 
 tended to the changes introduced into the present edi- 
 tion ; the reasons for which he proceeds to state. 
 
 " The first omission is that of the Creed, concerning 
 which I would observe to you that I had thought of leav- 
 ing it out when our worship first began in this place ; 
 but it was retained at the suggestion of judicious friends, 
 lest without further examination or inquiry we should on 
 that account be represented as a society of mere Deists, 
 and other Christians be deterred from uniting with us. 
 But I persuade myself that it has been long seen that 
 there are no grounds for such an imputation." 
 
 The author then proceeds to assign the following rea- 
 sons for not continuing this creed as a part of public 
 worship. " 1. It was not written by the apostles, and 
 therefore is of no authority. 2. It is very wrong and un- 
 warrantable to put persons upon making a profession of 
 their faith in assemblies for Christian worship. 3. No 
 man, or number of men together, have any authority to. 
 make a creed for others. 4. The imposition of creeds ii) 
 all ages has been the cause of great mischief and dissen- 
 sion, and a constant snare to honest minds who are tied 
 down to them." 
 
 " The other omission is in the beginning of the Li- 
 tany, where the three invocations are changed into one. 
 Many persons of high estimation for learning, judgement, 
 and piety, favourers of Dr. Clarke's Liturgy, have always 
 esteemed it a great oversight and blemish therein, that 
 when that celebrated person rejected the Trinity from the. 
 Liturgy he should so far accommodate himself to the doc- 
 trine he exploded as to retain three different invocations
 
 2f>0 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. XII. 
 
 iii form, which carry to common heedless "persons a sort 
 of appearance of the Trinity." 
 
 The Liturgy thus amended was gladly accepted by Mr. 
 Lindsey's congregation, and continued to be used in the 
 Chapel till the year 1802, when it was superseded by a 
 Liturgy drawn up and introduced by his successor the 
 Rev. Dr. John Disney. But though this Liturgy was ju- 
 dicious, unexceptionable, and, as many thought, in some 
 respects an improvement upon the former, yet, from the 
 modern style of the language, and other circumstances, 
 and particularly from its wide deviation from the esta- 
 blished Liturgy, it was not so acceptable to the congre- 
 gation, as that of the venerable founder of the Society. 
 And upon the choice of a successor to Dr. Disney, upon 
 that gentleman's resignation in the year 1805, the gene- 
 ral wish of the Trustees and the congregation was ex- 
 pressed to resume Mr. Lindsey's Liturgy ; which was ac- 
 cordingly acceded to ; and a few alterations, chiefly ver- 
 bal, being made, to which that excellent person gave a 
 cordial assent, a new edition was printed, a copy of which 
 was locked up with the writings of the Chapel, and a re- 
 solution passed that no further alteration should be made, 
 nor any new form of worship be introduced, without the 
 express consent of a majority of the Trustees*. 
 
 Mr. Lindsey having now completely made up his mind 
 
 upon the subject of his resignation, in the beginning of 
 
 the summer addressed a circular letter to the Trustees, 
 
 of which the following is an extract : 
 
 " Dear Sir, I beg leave to address you in the capa- 
 
 This cannot with justice be regarded as any infringement upon the rights 
 of conscience; for, as the Trustees have the disposal of the Chapel property, 
 they have a right to annex what terras they please to the grant, consistently 
 with the tenor of the trust with which they are invested. And this condition 
 was approved by the original grantor of the premises, Mr. Lindsey, who was 
 then living.
 
 CH. XII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 261 
 
 city of a Trustee for the Chapel in Essex-street, and to 
 inform you of my intention of resigning my office of mi- 
 nister of it. 
 
 " My advanced age and growing infirmities have for 
 some time intimated to me. the lightness and necessity 
 of this step; but as I was enabled to perform the service, 
 I thought it my duty to accomplish two points previous 
 to my retiring from my station." 
 
 The points to which the writer alludes were a renewal 
 of the Trust, and a complete repair of the whole premises, 
 which had been done in the best manner possible. Hav- 
 ing stated these circumstances for the information of the 
 Trustees, Mr. Lindsey adds, " I have fixed the middle of 
 July next for the time of my resignation : and I am 
 happy in having a candidate as a successor in my col- 
 league, Dr. Disney, whose zeal for the principle upon 
 which the Society was founded, and whose abilities, as- 
 siduity, and acceptableness to you and the congregation, 
 in the discharge of his duty, have been for a long time 
 ascertained." 
 
 In this simple and unostentatious manner did this 
 pious veteran resign his connexion with a congregation 
 which he had served faithfully for nearly twenty years, 
 during which period he had enjoyed the unintermitted 
 veneration and attachment of every member of the So- 
 ciety, both old and young, and had been witness to the 
 progress of those principles, to the propagation of which 
 his life had been devoted, and for the sake of which he 
 had made the greatest sacrifices, to an extent far exceed- 
 ing his most sanguine expectation, both in his own So- 
 ciety and in the world, and in a great measure by means 
 of his own labours and writings. 
 
 To Mr. Lindsey's letter of resignation the Trustess of 
 the Chapel returned the following appropriate and re- 
 spectful answer:
 
 262 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CM. XII. 
 
 " The Trustees for the Chapel in Essex-street at this 
 time in London, having received a circular letter from 
 the reverend Mr. Lindsey declaring his intention to re- 
 sign his office as minister of that Chapel on the fifteenth 
 day of July next, resolve, That together with their sin- 
 cere regret on the occasion, their very affectionate ac- 
 knowledgements, in the names of themselves and the 
 absent Trustees, be presented to him for the rare and 
 noble example which he gave to the professors of genuine 
 Christianity, when he sacrificed the honours and emolu- 
 ments of the Established Church, in compliance with 
 the dictates of his conscience ; for his active zeal in the 
 cause of truth, manifested by the institution of the Re- 
 ligious Society in Essex-street; for the able and disin- 
 terested services by which he has raised it to its present 
 state of prosperity ; for the distinguished spirit of bene- 
 volence and piety which hath uniformly marked his dis- 
 charge of the duties of his office, and endeared him to 
 all under his pastoral care ; and also for his attention 
 to the future prosperity of the Institution by introdu- 
 cing to the Society his worthy colleague the Reverend 
 Dr. Disney." 
 
 Upon this interesting occasion Mr. Lindsey com- 
 posed a judicious and suitable discourse, which, how- 
 ever, he would not trust himself to deliver from the 
 pulpit, finding himself, as he expresses it, " too tenderly 
 impressed with taking leave of so many indulgent friends 
 to be capable of personally addressing them with any 
 tolerable degree of vigour*." This discourse, there- 
 
 * In a letter to Dr. Toulmin, dated July 8, 1793, Mr. Lindsey thus ex- 
 presses himself: " I take my final leave of the pulpit in this chapel on 
 Sunday next, in the morning, and shall endeavour to say something suitable, 
 though without any hint of bidding farewell, which my own nenres would 
 not bear ; and many kind friends of those who are not yet gone into the 
 country say, that they must keep away from the chapel if I do any thing of 
 this, kind."
 
 CH. XII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 263 
 
 fore, was published and distributed among his friends, 
 and to the members of his congregation. In the exor- 
 dium he states, that " having now attained the term of 
 life, when the human faculties naturally lose their vigour, 
 and decay, and being in the twentieth year of his happy 
 services as their minister, it is now time to withdraw, 
 and meet the unavoidable infirmities of nature in a pri- 
 vate station ; " and having assigned his reasons why he 
 declined the pressing solicitations of many of his friends 
 to continue his public services, with any additional as- 
 sistance that he might require, he takes for his text 
 those words in the Lord's Prayer, " Thy kingdom," or 
 rather, " Thy reign come," professing his ardent wish 
 upon this occasion to impress his readers with a sense 
 of the importance of the principle by which we distin- 
 guish ourselves from other Christians, and of the obliga- 
 tions which it lays upon us to the practice of piety and 
 all virtue." In the progress of his discourse the pious 
 and learned writer professes to show that the Gospel 
 being from God it must prevail ; -that its success is to 
 be gradual ; that a principal obstacle to the progress of 
 the Gospel is the making of Jesus Christ the Supreme 
 God, and worshiping him. Here he introduces a brief 
 history of the long and lasting corruption of so funda- 
 mental a doctrine of the Gospel as the Unity of God, 
 and of its revival after a seemingly total extinction of it ; 
 and shows that this corrupt doctrine concerning Christ 
 is the cause of atheism and infidelity among Christians; 
 from which he infers that it is only by the revival and 
 spreading of the strict doctrine of the Divine Unity that 
 the kingdom of God, or the Gospel of Christ, can be 
 fully established in the world : and upon this the vene- 
 rable writer justly and forcibly remarks, that " it is not 
 any religious sentiment, any opinion of our own, which 
 is frequently objected to us, that excites our zeal. In,
 
 264 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. XII. 
 
 contending for the strict Unity of God, and that Jesus, 
 his messenger to us, was a man like ourselves, we con- 
 tend for the gospel itself, as in this enlightened age 
 serious and rational inquirers are not likely to be recon- 
 ciled to any other form of Christianity *." 
 
 Having thus established the great importance of the 
 Unitarian doctrine, this venerable apostle of primitive 
 truth proceeds to state, that holiness of life is indispen- 
 sably necessary for promoting the success of the Gospel ; 
 and especially, " the most perfect benevolence towards 
 all other Christians, and all men." He laments over 
 the prevalence of an intolerant spirit among Christians 
 in all ages, and particularly alludes to the disgraceful 
 scenes which had been lately acted at Birmingham. " He 
 flatters himself, notwithstanding, that this hostile, bar- 
 barous temper is by no means generally prevalent, but 
 that a spirit of candour and gentle forbearance is gone 
 
 * Under this head the venerable writer remarks, " You will perceive 
 that your duty to Christ and to truth requires you to do nothing whereby 
 youmay encourage such undue sentiments of him, especially not to frequent 
 the worship of him as God, when you are absolutely convinced that he is 
 not entitled to such regards, and expressly requires you to pay them to God 
 only." 
 
 In a note the author observes that " the apostle Paul, in his adjudication 
 of a case where any doubt remained upon the mind concerning the lawful- 
 ness of an action, has given it entirely against compliance. Whatever is 
 not of faith is of sin." Rom. xiv. 14, 22, 23. He adds, " It most be 
 owned, however, that there may be peculiar situations in life, which may 
 incline some to doubt whether greater good may not accrue from an Unita- 
 rian Christian sometimes attending Trinitarian worship. The instances can 
 be but rare. But where this is done, the persons should act without dis- 
 guise, and let their real sentiments be known as in the remarkable case 
 of the captain of the army of the king of Syria. 2 Kings v. 17, 18. The 
 safe side, however, is to refrain entirely." 
 
 The question is indeed of very difficult solution. The case of Naaman, to 
 which the writer alludes, will scarcely be allowed to have much weight in 
 the decision. The Syrian courtier states his own purpose : and the pro^ 
 phet, having no authority over a heathen, dismisses him courteously. But 
 this will by no means amount to a justification of a Unitarian joining habi- 
 tually in Trinitarian worship. How far this may be lawful when no other 
 worship is accessible, is a question of great nicety, of which every one must 
 form a j udgement for himself ; nor has any one a right to arraign the con- 
 duct of another. Happy is he who condemneth not himself in the thing 
 which he alloweth; *
 
 .H. XII.] REVEREND THEOFHILUS LINDSEY. 265 
 
 forth, and spreading itself silently through the nation;" 
 of which " the place of public worship in which we as- 
 semble is no small proof. Although it is founded upon 
 the principle of the worship of the church established 
 being directed to wrong objects, and such as we cannot 
 conscientiously frequent, there is not perhaps a Christian 
 society in this great city, for its numbers, more respec- 
 table or more respected than ours ; and such it has been 
 from the very first of its institution." The pious writer 
 adds, what it is to be hoped that all his successors in 
 office, and all who do now, or who may hereafter join in 
 the religious services of that society of which he was the 
 founder, will practically remember, " I have no doubt of 
 our going on to be more and more respected, whilst we 
 adhere to the just and liberal principle with which we 
 first set out, and from which I have never knowingly 
 deviated, viz. never to arraign or condemn other churches 
 or Christian societies for their different worship or opir 
 nions, who have a right to judge for themselves as much 
 as you have." 
 
 The conclusion is interesting and very appropriate. 
 It is too long to be wholly transcribed, but it is hoped 
 that no apology will be thought necessary for inserting 
 a few extracts. 
 
 " And now, brethren, I bid you finally farewell. And 
 having for many years earnestly desired and endeavoured, 
 however weakly, to serve you in the Gospel of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and to promote your virtue and everlasting 
 happiness, I commit you to God and his over-ruling 
 providence ; for, however diligently others may plant and 
 water, the increase and the fruits are to be expected from 
 him. 
 
 " I can never be sufficiently thankful to the bounty 
 of Divine Providence in raising up a number of serious 
 and generous friends, when alone, and destitute of all
 
 2C6 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. XII 
 
 means to set on foot this place of worship, to concur in 
 the design, and for all the support continued by them 
 and others to the present day. 
 
 " Happy, thrice happy, if both they who have been 
 called away before us, and we that are left, may be found 
 worthy objects of the divine mercy, and meet together 
 at the resurrection of the last day, never to be separated 
 more ! And as no energies in the cause of truth and 
 virtue are lost, we may perhaps have the felicity to per- 
 ceive, that we, in our narrow spheres, have been honour- 
 ed with being made instruments of good in the hands 
 of our Maker. And particularly, that our humble and 
 honest testimony against so early and lasting a corrup- 
 tion of the honour and worship due to him alone, had 
 its beneficial effects in the great scheme of his provi- 
 dence, in bringing forward that more perfect state of 
 things which we look for, when knowledge shall increase, 
 and benevolence be universal." 
 
 Such were the pious and benevolent sentiments which 
 this venerable teacher of truth and righteousness express- 
 ed, and endeavoured to inculcate upon the minds of his 
 congregation when he took his final leave of the pulpit, 
 and closed those public and paternal addresses of which 
 they had so often been the attentive and delighted 
 hearers. 
 
 Some of Mr. Lindsey's friends who were witnesses to 
 his almost unabated vigour, both of body and mind, 
 could hardly excuse him for thus prematurely, as they 
 thought, withdrawing himself from an office the duties 
 of which he was so fully competent to discharge. But 
 this resignation of his public ministry was no hasty step. 
 It had long been a settled principle with Air. Lindsey 
 and his friend Dr. Priestley, and, to the best of the au- 
 thor's recollection, of their common friend Dr. Price, 
 that at the age of seventy it was expedient for ministers
 
 CH. XII.J REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 267 
 
 to retire from public service, even though their faculties 
 should appear to be in full vigour, and that they should 
 not wait till resignation became necessary in consequence 
 of bodily or of mental decay. After the age of three- 
 score and ten the faculties cannot long remain unim- 
 paired, and the decline of physical or intellectual capa- 
 city is often more apparent to others than to a person 
 himself. Often were they accustomed to speak with re- 
 gret of ministers whose age and infirmities would have 
 made retirement eligible, but who were necessitated to 
 continue in office for the sake of a scanty subsistence ; 
 and still more did they deplore the case of those whose 
 incapacity and incornpetency to the duties of their office 
 were obvious to every one but themselves. They disap- 
 proved the injudicious partiality of friends who were 
 urging aged ministers to official duties to which their 
 strength was not equal ; and they highly applauded the 
 discretion and firmness of those ministers, who, like their 
 late friend, the learned Hugh Farmer, having once re- 
 signed the pulpit upon account of age and infirmity, re- 
 solutely declined upon any consideration whatever offici- 
 ating again in public. Upon this principle Mr. Lindsey 
 thought proper to act ; and having, for reasons which 
 he judged satisfactory, taken leave of his public charge, 
 he took leave of it for ever, and could never be persuaded 
 to ascend the pulpit again *. 
 
 * Upon this subject Mr. Lindsey thus expresses himself, in a letter to a 
 friend, dated June 13, 17i$ : " I ought not to keep secret any longer from 
 you what was known to one or two friends a year ago, and lately been sig- 
 nified to the Trustees of the Chapel, that I intend very soon to resign jny 
 office of minister in it. On the first of July I enter into my seventieth year: 
 and though I have cause of all thankfulness for the health and strength 
 I enjoy, being able tolerably to go through the duty, yet I find infirmities 
 coating, and have had some nervous spasms, particularly in my head, 
 that haVe long satisfied me that it is right to retire with a good grace. I 
 have recommended my worthy colleague, and he will certainly be chosen to 
 succeed me. But we shall continue to live on in our present situation. For 
 the whole premises being purchased, and the chapel, &c. built by money 
 collected by me from various friends, with not less than five hundred pounds
 
 268 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. Xtl. 
 
 The venerable subject of this Memoir, though neither 
 his judgement nor his inclination led him to take a pro- 
 minent part in the politics of the time, was nevertheless a 
 warm advocate for civil and religious liberty, and his ge- 
 nerous feelings and principles upon this most interesting 
 of all subjects he scorned to disguise. He sympathized 
 deeply with those political characters who, whatever in- 
 discretions some of them might be chargeable with, suf- 
 fered, from that which in Mr. Lindsey's estimation was 
 the overstrained rigour of the law both in Scotland and 
 England, penalties far beyond the demerit of any crime 
 which could be proved against them. Among these suf- 
 ferers, the person on whose behalf Mr. Lindsey was in 
 the highest degree interested, was the Reverend Thomas 
 Fyshe Palmer, a gentleman descended from a respecta- 
 ble and opulent family in Bedfordshire, who having been 
 destined to take orders in the established church had 
 been educated at the University of Cambridge, and was 
 a Fellow of Queen's College. This gentleman, in con- 
 sequence of perusing the writings of Dr. Priestley and 
 Mr. Lindsey, became a decided Unitarian : and being a 
 man of an ardent active spirit, he devoted himself to 
 the propagation of those principles which to him appear- 
 ed scriptural and evangelical. In the year 1792 he was 
 preacher of the Unitarian doctrine in Scotland, where 
 his official labours were chiefly employed in the town of 
 
 of our own, and the accommodations, &c. being much owing to my wife's 
 attention, skill, and daily superintendance, when I gave up the fee of the 
 whole, which was vested in me, and made choice of the Trustees in the trust 
 deed, which perpetuates the premises for the proper uses, they settled the 
 house rent-free to my wife for her life." 
 
 To the same purpose Mr. Lindsey writes to another friend, September 9, 
 1793 : " We shall still continue to reside in the house in Essex-street ; for 
 theTrustees of the Chapel would not appoint a successor, but under the li- 
 mitation of my enjoying the house, &c. for life, as was appointed in the 
 original Trust deed for my wife if I had died the minister and she had sur- 
 vived me. This was thought reasonable, as by collections from our friends, 
 with no small sum of our own, we had purchased, built, and furnished the 
 premises."
 
 CH. XII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDEY. 269 
 
 Dundee, in which a considerable Society of Unitarian 
 worshipers had been formed by the united exertions of 
 himself, Messrs. Christie, Millar, and other respectable 
 inhabitants. Mr. Fyshe Palmer was a man of excellent 
 understanding, unimpeachable morals, and of great sim- 
 plicity of character ; and being a zealous friend to liberty 
 and upon all occasions ardent, he, perhaps inconside- 
 rately, was concerned in the republication of an Address 
 to the People of Scotland concerning the Reform of 
 Parliament; for which, in the autumn of 1793, he was 
 tried by the Circuit Court of Justiciary ; and being con- 
 victed, a sentence of banishment was passed upon him, 
 which was interpreted, and executed, as a sentence of 
 transportation for seven years to Botany Bay. After this 
 inhuman sentence Mr. Palmer experienced very rigorous 
 treatment. He was confined for some weeks in the com- 
 mon gaol of Perth; from which, without any previous no- 
 tice, he was hurried away at four o'clock in the morning 
 in the month of November, and taken on board a cutter 
 which brought him to London ; where he and Mr. Muir, a 
 gentleman of the Faculty of Advocates in Scotland, (who 
 for a similar offence had been subjected to a still severer 
 sentence,) were for some time lodged in Newgate, and 
 were afterwards confined in the hulks at Woolwich, 
 where they were treated by the governor with much hu- 
 manity, and were allowed all the accommodations which 
 their situation would admit *. They were permitted to 
 
 * " Mr /Muir and Mr. Palmer," says Mr. Lindsey in a letter to Dr. Toul- 
 min, dated December 14, 1793, " are on board the hulks with the felons, 
 and many of my friends have been to see them. I also hear from Mr. Pal- 
 mer, and have sent him some books. Neither of them, I believe, is in want 
 of any thing, the place considered. But the situation is, upon the whole, 
 horrible. Mr. Palmer, however, is most cheerful in the midst of it, and Mr. 
 Muir not otherwise." In another letter to the same friend, dated January 
 10, 1794, Mr. Lindsey writes: " Since I la,st wrote, opinions have varied 
 about the destiny of Mr. Palmer and Mr. Muir, as the Scotch judges have, 
 xipon revisal, adhered to the sentence pronounced upon them. Mr. Palmer's 
 health and spirits are most cheerful : Mr. Muir far from well in health since
 
 270 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. XII. 
 
 see their friends. Here they were visited by Mr. Lind- 
 sey and Dr. Priestley, and by many other virtuous friends 
 of liberty and reform, who contributed by their sympa- 
 thy to alleviate their sufferings, and who with others 
 raised a very handsome subscription to provide neces- 
 saries for their voyage, and requisites to their future esta- 
 blishment when they had reached the place of their des- 
 tination. The extreme inhumanity of the sentence passed 
 upon these reformers, and the unparalleled severity of 
 the penalty annexed by the barbarous law of North Bri- 
 tain to an offence which, if proved to its utmost extent, 
 was punishable in the South only by a few months im- 
 prisonment, considered in connexion with the excellent 
 characters of the defendants, who could not in reason be 
 regarded as capable of intentionally involving the coun- 
 try in confusion and anarchy, excited general indigna- 
 tion and horror ; and that not only in England, but in 
 foreign countries. 
 
 " The trial of the Scottish advocate T. Muir," says a 
 respectable writer in the Altona Journal, A.D. 1794, 
 " who, for various endeavours to effect a reform of the 
 Parliament of his country, was condemned to be trans- 
 ported to Botany Bay, must excite in the breast of every 
 German an esteem for his native land. We here see a 
 man sent to Botany Bay on account of an accusation to 
 
 the cold weather set it : both of them supported by their integrity and fu- 
 ture hopes. Some friends who visited the hulks on Wednesday had a com- 
 mission from some others to offer a purse to Mr. Palmer and Mr, Muir. 
 The former declined taking any thing, but Mr. Muir thankfully accepted it." 
 Mr. Palmer afterwards saw reason to alter his mind, and accepted the prof- 
 fered kindness of his friends. In a subsequent letter Mr. Lindsey informs 
 his friend, that the amount of the contribution was between five and six 
 hundred pounds, and that it was vested in the hands of a Committee of seven 
 for the benefit of Messrs. Palmer, Muir, Skin-ing, and even Margaret, 
 " who, as a joint sufferer, was not to be overlooked, though his general 
 character was not so high as the others." How true this observation of Mr. 
 Lindsey's was, and how justly this person was entitled to participate in the 
 bounty of Mr. Palmer's friends, those who were witnesses to his conduct to 
 that gentleman on board the transport in the passage to South Wales could 
 properly appretiate.
 
 CH. XII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 271 
 
 which a German court of justice would have been asham- 
 ed to listen." 
 
 The legality of the sentence was called in question by 
 many distinguished advocates at the Scotch bar; the 
 punishment for leasing-inaking, i. e. libelling, being ex- 
 pressed by the word banishment in the Scotch Statute, 
 not transportation to another country. Upon this ground, 
 when Parliament was assembled in the beginning of 
 1794, various motions were introduced by an honourable 
 member eminently learned in Scotch jurisprudence, 
 William Adam, Esq. with a view to a revision of the 
 Scottish law relating to sedition; to an inquiry into the 
 legality of the sentence ; and, finally, to the regulation 
 of the justiciary courts of Scotland. These motions were 
 overruled ; but from the interest which many persons of 
 great weight and influence in the country appeared to 
 take in the fate of the prisoners, the sufferers and their 
 friends fondly flattered themselves with the hope that the 
 punishment would be mitigated *. But the Adminis- 
 
 * " The sentence against Mr. Muir and Mr. Palmer," says Mr. Lindsey 
 in his letter to Dr. Toulmin, dated February 20th, " is so unjust, that I can 
 hardly persuade myself still that it will be executed, at least till their case 
 has undergone the intended parliamentary discussion. My friends say this 
 is hoping against hope. At present they are at Portsmouth, and it is said 
 are to remain there a fortnight." In a letter dated March 8th, Mr. Lindsay 
 writes : " I hear that Mr. Palmer was not quite so well at Portsmouth on 
 board the ship, and that their fare and accommodations were not such as 
 were expected. However, some of my friends still flatter me with hope 
 that Government will not take such a bold step as to send these men away 
 whilst the legality of their sentence is questioned, and its discussion pending 
 in the national legislature." These flattering hopes, however, proved abor- 
 tive. And in a letter to the same friend, dated May 3, 1 794, Mr. Lindsey 
 states, that they had then actually set sail and taken leave of their native 
 ountry, never, alas ! to return again. " A letter from Mr. Scott this day 
 mentions the whole fleet being at length out of sight yesterday morning with 
 a very fair wind down the channel ; and whatever some intend, I trust a 
 good Providence carries some to Botany Bay for most important purposes 
 of human virtue and happiness." 
 
 The correspondent from whom Mr. Lindsey received this intelligence was 
 the Reverend Russell Scott of Portsmouth, a gentleman of most active be- 
 nevolence, who was indefatigable in offices of kindness to these persecuted 
 reformers while the ship which conveyed them remained at Spithead. "Mr. 
 Scott cannot enough be commended," says Mr. Lindsey to Dr. Toulmin,
 
 2/2 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. XII. 
 
 tration of that day had determined upon ruling by a sy- 
 stem of terror unprecedented since the accession of the 
 House of Brunswick : and while the conduct of the 
 Scottish courts of justice was under discussion in Par- 
 liament, in the month of March 1794, these two upright 
 and respectable sufferers, and others in the same predica- 
 ment, were hurried on board the Surprize, a government 
 transport, and dispatched to Botany Bay among a crowd 
 of felons of various descriptions, who were for their crimes 
 condemned to the same punishment *. The treatment 
 of Mr. Fyshe Palmer on board this ship was so gross 
 and inhuman, as to excite a suspicion that it was never 
 intended that he should reach the place of their desti- 
 nation alive ; nor would it have been possible for him to 
 have survived the hardships he endured, had it not been 
 for the humane attentions of James Ellis, a young person 
 who, from affection and sympathy, volunteered his ser- 
 vices to Mr. Palmer, and accompanied him to the colony 
 as a free settler. Mr. Palmer's own affecting narrative 
 of the barbarous severities which he encountered on his 
 passage, is contained in a letter to Mr. Lindsey imme- 
 diately after his arrival in New South Wales, and is' in- 
 serted in the Appendix f. 
 
 " for his exertions to serve those worthy martyrs, and to see them accom- 
 modated with every thing needful." 
 
 * " The case of men of education and reflection," says Dr. Priestley, 
 " and who act from the best intentions with respect to the community, 
 committing only what state policy requires to be considered as crimes, but 
 which are allowed on all hands to imply no moral turpitude so as to render 
 them unfit for heaven and happiness hereafter, is not to be confounded with 
 that of common felons. There was nothing in the conduct of Lewis XIV. 
 and his ministers that appeared so shocking, so contrary to all ideas of jus- 
 tice, humanity, and decency, and that contributed more to render their me- 
 mory execrated, than sending such men as Mr. Marolles, and other eminent 
 ProtestPJits who are now revered as saints and martyrs, to the galleys, along 
 with the vilest miscreants. Compared with this, the punishment of death 
 would be mercy. I trust that, in time, the Scots in general will think these 
 measures a disgrace to their country." Dr. Priestley's Fast Serin. 1794'. 
 P*ef. p. xviii. Note. 
 
 f- See Appendix, No. XI. In order to justify the severities used to Mr. 
 Palmer, and even the infliction of capital punishment if that had been re-
 
 CH. XH.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. '2/3 
 
 This excellent man lived to complete the period as- 
 signed by his sentence for his banishment in this dreary 
 country, enduring many hardships, but highly respected 
 by all who were themselves respectable in this motley 
 community. When the term limited for his residence 
 was expired, he and the faithful companion of his for- 
 tunes, James Ellis, fitted out a small ship to convey them 
 to England, meaning in their way to carry on some ad- 
 vantageous traffic in the islands of the Southern ocean : 
 but their little bark was not equal to the undertaking, 
 and in a gale of wind it was wrecked upon the coast of 
 Golarn, one of the Ladrone islands belonging to Spain, 
 with which this country was then at war. The Spanish 
 governor made prisoners of the ship's crew, and during 
 his imprisonment Mr. Fyshe Palmer fell a victim to a 
 fever. 
 
 Mr. Lindsey interested himself very feelingly in behalf 
 of many other respectable characters who at this period 
 suffered by the harsh measures of Mr. Pitt's administra- 
 tion. The Reverend William Winterbotham, minister 
 of a Calvinistic congregation at Plymouth Dock, was ac- 
 cused of uttering seditious language in two discourses 
 which he delivered from the pulpit; and upon the slight- 
 est evidence, such was the ferment of the times, he was 
 found guilty, and sentenced to four years imprisonment 
 
 sorted to, the most infamous calumnies were industriously circulated against 
 that virtuous sufferer, viz. that he was exciting the felons to seize the ship 
 and to take it to America ; a report which, for a time, gained too easy 
 credit, but which, as it afterwards appeared, had not the least foundation in 
 truth. " Serious apprehensions," says Mr. Lindsey in a letter to Dr. Toul- 
 min, dated November 8, " are entertained by Mr. Palmer and Mr- Skir- 
 ving's friends, I am concerned to mention it, that they have been engaged 
 in some mutinous intention of rising and seizing the ship on their parting 
 from the grand fleet and going off to America ; I wish there may be no truth 
 in this report." In a succeeding letter dated December 15, Mr. Lindsey 
 expresses his conviction that these worthy men were wrongfully accused. 
 " There is reason to believe there have been disturbances on board the 
 Surprize, and that Messrs. Palmer and Skirving have been very injuriously 
 accused, as principally concerned in fomenting of them."
 
 2/4 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. XII, 
 
 in Newgate. "I have not read Mr. Wmterbothafn's 
 trial,*' says Air. Lindsey in a letter to Dr. Toulmin dated 
 Februarys, 1794: "but lawyers, and others whom I 
 have seen, declare that there never was a more iniquitous 
 verdict." It reminded many of the conviction of Mr. 
 Rosewell, a Presbyterian minister in the reign of Charles 
 II., for treasonable words uttered in the pulpit, upon the 
 evidence of two notorious prostitutes; concerning which, 
 a noble Lord who had attended the trial immediately re- 
 ported to the King at the levee, that he had just seen one 
 of his majesty's subjects, a man of learning and piety, 
 convicted of high treason upon evidence on which he 
 would not hang a dog. And when Jefferies came in soon 
 afterwards and bragged to the King of the feat which he 
 had performed in inducing the jury to convict Rosewell, 
 the King ordered him to arrest the judgement, and the 
 prisoner was soon afterwards set at liberty. It was hoped 
 by the friends of liberty and justice, that a sentence so 
 glaringly outraging every feeling of equity and humanity, 
 as that passed upon Mr. Winterbotham, would not have 
 been carried into execution. But Administration were 
 inexorable; not a single day of confinement was remitted; 
 and the innocent sufferer was compelled to drink the cup 
 of bitterness to the very dregs. During his confinement 
 he was visited occasionally by Mr. Lindsey, who, by his 
 kind sympathy and by his own great liberality, and his 
 influence with his good and generous friends, and parti- 
 cularly the excellent Mrs. Rayner, contributed very ma- 
 terially to the mitigation of Mr. Winterbotham's suffer- 
 ings*. 
 
 * The followiuc extract from a letter of Mr. Winterbotham's, dated Ply- 
 mouth, August 31, 1802, will show the grateful sense which that gentleman 
 entertained of the kindness of Mr. Lindsey and his other benefactors : 
 
 " Reverend and dear sir Although I am far separated from you, and pos- 
 sess but few opportunities of intercoucse with yon, yet my heart ever con. 
 templates you with affection and .gratitude : nor, indeed, can it be otherwise;
 
 CH. XIII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 275 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 DR. PRIESTLEY EMIGRATES TO AMERICA. HIS REASONS 
 FOR THIS MEASURE. MR. LiNDSEY*S JUDGEMENT IN 
 THE CASE. DR. PRIESTLEY'S FAREWELL SERMON AT 
 HACKNEY. LETTERS TO MR. LINDSEY FROM GRAVES- 
 END, DEAL, AND FALMOUTH. ARRIVES AT NEW YORK. 
 HIS RECEPTION IN AMERICA. 
 
 JLHE time was now arrived in which the venerable sub- 
 ject of this Memoir was destined to experience the se- 
 verest privation which had ever yet fallen to his lot, by the 
 emigration of the approved friend of his heart, his fellow- 
 labourer and fellow- sufferer in the cause of divine truth, 
 Dr. Priestley, to America. This memorable event took 
 place in the spring of 1794. In the preface to his Fast 
 
 for while I feel myself surrounded with comforts I cannot, I trust, ever for-, 
 get the man to whose kindness so many of them are owing. Indeed, my dear 
 sir, your name, and that of dear Mrs. Rayner, borne by my two eldest boys, 
 has added pleasure even to the sensations they naturally inspire, and a pa- 
 rent's heart has dared to indulge the hope that they may one day imitate the 
 virtues of those after whom they have been called. 
 
 ". Permit me here to thank you also for the present of your last. publica- 
 tion. I have perused it with pleasure and profit, although every sentiment 
 therein may not accord with my own. And I feel thankful to the Father of 
 mercy, who thus kindly continues to you the faculties of the mind so entire, 
 while your advanced period of life forbids the more active labours of the 
 house of God. 
 
 " Whatever differences of opinion may exist between us on religious sub- 
 jects, I hope and trust that I shall be enabled to imitate that sincerity of soul 
 of which you have given me and the world go bright an example. My heart, 
 I can truly say, is alive to the duties and the importance of Christianity, arid 
 I trust that I am not altogether a stranger to its pleasures. I continue my 
 public labours, and my aim amidst my little flock has been to cultivate that 
 mind that was in Christ Jesus, and to promote those dispositions which ren- 
 der obedience to the divine will delightful. I do not labour in vain, although 
 my success is not adequate to my wishes. 
 
 " I trust I shall yet have an opportunity of seeing you in the flesh : but if 
 this favour is denied, I will cherish and indulge the pleasing hope. of meeting 
 you in the world of spirits, and enjoying your friendship in a state of immor- 
 tality through the ages of an eternal world." 
 
 It is to be remembered, that Mr. Winterbotham is a minister of the Cal- 
 vinistic persuasion. The letter does great credit to the head and to the heart 
 of the writer; it shows that the spirit of Christianity is not limited to any 
 sect or party of Christians. 
 
 T 2
 
 276 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. XIII. 
 
 Sermon preached in February that year, Dr. Priestley 
 states the reasons which induced him to leave his coun- 
 try : the principal of which were, the removal of his sons, 
 the transfer of the greater part of his property to Ame- 
 rica, and the apprehended insecurity of his own person in 
 consequence of the rancorous spirit of the times, and the 
 violent measures of the Administration. Dr. Priestley 
 naturally enough concluded, that the same bitter and ty- 
 rannical spirit which dictated, or enforced, the cruel and 
 unjust sentences upon Muir, Palmer, and Winterbotham, 
 and especially the latter, who was convicted, upon evi- 
 dence the most suspicious, of an offence of which no rea- 
 sonable person could believe him guilty, and condemned 
 to four years confinement in Newgate, might, upon a 
 similar pretext, which could never be wanting if it was 
 sought for, deprive him of his liberty, or expose him to 
 political persecution. It is not indeed probable that the 
 government of the country, who knew his innocence, ever 
 meaned to disgrace itself by the direct prosecution of the 
 most enlightened and most virtuous of its philosophers. 
 It was sufficient for them, that a hireling crew had raised 
 against him a popular hue and cry ; and it cannot be 
 doubted that the men then in power would have been 
 better pleased, if, after having been burned out of his 
 house by a hired mob of ruffians at Birmingham, he had 
 fled the kingdom instead of finding an honourable asylum 
 at Hackney. Warned, however, by the terrible example 
 of 1780, and even by that of the late riots at Birmingham, 
 there is no reason to believe that they would have encou- 
 raged a mob in the vicinity of the metropolis to have 
 pulled down Dr. Priestley's house a second time. And 
 in fact, though the venerable sufferer met with a few per- 
 sonal insults at his first settlement at Clapton from some 
 of the lowest of the rabble, that spirit had entirely sub- 
 sided ; and had he chosen to have remained at Hackney,
 
 CH. Xill.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 2/7 
 
 it cannot be doubted that he would have lived in equal 
 security and tranquillity with the rest of his fellow-citi- 
 zens ; admired, beloved, and revered, by a numerous, re- 
 spectable, and continually increasing circle of hearers, 
 pupils and friends. But the high spirit of Dr. Priestley 
 could not brook to hold his liberty and security upon what 
 appeared to him to be so precarious a tenure ; and he 
 therefore resolved to seek an asylum in a country where, 
 if civilization has not attained to so high a polish as in 
 older countries, thoughts and words and consciences are 
 free ; and no restraint is laid upon freedom of inquiry, la- 
 titude of disquisition, or openness of profession upon the 
 most important subjects of religion or politics. It was 
 not, however, without much regret that this much-injured 
 man bid adieu to his native country, nor without indul- 
 ging the fond hope that he might eventually return and 
 end his days in peace in the land which gave him birth. 
 But the circumstance which most touched his feelings 
 was the loss of the society of his old, tried and beloved 
 friend, Mr. Lindsey, Vf in whose absence," says he, " I 
 shall for some time at least find all the world a blank* " 
 
 * The concluding paragraph of this interesting preface is so truly cha- 
 racteristic of Dr. Priestley's amiable, affectionate, and ingenuous mind, that 
 I trust I shall be excused for inserting it here. 
 
 " The sentence of Mr. Winterbotham for delivering from the pulpit what 
 I am persuaded he never did deliver, and which similar evidence might have 
 drawn upon myself, or any other dissenting minister who was an object of 
 general dislike, has something in it still more alarming. But I trust that 
 conscious innocence would support me, as it does him, under whatever pre- 
 judiced or violent men might do to me, as well as say of me. But I see no 
 occasion to expose myself to danger without any prospect of doing good, or 
 to continue any longer in a country in which I am so unjustly become the 
 object of general dislike, and not retire to another where I have reason to 
 think I shall be better received. And I trust that the same good providence 
 which has attended me hitherto and made me happy in my present situation, 
 and all my former ones, will attend and bless me in what may still lie before 
 me. In all events the will of God be done ! 
 
 " I cannot refrain from repeating again, that I leave my native country 
 with real regret, never expecting to find any where else society so suited to 
 my disposition and habits ; such friends as I have here, whose attachment 
 has been more than a balance to all the abuse I have met with from others $
 
 278 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. XIII. 
 
 But though many of Dr. Priestley's friend?, those es- 
 pecially who resided in the vicinity of Hackney, and who 
 were naturally most anxious to retain him in the coun- 
 try, allowed perhaps too little weight to the arguments 
 for emigration ; there were others, possibly, equally well- 
 informed, and certainly not less interested in the result 
 of his deliberation, who thought him fully justified in the 
 resolution which he adopted of abandoning, at least for 
 the present, a country which no longer knew how to ap- 
 preciate his transcendent merits, and in which his pro- 
 perty, and even his person, was believed to be no longer 
 safe. In the number of these was the venerable subject 
 of this Memoir, to whom the emigration of Dr. Priestley 
 must have been a most afflicting event. He thus ex- 
 presses himself upon the subject in a letter to Dr. Toul- 
 min, dated January 10, 1794, before Dr. Priestley had 
 made up his mind to leave the country : 
 
 " We have seen Dr. Priestley very frequently of late, 
 as also Airs. Priestley, and they are both very well. If 
 his sons do well in America, I have no doubt of his fol- 
 lowing them, but do not apprehend that he will remove 
 thither at any time but upon some opening or prospect 
 of being provided for, so as to be useful in his own way 
 as a teacher of philosophy. He is now preaching at Hack- 
 
 and especially to replace one particular Christian friend, in whose absence I 
 shall, for some time at least, find all the world a blank. Still less can I ex- 
 pect to resume my favourite pursuits with any thing like the advantages I 
 enjoy here. In leaving this country I also abandon a source of maintenance 
 which I can but ill bear to lose. I can however truly say, that I leave it 
 without any resentment or ill-will. On the contrary, I sincerely wish my 
 countrymen all happiness ; and when the time for reflection, which my ab- 
 sence may accelerate, shall come, my countrymen I am confident will do me 
 more justice. They will be convinced that every suspicion which they have 
 been led to entertain to my disadvantage has been ill-founded, and that I 
 have even some claims to their. gratitude and esteem. In this case I shall 
 look with satisfaction to the time when, if my life be prolonged, I may visit 
 my friends in this country ; and perhaps I may, notwithstanding my removal 
 for the present, find a grave, as I believe is naturally the wish of eve^y man, 
 in the land that gave me birth."
 
 CH. XIII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 
 
 ney a Course of Lectures on the Evidences of the Mosaic 
 and Christian Revelations, which he intends afterwards 
 to print; and which, from what I have seen of the former, 
 will be most useful and highly seasonable at a period when 
 many in this country, and the greater part upon the con- 
 tinent, count all revealed religion as a fable, which might 
 be well intended at first, but has proved most destructive 
 to the morals and happiness of mankind." 
 
 In his next letter to the same friend, dated February 8, 
 1794, he thus communicates the intelligence of Dr. 
 Priestley's final resolution : " I return your son's two let- 
 ters, which I like much, as every thing which comes from 
 him*. They show a good mind, sensible, active, and 
 ever attentive to the proper business of his journeyings. 
 At Dr. Priestley's request I let him take them home with 
 him a day or two since to show to Mrs. Priestley, as they 
 are every day more and more interested in what relates 
 to America; and I now believe, in the course of not 
 many months, will both of them remove thither. This 
 
 * The Reverend Henry Toulmin, who was settled with a large and re- 
 spectable congregation in Lancashire. This gentleman, when a violent spirit, 
 not discountenanced by the Administration of the day, broke out against the 
 dissenters, and particularly the rational dissenters, soon after the riots at 
 Birmingham, emigrated with his family to America ; and after some time 
 settled at Kentucky, where he was appointed to the high office of Secretary 
 of State, with a salary of about eighty pounds a year ; but this being thought 
 too extravagant, it was reduced to fifty. The Governor of the State was Mr. 
 Toulmin's friend. He had been a Baptist Minister, and a Colonel in the 
 army. His revenues were in proportion to those of the Secretary. The fact 
 is, that he was a man of a liberal and enlightened mind ; and while he con- 
 tinued at the head of the government, he and his Secretary introduced many 
 wise and salutary regulations, and contributed to the utmost of their power 
 to establish order and tranquillity in a state of society which was but few de- 
 grees removed from a state of nature and barbarism. But their patriotic 
 administration was not permitted to continue long. After a few years, hi con- 
 sequence of one of those political revolutions to which empires are liable, 
 another party gained the ascendancy, the administration was changed, and 
 the Governor and Secretary retired to private stations. The President of 
 the United States, however, Mr. Jefferson, to whom the abilities and merits 
 of Mr. Toulmin were well known, soon afterwards appointed him to the office 
 of Judge in a district of the United States upon the river Mohille, which he 
 now fills with great reputation to himself and advantage to the community.
 
 280 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. XII*. 
 
 full decision I have come to the knowledge of since I last 
 wrote, though I have for some time suspected it. It will 
 cut off a great source of the highest satisfaction to me 
 amongst many others. But I hope it will be for his 
 greater good and contentment upon the whole, as his fa- 
 mily have gone before him ; and I have for some time 
 thought that his chief business was done here and we were 
 no longer worthy of him, and that he may be of eminent 
 service to that other country, retaining still in great vi- 
 gour his powers of body and mind ; and there can be no 
 doubt of the intimate friend of Franklin's being there well 
 received." 
 
 In this manly way does Mr. Lindsey express his appro- 
 bation of his friend's emigration, though mixed with deep 
 regret. In the following extract of a letter to Dr. Toul- 
 min, dated February 20, it appears that other intimate 
 and judicious friends of Dr. Priestley entertained similar 
 sentiments : '* The Doctor has received letters which are 
 very encouraging. The family of V here, who have 
 two sons (that were both the Doctor's pupils) in America, 
 one well settled in Philadelphia, the other in Kennebec, 
 but who is part of the year at Boston, all advise and rather 
 press him to go, though greatly grieved to lose him hence. 
 As to the Doctor, his purpose is certainly fixed to leave 
 England towards April, and he is making preparations 
 for the purpose." 
 
 In a letter to the same correspondent, dated March 8, 
 Mr. Lindsey states : " You will be pleased to know that 
 our friend, though we cannot think of losing him without 
 deep concern, has taken places for himself, Mrs. Priest- 
 ley, and two servants, in the Sansom, which is to be ready 
 to sail the latter end of this or the very beginning of next 
 month. Happily the other persons, all of them emi- 
 grants, who are going in the same ship, are known to him 
 or his friends."
 
 GH. XIII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS UNDSEY. 281 
 
 On the 21st of February, 1794, Dr. Priestley sent in 
 his letter of resignation to the congregation at Hackney ; 
 to which after some time, when they found all efforts to 
 induce him to remain with them unavailing and hopeless, 
 they returned an answer expressive of their veneration and 
 gratitude for his person and his labours, their poignant re- 
 gret at the dissolution of the connexion, and their affec- 
 tionate good wishes for his future welfare. On the 30th 
 of March he delivered to a crowded auditory a farewell 
 discourse, from Acts xx. 32. The subject of it was the 
 " Use of Christianity, especially in difficult times." It 
 begins with stating " the great design of the gospel to 
 raise the sons of men to the high character and honour 
 of sons of God, and make them heirs of a happy immor- 
 tality;" it represents " the situation of dissenters, and 
 especially of Unitarian dissenters at that time, as calling 
 in a particular manner for the exercise of Christian prin- 
 ciples : and that the insult and outrage to which they 
 were then exposed, though not to be desired, was most fa- 
 vourable to the cultivation of that temper of mind which 
 is most eminently Christian, to the virtues of patience, 
 fortitude, forgiveness, and heavenly-mindedness." The 
 preacher then shows how much superior these virtues are 
 to that courage and zeal which is so generally applauded in 
 heroes and martyrs, and of how much more difficult at- 
 tainment ; and in the true spirit of Christian philosophy 
 he remarks, that " we shall be the less disturbed at the ma- 
 lignity of others, when we consider that our enemies, as 
 well as our friends, are acting the part assigned them by 
 the Supreme Ruler of the Universe: that they are in their 
 proper place as well as we in ours ; though, being insti- 
 gated by their own bad dispositions, this is no apology 
 for their conduct ; and that the plan of the great drama 
 in which we are all actors is so arranged, that good will 
 finally result from the evil which we experience in our-
 
 282 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. XIII. 
 
 selves or see in others." He adds, that " all the oppo- 
 sition we meet with makes part of the useful and neces- 
 sary discipline of life, and no great character could be 
 formed, or any great good be done, without it ; our Sa- 
 viour, the apostles, the reformers from popery, the Puri- 
 tans, and Nonconformists, were equally exposed to it. 
 And shall we complain ? We must not forget that it is 
 only, by discipline, and often very severe discipline too, 
 that great and excellent characters are ever formed ; and 
 there is a source of satisfaction even in adversity, or nearly 
 connected with it, that persons in prosperity and affluence 
 have no idea of." 
 
 In proof of this observation he cites his own example : 
 " Of this I am myself not without some experience. My 
 violent expulsion from a favourite situation at Birming- 
 ham was to appearance sufficiently disastrous, and I was 
 not without feeling it to be so. Yet I have had more 
 than a recompense, internal and external, so as to make 
 me consider it even now as no evil upon the whole : and 
 I am far from wishing, if it were possible, that it might 
 not have happened." The preacher then proceeds to 
 show, " that a state of suffering is. a state of usefulness ; 
 no less than one of most active exertion."- Also, that 
 " such a state of persecution as that to which we are ex- 
 posed, will tend to purge our Societies of lukewarm and 
 unworthy members ; of men who prefer the world and 
 the things of it, to the cause of truth and a good con- 
 science ; and such are many of the richer sort among us, 
 and in all societies ; men who, by associating with other 
 rich and worldly-minded men, and especially those, who 
 are within the influence of a court and the honours and 
 emoluments derived from it, catch too much of their spi- 
 rit, become assimilated to their manners, and adopt their 
 views. Let all such go to their proper place ; we want 
 them not ; we want not even their wealth. True chrisr
 
 CH. XIII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 283 
 
 tianity does not suppose nor require it. But in all cases 
 of persecution > some of the most wealthy have proved the 
 most zealous." It is further remarked, that " true chris- 
 tians, devoid of superstition, will meet for public worship 
 and edify one another, even without the aid or expense 
 of regular ministers ; in situations in which ministers 
 cannot be had, Christian laymen will, I hope, have the 
 good sense to do themselves every thing which has. been 
 usually done by their ministers : and this excellent lesson 
 will be taught more effectually in a season of adversity 
 than of prosperity." " It is our pride that, as Unitarians, 
 our religion has been so far from being befriended, that 
 it has in all ages been frowned upon by the civil magi- 
 strate : and yet in these seemingly unfavourable circum- 
 stances it has constantly gained ground." As an evidence 
 of their having imbibed the true spirit of Christianity, the 
 preacher recommends that his hearers should " exert 
 themselves in their several spheres to extend the know- 
 ledge of it to others, and not to imagine that this is 
 the business of ministers only. Gladly," continues he, 
 " would unbelievers have it to say, that all men of sense 
 are with them. On the contrary, I am confident that 
 men of real knowledge and reflection, as well as men of 
 virtue and integrity ; men who have given the most se- 
 rious attention to the subject, and men of the most up- 
 right and unbiassed minds, are with us. But to recom- 
 mend Christianity to men of reason and reflection, it must 
 be made to appear a rational thing. Men cannot embrace 
 as sacred truths any thing at which their common sense 
 revolts." Hence he infers that it is our duty, '< if we have 
 any real value for Christianity, to exert ourselves to free it 
 from those great incumbrances which have already done 
 it the greatest injury, and have endangered its very ex- 
 istence." He congratulates the congregation upon its 
 honourable denomination of an Unitarian Society, and au-
 
 284 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [c'H. XIII;' 
 
 gurs the happiest effects from the public avowal of their 
 Christian principles. " The opinions," says he, " of single 
 persons are often overlooked or disregarded, but a chri- 
 stian church is a city set on a hill that cannot be hid." 
 
 And the congregation having, chiefly upon his recom- 
 mendation, chosen as his successor the writer of this 
 Memoir, the preacher is pleased to say, '* I cannot con- 
 clude this discourse without expressing my satisfaction in 
 your choice of my successor :" and after expressing, in 
 language which it does not become the writer to repeat, 
 his persuasion that this successor would carry on plans 
 of instruction, public and private, on the same principles 
 with himself, he adds, " by making choice of such a per- 
 son, you have greatly lessened the pain that I shall feel 
 from our separation. It will appear to me that I am still 
 with you in his person. May the connexion be long and 
 happy !" 
 
 Having thus finished what he had to say to his regular 
 audience, he closes his discourse with addressing a few 
 hints of advice to the numerous strangers which thronged 
 to hear him upon this interesting occasion. The intro- 
 duction to this address is most judicious and conciliatory. 
 " Most of you, I presume, are come hither from an in- 
 nocent curiosity to see and hear a person of whom you 
 have heard much evil, and perhaps some good, and whom 
 you do not expect to see or hear any more. Others, 
 though I hope not many, may have come for some less 
 innocent purpose. These, let them have come whenever 
 they pleased, must have found themselves disappointed, 
 and I hope agreeably so ; as instead of finding any occa- 
 sion of harm to me they may have found some good to 
 themselves. Nothing else can they have heard here ; no- 
 thing but what is calculated to confirm the faith of allchris- 
 tians, and to inculcate those sentiments of the heart, and 
 that conduct in life, which are the proper fruits of that
 
 CH. XIII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 285 
 
 faith." The preacher having said a few words to justify his 
 doctrine, though deemed heretical, defends it briefly from 
 the charge of sedition . " Nothing," says he, " that can by 
 any construction be supposed to have that tendency has 
 ever been delivered from this pulpit, unless it be sedition 
 to teach what the apostles taught before, viz. that we are 
 to obey God rather than man ; and that in what relates 
 to religion and conscience, we disclaim all human autho- 
 rity, even that of king, lords, and commons. In these 
 things we acknowledge only One Father, even God, and 
 one master, even Christ, the messenger or ambassador of 
 God. If any doctrine be really false, being contrary to 
 reason and the Scriptures, it is not an act of parliament 
 that can make it true. Or, if any action be morally 
 wrong, as being contrary to natural justice and equity, it 
 is not an act of parliament that can make it be right. But 
 while we thus * render to God the things that are God's/ 
 we render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. We are 
 subject to every civil * ordinance of man for the Lord's 
 sake,' though not their ordinances relating to religion. 
 Learn then not to give ear to mere calumny. As to us, 
 I trust that we have learned of Christ to bless them that 
 curse us, and to pray for them that despitefully use and 
 persecute us." 
 
 The peroration is beautiful and appropriate, and strong- 
 ly indicates the truly Christian spirit of the venerable fu- 
 gitive. " Whether then you come as friends or as ene- 
 mies, whether we shall ever see one another's faces again 
 or not, may God, whose providence is over all, bless, 
 preserve, and keep us ! Above all, may we be preserved 
 in the paths of virtue and piety, that we may have a hap- 
 py meeting in that world, where error and prejudice wtH 
 be no more, where all the ground of the party distinctions 
 which subsist here will be taken away; where every rnis-
 
 286 MEMOIftS OF THE LATE [CH. XII*. 
 
 understanding will be cleared up, and the rejgn of truth 
 and of virtue will be for ever established !" 
 
 Such was the posture of mind, such the dignity of spi- 
 rit, of this first of philosophers and of Christians, when 
 taking leave of a country whose reputation he had ex- 
 tended, and to whose intellectual and moral improve- 
 ment he had devoted his superior energies ; but which, 
 too little sensible of his pre-eminent worth, treated him 
 with neglect, and refused redress to his cruel and unme- 
 rited injuries ; and, if she did not absolutely banish from 
 her shores the worthiest of her sons, she at least appeared 
 to withhold from him that protection which he thought 
 essential to his security, and to the peaceable and success- 
 ful pursuit of his professional duties and his philosophical 
 inquiries. But the spirit of Christianity carried him 
 through all ; and Dr. Priestley in the possession of a good 
 conscience, and in the exercise of the mild, forbearing, 
 forgiving spirit of the Gospel, was more truly happy in 
 his mind, and more enviable in his exile, than the most 
 violent of his enemies and persecutors on their couches 
 of preferment, or their thrones of state*. 
 
 The following Sunday, April 6, Dr. Priestley passed 
 
 * After Dr. Priestley had given notice of his intention to leave the coun- 
 try, the writer of this Memoir had frequent opportunities of accompanying 
 him in his walks to visit and to take leave of his friends. The conversation 
 upon these occasions usually turned upon some interesting subjects. Upon 
 one occasion the topic of discussion was the second advent of Christ : and 
 Dr. Priestley, who had studied the Apocalypse with great attention, inferred, 
 from the state of the world, compared with the language of prophecy, that 
 the second personal appearance of Christ was very near at hand. "You," 
 says he, " may probably live to see it ; I shall not. It cannot, I think, b'e 
 more than twenty years." Of these twenty years, eighteen are now (1812) 
 elapsed, and the signs of Christ's appearance are not more perceptible now 
 than they were twenty years ago ; and he must be a sturdy believer who now 
 expects the visible appearance of Christ to restore the Jews to their country, 
 and to assume the government of the world within two years. Mr. Eyanson, 
 who did not in all points coincide with Dr. Priestley, agreed with him in ex- 
 pecting the early personal appearance and reign of Christ. But his inter- 
 pretation, with greater prudence, postponed the event for sixty years. I have 
 not however heard that either of these gentlemen was quite so unreasonable
 
 CH. XIII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 287 
 
 with his friends in Essex-street, whose faces he was never 
 more to behold again in this world. Dr. Toulmin that day 
 preached for Dr. Disney a judicious, seasonable, and af- 
 fecting discourse, which made a very deep impression 
 upon a respectable and numerous audience. The next 
 day Dr. Priestley and his family went to Gravesend, from 
 which place he addressed the following short letter to his 
 venerable friend : 
 
 " Dear friend, We were rather unexpectedly sum- 
 moned by the captain to be with him here at two in the 
 afternoon yesterday ; and here we met him and all the 
 company, expecting to sail that evening. However, we 
 are now actually about to take a boat and go to the ship, 
 which lies at the Hope, about six miles below this place. 
 We spent an agreeable evening, all things considered ; 
 Mr. Russell and Mr. Vaughan being of the party. The 
 morning is fine, but the wind still west. When we get 
 to the Downs it is to be determined whether we go north 
 round Scotland or through the Channel. The Pigou 
 sails at the same time ; and we hope to keep company. 
 
 " J Poor Sally (Mrs. Finch, his only daughter) is most 
 affected, as Mr. F. seems more determined than ever not 
 to follow us ; but she hopes that circumstances may arise 
 
 and inconsistent as the celebrated W. Whiston, who having foretold that the 
 world would come to an end in twenty years, asked thirty years purchase for 
 a small estate which he had to sell. I mention these facts to show how grie- 
 vously the most enlightened minds may err when they attempt to apply the 
 language of prophecy to passing events, and to become prophets themselves, 
 instead of waiting till time unfolds the mysterious volume of divine dispen- 
 sations, and points, aut the. true sense of the prophetic vision. Joseph Mede 
 himself is a memorable instance of the egregious mistakes into which learned 
 and inquisitive men are liable to fall upon this subject ; who, having sup- 
 plied the best .key to the mysteries of the Apocalypse, and given the most 
 rational solution of the symbols which are supposed to refer to events which 
 had long been past, interprets two of the symbols as relating to the defeat 
 of the Spanish armada, and to the wars in Germany against the House of 
 Austria ; events which, however important to the British nation, make little 
 figure in the history of the world, and are far beneath the dignity of prophet 
 tic notice.
 
 288 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [t'H. XIII* 
 
 which will change his resolution. However, that resolu- 
 tion will be guided by a will wiser than his or ours ; and 
 this is my greatest consolation, especially in parting with 
 you and Mrs. Lindsey. 
 
 " Trusting to Mr. J. who said he would take my ther- 
 mometer to Gravesend himself, I shall be obliged to go 
 without it. I wish however you would see him, and de- 
 sire him to send it by Johnson's package, if it will bear 
 that conveyance. Take also any number you please of 
 any of my publications, and dispose of them as you think 
 proper. 
 
 " I will write again from Deal, where the pilot leaves 
 us. Yours and Mrs. Lindsey's most affectionately, 
 
 Gravesend, April 8, 1704. " J. PRIESTLEY." 
 
 The next day, April 9, Dr. Priestley wrote to Mr. 
 Lindsey, as he promised, from Deal. 
 
 " Dear friend, This I hope will be the last time I 
 shall write to you from Old England. Yesterday we had a 
 fair wind to carry us off Margate. We lay lo, the greatest 
 part of the night, when a fair wind sprung up to cany 
 us, they say, within an hour of Deal, by half-past eight, 
 which it now is. Most of the passengers yesterday were 
 ill ; my wife most of the day ; and J did not wholly 
 escape, though I am better than most of them. To-day 
 we seem to be all pretty well, just ready for breakfast. 
 
 " The cabin passengers are only nine, and promise to 
 be sufficiently agreeable, though almost all unknown to 
 each other. I have barely learned their names. 
 
 " Mr. Lyon, who had but little time to speak to Mr. 
 Russell on the subject of our purchase of land, desires to 
 have one share with us, if the subscription be not full. 
 He will be a valuable associate, on account of his being 
 an excellent farmer.
 
 CH. XIII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 289 
 
 "Our captain has just informed us, that if he falls in 
 with the fleet of merchantmen at Portsmouth he will join 
 them for the sake of the convoy : if so, I will write from 
 that place. 
 
 "With my best wishes and prayers, for our reunion 
 here, or hereafter, yours and Mrs. Lindsey's, in which 
 my wife joins me, most affectionately, 
 
 " J. PRIESTLEY." 
 
 The next letter is dated off Falmouth, on Friday even- 
 ing, April 1 1 . 
 
 "Dear friend, We came in a very short time oppo- 
 site to the Start, but then, which was last night, the wind 
 changed, and turned west ; so that on this account, and 
 likewise apprehending a storm from that quarter, we have 
 just dropped anchor in Falmouth Road, where we shall 
 stay till to-morrow morning, and then sail or not accord- 
 ing as the wind shall be. 
 
 " On Wednesday evening we had a strong gale, which 
 continued all night and part of the next day. This made 
 all the passengers very sick, and my wife and myself 
 among them. I could eat nothing till supper. But the 
 next night was calm, and we rose recruited, and all this 
 day have been in very good spirits, but much disappointed 
 at not being able to proceed .on our voyage, when we had 
 got further in three days than the captain says he got in 
 three weeks and five days the last voyage. We begin to 
 be acquainted with all our cabin, and many of the steer- 
 age passengers, and like them very well. They are all 
 well-behaved, and good company. The only woman cabin 
 passenger is come from France; knows our friends there, 
 and seems well acquainted with the politics of the coun- 
 try. 
 
 " On the whole, I think we shall pass our time pretty 
 
 u
 
 290 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE | CH. XIII. 
 
 well during the voyage. I have much time for reading, 
 and shall be able to write. I am meditating a discourse 
 on the causes of infidelity, led to it by reflections on that 
 of Mr. C. and other intelligent men. 
 
 " I think I shall nearly read my Greek Testament 
 through before I get to New York ; and I think I read it 
 with more satisfaction than ever. Unbelievers, I am con- 
 fident, do not read it except with a predisposition to ca- 
 vil. A person waits for our letters, and therefore I am 
 in haste yours and Mrs. Lindsey's most affectionately, 
 
 " J. PRIESTLEY." 
 
 Here we see what was uppermost in the mind of this 
 truly apostolic man. An exile from his country, to which 
 he was never more to return, writing in confidence to his 
 most intimate friend, whose face he was never to see 
 again, instead of giving vent to his feelings in effeminate 
 and unavailing lamentations, he thinks of nothing but 
 how he may best fortify his own mind, and confirm the 
 minds of others in the grounds and principles of the 
 Christian faith as the only solid foundation of virtue and 
 peace. Nothing further was heard of Dr. Priestley till 
 his arrival at New York. The following is the first let- 
 ter addressed to his venerable friend from the shores of the 
 western continent. Its contents are too interesting to 
 require an apology for its length. 
 
 "New York, June 6, I7p4. 
 
 " Dear friend, I hope you received the letters I wrote 
 from Gravesend, Deal, and Falmouth. I now write from 
 New York, where we are safely arrived, after a passage 
 of eight weeks and a day, owing to our having had none 
 but westerly winds after we got clear of the Channel till 
 the last fortnight. We also found the coast covered with 
 a thick fog, very unusual at this time of the year, so that 
 we were three days before we could get into the bay after 
 we Reached the coast.
 
 CH. XIII. j REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 291 
 
 " We had an excellent ship ; but the captain was not 
 the man he had been represented to me. He swore much, 
 and was given to liquor ; and the crew very disorderly. 
 However, he made a point of behaving in his best man- 
 ner to us ; and is naturally very generous and good-na- 
 tured. Unfortunately the mate and he did not agree ; 
 and no care had been taken of the water-casks, so that 
 the steerage passengers suffered much in consequence of 
 it ; and we had many complaints : and if the voyage had 
 been much longer, the consequence might have been se- 
 rious. 
 
 "Our society in the cabin was agreeable enough, though 
 the majority were aristocratically inclined ; but all in the 
 steerage were zealous republicans, and persons of good 
 character, and several of good property. In the steerage 
 also was more religion than in the cabin ; but they were 
 universally Calvinists, though the majority very mode- 
 rate, as you will suppose, from their applying to me to 
 perform divine service to them ; which I did with much 
 satisfaction when the weather and other circumstances 
 would permit, several in the cabin joining us, though 
 some of them were unbelievers but for want of infor- 
 mation. This is the case with Mr. L., a most excellent 
 man, who is now reading my sermons on the evidences 
 of revelation, and I hope to good purpose. He, like 
 thousands of others, told me, that he was so much dis- 
 gusted with the doctrines of the church of England, es- 
 pecially the Trinity, that he considered the whole busi- 
 ness as an imposition, without further inquiry. 
 
 " The confinement in the ship would not have been 
 disagreeable if I could have written with convenience. 
 But I could do little more than read. I read the whole 
 of the Greek Testament, and the Hebrew Bible as far as 
 the first book of Samuel, and I think with more satisfac- 
 tion than ever. I also read through Hartley's second vo- 
 
 u 2
 
 292 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. XT II. 
 
 lume; and for amusement I had several books of voy- 
 ages, and Ovid's Metamorphoses, which I read through. 
 I always admired his Latin versification. If I had a Vir- 
 gil, I should have read him through too. I read a great 
 deal of Buchanan's Poems, and some of Petrarch's and 
 Erasmus's Dialogues. All Peter Pindar's poems, which 
 Mr. L. had with him, and which pleased me much more 
 than I expected. He is Paine in verse. 
 
 " Though it was particularly inconvenient to write long 
 hand, I composed about as much as will make two ser- 
 mons, on the causes of infidelity, which will make a pro- 
 per addition to the volume of my discourses. If I do not 
 print them here I will send you a copy. Now that I have 
 access to the first volume of Hartley, in the fine edition 
 Mrs. Lindsey gave me, I think I can improve what I 
 wrote. The second volume I had in the ship was an odd 
 volume of the set that was destroyed in the riots. 
 
 " We had many things to amuse us in the passage, as 
 the sight of some fine mountains of ice, water-spouts, 
 which are very uncommon in those seas, flying fishes, 
 porpoises, whales, and sharks, of which we caught one, 
 luminous sea-water, &c. I also amused myself with try- 
 ing the heat of the water at different depths, and made 
 other observations which suggest various experiments,, 
 which I shall prosecute whenever I get my apparatus at 
 liberty. 
 
 " We had some very stormy weather ; and one gust of 
 wind as sudden and violent as perhaps ever was known. 
 If it had not been for the passengers, many of the sails 
 had been lost. 
 
 " I had not much sea-sickness ; but owing to our 
 wretched cookery had no appetite for any thing till within 
 a fortnight or three weeks of our landing; but then I was 
 perfectly reconciled to every thing. My wife was really 
 very ill a great part of the time ; but at last grew very
 
 Clf. XIII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 
 
 well, and looks better almost than ever. On the whole 
 the voyage has done us no harm, but good. 
 
 " J and his wife had been waiting for us some time. 
 They and their brothers are well ; which is a great satis- 
 faction to us. We shall probably go with them to Phi- 
 ladelphia before we go any where else, as I hear there are 
 proposals to be made to me about establishing a new col- 
 lege in some part of Pennsylvania, about which you shall 
 know more when I know more. 
 
 "I never saw any place that I liked so well as New 
 York ; it far exceeds my expectation, and my reception 
 is too flattering ; no form of respect being omitted. I 
 have received two formal addresses, to which I have given 
 answers. More, I hear, are coming, and almost every 
 person of the least consequence in the place has been or 
 is coming to call upon me. This is rather troublesome, 
 but it shows the difference of the two countries. I am 
 lodged in the house which was the head-quarters of Ge- 
 nerals Howe and Clinton, in view of the Bay, which is the 
 finest prospect that I remember ever to have seen. 
 
 " This must be a glorious country ; and I doubt not of 
 finding a peaceable and useful establishment in it. When 
 that is accomplished, my only wish will be to have you 
 and a few other Christian friends to come and end their 
 days with us. But we must not promise ourselves too 
 much in this world. 
 
 " Say for me every thing that a grateful heart can dic- 
 tate, both from myself, my wife, and my son, to Mrs, 
 Rayner. 
 
 " Yours and Mrs. Lindsey's most affectionately, 
 
 "J. PRIESTLEY.'* 
 
 Dr. Priestley made but a short stay at New York*, 
 
 * It will not perhaps be uninteresting to read the account of Dr. Priestley's 
 reception at New York, by a gentleman who was prcscot at the time, and
 
 294 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. XIII. 
 
 where, notwithstanding all the respect shown him by the 
 laity, there was not one clergyman who offered him his 
 pulpit, and some thought it their duty to caution their 
 hearers against Unitarian errors. Many persons were, 
 
 who soon afterwards returned to England, Mr. Henry Wansey, who wrote 
 the following letter to Mr. Lindsey from Salisbury, August 28, 1 794 : 
 
 "Dear Sir, A packet was given me by Dr. Priestley to deliver to you, 
 and I fully intended calling upon you with it, but could not get my boxes and 
 baggage passed through the custom-house, and was obliged to leave London 
 at last without accomplishing it ; your parcel, from over care, having been 
 put into it. I lodged at the same house with the Doctor and family at New 
 York, Mrs. Loring's, where you have, no doubt, heard how well and respect- 
 ably he was received. All the families of consequence, even some of the 
 clergy, called to pay their respects, though the latter did not carry their ci- 
 vility so far as to offer any pulpit to him during the two Sundays he was there. 
 Dr. Rodgers from his pulpit declared his abhorrence of all those who denied 
 the divinity of Christ, and he hoped none such would come to his admini- 
 stration of the Lord's supper. Yet Dr. Priestley was not prevented attending 
 divine service there the Sunday after he arrived. The violence of the clergy 
 against this doctrine, particularly on Trinity Sunday last, has been of as great 
 service as a persecution; for many principal families of New York, chiefly 
 English, have stepped forward, and determined to have an Unitarian chapel 
 there. That at Boston, under the care of Mr. Freeman, I observed was well 
 attended, and Mr. Freeman told me, considerably increased. He (Dr. P.) 
 requests you will get a minister of pleasing address and a good delivery to 
 come to New York immediately. The Doctor, whom I accompanied out of 
 New York, across Hudson's river, in his way to Philadelphia, assured me re- 
 peatedly he was perfectly satisfied with the change he had made. His re- 
 ception far exceeded his expectation ; his health and spirits were good ; but, 
 however, that he should not enter into public life. At Princeton College, 
 I learned from Dr. Smith, the Vice-president, that he would be offered the 
 Presidency of a new college erecting in North Carolina ; but he told me he 
 should positively decline it, and, after a very short stay at Philadelphia, go 
 up the Susquehanua to Northumberland, while his sons went on about forty 
 miles further to put forward the new settlement of which I have so good an 
 opinion that I have taken two shares. Many families of my acquaintance are 
 going to the Loyalsoc, and my only fear is that they do not proceed with 
 clearing and building till next spring, which is certainly losing time. For 
 though the settlement will be rapid after a beginning is made, yet losing 
 this season may induce some of those respectable families now going out to 
 fix elsewhere. 
 
 " It is a pleasant country; and the people I found every where friendly 
 and hospitable ; a great sobriety of manners ; equality exemplified in its true 
 sense ; nor do I once remember to have seen either a beggar or a ragged 
 person. Adieu, Dear Sir, and believe me, &c. &c." 
 
 This settlement upon the Loyalsoc did not answer expectation, and upon 
 further inquiry it was given up. The State prosecutions commenced soon 
 after Dr. Priestley left England; and many of his friends were the more re- 
 conciled to his emigration, as thinking that he might have been some way or 
 other involved in them. But this was not probable. A man who joined no 
 political society, who attended no public meetings, and who wrote no politi- 
 cal books or pamphlets, was not likely to be the object of the vindictive ani-
 
 CH. XIII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 295 
 
 however, much displeased at the bigotry of their mini- 
 sters ; and the venerable exile was given to understand, 
 that if he would fix his residence in New York a chapel 
 and a congregation would not be wanting. But his de- 
 
 madversion of an attorney-general. Even Mr. Lindsey's fears seem to have 
 been needlessly alarmed upon this subject. In a letter to the Rev. William 
 Turner of Newcastle, dated June 10, 1794, he writes, " Nothing has been 
 known of or from Dr. Priestley since his being off Falmouth ; between seven 
 and eight weeks since. But under the protection of a good Providence we 
 persuade ourselves that he has ere this touched the American shores. And 
 such have been the changes since, that some of his best friends who sought 
 to detain him here are now glad at his departure. For the prejudices against 
 dissenters, especially of the more liberal sort, as enemies to their country be- 
 cause they are against the present war, are so violent, and would have been 
 so much heightened against him, tjiat it might ha.ve made his Jife unpleasant, 
 though I hope not insecure." 
 
 I shall add but one extract more upon this subject from Mr. Lindsey to the 
 same excellent person, the son of his old revered confidential adviser and 
 friend at Wakefield. The letter is dated November 9, 1 794, and strongly ex- 
 presses the affectionate feelings of the venerable writer's heart : 
 
 " I rejoice to hear that you have so favourable an opportunity of bearing 
 testimony to such injured worth in exile from our unworthy country, and of 
 recording that intimate friendship and union of studies and pursuits, which 
 subsisted between that excellent person and your most worthy father. To 
 have any place in the niche with two such eminent characters is a real ho- 
 nour. No satisfaction do I know beyond that of recollecting the hours passed 
 and benefit received in friendly communications with both. For some years, 
 particularly when I resigned Catterick, there was no step of importance 
 which I took without consulting both ; and the sketch of the Apology, soon 
 after published, they were so good as to take the trouble of meeting, and. 
 passing a day with me at an inn in Knaresborough, when I read it to them. 
 " 1 have been made happy by several letters received from Dr. Priestley 
 since his arrival in America. In his last he mentions a very important mat- 
 ter : the large purchase of lands on the Susquehanna was all over. They had 
 been deceived by the proprietors, and by evidence which did not turn out sa- 
 tisfactory, and thus after much delay, and some expense, many will he dis- 
 appointed. 
 
 " In the same letter he says he had an invitation from New York, to read 
 lectures philosophical, and to open an Unitarian congregation. But he had 
 declined on account of the distance from the place where his sons would be 
 likely to settle. I am grieved at it, because New York was the place for him, 
 the English American metropolis, the inhabitants more cultivated, of most 
 easy access from Europe, &c. &c. This concern, however, was a little abated 
 by the subsequent paragraph of his letter, relating that the Chemical Pro- 
 fessor of the College in Philadelphia was believed to be on his death-bed, and 
 that Dr. Rush had told him that he believed he would be invited to succeed 
 him. This he adds will oblige him to four or five months residence in Phila- 
 delphia. And as there is a certain prospect of being able to establish an Uni- 
 tarian congregation in the place, he shall not hesitate to accept the offer." 
 
 This offer was made and declined much to the regret of many of Dr. Priest* 
 ley's friends at the time ; but, as there is now reason to believe, not with 
 any eventual detriment to the cause of Christian truth.
 
 290 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. XIII. 
 
 stination was otherwise. He accompanied his son, who 
 met him at New York, to Philadelphia, where he met 
 with the same flattering attention from the laity, and the 
 same repulsive spirit from the clergy ; and after remain- 
 ing there a few weeks, he went with Mrs. Priestley to 
 Northumberland, a small settlement upon the banks of 
 the Susquehanna, near the western boundary of Pennsyl- 
 vania ; and here, to the great disappointment and ex- 
 treme regret of all his friends, both in Europe and Ame- 
 rica, he determined to fix his residence. Nor could the 
 inconvenience of a new settlement, the want of literary 
 and polished society, the many and great obstructions to 
 epistolary intercourse with his philosophical and theolo- 
 gical correspondents, the difficulty of obtaining books and 
 philosophical instruments, nor even the offer of the che- 
 mical professorship, and ultimately of the presidency of 
 the College of Philadelphia, prevail with him to change 
 his resolution. The reasons upon which a choice so ex- 
 traordinary and unexpected, and so universally regretted, 
 was founded, were never made known to the public. But 
 whatever these might be, and though Dr. Priestley's reso- 
 lution to fix his residence at Northumberland was at that 
 time generally disapproved and lamented, the event has 
 shown that it was a most beneficial choice. In no other 
 situation would it have been possible for him to have 
 commanded the leisure which was necessary for drawing 
 up those important, learned, and instructive works which 
 occupied his attention to the last hour of his life, and by 
 which being dead he yet speaketh, and will probably con- 
 tinue to speak, and to promote the great cause of Chris- 
 tian truth, and particularly the glorious long lost doctrine 
 of the divine Unity, for ages to come. I particularly re- 
 fer to his excellent Ecclesiastical History, and his judi- 
 cious and valuable Notes upon the whole Bible, which 
 are the result of much reading and reflection, though he
 
 CH. XIII.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 297 
 
 makes no parade of authorities, a species of ostentation 
 which he always despised, and the neglect of which, to a 
 proper extent, may be regarded as a defect in his work 
 much to be regretted. 
 
 In this sequestered wilderness the venerable exile main- 
 tained a regular correspondence with his revered and be- 
 loved friend the subject of this memoir, which continued 
 with little or no interruption till within a fortnight of his 
 decease. He numbered his letters : there are one hun- 
 dred and four; all of them now in possession of the wri- 
 ter of this work. They are interesting to those who knew 
 and admired and loved the writer, but few of them would 
 be interesting to the public. Dr. Priestley thought little 
 of himself. He seldom touches upon personal concerns ; 
 and gives little account of what it would have been par- 
 ticularly interesting to know, the mode of life, in a situa- 
 tion so remote from, and so unlike to, that of civilized 
 and polished Europe. His great mind was occupied in 
 greater things. His whole soul was absorbed in the ac- 
 quisition of knowledge, in the search after truth, and in 
 devising and executing the best means of communicating 
 information to others. And his letters are chiefly occu- 
 pied in stating what he has done, is doing, and further 
 intends to do, for promoting this great object : they 
 breathe throughout a spirit of ardent zeal, of rational 
 piety, and of active and disinterested benevolence. In 
 the Appendix a few are given, as a specimen of his ge- 
 neral manner, and of the style and spirit of his corre- 
 spondence*. Dr. Priestley, who had originally an excel- 
 lent constitution, and who generally enjoyed uninterrupt- 
 ed health, and an uniform flow of good spirits, naturally 
 and reasonably expected to outlive his aged friend, who 
 was ten years further advanced in life than himself. But 
 
 * Appendix, No. XII.
 
 208 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. XIII. 
 
 Divine Providence ordered otherwise. This great man 
 gradually declined in health, after a severe fever which 
 attacked him in Philadelphia, in the spring of 1801, and 
 from which he was by copious bleeding with much dif- 
 ficulty recovered. He expired in the bosom of his family 
 on the 6th of February 1804. A most interesting ac- 
 count of his last sickness was written by his son Mr. 
 Joseph Priestley, in a letter to Mr. Lindsey, which by 
 some means found its way into the public papers, and 
 was, it is believed, copied and circulated in all the pe- 
 riodical publications in Europe, Asia, and America, to 
 testify to the world how a well-informed philosophic 
 Christian can die. 
 
 His aged friend bore the intelligence with the calm 
 dignity and pious resignation of one who placed entire 
 confidence in the hopes and promises of the Gospel ; and 
 who, feeling the infirmities of age advancing fast upon 
 him, expected soon to rejoin his beloved fellow-labourer 
 in happier circumstances, and in an improved and per- 
 manent state of existence, where virtue that has been tried 
 and perfected shall receive its appropriate reward. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 DR. PRIESTLEY'S REPLY TO PAINE'S AGE OF REASON RE- 
 PRINTED IN ENGLAND BY MR. LINDSEY, WITH A PRE- 
 FACE IN VINDICATION OF DR. PRIESTLEY'S CHARACTER. 
 MR. LINDSEY REPUBLISHES ANOTHER WORK OF DR. 
 PRIESTLEY'S, WITH A SHORT PREFACE. DR. PRIEST- 
 LEY'S ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF MR. LINDSEY's KIND- 
 NESS. ANALYSIS OF MR. LINDSEY's LAST PUBLICA- 
 TION, ENTITLED, CONVERSATIONS ON THE DIVINE GO- 
 VERNMENT. 
 
 \Y HEN Dr. Priestley arrived in America he found that 
 Paine's Age of Reason had been lately imported into that
 
 CH. XIV.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 299 
 
 continent, and that by its bold dogmatical spirit, and by 
 its successful attack upon those corruptions of the Chris- 
 tian doctrine which usually pass for Christianity, and which 
 in this treatise were assumed as such, a deep impression 
 had been made upon the minds of the unthinking and 
 the unwary ; and that many were seduced by this plau- 
 sible and popular performance from the Christian faith. 
 No sooner, therefore, was this zealous advocate for reveal- 
 ed truth settled at Northumberland, than he published 
 an answer to Paine's work in the form of Letters to a Phi- 
 losophical Unbeliever, in October 1794, a copy of which 
 he sent over to Mr. Lindsey, who reprinted it in England, 
 in the beginning of the year 1795, with a preface, the 
 chief design of which was to vindicate the character of 
 his absent and much-injured friend. 
 
 " As every event whatever," says this able advocate of 
 exiled merit, "every circumstance of the life of every man, 
 is ordained and over-ruled by the infinitely wise and good 
 Creator, for the virtuous improvement and present and 
 final happiness of the universe, and of each individual in 
 it, we may be fully persuaded, that where man intends 
 evil, God intends and brings forth good, and that the 
 best purposes of the divine government will be promoted 
 by the means of those unworthy passions which compelled 
 this eminent person to take refuge in America." He 
 adds, that " they have begun to show themselves in the 
 reception which has been given to Dr. Priestley, and in 
 the general estimation in which he is held, notwithstand- 
 ing the base arts which have been used to poison that 
 people's minds, and to turn them against him." 
 
 Mr. Lindsey then states, that it was desired and ex- 
 pected by the friends of divine revelation in America, 
 that he should reply to Paine's Age of Reason, and un- 
 dertake a cause he was so well able to defend ; and he 
 flutters himself that the republication of it in England
 
 300 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. XIV. 
 
 may contribute to rescue some who are " hastening to 
 the dreary gulf of infidelity. 
 
 He puts the question, " What could raise up such a 
 storm against so respectable a character as to constrain 
 him to retire a voluntary exile from his country, where 
 he was so justly loved and esteemed by some of the most 
 exalted characters ?" He instances in Dr. Price, Sir 
 George Savile, and Mr. Lee, the late solicitor-general, 
 who particularly admired his Letters to Mr. Burke, and 
 at whose house " in Lincoln's-inn-fields for near twenty 
 years the friends were wont to spend their Sunday even- 
 ings together, whenever they were in town, in cheerful 
 pleasantry, and free discussion of all subjects, for two men 
 more formed and furnished for social converse than Dr. 
 Priestley and Mr. Lee are rarely found." To the cata- 
 logue.of Dr. Priestley's friends he also adds the respected 
 names of Dr. Shipley, bishop of St. Asaph, and Dr. Law, 
 bishop of Carlisle, "who was in perfect accord with him 
 in his sentiments on most subjects." He concludes with 
 the name of Dr. Jebb, to whom Dr. P. dedicates his 
 Treatise upon Philosophical Necessity. "In that beau- 
 tiful and luminous composition," says Mr. Lindsey, " pro- 
 ceeding from the fulness of the heart, and conviction of 
 the truth of that glorious principle in which they both 
 agreed, you read the true character of the men, and what 
 all may become who are under the like influences." 
 
 It is obvious to remark here how cordially Mr. Lind- 
 sey concurs with his learned and virtuous friends in the 
 belief of the truth and importance of what he calls the 
 "glorious principle" of philosophical necessity, and in 
 admitting those grand and consolatory consequences 
 which flow from it, " that every circumstance of the life 
 of every man is ordained and over-ruled by the infinitely 
 wise and- gopd Creator," for the best purposes. What 
 childish simplicity and ignorance does it betray in some
 
 CH. XIV.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 301 
 
 to feign or to feel alarmed at the tendency of those doc- 
 trines which are avowed by such men as Lindsey, Priest- 
 ley, Hartley, and Jebb, and which are represented by them 
 as lying at the foundation of all right views of the divine 
 government, of all rational piety and virtuous practice, 
 and of all rational and substantial consolation ! And yet 
 such persons feel no alarm at the vulgar notion of philo- 
 sophical liberty, or the power of acting differently in cir- 
 cumstances precisely similar ; a notion, the fond persua- 
 sion of which encourages men to venture into circum- 
 stances of moral danger, and to which thousands of the 
 young and inexperienced, especially, are daily falling vic- 
 tims. 
 
 To account for the hostility against Dr. Priestley, which 
 eventually compelled that great and good man to seek 
 an asylum in America, his friendly advocate states most 
 truly, that "Dr. Priestley had an ardent active zeal for 
 reformation ; that penetrated with the most absolute con- 
 viction of the reality of the Divine Unity, and of the con- 
 nexion which the belief of it had with the peace, the vir- 
 tue, and happiness of mankind, he hesitated not in his 
 immortal writings from the press in the smallest size, 
 and to the level of the lowest capacities, as also in larger 
 and more learned volumes ; from the pulpit also, on pub- 
 lic and proper occasions, to maintain and defend that 
 there was no God but the Father; and that the worship 
 of Jesus by protestants was equally idolatrous with the 
 worship of his mother Mary by the papists." He adds, 
 that " in nothing did Dr. Priestley give more offence, or 
 more excite the ill-will of many against him, than by 
 those freedoms in censuring the interference of the civil 
 power in things of religion, all usurpation upon consci- 
 ence, wherever lodged, or by whomsoever exercised." And 
 he instances particularly in the Doctor's Familiar Letters 
 to the Inhabitants of Birmingham.
 
 302 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. XIV,' 
 
 Mr. Lindsey then introduces some just strictures upon 
 the illiberal reflections cast upon the Unitarians by Bishop 
 Hurd in his Life of his friend and patron Bishop War- 
 burton. Such obloquy, however, so far as Dr. Priestley 
 was the object of it, he states as abundantly compensated 
 by the grateful and admiring testimony of numbers, both 
 in and out of the established church, " to his exalted 
 character and extraordinary merits." As a specimen he 
 introduces some beautiful lines addressed to Dr. Priest- 
 ley by Mrs. Barbauld, whom he justly styles "a genius 
 of superior order, and the strains such as Milton himself 
 might have been proud to own." The reader, and I trust 
 the elegant and accomplished writer will excuse me for 
 inserting them at the bottom of the page. They were 
 written when a panic was for party purposes spread through 
 the country, of a plot to overturn the government, and 
 when many fulsome addresses were carried up to the 
 throne, and many foul and unfounded calumnies were 
 circulated against the dissenters, as conspiring to over- 
 turn the government, though they have always shown 
 themselves firm friends to the illustrious family upon the 
 throne*. 
 
 The friendly advocate next animadverts upon the in- 
 famous paragraphs circulated in The Times and other 
 ministerial papers, charging Dr. Priestley, who was not 
 present at the dinner, with having given as a toast at the 
 hotel at Birmingham, on the 14th of July, "Destruc- 
 
 * Stirs not thy spirit, Priestley, as the train 
 With low obeisance and with servile phrase 
 File behind file advance with supple knee, 
 And lay their necks beneath the foot of power? 
 Burns not thy cheek indignant when thy name, 
 On which delighted science loved to dwell, 
 Becomes the bandied theme of hooting crowds ? 
 With timid caution, or with cool reserve 
 When e'en each reverend brother keeps aloof, 
 Eyes the struck deer, and leaves thy naked side, 
 A mark for power to shoot at ? Let it be,
 
 Crt. XtV.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 303 
 
 tion to the present government, and the King's head in 
 a charger ;" which, though it could neither be given nor 
 received by any persons who were not insane, was never- 
 theless currently believed, and contributed to inflame the 
 phrensy of the day. Another paragraph inserted in The 
 True Briton and The Sun, replete with falsehood and 
 calumny respecting Dr. Priestley's reception in America, 
 is cited by Mr. Lindsey, who also introduces Mr. Lyon's 
 distinct contradiction and confutation of it. 
 
 The generous and spirited advocate then proceeds to 
 notice a cruel attack upon Dr. Priestley, published in 
 America soon after his arrival there, entitled, Observa- 
 tions on the Emigration of Dr. Joseph Priestley, &c. the 
 design of which was to represent Dr. Priestley as a fire- 
 brand, an open and avowed enemy to the constitution of 
 his country, &c. It was doubtful whether this scurrilous 
 libel was the production of an author on this or the other 
 side of the Atlantic. Mr. Lindsey justly remarks, that 
 " from whatever quarter it issued, it is the work of a man 
 
 ' On evil days though fall'n and evil tongues,' 
 To thee the slander of a passing age 
 Imports not. Scenes like these hold little space 
 In his large mind, whose ample stretch of thought 
 Grasps future periods. Well canst thou afford 
 To give large credit for that debt of fame 
 
 Thy country owes thee. Calm thou canst consign it 
 To the slow payment of that distant day, 
 If distant, when thy name to Freedom's join'd 
 Shall meet the thanks of a regenerate land. 
 
 December 1/92. 
 
 It is truly gratifying to all the admirers of taste and genius to find that this 
 lady's muse, though long silent, has not deserted her. The same genius 
 which inspired the strains which immortalised the patriots of Corsica in their 
 struggles with their French and Genoese tyrants shines forth resplendently 
 in the beautiful and sublime poem of " Eighteen Hundred and Eleven." But 
 as in the former case, the muse, too sanguine in her expectations of success, 
 apologized for having "read the book of destiny amiss," so may it prove with 
 regard to the gloomy forebodings of the latter poem ! And may centuries 
 after centuries elapse, as we trust they will, before the traveller from the 
 western continent shall have occasion to inquire, Where once stood, the rt- 
 nowned seats of the Muses, the opulent emporiums of Commerce, or the 
 proud Metropolis of the world ?
 
 304 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. XIV. 
 
 who showed himself void of truth and of every moral 
 principle, if he were an Englishman ; if an American, a 
 gross and ignorant calumniator." This pamphlet, by the 
 falsehood of its assertions and the foulness of its abuse, 
 was rather of use than otherwise to Dr. Priestley, in 
 America : and upon this side of the Atlantic it could do 
 him no harm. The British Critic, indeed, with its wonted 
 malignity, gave it all the currency it could, by a formal 
 review of this " atrocious attack on the most virtuous of 
 men," in the month of November 1794. Mr. Lindsey 
 ably exposes the disingenuous and immoral conduct of 
 this band of critics in " deliberately adopting and recom- 
 mending what they could not but know to be a tissue of 
 abominable calumnies." And it being understood that 
 some persons of literary eminence were then concerned 
 in the conduct of that monthly journal, the author spiri- 
 tedly expostulates with them upon the baseness of their 
 conduct, so unworthy the estimation in which upon other 
 accounts they were held. " O moral degradation ! O 
 shame to science ! when its votaries can lend their rare 
 abilities, Heaven's gift for better purposes, to please the 
 great, and gain their favour, and to lower arid depress 
 eminent virtue, and hinder others from reaping advan- 
 tage from that example and those writings by which they 
 might be formed to goodness, and excellence, and hap- 
 piness for ever !" 
 
 As to the work to which this defence of absent and 
 injured merit is a preface, Mr. Lindsey says that " a copy 
 of it having been put into his hands, he resolved to re- 
 print it immediately." He adds, " it soon occurred, that 
 it would be desirable and proper for me, if I could ac- 
 quit myself in it in any tolerable manner 3 to take the 
 opportunity that offered, of saying something in behalf 
 of an honoured and beloved friend, that might remove 
 or soften the violent prejudices entertained against him
 
 CH. XIV.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS UNDSEY. 305 
 
 in this country and in this country only: for in all others 
 his fame is great, and his character revered." And hav- 
 ing justly animadverted upon the mean unmanly conduct 
 of his enemies and slanderers, he adds, with much truth 
 and pertinence, "Dr. Priestley's enemies, however, by 
 their ignorant malevolent detraction, cannot make him 
 unhappy, but only hurt themselves. Changing his coun- 
 try, he changes not those habits which form the virtuous, 
 the holy, the benevolent, the upright character. These 
 constitute happiness ; these accompany a man wherever 
 he goes, of which no malice or violence can deprive him*." 
 In the year 1800 Dr. Priestley published in America 
 a treatise upon the knowledge which the ancient Hebrews 
 had of a future state, which Mr. Lindsey republished in 
 England with a short preface, in which he notices with 
 high satisfaction his honoured friend's continued activity, 
 as the advocate of true religion ; and augurs that " his 
 writings will continue to promote this great end in his 
 native country and America, and wherever the English 
 
 * It will not be uninteresting to the reader to see what Dr. Priestley writes 
 to his friend upon the subject of his own work and Mr. Lindsey's preface. 
 
 In a letter to Mr. Lindsey, dated Northumberland, October 16, 1794, Dr. 
 Priestley says, " I have nearly printed the Continuation of my Letters to the 
 Philosophers of France, and to a Philosophical Unbeliever ; the latter in an- 
 swer to Mr. Paine's Age of Reason, which is much read, and has made great 
 impression here. Nor will you wonder at it when you consider what kind of 
 Christianity is preached here. I am told that the Quakers read it with great 
 avidity; and they have no knowledge at all of the proper evidence of Christi- 
 anity, or the doctrines of it. Many of them, therefore, in this countiy either 
 actually are, or are easily made, unbelievers. There are great expecta- 
 tions, I am told, from my Answer to Paine, and I hope it will do good." 
 
 July 12, 1795, Dr. Priestley writes, "I am exceedingly glad that you have 
 at last got my Answer to Mr. Paine, and that you like it. I wish to see your 
 Preface. It cannot give more pleasure to you than it does to me to have 
 our names connected in every possible method. I hope they will be for ever 
 inseparable. One of my greatest mortifications is, that I cannot show you 
 what I write, and be directed by you as usual." 
 
 Dr. Priestley's modest and grateful acknowledgement of his venerable 
 friend's kind and zealous vindication of his injured character is thus ex- 
 pressed in a letter dated Northumberland, December 6, 1795 : 
 
 "It is not long since I received the copy of your edition of my Answer to 
 Paine. I read the Preface with much emotion, from a sense of the friendship 
 to me expressed in it. If I had laboured ten times more than I have, I should 
 notliave thought it too much for such a reward,"
 
 300 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. XIV. 
 
 language shall prevail, when he shall be no more. A 
 rare privilege of Heaven's chosen favourites, and the truly 
 good !" Dr. Priestley was highly delighted with this kind 
 testimony of his venerable friend, and in a letter dated 
 June 11, 1801, he thus expresses his grateful sense of 
 Mr. Lindsey's friendship : 
 
 " I thank you for your very friendly preface. When 
 shall I acknowledge my many obligations to you in per- 
 son ? Not, I now fear, on this side the grave. I there- 
 fore think the more of the state beyond it. But while I 
 remain here I am thankful that you continue here too. 
 I sometimes think, and not without pain, how I shall feel 
 when you are gone ; though our separation cannot be of 
 long continuance, the difference in our ages not being 
 quite ten years ; and I do not expect to survive you so 
 long as that, if indeed at all. Of what unspeakable value 
 is religion in circumstances like mine ! Without this I 
 think I should hardly have been able to support myself; 
 but with it all difficulties, troubles, and disappointments 
 are as nothing, being enabled to look beyond them." 
 Such was the Christian spirit which animated the cor- 
 respondence of these virtuous friends, who were equally 
 distinguished as lovers of truth, and examples of piety. 
 
 Mr. Lindsey now declining far into the vale of years, 
 being upon the verge of fourscore, but in the enjoyment 
 of perfect health, and the full possession of his intellec- 
 tual and active powers, seems to have taken up the de- 
 sign of his old friend Dr. Courayer, and to have come to 
 a resolution of laying before the public his last thoughts 
 concerning the doctrines of revelation, and particularly 
 concerning the wisdom and goodness of the divine ad- 
 ministration ; and with this view, in the year 1 802 he 
 published a small volume, entitled " Conversations on 
 theDivine Government; showing that every thing is from 
 and for Good to all." This volume is dedicated to
 
 CH. XIV.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 307 
 
 Mrs. Sophia and Mrs. Frances Chambers, the sisters of 
 the late Dr. Chambers, rector of Achurch in Northamp- 
 tonshire, Mr. Lindsey's early friend, of whom mention 
 has been made in a former part of this Memoir. An- 
 other brother was an eminent merchant in London, who 
 had a country house at Morden, where these ladies re* 
 sided ; and in this house Mr. and Mrs. Lindsey found a 
 quiet and hospitable retreat during the summer season, 
 when they did not take any considerable journey. In the 
 repose and leisure of this delightful mansion, Mr. Lind- 
 sey appears to have composed and written this his last 
 present to the public ; and he inscribes it to his worthy 
 friends, " in gratitude for unwearied offices of the most 
 disinterested friendship for near thirty years, to himself 
 and Mrs. Lindsey, from them and their worthy brother ; 
 and in testimony for their enlightened zeal for the wor- 
 ship of the one true God, and a constant unostentatious 
 readiness to do good." 
 
 In his preface he observes, that the following work re- 
 sults from the study and experience of a long life ; and 
 he apologizes for the introduction of some repetitions by 
 the remark, that " till a full conviction is wrought in the 
 mind, that the government of this world is the wisest that 
 could have been adopted, and that the evils and distresses 
 of life are not permitted but for the good of all, the at- 
 tention of the public cannot be too often solicited for the 
 vindication of our Creator. Under the hope of promot- 
 ing, in some degree, the interest of his fellow-creatures 
 in so noble a cause, and of leading them to their hap- 
 piest state, a full confidence and satisfaction in the ne- 
 ver-ceasing love of their maker and God, the following 
 remarks, imperfect as they are, are committed to the can- 
 dour and serious attention of the benevolent reader." 
 
 The Conversations are supposed to be held at the same 
 place, and conducted by the same parties, as those upon 
 
 x 2
 
 308 .- MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH.X1V. 
 
 Christian idolatry, published ten years before. Victor! n, 
 in a letter to his friend Volusian, requests him to give 
 some account of a very curious and interesting question, 
 upon which they had come to an unanimous resolution, 
 viz. " That there is nothing really and ultimately ill, 
 in the state of man, but every thing ordered for the best 
 for all." Volusian's reply contains an account of each 
 day's conversation. Though this incident seems to be 
 lost sight of in the course of the work. 
 
 Volusian informs his friend, that the company "having 
 fallen into conversation upon the very low repute in which 
 the religion of Christ was every where held, at home and 
 abroad," one of the party mentioned, that " in Holland 
 and other parts of the continent, a little before the French 
 Revolution, a general persuasion prevailed, that the Chris- 
 tian religion would soon be at an end." And he imputes 
 that indisposition to Christianity which appeared to be 
 rapidly increasing, to the corruption of the Christian doc- 
 trine. 
 
 Photinus, in reply, expresses his confidence that Chris- 
 tianity would maintain its ground ; and ascribes the ha- 
 tred which the philosophers upon the continent bore to 
 revelation, to the interference of the civil power in sup- 
 porting it by pains and penalties, which led them to con- 
 ceive that all means, however dishonest, were lawful to 
 overthrow a sanguinary and pernicious superstition. Pho- 
 tinus however maintains, that the religion of Jesus will 
 remain unshaken, being confirmed by miracles. He af- 
 firms the same of the Mosaic revelation, which also rests 
 upon the basis of miracles, and of prophecy which is even 
 now receiving its accomplishment. He makes some just 
 observations on the nature, use, and proveableness of mi- 
 racles. He then briefly states, what he calls " the plain 
 old argument for a Deity : viz. that otherwise, the world 
 we live in, with all its furniture and inhabitants, must
 
 CH. XIV.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 309 
 
 have come into being of itself, without any original de- 
 signing mind." He adds, that the most serious diffi- 
 culty with relation to the divine existence, arises from 
 the existence and prevalence of vice and misery in the 
 world ; and that if this state of things could by any means 
 be reconciled to perfect goodness, it would provide the 
 best remedy against scepticism. Marcellinus, in the 
 name of the company, requests Photinus to undertake 
 this task ; to which he consents, and the conversation is 
 adjourned. 
 
 In the process of the preceding Conversation the au- 
 thor, under the character of Photinus, obviates the ob- 
 jection against miracles as inconsistent with the divine 
 immutability, by the supposition that "those events 
 which we call supernatural, may be the result of esta- 
 blished laws, and a more comprehensive plan of things, 
 though unperceived by us ; so that those operations call- 
 ed miraculous, are as much the result of general laws as 
 the most ordinary events." But the learned writer does 
 not seem to have adverted to the fact, that this supposi- 
 tion destroys the very existence of miracles, and subverts 
 the argument founded upon them. The resurrection of 
 Lazarus, upon this hypothesis, is no more miraculous 
 than an eclipse of the sun ; and the prediction of the for- 
 mer, which, according to this theory, would have hap- 
 pened whether foretold or not, no more proves the divine 
 mission of Christ, than foretelling an eclipse proved the 
 inspiration of Thales. This hypothesis is in the high- 
 est degree arbitrary and incredible. The essence of a 
 miracle consists in its being a deviation from the esta- 
 blished course of nature ; and the existence of a miracle 
 proves a divine interposition, because no being but the 
 Author of Nature himself could control its laws ; and 
 this violation of the law and course of nature in any given 
 case, is perfectly consistent with the divine immutability;
 
 310 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. XIV. 
 
 because, at the instant when the laws of nature were 
 fixed, the Supreme Being foresaw and determined that 
 in this instance he would, for just and sufficient reasons, 
 deviate from that rule of conduct to which it was his 
 pleasure generally to adhere, 
 
 The second Conversation begins with a vindication by 
 Photinus of the character of Lord Shaftesbury, the au- 
 thor of the Characteristics, as a believer in revelation ; 
 though his Lordship speaks lightly of the characters of 
 Abraham, Moses, and others of the Old Testament Saints, 
 expresses doubts concerning some of the narratives con- 
 tained in the Pentateuch, and hesitates to admit the ex- 
 istence of miracles. This is advanced in reply to Volu- 
 aian, who represents Lord Shaftesbury as one of those 
 infidels who entertain right views of the character and 
 government of God. How far the candid writer, under 
 the character of Photinus, has succeeded in his chari- 
 table purpose, is not material to inquire. The remain- 
 der of the Conversation is employed in a very pleasing 
 dissertation by Photinus upon the great goodness of God, 
 as manifested in the wise and kind provision which he 
 has made for the preservation, support, and enjoyment 
 of animal and rational beings ; at the conclusion of which 
 Marcellinus, after expressing his high approbation of his 
 friend's doctrine, intimates his apprehension that " it 
 would all be regarded merely as a beautiful theory, and 
 these fine capacities of the rational nature to be bestowed 
 in vain, and never likely to be brought to maturity, when 
 we take a survey of the world at large, and scan what 
 mankind have been, and still are, in a moral view;" and 
 he concludes with expressing his hope, that Photinus will 
 coutinue to give his kind help in " exploring this mo- 
 mentous subject." 
 
 In the third Conversation Marcellinus begins with 
 making some remarks upon the account of the Creation
 
 CH. XIV.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LIN0SEY. 311 
 
 and the Fall, in the Book of Genesis, much of which he 
 acknowledges to be " undoubtedly couched in allegory;'* 
 while it is " to be taken literally in other parts, which 
 are at the foundation :" the moral instruction intended, 
 is, however, " not difficult to be understood." Photinus, 
 who is the chief speaker in these Conversations, having 
 expressed his high satisfaction in the suggestions of his 
 friend, proceeds to inquire what the history of man 
 teaches concerning his attainment of that virtue and hap- 
 piness for which he is intended. To this end, he enters 
 iiito a brief detail of the dispensations of God to mankind, 
 as they are related in the Jewish scriptures, first offering 
 remarks upon the incidents which occur from the crea- 
 tion to the deluge, by which " the almighty and mer- 
 ciful Being judged it expedient to destroy the whole race 
 of men from off the earth, all, except one righteous man 
 and his family." 
 
 The venerable writer then proceeds to comment upon 
 the divine communications to Noah, to Abraham, and 
 to Moses, and the effect which they produced in restrain- 
 ing the vices of mankind, and in promoting virtue and 
 piety. He contends earnestly for the excellency of the 
 character of the Jewish legislator, the credibility of his 
 history, and the divine authority of his institute, and re- 
 presents those persons as " true objects of pity who, 
 through some unfortunate bias on their minds, are led 
 to reject a history of facts so well authenticated as those 
 which have Moses for their author." He adds, not alto- 
 gether in that spirit of candour which was habitual to Mr. 
 Lindsey, that " one is the more concerned for this incre- 
 dulity, because the rejection of the important truths con- 
 veyed in these books, most commonly springs from a 
 fixed determination not to admit any accounts, however 
 well attested, of divine extraordinary communications and 
 revelations to mankind." But, surely, if the venerable
 
 31*2 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. XIV. 
 
 writer had for a moment reconsidered the case with his 
 usual calmness and impartiality, he would have seen 
 that a person may he a very firm believer in the divine 
 mission and doctrine of Christ, and be well satisfied with 
 the general evidence of the divine legation of Moses, 
 while he at the same time may entertain very serious 
 doubts, whether the books commonly attributed to Moses 
 were really throughout written by him, and whether 
 either the narrative or the institute exist at present ex- 
 actly in the form in which he delivered them. And these 
 doubts may be so far from springing " from a fixed deter- 
 mination to admit no doctrine as revealed," that they 
 may originate in an anxious concern to extricate revealed 
 truth from those human additions by which it is cor- 
 rupted and disgraced. The respectable writer, therefore, 
 may perhaps be regarded as not quite correct when he 
 adds, in a tone of sarcasm unwonted with him, that " so 
 long as such a person cannot be brought to see his error 
 by the arguments laid before him, you can only be sorry 
 for him, and wish him a mind more teachable and better 
 informed." 
 
 Photinus next goes on to justify the extermination of 
 the Canaanites by the Israelites as an act of obedience 
 to a divine command, and makes light of an argument 
 sometimes offered in defence of this command, as being 
 analogous to events which take place under the natural 
 government of God, where human beings are " destroyed 
 promiscuously by earthquakes and the like : as this is a 
 defence which some are dissatisfied with, not holding the 
 cases to be parallel." And it cannot be doubted, that if 
 a divine command is proved, all objections must give 
 way. If God required this great public execution, it must 
 be consistent with the divine character to issue this de- 
 cree ; and if he manifested his pleasure by repeated mi- 
 raculous interpositions, the conduct of these chosen ex-
 
 CH. XIV.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS T.TNDSEY. 313 
 
 cautioners of the divine will must be justified to them- 
 selves, to the world, and even to the miserable sufferers, 
 by the terrific mandate. So that the history is consist- 
 ent. God does what he has a right to do ; and the Is- 
 raelites are the innocent, and even meritorious, instru- 
 ments of executing his sovereign pleasure. The case, 
 however, is attended with difficulty ; and it must be al- 
 lowed to be a very alleviating circumstance, if it can be 
 shown that the order thus issued is analogous to what 
 happens frequently under the divine government. He 
 that made, has a right to destroy ; and the wise and just 
 Being, who makes use of natural calamities for the pro- 
 miscuous extermination of myriads, has an equal right 
 to use voluntary agents as the instruments of inflicting 
 similar calamities. But the fact which applies still more 
 closely to the case in question is, that the righteous Go- 
 vernor of the world does continually employ voluntary 
 agents as the executioners of his will in the promiscuous 
 destruction of their fellow creatures. Nebuchadnezzar 
 is the rod in the divine hand to execute his vengeance 
 upon Tyre and Egypt ; and a Caesar, or a Napoleon, are 
 equally the instruments of spreading desolation and de- 
 struction among the human race, as a Joshua or a David, 
 though not equally innocent : one, if we credit the his- 
 tory, acting under a divine commission ; the other; 
 prompted by bad passions and sanguinary ambition. The 
 purposes of infinite wisdom are fulfilled as well by the 
 evil actions of evil men, as by the good actions of the vir- 
 tuous. And this, without any diminution of the respon- 
 sibility of the agent. Such is the express doctrine of the 
 Scripture, in perfect harmony with the true philosophy 
 of the human mind. 
 
 The venerable author supports his own assertions and 
 views of the institutes of Moses and the conduct of the 
 Hebrew nation, by an appeal to the authority of Dr.
 
 14 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cil. XIV. 
 
 Priestley. " See," says he, ** that last and most in- 
 valuable "wqrk, his Comparison of the Institutions of 
 Moses with those of the Hindoos, of my most beloved 
 friend Dr. Priestley. Although now far separated du- 
 ring this transitory life, on the verge of which we both 
 stand, there is humble hope of meeting again when the 
 sleep of death is over. His numerous works will con- 
 tinue to enlighten the world till the only true God will 
 be more universally known, and the pure gospel of 
 Jesus, his messenger, have its natural influence." 
 
 Photinus next proceeds to state the great moral benefit 
 which the heathen world derived from its enlightened 
 philosophers and legislators, particularly Socrates and 
 Cicero, the distinguished moralists and instructors of 
 Greece and Rome in the ages in which they flourished ; 
 at the same time acknowledging, that the fairest charac- 
 ters in heathen story were clouded with many inconsist- 
 encies and imperfections, and that their instructions 
 were ineffectual for the reformation of mankind : " no- 
 thing was done to recover men to the knowledge of the 
 true God and their obedience to him," nor " to put 
 men upon attending to the inward principle of their 
 actions, and amending their dispositions." 
 
 This naturally introduces the necessity and advantage 
 of the gospel dispensation which was now introduced 
 into the world, and which was to be made known to the 
 whole human race. " This was the new doctrine pro- 
 mulged from heaven, holding forth the supreme love of 
 God, the common creator and benefactor, manifesting 
 Itself in the love of their fellow creatures and seeking 
 their good as their own, as the sum and substance of all 
 human duty and of all true religion, and leading to the 
 highest perfection and happiness." This divine religion, 
 however, was soon corrupted, " objects of worship were 
 multiplied, the mother of Christ and other dead persons,
 
 CH. XIV.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS^JLINDSEY. 315 
 
 male and female, a trinity of three persons in God, in- 
 stead of the single person of the God and Father of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and of all mankind." So that, " to 
 preserve the important doctrine of the Divine Unity from 
 being overwhelmed and lost in Christian idolatry, divine 
 Providence seems to have permitted the impostor Mo- 
 hammed to succeed in spreading his new religion over 
 a great part of the globe." This religion professed to 
 stand upon the great doctrine of the Divine Unity ; in 
 which, as some think, he was at first sincere; but being 
 elated with success he grew ambitious, insolent, and 
 cruel, and propagated his religion by fire and sword. 
 
 Volusian here interposes, and enlarges upon the folly 
 of ascribing to God " a religion, whose first article is a 
 direct violation of the first law of nature, in compelling 
 by force to acknowledge and worship him." He insists 
 upon the absurdity of persecution in every shape ; and he 
 observes, that Christians cannot, with any decency, " con- 
 demn the Mohammedans for intolerance and cruelty," 
 being themselves equally guilty; and represents it as a 
 very great error, and that which lies at the foundation of 
 all religious bigotry and persecution, to teach that chris* 
 tians only can be saved, much more, " Christians only 
 of this or that particular church or sect;" whereas the 
 truth is, that " all persons will be saved who are made 
 pious and good by their religion, and none else." 
 
 Photinus in his reply expresses his approbation of 
 Volusian's principles; and, proceeding in his history of 
 divine dispensations, he takes notice of the increased dif* 
 fusion of light and knowledge by the dispersion of Iearne4 
 Greeks through Europe, after the taking of Constant!* 
 nople by the Turks in the fifteenth century, and by the 
 invention of the art of printing. He adds, that much 
 good had been done ** by the noble efforts of many exr 
 cellent Christians, at the hazard^ and sometimes the loss^
 
 310 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [fH. XIV. 
 
 of life, to revive and restore the worship of the true God, 
 and to vindicate the unalienable right of all men to judge 
 for themselves of the things of God." And he expresses 
 himself in terms of high commendation concerning the 
 religious, liberty which had lately been established in 
 France. Photinus concludes his long discourse with 
 the general inference that, though the little effect of 
 genuine virtuous principle, and the defective knowledge 
 of God, too much appears in wars and persecutions, yet, 
 " it would be unfair, and unjust, not to admit that 
 knowledge and virtue have been upon the whole pro- 
 gressive, and that very many eminent examples of both 
 have been formed, and are forming, in every age and 
 country." 
 
 Photinus, after a pause, expresses his apprehensions, 
 that " the account which had been given of the moral 
 state of the world, might not be acceptable to those who 
 look for perfection all at once in every thing that comes 
 from God. But as we are convinced that a Being of all 
 goodness has, in fact, appointed otherwise, and as we 
 certainly do not love our fellow creatures nor desire their 
 improvement and happiness more earnestly than he 
 that made them, and his wisdom can best judge and 
 direct how to attain that happiness, we may probably 
 find that the methods he has actually chosen are fully 
 suited to answer this end, though we may not immedi- 
 ately see it." 
 
 He then proceeds to give a brief detail of the disci- 
 pline by which the moral character is usually formed ; 
 the result of which he states to be, that " the bulk of 
 mankind are, and have ever been, employed in useful 
 labours for their families, and in doing good offices to 
 others, their friends, neighbours, and acquaintance, and 
 in giving or procuring relief and assistance where needed, 
 and in a thousand beneficent actions." This favourable
 
 CH. XIV.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 317 
 
 view of the human character he confirms by a curious 
 quotation from Archbishop King, on the Origin of Evil*. 
 And Photinus concludes the Conversation with obser- 
 ving, " that thus the wisdom and goodness of the 
 Creator are vindicated; that he was not disappointed in 
 the noblest work of his creation here below ; and that 
 the world has been from the first, and all along, a nursery 
 for virtuous, noble, and useful characters." 
 
 The fourth Conversation is short, but by far the most 
 interesting and impressive of the whole. In this the 
 venerable author states and argues, with a warmth of 
 feeling which shows how deeply his own heart was im- 
 pressed with the magnificent speculation, and with a 
 cogency of argument which can never be refuted, that 
 all things are from God; that evil as well as good, 
 moral as well as natural evil, are not only permitted, 
 
 * The sentiments expressed by the learned prelate are so uncommon, 
 and at the same time so just, and so exactly coincident with those which 
 the writer of this Memoir has offered to the public in a work printed some 
 years ago without any consciousness that they had before met with so able 
 an advocate, that he will take the liberty of transcribing a considerable part 
 of the quotation alluded to above. 
 
 The Archbishop is replying to an anonymous opponent who had said, 
 " that the prevalence of wickedness or moral evil is a thing so certain, that 
 he waa confident no one could have the least doubt of it, and he durst say 
 the author (the Archbishop) himself believed it." 
 
 " The author professes himself to be of a quite different opinion," replies 
 the Archbishop. " He firmly believes, and thinks he very well compre- 
 hends, that there is much more moral good in the world than evil. He is 
 sensible there may be more bad men than good, because there are none but 
 do amiss sometimes, and one ill act is sufficient to denominate a man bad. 
 But yet there are ten good acts done by those we call bad men, for one ill 
 one. Even persons of the very worst character may have gotten it by two 
 or three flagrant enormities, which yet bear no proportion to the whole se- 
 ries of their lives. The author must profess, that among such PS he is ac- 
 quainted with, he believes that there are hundreds who would do him good 
 fer one that would do him hurt, and that he has received a thousand good, 
 offices for one ill one. He could never believe the doctrine of Hobbes, that 
 all men are bears, wolves, and tigers, to one another ; that they are born 
 enemies to all others, and all others to them ; that they are naturally false 
 and perfidious ; or, that all the good they do is out of fear, not virtue. Nay, 
 the very authors of that calumny, if their own character were called in ques- 
 tion, would take all possible pains to remove the suspicion from them, and 
 ' declare that they were speaking of the vulgar ; of the bulk of mankind, and
 
 318 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. XIV. 
 
 but appointed by infinite unsearchable wisdom and 
 benevolence. 
 
 The Conversation is introduced by Marcellinus, who 
 observes, that if evil be the result of the " untractable 
 nature of matter," or of "a powerful evil Being whose 
 interference is unavoidable, we must submit, and make 
 the best of what we cannot avoid or amend. But all 
 gloom would vanish, if it could be shown that the great 
 whole of things is in such sort from God, that natural 
 and moral evil are all of his appointment, and permitted 
 for good." 
 
 Photinus with great solemnity replies, " Be assured, 
 my friends, that we do not, any of us, deem so highly of 
 the boundless mercy and goodness of the sovereign 
 Creator and parent of all things as his works and deal- 
 ings with us and with all his creatures call for and de- 
 mand, or we should entertain more exalted thoughts of 
 him, arid live under his government with a more un- 
 
 ot of themselves. Nor, in reality, do they behave in this manner toward 
 their friends and acquaintance; if they did, few would trust them. Observe 
 some of those who exclaim against all mankind for treachery, dishonesty, de- 
 ceit, and cruelty, and you will find them diligently cultivating friendship and 
 discharging the several offices due to their friends, their relations, and their 
 country, with labour, pain, loss of goods, and hazard of life itself: even where 
 there is no fear to drive them to it, nor inconvenience attending the neglect 
 of it. This you will say proceeds from custom and education. Be it so. 
 However, the world then has not so far degenerated from goodness, but the 
 greater part of mankind exercise benevolence : nor is virtue so far exiled as 
 not to be supported and approved, praised and practised, by common con. 
 sent and public suffrage, and vice is still disgraceful. Indeed, we can scarce 
 meet with one, unless pressed by necessity or provoked by injuries, who is 
 so barbarous and hardhearted as not to be moved with compassion and 
 delighted with benevolence to others ; who is not delighted to show good- 
 will and kindness to his friends, neighbours, children, relations, and dili- 
 gence in the discharge of civil duties to all ; who does not profess some re- 
 gard to virtue, and think himself affronted when he is charged with immo- 
 rality. If any one take notice of his own or another's actions for a day toge- 
 ther, he will, perhaps, find one or two blameable, the rest all innocent and 
 inoffensive. Nay, it is doubted whether a Nero or Caligula, a Commodus 
 or Caracalla, though monsters of mankind, and prone to every act of wicked- 
 ness and fury, have done more ill than innocent actions through their whole 
 lives." 
 
 See Bishop Law's Translation of Archbishop King's Origin of Evil, p. 388, 
 fifth edit. See also Belsham's Elements of the Philos. of Mind, p.
 
 CH. XIV.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 319 
 
 interrupted joy and confidence than we seem to do ; so 
 as not to admit any the least doubt or mistrust, that 
 his goodness will in the end bear down every oppo- 
 sition." 
 
 After this eloquent exordium, having stated that " we 
 behold every where, and in all things, wise contrivance 
 and intentions of kindness," also, that the rational 
 creation are formed by their great Creator ( ' to be happy 
 with his own happiness," in ' ' .supreme love to him and 
 invincible affection to all our fellow creatures;" he lays 
 it down " as a safe and solid foundation of reasoning, 
 that as the universe and all things in fa are made to pro- 
 duce happiness, and as there was nothing to over -rule 
 him in his operations, such a discordant revolting mix- 
 ture as vice and misery would not have been admitted, 
 but because he saw it necessary for the fulfilment of his 
 benevolent purposes, or rather because those purposes 
 could not be obtained without it." 
 
 This, which is probable in theory, Photinus proves 
 9 , to be true in fact ;" for, if there had been no moral 
 evil, mankind would have been destitute of those dis*- 
 positions and affections which are their highest perfec- 
 tion, and the source of their purest happiness. Where 
 would have been patience and forgiveness of injuries, 
 where the godlike disposition of returning good for evil,. 
 .if there had been no fraud, or cruelties, or oppression ? 
 " Had the good and virtuous of mankind been wholly 
 prosperous," says an excellent person, "had goodness 
 never met with opposition, where had been the trial, the 
 victory, the crown of virtue ?" He concludes with the 
 important and sublime inferences, " So that, as it has 
 been justly said of natural evil, pain, diseases, and the 
 like, in vindication of the divine goodness, that there is 
 no useless evil; so must we say of moral evil, sin, and 
 wickedness, that, in the hands of God, every evil of every
 
 320 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. XIV. 
 
 kind is made an instrument of greater good and higher 
 felicity than would otherwise have been enjoyed." 
 
 Here Volusian, in a kind of ecstasy, interrupts Pho- 
 tinus to express his delight in the satisfactory solution 
 which his friend had given of this most difficult of all 
 problems, the introduction of moral evil. And he la- 
 ments that the great Frederic and his friend D'Alembert, 
 rather than acquiesce in this easy and probable hypo- 
 thesis, should have assumed that the Deity, if he exists 
 at all, is an evil and imperfect Being ; that Christianity 
 is untrue; and that there is no future life in which the 
 difficulties and obliquities of the present state would be 
 solved and rectified; while he applauds the opposite con- 
 duct of M. Turgot, the able and disinterested minister 
 of Louis XVI, who, though, under the influence of in- 
 vincible and inevitable prejudices, he rejected the Chris- 
 tian revelation, entertained just ideas of the divine cha- 
 racter, and was a believer in a future life. 
 
 Photinus, resuming his discourse after Volusian had 
 finished, observes, " that it is matter of the highest 
 exultation and joy, in which we may justly triumph, to 
 be fully assured that mere arbitrary will and sovereignty, 
 from which we could never know what we were to expect, 
 has no sway in the divine government under which we 
 are placed; and that original love and goodness are the 
 beginning and end, the spring and measure, of all the 
 actions of the Deity, and of all his dealings with us. 
 Hence we conclude, that every evil of every kind is 
 ordained for present or ultimate good. All natural 
 and moral evils are from God, and under his sovereign 
 control." 
 
 To guard against the abuse of this sublime doctrine, 
 Photinus remarks, that " we frail ignorant creatures arc 
 on no account to transgress the plain rule of moral duty, 
 and to do evil that good may come ; because our under-
 
 CH XIV.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 321 
 
 standings are weak and limited, and we cannot be sure 
 that the good we intend will happen. But our Maker, 
 out of that limited quantity of evil which he judges fitting 
 to appoint or permit, continually produces virtue and 
 every good." And he offers some observations to obvi- 
 ate the common objection, that this doctrine represents 
 God as the author of sin. 
 
 " We shall avoid," says Photinus, " some of the per- 
 plexity and difficulties in which good minds are wont to 
 be involved, from the idea of the evil actions of men 
 being of divine appointment, as though God himself 
 were the immediate author of sin and wickedness : if we 
 consider that the Almighty Being, if we may so speak, 
 acteth not immediately himself in directing the actions of 
 men and influencing them to good and evil, but by the 
 intervention of second causes ; in other words, it is by 
 the different motives which arise in our minds from our 
 situation and circumstances, which are all of divine ap- 
 pointment, that we are led to evil and to good." Upon 
 this supposition he explains the case of Lydia, whose 
 heart the Lord had opened, and that of Pharaoh, whose 
 heart was hardened. He afterwards adds, that " though 
 we cannot but be persuaded that all the actions of men 
 are under the antecedent appointment and direction of 
 God, (for how could he otherwise govern the world ?) 
 yet mankind are not a mere piece of clock-work, a set 
 of uhconscious machines. They acquire voluntary pow- 
 ers, by which they do what they please, choose for them- 
 selves, and follow their choice ; take blame to, and con- 
 demn, themselves when they do what is wicked; and, 
 more than this, think themselves not unrighteously dealt 
 with in being made to sufler for their evil dispositions 
 and actions in order to correct and amend them; nor, 
 if they continue unreformed, to expect to escape punish- 
 ment in a future state. So that, if God be charged in 
 
 Y
 
 322 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. XIV. 
 
 any way with being the author of men's sins, it is not in 
 any such sense as to acquit the perpetrators, or to excuse 
 them even in their own estimate from being responsible." 
 Photinus sums up his argument by stating, that " we are 
 conscious that we are not mere puppets acted upon, but 
 agents responsible for what we do. We are also fully 
 persuaded, that all we do is beforehand known to God, 
 and appointed by him. How this divine knowledge and 
 appointment are to be reconciled to the freedom and 
 responsibility of our actions, is beyond our comprehen- 
 sion; nor need we be at all concerned about it." And 
 he pleads Mr. Locke's declaration and example for giving 
 it up as an inexplicable difficulty. 
 
 The venerable writer's solution of this famous difficulty 
 does not appear to be perfectly satisfactory. The ques- 
 tion may be considered either popularly or philosophi- 
 cally. As a popular question, it is sufficient to state, 
 that vice and wickedness, arising from the bad passions 
 of men, will and ought to be punished here or hereafter; 
 and, which is indeed true, that the foreknowledge of God 
 makes no difference either in the crime or the punish- 
 ment. But if the inquisitive mind, pursuing the inquiry 
 in a philosophical way, is brought to the conclusion, 
 which the venerable writer so clearly and forcibly states, 
 that all evil, natural and moral, proceeds from God, and 
 that vice, as well as misery, is of divine appointment, it 
 becomes a serious question, and appears under the shape 
 of a formidable objection to this sublime doctrine, Does 
 it not make God the author of sin ? And is not God 
 unrighteous in punishing sinners ? Nor will such an in- 
 quirer be satisfied with being told, that God does not act 
 directly upon the will, but through the medium of mo- 
 tives ; and that we are conscious that we are not puppets, 
 but responsible agents, and that guilt is deserving of 
 punishment. For in the first case it will immediately
 
 CH. XIV.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LTNDSEY. 323 
 
 occur, that the cause of the cause is the cause of the 
 foreseen effect; and that to leave a child upon a bank, 
 from which it will inevitably roll into the river, is the 
 same as to push him in. And, in the second case, it 
 is asked, Where is the justice of punishing what was 
 inevitable ? 
 
 The true solution of the first difficulty, whether God 
 be the author of sin? appears to be this: that God is, 
 strictly speaking, the author of evil ; but that, in the first 
 place, he never ordains or permits evil hut with a view 
 to the production of a greater good, which could not 
 have existed without it. And, secondly, that though 
 God is the author of evil both natural and moral, he is 
 not the approver of evil; he does not delight in it for its 
 own sake; it must be the object of his aversion, and 
 what he would never permit or endure if the good he 
 intends could have been accomplished without it. As 
 to the second question, concerning the justice of punish- 
 ment, the best and only philosophical solution of it is, 
 that under the divine government all punishment is 
 remedial. Moral evil is the disease, punishment is the 
 process of cure, of greater or less intensity, and of longer 
 or shorter duration, in proportion to the malignity and 
 inveteracy of the distemper, but ultimately of sovereign 
 efficacy under the divine government to operate a perfect 
 cure; so that those whose vices have been the means of 
 proving, purifying, and exalting the virtues of others, 
 shall, in the end, share with them in their virtue and 
 their triumph, and the impartial justice and infinite bene- 
 volence of the divine Being will be made known, adored, 
 and celebrated to all eternity, through the whole created 
 universe. But to return to the author: 
 
 Photinus having finished his discourse, Synesius rose 
 to speak; but the company agreed to defer the Conver- 
 sation to another opportunity. 
 
 Y 2
 
 324 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. XIV. 
 
 In the fifth Conversation Synesius takes the lead. 
 This gentleman, a real character it should seem, in the 
 Conversations upon Christian Idolatry is represented as 
 a blunt man, of sound understanding, zealous for the 
 church, though seldom seen within its walls, and not 
 much attached to its peculiar doctrines. He introduces 
 the conversation with a profession of his conversion, and 
 a recantation of his past errors, particularly in his doubts 
 concerning the divine character, his scepticism concern- 
 ing the Mosaic cosmogony, his account of the primitive 
 dispensations of God to the human race, and the destruc- 
 tion of the Canaanites : he expresses his great satisfaction 
 in the " vast care and attention" which the writers of the 
 Old Testament display in " teaching and holding forth" 
 the Unity of God ; and wonders that at this time of day 
 Mr. De Luc should take so much pains to " deprive us 
 of the one true God, and introduce in lieu of him a God 
 consisting of three persons," upon the authority of the ex- 
 ploded text of the heavenly witnesses, which the Bishop of 
 Lincoln, " to the credit of his judgement and integrity," 
 gives up as spurious. Synesius further expresses his 
 satisfaction in the solution given to the great difficulty, 
 that Christianity " should have done so little to reform 
 the world:" and he particularly admires Dr. Adams's 
 judicious and temperate reply to the severe and un- 
 founded sarcasms of Mr. Hume upon the Jewish nation, 
 and their sacred writings, citing at length both the ob- 
 jection and the reply. Synesius then notices the cha- 
 racter of Abraham, and enters into a defence of the ac- 
 count of his offering up his son Isaac, first in the words 
 of Archbishop Tillotson, and afterwards by some obser- 
 vations of his own. 
 
 In conclusion Synesius observes, that his friends, after 
 all, " had left untouched a main difficulty which Christi- 
 anity puts in their way, by teaching the dpctrine of end-
 
 CH. XIV.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 325 
 
 less punishments." They had indeed shown, that virtue 
 naturally leads to happiness, and vice to misery ; and 
 that in the state after death, as we continue under the 
 same laws and divine moral government, those severe 
 punishments which await evil-doers must, in the pro- 
 gress of infinite ages, produce a return to virtue and 
 goodness." He further submits to their consideration, 
 that " as the Scriptures teach that all the dead shall be 
 raised and judged according to their works, and do there- 
 by implicitly give us hope, may we not rather say, give 
 us humble assurance, that the gloomy sentence of anni- 
 hilation will not pass on any of our species ; for we cannot 
 entertain a thought that our benevolent Creator would 
 bring back his creatures to life to put them on the rack 
 as it were, and make them suffer for a time and then con- 
 sign them to their primitive nothing; we may, therefore, 
 make this inference, that none of the human race will 
 be consigned to fruitless, unavailing suffering and misery 
 for ever, but that, by the discipline to which they will be 
 doomed, all will be brought to repentance and be saved." 
 He further professes, that " the threatenings of eternal 
 punishment in the gospel have long since ceased to make 
 any impression upon his mind, being counterbalanced by 
 contrary declarations that God loveth all his creatures, 
 and would not that any should perish, but that all should 
 have everlasting life;" and he cannot be disappointed in 
 his purposes. 
 
 Synesius having ended his harangue, Photinus ap- 
 plauds the observations of his friend, and particularly 
 " what he had done to relieve the gospel from the im- 
 putation of holding forth the doctrine of eternal tor- 
 ments, a mill-stone which some mistaken christians had 
 hung about it, and thereby alienated the minds of many." 
 He then proceeds to state, that " the words eternal* ever- 
 lasting, for ever, and the like, generally signify limited
 
 326 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. XIV. 
 
 periods of duration: so that our Saviour meant only to 
 express, that the sufferings of a future state would be of 
 an exceeding long duration, and thereby to enforce the 
 necessity of attending to the divine laws, and the dreadful 
 danger of violating them ;" and he concludes the Con- 
 versation with a pertinent quotation from Dr. Hartley's 
 Observations on Man, in which that great philosopher, 
 with his usual acuteness and strength of argument, 
 establishes the joyful doctrine of " the ultimate unli- 
 mited happiness of all mankind." 
 
 In the sixth and last Conversation, Synesius is again 
 almost the only speaker. Having observed to Marcelli- 
 nus, that after having hinted at the existence of an evil 
 spirit as one of the supposed causes of the " great misery 
 and wickedness complained of in the world, he had after- 
 wards been wholly silent about it;" he represents the 
 vindication of the divine goodness as very " lame and 
 defective," unless they can show the insufficiency of the 
 evidence produced to prove " the existence of such a foul 
 malignant fiend," and " begs permission to state his own 
 thoughts upon the subject which he had with some dili- 
 gence put together." The company having expressed 
 high satisfaction, Synesius enters with alacrity upon the 
 interesting argument. 
 
 He first expresses his surprise that it should be so 
 generally current with the learned as well as the un- 
 learned, that the serpent who tempted Eve was a wicked 
 spirit, when Moses gives no such intimation, and never 
 alludes to the esistence of any such evil being in any of 
 the five books ascribed to him. 
 
 The word Satan in the Old Testament is only used 
 to signify an adversary, which is its proper meaning. 
 And that the Jewish scriptures contain no revelation of 
 the existence and agency of an evil spirit is evident, be- 
 cause " we perceive not in them any religious exhorta-
 
 CH. XIV.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY, 327 
 
 tions or cautions to beware of the wiles and power of 
 such an evil being from first to last." 
 
 Synesius further argues, that " as the Christian scrip- 
 tures certainly contain no new revelation of an evil being, 
 and as the Jewish scriptures did not teach it, the Jews 
 must have acquired this notion during the captivity, and 
 probably from the Chaldeans among whom they dwelt." 
 This doctrine was incorporated into their theology, and 
 their language framed and accommodated to it; and 
 this would remain in common use even after the doctrine 
 itself was given up. " And to this language our Saviour 
 and his apostles would conform themselves, though there 
 be no good reason to think that either the one or the 
 other gave credit to the reality of this evil being." 
 
 The speaker having remarked, that no evil being had 
 any concern in Christ's temptation, proceeds to state our 
 Lord's own sentiments concerning Satan; and shows, 
 1 . " That Christ very commonly uses the word in its pri- 
 mary sense, as signifying an adversary, as when he said 
 to Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan."" 2. " There is 
 no reason to believe that he ever means to imply that 
 there was in reality any such being :" for example, by 
 the expression I saw Satan as lightning fall from heaven, 
 he means nothing more than selfish worldly desires, 
 hatred of God and goodness, &c.* He then adduces 
 many passages in which the word Satan, devil, &c. are 
 used figuratively to express the principle of evil in ge- 
 neral, or evil habits and affections in particular. And 
 from various citations from the. Acts and the Epistles he 
 draws the conclusion, that " the apostles of Christ, like 
 
 * Satan, i.e. the enemy, the principle of hostility, the opposing persecu- 
 ting power: Christ, by the spirit of prophecy, foresaw that his Gospel should 
 make a rapid progress in the world, and triumph over all opposition. This 
 interpretation seems better to suit the primary sense of the word and the 
 connexion in which it is introduced, than that of the venerable writer in the 
 character of Synesius. See the Improved Version on Luke x. 17, 18.
 
 328 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. XIV, 
 
 their great master, seem not to have understood that 
 there was any devil or evil being without them whom 
 men need to be afraid of." 
 
 " The sum of all is this: There is no evil in the world 
 but what takes its rise from men themselves ; nor any 
 devils, but so far as men extremely wicked and aban- 
 doned may deserve the name. And to uphold such evil 
 beings is to engraft heathenism on Christianity*." 
 
 " To these conclusions of Synesius the whole company 
 gave their hearty concurrence; and after these friendly 
 conferences, they returned to their respective homes and 
 duties, more fully impressed with their obligation as 
 Christians to study the word and works of God, to add 
 practice to knowledge, and to communicate to others 
 that light and truth which lead to eternal life." 
 
 The " Conversations upon the Divine Government'* 
 are not, perhaps, equal, as a composition, to those upon 
 Christian Idolatry, which were published ten years before. 
 The speeches are rather too long, and too formal ; and 
 the sentiments of. the speakers are not sufficiently con- 
 trasted to keep up the spirit of the dialogue. Also, the 
 arguments and criticisms are such as will not in every case 
 satisfy the critical reader. And the venerable writer has 
 needlessly encumbered his work, and in some degree 
 
 * The venerable author in a note, highly gratifying, though too partial 
 to the writer of this Memoir, has referred to a passage upon the subject of 
 this Conversation in his Review of Mr. Wilberforce's Treatise. A more 
 complete and accurate view of the subject may be found in the Rev. John 
 Simpson's Dissertations on the Language of Scripture. The writer of this 
 Memoir has also treated the subject much more at large in a series of Dis- 
 courses delivered from the pulpit, which may perhaps at some future time 
 be offered to the public. In the mean time, may he be permitted to express 
 the high gratification he feels at the recollection that when his venerable 
 friend, bending under the weight of years, was taking his final leave of the 
 public, almost the last sentence that he penned should be a public testimony 
 of affection and friendship to the writer of this Memoir, which that writer 
 esteems as the highest honour and happiness of.his life, and an ample com- 
 pensation for all his exertions and sacrifices, whatever they may have been, 
 in the cause of truth and undefiled Christianity, even (as Dr. Priestley ex- 
 presses it on another occasion ? ) had they been ten times more and greater 
 than they were.
 
 CH. XIV.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 329 
 
 weakened his argument, by assuming, and that in rather 
 too lofty a tone, the credibility of the whole, or at least 
 of too great a proportion, of what is commonly called the 
 Mosaic history. But the work is curious and interesting 
 as containing the last thoughts of an eminently pious, 
 benevolent, and inquisitive mind upon a variety of sub- 
 jects of great practical importance. Much of the philo- 
 sophical part of the work is admirable, and the arguments 
 are irresistible. In his conclusions he sometimes falters 
 by adopting popular rather than philosophical language. 
 But in the grand conclusion of all, the assertion of the 
 great and sublime doctrine of the ultimate unlimited 
 virtue and happiness of all mankind as the glorious con- 
 summation of the divine government, and the illustrious 
 and magnificent display of infinite and impartial good- 
 ness over-ruling, absorbing, and extinguishing all vice 
 and misery in the creation, the venerable author is ex- 
 plicit and decided . The work exhibits a most interesting 
 view of the aged patriarch's pious, candid, benevolent, 
 and cheerful mind, of his humble and devotional spirit, 
 and of the happy influence of that rare combination of 
 the principles of a sublime philosophy with the doctrines 
 of a pure and unsophisticated Christianity, which, when 
 they become the ruling principles of conduct, elevate the 
 human character to its highest dignity, and ensure the 
 most substantial, exalted, and permanent felicity. Thus 
 gently, thus usefully, did this eminent servant and 
 minister of Christ pursue his way to that quiet abode 
 which is the house appointed for all the living.
 
 330 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. XV. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 MR. LINDSEY SUFFERS A PARALYTIC SEIZURE, BUT 
 RECOVERS. DR. PRIESTLEY'S REFLECTIONS UPON 
 THE SITUATION OF HIS FRIEND, AND UPON MR. 
 LINDSEY'S LAST WORK. MR. LINDSEY INTERESTS 
 HIMSELF IN THE APPOINTMENT OF THE AUTHOR 
 TO THE CHAPEL IN ESSEX STREET. ENCOURAGES 
 AND ASSISTS THE IMPROVED VERSION. HIS GRA- 
 DUAL DECLINE AND DEATH. CONCLUSION OF THE 
 
 WORK. 
 
 MR. LINDSEY, after the resignation of his office in 
 1793, continued for some years to enjoy an uncommon 
 portion of health, vigour, and activity, and that uniform 
 flow of cheerfulness which is the natural result of a 
 good constitution, and the recollections of a well-spent 
 life. His retrospects were most gratifying ; his antici- 
 pations delightful, his principles most rational and 
 consolatory, his circumstances easy. He was happy in 
 the affection and attention of the best of women, in the 
 society of chosen and virtuous friends of principles and 
 spirit similar to his own, in frequent correspondence 
 with the man after his own heart, in an ardent but 
 unostentatious piety and confidence in God, in unli- 
 mited resignation to the divine will, and in the growing 
 success of the great cause which was nearest to his 
 heart, the cause of Christian truth and Christian virtue, 
 fo the revival of which he could not but know that his 
 own exertions and example had in a considerable degree 
 contributed : he possessed his faculties entire, bodily 
 and mental, and seemed to be in a degree privileged 
 with exemption from the infirmities of age. The first 
 alarm was excited in the spring of 1801, when Mr. and 
 Mrs. Lindsey were upon a visit for a few days at Rei-
 
 CH. XV.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 331 
 
 gate, the residence <of their learned and estimable friend 
 Francis Maseres, Esq. Cursitor Baron of the Exchequer*. 
 The weather being uncommonly warm for the season, 
 Mr. Lindsey experienced a slight paralytic affection on 
 one side, which however disappeared in a few days. 
 But in the latter end of December of the same year he 
 suffered a severe stroke, which at first excited the great- 
 est apprehension. From this indeed he soon recovered 
 surprisingly, so as to be able in the beginning of 
 January following to finish his last interesting work, 
 the Conversations upon the Divine Government. After 
 this seizure he gradually declined in bodily strength 
 and vigour, though he was generally free from pain, 
 and his faculties for a considerable time were not sen- 
 sibly impaired. 
 
 The. writer of this Memoir first announced the painful 
 tidings to the venerable exile at Northumberland. Soon 
 afterwards Mrs. Lindsey wrote, and at that time Mr. 
 Lindsey was so far recovered as to be able to add a 
 postscript. The feelings of Dr. Priestley's affectionate 
 heart, upon the sad intelligence of his friend's illness, 
 are expressed with so much simplicity, and in a strain 
 of such exalted piety, founded upon such just and 
 philosophic views of the Christian revelation, in the 
 following letters, that they cannot fail to be exquisitely 
 gratifying to the serious reader. 
 
 * To Mr. Baron Maseres Mr. Lindsey acknowledges himself indebted 
 for many favours for near thirty years, and describes his friend as " one 
 whose liberal, benevolent, and generous labours are constantly exerted in 
 various ways to benefit mankind, and promote the cause of true religion 
 and virtue." And he adds that to this gentleman's " suggestions jointly 
 with those of John Lee, Esq. was owing the variation made in the last 
 edition of the Reformed Liturgy in 1793, after the model of. the excellent 
 Dr. Samuel Clarke, by changing the threefold address retained in the 
 liturgy to one solemn and appropriate one. . They justly observing, that a 
 threefold address would keep up the old impression of a threefold nature 
 in the Deity, so contrary to the Scriptures." Conversations on the Divine 
 Government, p. 140. Note. 

 
 332 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. XV. 
 
 (To Mrs. Lindsey.) 
 
 " Dear Madam, Northumberland, May 8, 1802. 
 
 " I cannot express how much I was affected on read- 
 ing your letter; though I was apprized of the situation 
 of my best friend by the letters of Mr. B., so that I had 
 no reason to expect any different account. But the 
 few lines he added with his own liand quite overcame 
 me; and if I read them, as I shall do, a hundred times, 
 I shall have the same emotions. Such friendship as 
 his and yours has been to me can never be exceed- 
 ed on this side the grave ; and, independent of the 
 real emolument, has been a source of such satisfaction 
 to me as I have not derived from any other quarter. 
 And yet what I feel is not properly grief. For, con- 
 sidering how near we both must be to the close of life, 
 in which we could not promise ourselves much more 
 enjoyment, or be of much more use, what remains 
 cannot according to the common course of nature be 
 of much value, and therefore the privation of it is no 
 great loss. And considering how soon we may expect, 
 and I hope without much presumption, to meet again 
 in more favourable circumstances, the causes of joy may 
 almost be allowed to balance those of grief. The loss 
 to you will be much greater than to any other person, 
 as that of such a constant companion and Christian 
 friend necessarily must be. How few couples are there 
 so suited to one another in dispositions and views,, and 
 those of the best and noblest kind, as you are ! I have 
 never known the like. You have therefore every reason 
 to expect a renewal of your union, though in some other 
 way, hereafter. 
 
 " If you saw me now, you would not flatter me with 
 the prospect of long surviving my excellent friend. 
 Judging from my illnesses last year, and my present 
 feelings, I am far from expecting it myself. And 

 
 CH. XV. I REVEREND THEOPHILUS J.INDSEY. 333 
 
 indeed, as it will be the will of God, whatever the event 
 be, and therefore no doubt for the best, I cannot say 
 that I greatly wish it. My labours, of whatever kind 
 and whatever be their value, are nearly over ; and I have 
 now hardly any wish but to see the printing of my 
 Church History and Notes on the Scriptures. 
 
 " I beg, dear Madam, you would not fail to continue 
 the correspondence of your excellent husband, and write 
 as you say upon all sorts of subjects. Whatever interests 
 you will interest me, and I hope Mr. Lindsey, whenever 
 he is able, will add his signature. 
 
 " Yours and Mr. Lindsey's most affectionately, 
 
 " J. P." 
 (Rev. T. Lindsey.) 
 
 *' Dear friend, Northumberland, June 26, 1802. 
 
 " Whether it be you or Mrs. Lindsey that is my 
 correspondent, I consider it as the same thing. You 
 are alike my friends, and my best friends ; and whoever 
 survives, this correspondence will not, I hope, cease, 
 while it is possible to continue it, on this side the grave. 
 This great change to which we are making near ap- 
 proaches, I regard, I hope I may say, with more curi- 
 osity than anxiety. It is the wise order of Providence 
 that death should intervene between the two different 
 modes of existence, and what engages my thoughts is 
 the change itself, more than the mere manner of making 
 it. I look at your portrait, and that of Dr. Price and 
 Mr. Lee, which are always before me, and think of my 
 deceased friends whose portraits I have not, with pecu- 
 liar satisfaction, under the idea that I shall at no great 
 distance of time see them again, and I hope with plea- 
 sure. But how we shall meet again, and how we shall be 
 employed, we have little or no ground even for conjecture. 
 It should satisfy us, however, that we shall be at the dis- 
 posal, and under the government, of the same wise and
 
 334 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. XV. 
 
 good Being who has superintended us here, and who 
 knows what place and employment will best suit all of 
 us. The more I think of the wonderful system of 
 which we are a part, the less I think of any difficulties 
 about the reality or the circumstances of a future state. 
 The resurrection is really nothing compared to the won- 
 ders of every day in the regular course of nature : and 
 the only reason why we do not wonder is, because the 
 appearances are common. Whether it be because I 
 converse less with men in this remote situation, I con- 
 template the scenes of nature, as the production of its 
 great Author, more, and with more satisfaction, than I 
 ever did before ; and the new discoveries that are now 
 making in every branch of science, interest me more 
 than ever in this connection. I see before us a bound- 
 less field of the noblest investigation, and all we yet know 
 appears to me as nothing, compared to what we are 
 wholly ignorant of, and do not as yet perceive any means 
 of access to it. I now take great pleasure In my garden, 
 and plants as well as other objects engage more of my 
 attention than they ever did before; and I see those things 
 in a more pleasing light than ever. I wish I knew a 
 little more of botany, but old as I am I learn something 
 new continually. I admire Dr. Darwin's Phytologia, and 
 am reading it a second time. But this work, which I believe 
 contains all that we yet know of this part of nature, shows 
 me how little that all is. Before he died, I am inform- 
 ed he was about to publish another work, in which he 
 maintained the doctrine of equivocal generation ; and of 
 all absurdities this appears to me to be the greatest, if 
 by it they mean to exclude intelligence from the system 
 of nature. And I cannot see any other reason why un- 
 believers in revelation should lean as many now do to 
 that doctrine. Their faith has certainly less evidence 
 than ours.
 
 CH. XV.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINBSEY. 335 
 
 "I have written a dedication of the second part of my 
 History to Mr. Jefferson, and have sent him a copy of 
 it for his approbation. The preface is the longest I ever 
 wrote ; but I hope you will not dislike it. It consists 
 chiefly of reflections on the middle and dark ages. As 
 soon as a copy can be made up, one shall be sent to you. 
 In the Monthly Magazine I see an account of your late 
 publication. How I long to see it ! and surely it might 
 have been here as soon as that magazine. 
 
 "I have not heard from Mr. Johnson for near two 
 years. My time is short and uncertain, and consequent- 
 ly iny want-, though not many, are urgent. 
 
 "Yours and Mrs. Lindsey's most affectionately, 
 
 "J. P. 
 
 "I have just received yours of March 23, I need not 
 say how happy it makes me." 
 
 Dr. Priestley's next letter is an answer to this of Mr. 
 Lindsey's ; the insertion of it will need no apology ; the 
 sentiments contained in it must be acceptable to every 
 friend of the Christian religion who has a head to think, 
 or a heart to feel. 
 
 "Dear friend, Northumberland, July 3, 1802. 
 
 "How rejoiced I was to receive your letter written 
 wholly with your own hand, after your late alarming at- 
 tack ! I now hope I shall have more of them ; and no- 
 thing on this side the grave gives me more satisfaction, 
 And yet, considering how soon we may hope to meet 
 again, the separation by death should not give us much 
 concern. While we live we ought to value life and friend- 
 ship, especially Christian friendship, as the balm of it. 
 But we have a better life in prospect, and therefore 
 should not regret the parting with the worse, provided 
 we have enjoyed it properly, and improved it so as to have
 
 336 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. XV. 
 
 ensured the better. Absolute confidence does not be- 
 come any man, conscious, as we all must be, of many 
 imperfections, of omissions, if not of commissions. But 
 surely, a general sincere endeavour to do wbat we appre- 
 bend to be our duty, will authorize so mucb bope as may 
 be tbe reasonable foundation of joy, with respect to a 
 future state, without being chargeable with arrogance or 
 presumption. 
 
 "You could not have made choice of a more pleasing 
 or interesting subject than that of the work which you 
 have happily completed, and which, as 1 believe it is in 
 Philadelphia, I expect very soon to receive. It occupies 
 my own thoughts, I may say almost constantly, and is 
 the greatest source of satisfaction that in my present si- 
 tuation, and under my late trials, I enjoy. Indeed the 
 reflection that we are under the government of the wisest 
 and best of Beings, and that nothing can befall us with- 
 out his permission, is sufficient to balance the very idea 
 of evil, and make us regard every thing as a good, for 
 which we ought to be thankful. At the moment, none 
 who have the hearts and feelings of men but must grieve 
 for many things that he sees and feels. But Christian 
 principles soon bring relief, and are capable of converting 
 all sorrow into joy. But this will be in proportion to 
 the strength of our faith, in consequence of the exercise 
 of it ; when, according to Hartley, speculative faith is 
 converted into practical. 
 
 "We have printed one volume of the History, and, as 
 I told you, I have dedicated it to Mr. Jefferson. I in- 
 close his letter on receiving a manuscript copy of it. I 
 have since altered it, I hope, to his mind, and shall very 
 soon send it, together with the volume. I do not mean 
 to dispose of any of the copies till all the three volumes be 
 completed, which, if I do not take a journey in October, 
 will be done about Christmas. I now hope you will see
 
 Cft. XV.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 337 
 
 this work, and even the Notes on the Scriptures which I 
 hope you will like still better. As I wish you particu- 
 larly to see the Preface and Dedication, I shall send a 
 copy by the next post. The latter will not please you, 
 as not calculated for England. But I have done with 
 that country ; and am indifferent to what my enemies 
 may think of me. I shall always appear, as I am, a sincere 
 friend to the country, and shall not with intention say any 
 thing offensive of its constitution, or the administration 
 of it. I rejoice that its situation is much better than I 
 feared such a war would leave it. 
 
 " Yours and Mrs. Lindsey's most affectionately, 
 
 " J. PRIESTLEY." 
 
 How great must be the excellence of those principles, 
 which in circumstances that to a common mind would 
 be most depressing, could produce this habitual conso- 
 lation, peace and hope, and could convert evil itself into 
 good, and sorrow into joy ! How infinitely superior to 
 that sad and cheerless scepticism which can meet the 
 troubles of life, the evils of oppression and persecution, 
 and the separation or death of friends, with nothing bet- 
 ter than a stern and stoical apathy, and is destitute of 
 every pleasing and consolatory hope of a life to come ! It 
 was a just observation of Lord Rochester, that if Chris- 
 tianity be a delusion, it is a pleasing delusion. And 
 strictly true is the remark of Dr. Price, that the worst 
 which can happen to the Christian is the best which can 
 be expected by the unbeliever. On the other hand, how 
 much more dignified that equal tenor of mind, that tran- 
 quil and sublime satisfaction which is the result of en- 
 larged ami comprehensive views, and of a sober and ra- 
 tional faith, than those ecstatic raptures of which, some 
 make their boast, which result from a fancied arbitrary
 
 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. XV. 
 
 election of themselves to happiness, and the unintelligible 
 imputation of another's righteousness as a substitute for 
 their own, while millions are left to perish, and even 
 doomed to eternal torments, for the sin of a remote an- 
 cestor ! One marks the fond credulity of a child ; the 
 other, the cultivated intellect of the man. How much to 
 be desired, how pleasing to look forward to, that new and 
 happy sera which the word of prophecy authorizes us to 
 anticipate, when all those puerile conceits, those anti- 
 christian doctrines, which are the crude offspring of ages 
 of ignorance and superstition, which obscure and disgrace 
 the fair form of true religion, shall be dispelled as mists 
 before the rising sun, and genuine uncorrupted Christiani- 
 ty with its beautiful and animating ray shall enlighten 
 every understanding, and enliven every heart ! 
 
 Mr. Jefferson's answer to Dr. Priestley's letter, in- 
 closing a copy of it for the President's perusal, previous 
 to its publication, is given in the Notes as an interesting 
 document, highly creditable to the character of that emi- 
 nent person*. The original letter, with Mr. Jefferson's 
 signature^ is in the author's possession. 
 
 * (To the Rev. Dr. Priestley.) 
 " Dear Sir, Washington, June 19, 1802. 
 
 " Your favour of the 12th has been duly received, and with that pleasure 
 which the approbation of the good and the wise must ever give. The sen- 
 timents it expresses are far beyond my merits or pretensions. They are pre- 
 cious testimonies to me, however, that my sincere desire to do what is right 
 and just is received with candour. That it should be handed to the world 
 under the authority of your name is securing its credit with posterity. 
 
 " In the great work which has been effected in America, no individual ha? 
 a right to take any great share to himself. Our people, in a body, are wise, 
 because they are under the unrestrained and unperverted operation of their 
 own understandings. Those whom they have assigned to the direction of 
 their nft'nirs have stood with a pretty even front. If any one of them was 
 withdrawn, many others, entirely equal, have been ready to fill his place with 
 as good abilities. A nation composed of such materials, and free in all its 
 members from distressing wants, furnishes hopeful implements for the in- 
 teresting experiment of self-government, and we feel that we are acting under 
 bligmtiona not cotifiired to the limits of our own Society. It is impossible
 
 til. XV.J REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 339 
 
 In the letter inclosing this from Mr. Jefferson, dated 
 August 28, 1802, and addressed to Mr. Lindsey, Dr. 
 Priestley tells his friend that he had just heen very happy 
 by the receipt of a letter from him, dated May 5, and ex- 
 presses his great satisfaction at hearing of a scheme which 
 had been formed and adopted for defraying the expense 
 of printing his two great works. In noticing Mr. Jef- 
 ferson's letter, he adds, " Such things as these give us a 
 better idea of a man's principles and character than more 
 public documents. I shall not be able to visit him as he 
 wishes. Indeed the state of my health is such as warns me 
 
 not to be sensible that we are acting for all mankind : that circumstances, 
 denied to others but indulged to us, have imposed on us the duty of proving 
 what is the degree of freedom and self-government in which a society may 
 venture to leave its individual members. 
 
 " One passage in the paper you inclosed me must be corrected ; it is the 
 following : ' And all say that it was yourself more than any other individual 
 that planned and established the Constitution.' I was in Europe when the 
 Constitution was planned and established, and never saw it till after it was 
 established. On receiving it I wrote strongly to Mr. Madison, urging the 
 want of provision for the freedom of religion, freedom of the press, trial by 
 jury, habeas corpus, the substitution of militia for a standing army, and an 
 express reservation to the States of all the rights not specifically granted to 
 the Union, He accordingly moved, in the first session of Congress, for 
 these amendments, which were agreed to and ratified by the States as they 
 now stand. This is all the hand I had in what related to the Constitution. 
 Our predecessors made it doubtful how far even these were of any value. For 
 the very law which endangered your personal safety, the Alien Act, as well 
 as that which restrained the freedom of the press, were gross violations of 
 them. However, it is still certain, that though written Constitutions may be 
 violated in moments of passion or delusion, yet they furnish n text to which 
 those who are watchful may again rally, and recall the people. They fix too 
 for the people principles for their practical creed. 
 
 " We shall all absent ourselves from this place during the sickly season, 
 say, from the 22d of July to the last of September. Should your curiosity 
 lead you hither either before or after that interval, I shall be very happy to 
 receive you, and shall claim you as my guest. I wish the advantages of a 
 mild over a winter climate had been tried for you, before you were located 
 where you are. I have ever considered this as a public as well as personal 
 misfortune. The choice you made of our country as your asylum, was ho- 
 nourable to it ; and I lament that, for the sake of your happiness and health, 
 its most benign climates were not selected. Certainly it is a truth, that cli- 
 mate is one of the sources of the greatest sensual enjoyment. I received in 
 due time the letter referred to in your last, with the pamphlet it inclosed, 
 which I read with the pleasure I do every thing from you. Accept assurances 
 of my highest veneration and respect. 
 
 S. JfcFFERSON."
 
 
 340 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. XV. 
 
 that I have no time to lose ; and I am desirous of doing 
 all I can in what remains of life. If well spent, longer 
 or shorter, makes no difference ; but mine has been a 
 long life, though not so long as yours. Whenever we die, 
 we shall start together at the same time hereafter. May 
 it be in the same place, and our happy connexion be re- 
 sumed !" 
 
 In the next letter, dated September 25, after express- 
 ing his anxiety to hear about his friend's state of health, 
 Dr. Priestley adds, " It would be extreme folly for either 
 of us to flatter ourselves with the prospect of many years 
 to come ; nor at our time of life is it in general desirable. 
 Before this time, the business of life, whatever it has 
 been, must be over, and nothing can remain but retro- 
 spect ; and with respect to neither of us, I trust, is this 
 very painful ; though no man ever lived who might not 
 have done more good in the world (and for that end we 
 came into it) than he actually did. Of late, but not more 
 than a fortnight, I have had a better prospect of health 
 than I have had for a considerable time, having no ague 
 or indisposition of any kind, and I feel nothing of the 
 languor which I did for some time past, but as much ar- 
 dour in my pursuits as I generally have had, though I 
 find I am not capable of doing as much. I now hope, 
 that with care, I may see through the printing of both 
 my works, and I have hardly a wish to live longer, espe- 
 cially as I shall hardly be capable of undertaking any thing 
 more of much importance." 
 
 I shall insert the next letter almost entire ; not only 
 because it contains Dr. Priestley's opinion of Mr. Lind- 
 sey's last work, and expresses many fine sentiments con- 
 cerning the wisdom and goodness of the divine govern - 
 . ment, but because of the strong testimony which, after a 
 friendship of thirty years, die venerable writer bears to 
 the excellence of Mrs. Lindsey's character, and her vi-
 
 CH. XV.'] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LiNDSEY. 341 
 
 gorous and successful exertions in doing good, which can 
 hardly be conceived by those who only saw that extraor- 
 dinary woman in the last year or two of her active and 
 useful life, when hep health and faculties were in a rapid 
 decline. The letter is dated October 16, 1802, and is 
 addressed to Mrs. Lindsey : 
 
 " Dear Madam, What do I not owe to you and Mr. 
 Lindsey, and at present more particularly to yourself ? If 
 I have been of any use in the world since my acquaint- 
 ance with you, one half of it at least must be placed to 
 your account. I have, I hope, endeavoured to improve 
 my opportunities and means, but these have been in a 
 great measure furnished by you. Without your active 
 assistance I find that the works which I have now in hand 
 would hardly have been printed in my lifetime, unless I 
 should live longer than I have any reason to expect*. 
 
 * Dr. Priestley here alludes to the exertions which were made hy his 
 friends in England, to raise a sum of money to defray the expense of printing 
 his two great works. The writer of this Memoir learning, from his own and 
 Mr. Lindsey's correspondence with Dr. Priestley , the difficulties which had 
 occurred upon this subject, and apprehensive lest, after all, the Christian 
 world might be deprived of the benefit of his most valuable labours for want 
 of a sufficient fund to enable him to publish tht work, it occurred to him that 
 if a hundred persons could be found to subscribe five pounds each for a copy 
 of the whole of both the works, and to pay their subscriptions in advance, 
 every difficulty would be surmounted. No sooner was the proposal made 
 than it was adopted with great ardour and zeal by Dr. Priestley s numerous 
 friends, and the friends of freedom of inquiry in general ; so that the sum 
 wanted was very soon far exceeded, and the venerable exile's mind was made 
 perfectly easy. Mrs. Lindsey exerted her usual energies in the cause, and 
 his friends at Birmingham and Hackney were not deficient'; and among these 
 no one was more indefatigable or successful than Benjamin Travers, Esq. 
 then resident at Clapton. The list of subscribers Was numerous and respect- 
 able. The Duke of Grafton, with his accustomed liberality, subscribed fifty 
 pounds, and Ins noble friend Lord Clarendon twenty, Mr. Lindsey twenty, 
 and Robert Slaney, Esq, of Tong Lodge, the generous friend of all that is 
 liberal and good, thirty guineas, with a premise of more, if more should be 
 wanted. And now that he is at rest beyond the reach of envy and of calum- 
 ny, from which neither exalted station nor txalted merit could have protect- 
 ed him here, it may be permitted to mention, that by far the most liberal 
 subscriber to this object was the late Right Reverend Dr. John Law, bishop 
 of Elphin, one of the numerous able and prosperous family of the late learn- 
 ed and liberal prelate of Carlisle, and brother to the late Lord Chief Justice
 
 342 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. XV. 
 
 Dr. Doddridge used to say, he was confident there would 
 be more women in heaven than men ; and certainly you 
 excell in the milder, and, what are more peculiarly call- 
 ed, the Christian virtues of patience, meekness, sympa- 
 thy, and kindness ; and I think that the history of per- 
 secutions proves you have your full share of the more he- 
 roic virtues, and have shown as much true courage as 
 men. When I reflect, as I often do, on the character of 
 my good aunt, that of Mrs. Rayner, and to those let me 
 add yours, I do not think that I can find many of my ac- 
 quaintances to compare with them among men : and yet 
 I have known many of great excellence. Of these, the 
 foremost in my list are Dr. Price, Mr. Tayleur of Shrews- 
 bury, and Mr. Lindsey. Those in a lower class, how- 
 ever, are numerous ; and I doubt not but that hereafter 
 we shall find there has always been more virtue than vice 
 in the world, and that the vice has had its use in pro- 
 ducing virtue. The more I contemplate the great sy- 
 
 pf England, and to the Bishop of Chester. An extract from the Bishop of 
 Elphin's interesting letter shall close this note. It is addressed to Mr. 
 Lindsey, who had sent him a cony of his last publication, dated Elphin, Octor 
 ber7, 1802. 
 
 " My dear sir, Want of health, and indisposition, have prevented me 
 from thanking you for your letter and obliging present sooner. I have read 
 your valuable work with as much attention as pains in the head and stomach, 
 arising from a flying gout, would let me; and think it is calculated to do a 
 great deal of good. 
 
 " Inclosed is a draft fqr one hundred pounds, which you will apply in aid 
 of Dr. Priestley's publication, in any way he chooses ; but my name must on 
 no account be mentioned to him, or any one else, as it would involve me 
 with some acquaintance here, and do me more mischief than you can imagine, 
 and which I am sure you would not wish. Our religion hereabouts is evi- 
 denced chiefly in hating and abusing those that differ from us ; and except- 
 ing this zeal we scarce show in other things that we have any. You will 
 be surprised at it, but neither Popery nor Methodism are los:ng any ground. 
 
 " Reprint my father's Life of Christ whenever you please, and believe me 
 to be, with the sincerest esteem, 
 
 " Your very faithful and obedient servant, 
 
 " J. ELPHIN." 
 
 Mr. Lindsey availed himself of the bishop's permission to reprint the Life 
 of Christ, and this small but valuable tract is now upon the catalogue of 
 books circulated by the Unitarian Society.
 
 CH. XV.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LIMDSEY. 343 
 
 stem, the more satisfaction I find in it: and the structure 
 being so perfect, there cannot be a doubt but that the end 
 and use of it in promoting happiness will correspond to 
 it. These views, as I take more pleasure than ever in 
 Natural History, contribute much to brighten the even- 
 ing of my days. But my great resource is the Scrip- 
 tures, which I have not of a long time passed a single 
 day without reading a portion of, and I am more inter- 
 ested in it continually. I seem now to see it with other 
 eyes, and all other reading is comparatively insipid. 
 
 " But I shall tire you with my moralizing. You are 
 very kind to interest yourself about my health. On this 
 day se'rmight I wrote to Dr. Disney, and told him I was 
 much recruited. But this week I have relapsed again , 
 but without fever. The least thing disorders my power 
 of digestion : and when I have any thing amiss there, it 
 is a long time before I get right again. At present, a 
 long continued indigestion seems to have affected the li- 
 ver. I feel in several respects as I did when I was sub? 
 ject to the gall-stones ; and being further advanced in 
 life, I am less able to struggle with disease of any kind. 
 My flesh and muscular strength are greatly impaired. I 
 hope, however, that with care I may live to print the two 
 works, and then my mind will be entirely at ease. What- 
 ever may be thought of them, I have spared no pains to 
 make them as perfect as I could, and both the works are 
 of a kind that I am sure are much wanted, 
 
 " I find by Mr. Lindsey that my Tract on Baptism is 
 arrived : and his two words of approbation are a sufficient 
 reward for my labour. I hope he will live to see what I 
 am now printing, as the History will probably be printed 
 before the winter be out, and another year will be suffi- 
 cient for the Notes on the Scriptures. I no more expect 
 fame than I do profit from either of these works, but nei- 
 ther of them is any object with me at present. I have
 
 344 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. XV. 
 
 had enough of every thing that this world can give me, 
 and consider my lot as having been a singularly happy 
 one. But I flatter myself that my writings, which are 
 overlooked at present, will be found useful some time 
 hence. 
 
 " Mr. Lindsey's last work I read with peculiar satis- 
 faction ; it is excellently adapted to gain its object, and 
 discovers a happy and most desirable state of mind, with 
 which to take leave of the world : praising' the great and 
 benevolent Author of it, and looking forward to the same 
 excellent disposition of things hereafter. 
 
 " Give my best respects to the ladies at Morden. I 
 shall never forget their excellent characters, or their kind- 
 ness to myself. Remember me also to Dr. Blackburne*. 
 I often wish I was under his care. 
 
 " Yours and Mr. Lindsey's most affectionately; 
 
 " J. PRIESTLEY." 
 
 Many letters of thanks and testimonies of approbation 
 were sent to Mr. Lindsey upon the publication of his last 
 excellent work : of these I shall take the liberty of insert-- 
 ing an extract from one by the Rev. Christopher Wyvill, 
 of Burton Hall, near Bedale in Yorkshire, a name that 
 will be ever dear to the friends of civil and religious li- 
 berty, the celebrated Chairman of the Yorkshire Asso- 
 ciation tor the Reform of the Commons House of Par- 
 liament, and who is terminating his long career of pa- 
 triotic exertion by a series of vigorous and benevolent ef- 
 forts in the cause of universal religious liberty, to which 
 few would be equal even in the meridian of life. Nor is 
 it to be despaired of, considering the changes which have 
 lately taken place in the political world, that the veteran 
 champion of the rights of conscience may live to see the 
 complete success of his generous exertions, at a time 
 
 * An eminent physician in London ; the Archdeacon's youngest son, and 
 hiilf-brother to Mrs. Lindsey, now. resident near Wells, in Somersetshire.
 
 LH. XV.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 345 
 
 when success was the least expected. In a letter dated 
 from Burton Hall, March 31, 1802, he thus addresses 
 his aged friend, whose views and principles upon almost 
 every subject were congenial with his own : 
 
 " My dear Sir, Last night I finished the perusal of 
 your Conversations on the Divine Benevolence, and other 
 subjects connected with it, and I hasten to return you my 
 cordial thanks for the pleasure and benefit I have derived 
 from it. I think your last work, if it is to be your last 
 work, closes your labours with great honour to yourself 
 and utility to the world, by presenting such an amiable 
 picture of religion, as must, one would hope, win the afr 
 fections of many who are at present disinclined. I saw 
 nothing in which I could not agree with you ; as I have 
 long been accustomed, like yourself, to consider the good- 
 ness of God as the true foundation of religion. It is the 
 principle of St. John ; for God, he says, is love. It is the 
 principle of our Lord ; for God so loved the world that he 
 gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in 
 him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For 
 God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the 
 world, but that the world through him might be saved. 
 That is the gracious design of Providence we see : and 
 what Providence designs,as you justly argue in your book, 
 must come to pass. On this principle, therefore, of Di<- 
 vine love, I have raised a structure nearly similar to that 
 which you have built upon the same ground. I have 
 found it the consolation of my mind, and it will be still 
 more so from having read what you have so well drawn 
 together to illustrate that Great Truth. I will only add, 
 that the temper of your mind in the whole course of your 
 composition well accords with the amiable principle you 
 are recommending." 
 
 In the beginning of the year 1804, Mr. Lindsey lost 
 his admired and beloved friend and correspondent Dr,
 
 346 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [CH. XV. 
 
 Priestley ; an event which he felt as deeply as any cala- 
 mity which could have happened to him in his declining 
 state of health and vigour, but the tidings of which he 
 bore, as has been already observed, with the Christian 
 fortitude and resignation of one who was hastening apace 
 to the same quiet and undisturbed abode, and who hoped 
 for a speedy and happy reunion in a better state, and in 
 more auspicious circumstances. 
 
 Two events occurred after the decease of Dr. Priestley, 
 which, from the light in which they were viewed by the 
 venerable patriarch, contributed greatly to cheer and en- 
 liven his closing day, 
 
 The first was the very lively interest which he took in 
 the appointment of the writer of this Memoir to be the 
 officiating minister at the Chapel in Essex-street, in 
 succession to Dr. Disney, whose infirm state of health 
 obliged him to resign his charge in the spring of 1805. 
 This event, the idea of which first occurred to Mr. Lind- 
 sey, and to the accomplishment of which both he and 
 Mrs. Lindsey contributed their utmost and united ef- 
 forts, seemed for a time at least to infuse fresh vigour 
 into his debilitated frame; and upon this occasion 
 he resumed his seat in the chapel, from which he had 
 for some time withdrawn on account of his declining 
 health. This attendance upon public worship Mr. Lind- 
 sey continued with exemplary regularity for upwards 
 of two years and a half : he often expressed himself as 
 particularly gratified with the attendance of the young 
 persons upon those Lectures on the evidences and doc- 
 trines of revealed religion, which were introduced by the 
 preacher after the morning service ; and he augured the 
 best consequences to the interests of truth and goodness 
 from that spirit of inquiry which discovered itself in the 
 rising generation. May those favourable prognostications 
 be happily verified in the event ! After the first Sunday
 
 CH. XV.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 347 
 
 in November 1807, Mr. Lindsey's feeble state of health 
 and his growing infirmities compelled him finally, but 
 reluctantly, to withdraw from the chapel worship. 
 
 The other event alluded to was the publication of the 
 Improved Version of the New Testament by the Unita- 
 rian Society, of which it will be proper to give a brief 
 account. 
 
 In the spring of the year 1789, Dr. Priestley, whose 
 active and benevolent mind was always engaged in some 
 scheme for the instruction and improvement of mankind, 
 formed a project, which he communicated to Mr. Lind- 
 sey, for a continually improving translation of the Scrip* 
 tures of the Old and New Testament. This plan was 
 matured at the annual interview which he had with his 
 friend in the month of April ; and it was determined im- 
 mediately to engage a competent number of coadjutors, 
 and to complete the work within the year. The general 
 idea was, that the whole Scripture should be distributed 
 among a certain number of translators ; that the trans- 
 lators should adhere to certain rules which were laid down 
 for the purpose ; the principal of which was, not to de- 
 viate from the public version without an evident neces- 
 sity ; and superintendants were appointed to revise and 
 correct the translation previously to its being sent to the 
 press*. Dr. Priestley undertook to translate the Hagio- 
 
 * The following is the Plan, accompanied with the Rules of translating, 
 which was printed, and circulated among those whose assistance was soli- 
 cited, or to whom it was thought expedient to communicate the design : 
 
 A Plan to procure a continually improving Translation of the Scriptures. 
 
 I. LET three persons, of similar principles and views, procure the assist- 
 $uce of a number of their learned friends, and let each of them undertake 
 the translation of a portion of the whole Bible, engaging to produce it in 
 the space of a year. 
 
 II. Let each of the translations be carefully perused by some other person 
 than the translator himself ; and especially let each of the three principals, 
 peruse the whole, and communicate their remarks to the translators.
 
 348 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. XV. 
 
 grapha 3 and engaged the writer of this Memoir to assist 
 him in the book of Job. Mr. Trend, whose abilities and 
 learning are well known, and who had lately seceded from 
 the established church, and resigned all his well-founded 
 hopes of preferment in it for the sake of truth and a good 
 conscience, undertook to translate the Pentateuch, or the 
 historical books. Mr. Dodson was applied to for trans- 
 lating the prophetical writings ; but that gentleman not 
 
 III. Let the three principals have the power of making what alterations 
 they please ; but if the proper translator prefer his own version, let tlie 
 three principals, when they print the work, insert his version in the notes or 
 margin, distinguished by his signature. 
 
 ' IV. If any one of the three differ in opinion from the other two, let hi* 
 version be also annexed with his signature. 
 
 V. Let the whole be printed in one volume without any notes, except as 
 few as possible relating to the version, or the phraseology. 
 
 VI. Let the translators, and especially the three principals, give constant at- 
 tention to all other new translations of the Scriptures, and all other sources 
 of information, that they may avail themselves of them in all subsequent edi- 
 tions, so that this version may always be in a state of improvement. 
 
 VII. Let the three principals agree upon certain rules of translating, to be 
 observed by all the rest. 
 
 VIII. On the death of any of the three principals, let the survivors make 
 choice of another to supply his place. 
 
 IX. Let all the profits of the publication be disposed of by the three prin- 
 cipals to some public institution in England, or any other part of the world, 
 or in any other manner that they shall think most subservient to the causes 
 of truth, 
 
 RULES OF TRANSLATING. 
 
 I. LET the translators insert in the text whatever they think it was most 
 probable that the authors really wrote, if it has the authority of any ancient 
 version or MS. ; but if it differ from the present Hebrew or Greek copies, let 
 the version of the present copies be inserted in the margin. 
 
 'II. If the translators give the preference to any emendation of the text 
 not authorized by any MS. or ancient version, let such conjectural emenda- 
 tion be inserted in the margin only. 
 
 III. Let the additions in the Samaritan copy of the Pentateuch be inserted 
 in the text, but distinguished from the rest. 
 
 IV. Let not the present English version be changed, except for the sake 
 of some improvement. 
 
 V. In the Old Testament, let the word Jehovah be rendered by Jehovah, 
 and also the word xvpos in the New, in passages in which there is an allusion 
 to the Old, or where it may be proper to distinguish God from Christ. 
 
 VI. Let the present division of chapters be adhered to with as little va- 
 .riation as possible, and the whole be divided into paragraphs, not exceeding 
 
 about twenty of the present verses ; but let all the present divisions of chap- 
 ters and verses be noted in the margin. 
 
 VII. To each chapter let there be prefixed a summary of the contents, 
 as iu the common version.
 
 CH. XV.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LFNDSEY. 
 
 having leisure sufficient, Dr. Priestley undertook the 
 whole. Mr. Garnham, a learned, liberal, and respectable 
 clergyman at Bury St. Edmond's in Suffolk, engaged for 
 and executed, the translation of the whole NewTestament. 
 Mr. Lindsey and Mr. Dodson were to revise the work. 
 The task, however, was found to be too great even for 
 Dr. Priestley's energies to accomplish within the year ; 
 and it having been postponed till the summer of 1791, 
 the riots of Birmingham unfortunately intervened, and 
 the ruffians who broke into Dr. Priestley's house, among 
 other valuable papers, demolished his translation of the 
 New Testament, and in their demoniac fury they left not 
 a wreck behind *. 
 
 This disastrous event put an entire termination to the 
 promising project of a new and continually improving 
 translation. But the design was never lost sight of for 
 a moment ; and when the Unitarian Society was institu- 
 ted in 17D1, and especially after the destruction of Dr. 
 Priestley's manuscripts, the translation of the Scriptures, 
 and particularly of the New Testament, was a main ob- 
 ject of their attention. 
 
 With this view, application was first made by a depu- 
 tation from the Society, consisting of Mr. Lindsey, Mr. 
 Dodson, and the writer of this Memoir, to the late cele- 
 brated and learned Gilbert Wakefield for leave to intro- 
 duce his valuable translation into the Society's Cata- 
 logue : to which request Mr. Wakefield not only gave 
 his cordial consent, but promised to revise his transla- 
 tion with the utmost care, and to render it as perfect as 
 
 * * For a complete account of the irreparable loss which the theological, 
 the philosophical, and the learned world sustained from this unparalleled 
 outrage, see Dr. Priestley's Appeal to the Public on the Riots in Birming- 
 ham, p. 3(5. Of these losses, if the writer of this Memoir may presume to 
 judge, the greatest and the most irreparable is a manuscript volume con- 
 taining Illustrations of Hartley's Doctrine of the Association of Ideas, and 
 further Observations on the Human Mind. No one ever understood Dr. 
 Hartley's Theory better than Dr. Priestley, and no writer ever exceeded him 
 in simplicity and clearness of exposition, or in appositeness of illustration.
 
 350 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE cH* XV i 
 
 he was able for the Society's use. In this generous pur- 
 pose he was defeated by the contract which he had made 
 with his bookseller, who had not then disposed of all 
 the copies of the second edition. Afterwards, the Uni- 
 tarian Society in the West of England formed a project 
 for a new translation of the New Testament, which was 
 soon abandoned in consequence of the sudden and un- 
 expected decease of the Reverend Timothy Kenrick, who 
 took the lead in that and every other scheme for promo- 
 ting learning, truth, and genuine Christianity in prin- 
 ciple and practice in that district of the united king- 
 dom. 
 
 Here the matter rested till the General Meeting of 
 the London Unitarian Society in April 1806, when it 
 was unanimously resolved, that this important under- 
 taking should be no longer deferred ; and a committee, 
 consisting of all the ministers who were members of the 
 Society, and of a certain proportion of lay gentlemen, 
 was nominated to carry the resolution into effect. It 
 was also unanimously agreed, that instead of a transla- 
 tion entirely new, some respectable Version already in 
 existence should be adopted as the basis of the new pub- 
 lication, into which might be inserted the alterations 
 which were judged necessary. The principal reasons 
 for this decision were, that a new translation would re- 
 quire a considerable length of time ; that few persons 
 had leisure sufficient for the purpose, or were willing to 
 incur the responsibility ; and that such a version, how- 
 ever impartially conducted, would be exposed to the vul- 
 gar cavil of an intentional warping of the Scripture to 
 iupport an unscriptural hypothesis. 
 
 As Mr. Wakefield's Version could not be obtained, 
 Archbishop Newcome's Translation was selected with 
 the full consent of the late Mr. Johnson, to whom it 
 was understood that the copy-right belonged. And the
 
 Cp. XV.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 351 
 
 reasons for selecting this Version were, that, though not 
 faultless, it was in the main excellent ; that the style in 
 general was simple and unaffected ; that the translation 
 was fair and impartial ; that it rectified many errors in 
 the public Version ; but chiefly, because the learned 
 prelate had, in his translation, followed the corrected 
 text of Griesbach. And though it was taken from Gries- 
 bach's first edition, the variations in the second, though 
 numerous, are in general very inconsiderable; that learn- 
 ed and laborious critic having himself remarked, that 
 his later inquiries had in general served only to confirm 
 the critical principles and to justify the variations which 
 he had introduced into the first edition. Another in- 
 ducement for adopting the Primate's Version was, that 
 it was out of print, without the least probability of its 
 ever being printed again -*. In order to preserve the uni- 
 formity of style, it was resolved that no alterations should 
 be made in the Primate's language but those which were 
 judged to be absolutely necessary. And, to preclude 
 every possibility of misleading the reader, wherever it 
 was thought proper to give a different translation of any 
 passage, or to deviate even in a single expression from 
 the Primate's text, his own words, with the initials of his 
 name, were required to be set down at the foot of the 
 page. So that the editors of the Improved Version, far 
 from desiring to cast a slur upon the Primate's or- 
 thodoxy, or to avail themselves improperly and disho- 
 nourably of his truly respectable name, to give currency 
 to opinions contrary to his avowed sentiments, really 
 
 * It is very well known that the Translation was printed while the Primate 
 was living, but that it was withheld from the public at the request, and by 
 the influence, of some in high station, who thought it not expedient for ar* 
 Archbishop to let the public into the secret, that the common Version is ca- 
 pable of improvement, and that the received text, formed by the meritorious 
 but not infallible labours of Erasmus, Stephens, Beza, and Elzevir, is not 
 inspired. Unfortunately, the impression of the Primate's Works was much 
 damaged in crossing the water, in consequence of being carelessly packed. 
 So that the copies which were left for sale were comparatively very few.
 
 3,52 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. XV". 
 
 considered themselves as entitled to thanks for having 
 rescued a meritorious work from oblivion, and having 
 given a wider extent to its circulation ; and they consci- 
 entiously believed that the pious and venerable prelate 
 himself, had he been living, would not have condemned 
 the liberty which they have taken with it*. 
 
 It was an object of primary consideration with the So- 
 ciety, that the Version published under their sanction 
 should contain Notes explanatory of those passages which 
 are commonly understood as giving the greatest counte- 
 nance to popular errors, and especially of those which 
 bear upon the Unitarian controversy. And it was judged 
 expedient that these Notes should commonly be extract- 
 ed from the works of authors who are esteemed by Uni- 
 tarians as the most judicious expositors of the Scriptures, 
 and, as far as might be, should be expressed in their 
 
 * The only person, excepting the possessor of the copy-right, who had aright 
 to be offended at the liberty taken by the editors in adopting the Primate's 
 Version HS the basis of their own, was Dr. Stock, the late venerable Bishop of 
 Killala, and afterwards of Waterford, who published an interesting- account 
 of the invasion of Ireland by the French, who seized the episcopal palace at 
 Killala, and made it their head quarters, detaining the Bishop and his family 
 prisoners. This worthy and learned prelate also distinguished himself by 
 his new Version of the books of Job and Isaiah ; and being a near relative 
 by affinity of the venerable Primate, he may be regarded as the proper guar- 
 dian of his reputation. From this learned and respectable prelate the author 
 of this Memoir received the following mild and polite expostulation, very 
 different from the gross language in which the Improved Version >is com- 
 monly attacked : 
 
 "Reverend Sir, Bath, Aug. 7, 1809. 
 
 "I shall with pleasure avail myself, when occasion offers, of your kind 
 invitation to call on you at Hackney. I may then, perhaps, be allowed to 
 expostulate with you, not on the religious opinions you maintain, for these 
 I leave to every man's own conscience, but on the covert, I had almost said, 
 the unfair manner in which your Society have endeavoured, by the means of 
 the New Translation, to instill those opinions into the minds of the common 
 people. Two things I mainly object to you ; the name your Society has as- 
 sumed, which is calculated to deceive by its resemblance in sound to that of 
 another and more ancient Society in London, whose Labours have been con- 
 fined to the spreading of Gospel truths without any mixture of opinions dis- 
 puted among Christians. And, secondly, your adopting through 'the great- 
 er part tof your work the Version of Archbishop Newcome, while, by al- 
 terations of your own, and by your comments, you endeavour to lead the 
 reader into opinions which that respected Father of our church entertained no 
 more than I do. It is true you have sought to obviate this charge, by mark-
 
 CH. XV.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 35.') 
 
 own words ; and, at any rate, without any asperity of 
 censure upon Christians of different sentiments who in- 
 terpret the Scriptures in a different manner By the 
 introduction of these Notes, in which brevity was to be 
 consulted as far as was consistent with perspicuity, it 
 was intended that Unitarian Christians who might be in 
 possession of the Improved Version, might at all times 
 be able to recur to the most approved interpretations of 
 difficult and disputed texts, especially those which are of 
 the greatest importance for establishing the doctrine of 
 the Unity and unrivalled supremacy of God, and of the 
 proper humanity of Jesus Christ ; and others who wish- 
 ed to know what the real sentiments of the Unitarians 
 are, and how they explain those texts which are com- 
 monly understood as contradicting their opinions, might 
 gain the information which they desire. 
 
 It was determined to publish two large editions at 
 
 ing in your Notes the difference between your interpretation and our Pri- 
 mate's : but common readers will not be ready to advert to such distinctions; 
 lieither can the friends to Primate Newcome's reputation be pleased to see 
 his name coupled, as it was sometimes most untruly in his lifetime/with those 
 of the Unitarians and Socinians. I have the honour to be, with respect, Re- 
 verend Sir, your most obedient humble servant, "JOSEPH KJLLALA." 
 
 The author of this Memoir wrote an answer to the venerable and liberal 
 prelate, which, he trusts, satisfied his Lordship that the editors, even if they 
 erred in their judgement, intended nothing disingenuous or unfair. He hoped 
 to have had an opportunity by personal intercourse to have effaced every 
 remaining unfavourable impression. But his Lordship's infirm health, and 
 liis professional avocations, did not admit of his return to the metropolis. 
 ' The reader will judge how far the Bartlett's Buildings Society, who do 
 not venture to circulate the Bible itself but in connexion with the Common 
 Prayer Book, are entitled to the worthy Prelate's encomium, of "confining 
 themselves to spreading gospel truths without any mixture of disputed opj- 
 nions." And as to the rumour that the late learned Primate favoured the 
 Unitarian principles, it is a certainfact that the Primate's own brother, who was 
 a worthy tradesmanin London, not perhaps deeply versed in theological lore, 
 did assure Dr. Priestley that his brother's opinions coincided with Dr. Priest- 
 ley's, and that lie had heard the Primate say it. The Primate's Works, and 
 <Dr. Stock's testimony! prove that this respectable gentleman was mistaken. 
 Perhaps, however, the learned Primate, who was certainly a profound theo- 
 logian, and mighty in the Scriptures, might satisfy his mind, as' Mr. Lind- 
 sey once did, with Dr. Wallis's hypothesis, sanctioned by the University of 
 Oxford, that tne three names in the Trinity, .of Father, Son, and Holy Spi- 
 rit, were nothing more th;\n three different titles of the same individual per- 
 son ; like the God of Abraham, the God of Is:>nc, and the God of .f;;cr>1) ; 
 vhich is, in fact, the purest Unitarianism. 
 
 2 A
 
 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. XV. 
 
 the same time ; one in royal octavo, the other for com- 
 mon use in royal duodecimo. And as some expressed 
 a wish lor the Version without the explanatory Notes, a 
 numerous edition in a smaller form was printed for their 
 satisfaction. It was also resolved, that a subscription 
 should he opened to defray the expense of the undertak- 
 ing, and that the money should be paid in advance ; that 
 the Committee, who were appointed to superintend the 
 publication, might be in possession of ready money to 
 enable them to go to the best market. 
 
 This plan of an Improved Version with explanatory 
 Notes was adopted by the Unitarians and their friends 
 with the greatest ardour. The subscription was filled ra- 
 pidly. The venerable patriarch, who is the subject of 
 this Memoir, delighted and grateful to divine Providence 
 that he had lived to see the accomplishment of the fer- 
 vent and favourite wish of his heart, approving most 
 heartily, in concurrence with his intelligent and zealous 
 consort, of every part of the plan, was eager to open the 
 subscription with a liberal donation of fifty pounds ; the 
 Duke of Grafton gave fifty guineas, and a second dona- 
 tion of fifty pounds. Samuel Prime, Esq. in whom 
 every scheme for the improvement and happiness of 
 mankind found an enlightened and munificent patron, 
 gave fifty guineas to the first and twenty to the second 
 subscription*. The example of liberality set by these 
 
 *The laudable example of William Smith, Esq. (whose manly, indepen- 
 dent, and persevering exertions in the cause of civil and religious liberty, in 
 that honourable house of which he is now a veteran member, are universally 
 acknowledged and admired,) ought not to be passed over in silence ; who, in 
 addition to his own liberal subscription to the Improved Version, purchased 
 a considerable number of copies, which he sent down to the tutors of the col- 
 leges at York and Wymondely, to be distributed as presents among the candi- 
 dates for the ministry in those respectable institutions j to which copies were 
 prefixed the following judicious remarks : 
 
 " Search the Scriptures ; for in them ye think that 5/2 have everlasting life : 
 and they bear witness qfr.n^." 
 
 IT havingbeentlioMght expedient to attempt an Improved Version of the New- 
 Testament, for the reason stated in the Introduction to the following work.
 
 CH. XV.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 355 
 
 eminent characters was followed by many others equally 
 willing, if not equally able to contribute ; and in a short 
 time the sum requisite for the commencement of the un- 
 dertaking was raised, and the press was not delayed for an 
 hour by the want of necessary funds. In two years the work 
 was complete; and the several parts, as they were printed, 
 were placed in Mr. Lindsey's hands, who was pleased to 
 express his high approbation both of the plan and of the 
 execution ; and it may truly be said, that the perusal of 
 the Improved Version, reading it himself or hearing it 
 read by others, constituted the principal part of Mr. 
 Lindsey's enjoyment during the remainder of his life. 
 
 Of a work in which many are so deeply interested, 
 and of which every one thinks himself competent to 
 judge, it is impossible that there should not be a great 
 
 this copy of it is presented to the student, not with any view or wish unduly 
 to influence his opinion by authority, or to entrap him by the charm of no- 
 velty into any change ; but merely to afford him additional motives and fa- 
 cilities for the careful and anxious study of the Sacred writings. This, in 
 proportion to his opportunities, is allowed to be the duty of every Christian ; 
 but more especially of those dedicated to the ministry, who, before they 
 commence teachers of others, should themselves be diligent to learn ; and 
 should resolve not to rest satisfied with any system which, from education, 
 connection, example, or authority, may have been their early creed, unless by 
 serious, and, as far is permitted to human frailty, impartial inquiry, they shall 
 have acquired for themselves a conviction of its truth. 
 
 The writer of this notice may be supposed himself to have settled opi- 
 nions ; but he has ever been adverse to the practice, too prevalent among 
 all sects, of usurping to themselves epithets, in their very terms decisive of 
 all controversy. Who but the infallible shall presume to arrogate to himself 
 alone the title of orthodox or evangelical ? who, duly conscious of the 
 weakness of his reason and the strength of his prejudices, shall claim to be 
 exclusively rational and liberal ? The question still remains, as in our Sa- 
 viour's time, "What is the truth?" i. e. the true doctrine of the Gospel. 
 That which is not such cannot be either orthodox or evangelical. Nor is it pos- 
 sible that this truth of God as it is in Jesus, when ascertained, should not be 
 found sufficiently rational and liberal for his creature man : rational, for, 
 "He that giveth understanding, shall not he know?" and liberal, (if in- 
 deed in such a connection the word be at all allovVabie) for it is of the essence 
 of that truth to "make us free," free from error free from prejudice 
 free from uncharitablcness. While then to the Gospel all Christians equally 
 appeal, it is surely equally incumbent on all to scrutinize its contents, with 
 patience and reverence indeed, but without that servile fear which, as it pa- 
 ralyses man's intellect, can surely never be pleasing to God who gave it, 
 commanding us therewith to "search the Scriptures" "that we may know 
 Him and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent." 
 
 2 A 2
 
 356 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cH. XV. 
 
 diversity of opinion, both as to the design and execution. 
 Accordingly, when the Improved Version made its ap- 
 pearance, it soon became an object of rigid criticism and 
 severe animadversion. 
 
 The " Title" was objected to as arrogant and assum- 
 ing. The editors, however, are not conscious of being 
 influenced by an improper spirit. They called it an Im- 
 proved Version, because they regarded Archbishop New- 
 come's translation as a veiy great improvement upon the 
 public Versibn, and they conceived their own alterations 
 to be an improvement upon the Version of the learned 
 prelate. Nor did they see that there was greater arro- 
 gance in Calling their work, or rather, thai of the Primate, 
 an Improved Version, than in calling Dr. Clarke's Litur- 
 gy, a Reformed Liturgy, or the Protestant Church, a Re- 
 formed Church. 
 
 The editors are also blamed for stating that their Ver- 
 sion is " upon the basis of Archbishop Newcome's," as 
 though they intended to impose upon their readers, and 
 to make the Archbishop responsible for their opinions. 
 But the reasons which induced them to adopt the learned 
 Primate's Version have been assigned already : and not 
 to have acknowledged the obligation, would have justly 
 exposed them to the charge of fraud and plagiarism. 
 That they intended to shelter their own peculiar opinions 
 under the authority of the Primate's name, cannot be be- 
 lieved for a moment hy any person of common under- 
 standing who reads beyond the title page*. 
 
 It has even been surmised, that the editors, professing 
 that the Improved Version is " published by a Society 
 
 *The enemies of the Improved Version may well be angry with the editors 
 for having assumed the Archbishop's Translation as the basis of their own, 
 for it has been the means of leading unwary critics into some egregious mis- 
 takes. Grievous have been the wounds which the unfortunate Primate bus 
 received from the hands of his undiscerning friends through the sides of hi? 
 heretical editors. One accomplished critic wonders, forsooth, that a Uni- 
 tarian Version should not be move elegant and classical : not adverting to
 
 CJl. XV. J REVEREND THEOPHH.US LINDSEY. 357 
 
 for promoting Christian knowledge and the practice of vir- 
 tue by the distribution of books," intended to insinuate, 
 that they published under the patronage of the Society 
 at Bartlett's Buildings for distributing Bibles and Com- 
 mon Prayer Books. But the venerable Society may rest 
 assured that it- was an object the most remote from the 
 thoughts of the editors to take shelter under their fos.- 
 tering wing. They did not even know that the title of 
 the Society, under whose direction they acted,, so nearly 
 accorded with that of any other Society. In fact, they 
 thought it needless to insert the word Unitarian in the 
 title page, which would deter some ignorant and preju- 
 diced people from looking into a work from which they 
 might otherwise derive instruction. The learned and the 
 honest Whitby did not think it necessary to write Arrni- 
 nian in his title page ; nor Guyse, nor Doddridge, Cal- 
 vinist in theirs ; but each of those pious and laborious ex- 
 positors explained the sacred text to the best of his own 
 judgement: so do the editors of the Improved Version. 
 
 It has been alleged as a great offence, that these edi- 
 tors have " given up the authenticity of the prefaces of 
 Matthew and Luke." But they have assigned their rea- 
 sons for this conclusion, and let their adversaries refute 
 them if they can. 
 
 It is further objected, that " they appeal to Lardner as 
 favourable to their hypothesis," though he decides directly 
 against them. But all which they appeal to Lardner for, 
 is, to prove, which he has done most abundantly, that 
 
 Herod died at least seventeen years before Augustus ; but 
 
 . . . - 
 
 the fact that the Version, in the main, is not theirs, hut the Primate's. An- 
 other learned and sagacious opponent cites the Archbishop's own words, as 
 a proof how the Unitarians pervert the Scriptures to support their own un- 
 scriptural tenets. Some future opportunity may perhaps be taken to ani- 
 madvert upon these and other misrepresentations. In the mean time it may 
 be sufficient to remark, that these pitiable and ludicrous blunders cannot fail 
 forcibly to remind the reader of the wisdom of those discriminating judges 
 in the fable, who hissed the pig itself.
 
 358 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [tH. XV. 
 
 Luke himself informs us, that Jesus was but lately turned 
 of thirty in the fifteenth year of Tiberius * : and conse- 
 quently he must have been born two years after Herod's 
 death. And as to the idle fiction of the double date of 
 Tiberius's reign, it is well known to all who are conversant 
 with Roman history, that this is a distinction which ne- 
 ver existed till the time of the Lower Empire. 
 
 It is further charged upon these daring editors, that 
 they have presumed to "print the suspected chapters in a 
 different type." Had they, indeed, left out a passage that 
 is found in all manuscripts which are now extant, how- 
 ever suspicious in itself, there might have been some rea- 
 son for charging them with indiscretion. But it was their 
 fixed rule not to remove from the text any passage which 
 was supported by the consent of manuscripts, however 
 doubtful upon other grounds, and whatever proof there 
 might be of its omission in copies of greater antiquity, 
 But being convinced by the evidence alleged that these 
 chapters are a palpable forgery, they considered them- 
 selves as fully justified in fixing the mark of reprobation 
 upon them, though they would not wholly omit them. 
 
 Some have objected to the introduction of any " theo- 
 logical Notes" whatever, as savouring too much of a sec- 
 tarian spirit, and of dogmatism. But it has been already 
 observed, that the main object of the Society in publish- 
 ing the Improved Version, was to represent what they 
 believed to be the genuine sense of the sacred writings, 
 and to guard against popular delusions. And of course 
 the editors, being from inquiry and conviction Unitarians, 
 would interpret the text in the Unitarian sense. And 
 what should hinder them from doing so ? It is a practice 
 in use among all parties, and laudably so. Had they, in- 
 deed, distorted the Scriptures, or forged texts to support 
 
 * See Grotius in Luc. iii. 23.
 
 Clf. XV.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 359 
 
 their doctrines, they would have been justly liahle to cen- 
 sure ; but of this they are either not accused, or not con- 
 victed. 
 
 The editors of the Improved Version are further ac- 
 cused of not having " strictly adhered to Griesbach's text, 
 and of not adopting all the improvements of his second 
 edition." But every one who is acquainted with Gries- 
 bach knows that more than nine tenths of his various 
 readings are of the most trivial kind, and make not the 
 least alteration in the sense. But to have introduced 
 every trifling variation into the text, and to have support- 
 ed it by notes and references in the margin, would have 
 wasted much time ; would have answered no one valuable 
 end ; and would either have swelled the work to too large 
 a size, or would have occupied the space of more useful 
 exegetical Notes. The design of the editors was to in- 
 troduce the variations of Griesbach's interior margin : 
 and if they have omitted even one which would make a 
 difference in the sense of the text, it was on their part 
 wholly unintentional, and they will feel obliged to any 
 friendly critic who will point cut the error that it may 
 be corrected in succeeding editions. As to various readr 
 ings by which the sense is not affected, a very minute 
 attention to these was not within the scope of their de* 
 sign. Yet they do not deny that where gentlemen have 
 leisure and inclination to undertake the task, a transla- 
 tion including all Griesbach's preferable readings, sup- 
 ported by his authorities, would be a gratification to the 
 curious*. 
 
 The exertions, however feeble, which Mr. Lindsey 
 made in concurrence with the more active energies of 
 
 * In the fourth edition of the Improved Version a very minute attention 
 has been paid to all the various reading? of Griesbach's second edition, by 
 the late revcicnd and much to be lamented T. B. Broad'ocnt.
 
 360 "MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [tH. XV. 
 
 Mrs. Lindsey to encourage the progress and to extend 
 the circulation of the Improved Version, may be regarded 
 as the last, public act of Mr. Lindsey's life ; as the peru- 
 sal of that work, when it was complete, was his last and 
 greatest delight. To its composition it was too late for 
 him personally to contribute. But to his valuable writ- 
 ings and comments upon the Scriptures, the Notes of 
 the Improved Version are deeply indebted. And to the 
 aged saint it was an exquisite gratification to see, that 
 though he was now about to obtain his dismission from 
 the world, his writings, and particularly his accurate and 
 learned observations upon the Scriptures, would continue 
 to support Christian truth after he was gone. This bright 
 star, which had so long diffused its mild and benignant 
 influence, was now rapidly hastening to its horizon. Mr. 
 Lindsey's strength declined apace, and his infirmities vi- 
 sibly increased. But though at times he suffered much ; 
 yet through the constant attention and great professional 
 skill of Dr. Blackburne, (who had thoroughly studied his 
 case, and who watched and prescribed for his revered re- 
 lative with filial solicitude,) and by the tender, judicious, 
 and umvearied care of Mrs. Lindsey, his sufferings were 
 greatly mitigated, so that he continued upon the whole 
 in a comfortable state ; and to the last week of his life he 
 enjoyed the company of his friends, though he was not 
 able to support much conversation with them. Mr. Lind- 
 sey's strength declined so fast through the summer of 
 1808, as to allow little hope that he would be able to 
 struggle through the severity of the winter. But no sym- 
 ptom of immediate danger appeared till the latter end of 
 October, when he was attacked with a complaint which 
 was judged to be a pressure upon the brain : and though 
 the disorder appeared to yield in part to the usual appli- 
 cations, it was nevertheless attended with a very consider- 
 able degree of fever, which made it necessary for him to
 
 CH. XV.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 361 
 
 take to his bed on Thursday the twenty-seventh. The 
 fever now increased rapidly, and it soon became evident 
 how it would terminate. After Monday he lay in a state 
 approaching to stupor and insensibility; he took little no- 
 tice of any thing, and spoke little or nothing. Thus he 
 was prevented from bearing that testimony to the truth 
 and power of Christian principles in his last hours, which 
 his friend Dr. Priestley had done, and which Mr. Lindsey 
 himself, notwithstanding his great natural reserve, and 
 his abhorrence of a loquacious and ostentatious piety, 
 would no doubt have been glad to do. It is however 
 aid, that some of the last rational expressions which he 
 was heard to utter, were, " God's will is best ;" but whe- 
 ther he spoke these words or not, we are sure that the 
 principle was uppermost in his thoughts as long as reason 
 :uul thought remained ; for a mind more resigned and 
 more devoted to the will of God, more desirous and dis- 
 posed to sacrifice all its fondest wishes and views to the 
 decrees of all- governing wisdom and goodness, never ex- 
 isted*. He appeared to suffer little bodily pain ; but his 
 respiration grew gradually shorter, till at six o'clock in the 
 evening of Thursday the third of November he ceased, to 
 breathe ; and left the world destitute of one of the most 
 upright, consistent, and eminently virtuous characters 
 which ever adorned human nature. Mr. Lindsey died in 
 the eighty-sixth year of his age. He was buried in Bun- 
 hill-nelds on Friday the eleventh of November, agreeably 
 to his own request, in the most private manner, in a vault 
 the property of which he had purchased twenty years be- 
 fore, and where the remains of his kind and generous 
 
 * When Mr. Lindsey was a little recovered after his severe paralytic seiz- 
 ure in the beginning. of the year 1802, Mrs. Lindsey thus expresses herself 
 in a letter to the author, who was then upon a visit to a frind in the coun- 
 ti-y : " He said this morning, after reading family prayer in his usual good 
 manner, *! wish, if it is the will of God j to be enabled to finish my little 
 work ; but should' be sorry any moment, that the will of God should not take 
 place of mine, either by incapacity or by death.'"
 
 K5*2 MEMOIRS OF THE LATE [cjl. XV. 
 
 friend Mrs. Rayner had, by her express desire, been al- 
 ready deposited ; and in the vicinity of which reposed his 
 learned and venerable associate in labours and in 'self- 
 denial, Dr. John Jebb. A sermon upon the occasion was 
 preached at Essex-street on the following Sunday to a 
 crowded audience of attentive and deeply-affected mourn- 
 ers, which was afterwards published*. 
 
 Of the character of Mr. Lindsey, if the writer of this 
 Memoir has succeeded in giving a faithful exhibition of 
 his mind and of his works, no large recapitulation is ne- 
 cessary. Disinterested glowing benevolence, springing 
 from rational, ardent, and deeply-rooted piety ; supreme 
 solicitude to discover truth ; unwearied pains in search- 
 ing after it ; and inflexible firm ness in what, after due in- 
 quiry, he believed to be right; just views of revealed re- 
 ligion, combined with earnest but not obtrusive zeal for 
 their promulgation, and blended with the most unaffect- 
 ed humility, and a singular courteousness of manners, 
 formed by early and familiar intercourse with the great ; 
 finally and eminently, a commanding sense of God and 
 duty, constituted the principal lineaments in the charac- 
 ter of this excellent and truly venerable man. To have 
 beenliis coadjutor in the cause of divine truth, his friend, 
 his successor, and his biographer, is a privilege of no com- 
 mon value : and to be admitted hereafter into the society 
 of such men as Lindsey, Priestley, Price, and Jebb, and 
 of other eminent lovers of truth, and confessors in the 
 glorious cause, and to share in their lot, whatever it be, 
 is the highest felicity of which the writer of this Memoir 
 can form a conception, or to which he presumes to aspire. 
 
 * Discourses were delivered upon the same mournful occasion by many 
 other ministers, friends and admirers of Mr. Lindsey, some of which were 
 published ; particularly by the Rev. Robert Aspland, at Hackney ; the 
 Rev. Dr. Toulmin, and Rev. John Kentish, at Birmingham; and the Rev. 
 J. H. Bransby, at Dudley : and Memoirs of Mr. Lindsey were published by 
 Mrs. Cappe in The Monthly Repository, Mi. Joyce in The Monthly Maga- 
 zine, and by Mr. Frcnd.
 
 CH. XV.] REVEREND THEOPHILUS LINDSEY. 363 
 
 And happy will he think himself, and amply rewarded for 
 all his labour, if this imperfect delineation of the character 
 of his venerable friend shall excite the ambition of any of 
 his readers, and especially among the rising generation of 
 ministers, to emulate the spirit of the departed prophet, 
 and like him to be ready, when duty calls, to sacrifice 
 every secular consideration upon the altar of truth and in- 
 tegrity, leaving consequences without dismay in the hands 
 of governing wisdom and goodness ; which, if their fu- 
 ture services be needful, will open a different and perhaps 
 a more extensive sphere of usefulness ; or, if that should 
 be denied, will not forget in the day of final remuneration 
 the generous self-denial, the dutiful submission, nor the 
 virtuous purpose, of the pious and upright heart. 
 
 Mrs. Lindsey survived her venerable husband three 
 years and two months. The health of this excellent lady 
 was completely broken up by her close and anxious at- 
 tendance upon Mr. Lindsey during his long illness and 
 growing infirmities : so that had he lived a few months 
 longer he would probably have been the survivor. And 
 though her constitution seemed for a time to recover it- 
 self, and gave reason to hope for continued life, yet the 
 stamina appear to have been worn out ; and a gradual 
 decay both of corporeal and mental vigour soon began to 
 take place, till after a short illness she expired January 
 18, J812, in the seventy-second year of her age, and was 
 buried the week following in the same vault with Mr. 
 Lindsey and Mrs. Rayner. A funeral discourse bearing 
 testimony to the uncommon merits of this admirable wo- 
 man, was delivered to a numerous and sympathizing au- 
 dience on the Sunday after the funeral, and has since been 
 published. It may be added, that Mrs. Lindsey's intimate 
 friend. Mrs. Jebb, the relict of the celebrated Dr. John
 
 384 MEMOIRS or rut LATE THEOPUILU& LJNDEY. 
 
 Jcbb a lady of the highest intellectual attainments and 
 ffflHrftgrtpJbmfnHj a fellow labourer and fellow sufferer in 
 the same righteous cause, died two or three days after 
 Mrs. Lindsay, and was buried with her husband in the 
 
 
 TUE
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. I. p. 6. 
 
 The following letters exhibit a specimen of the terms 
 upon which Mr. Lindsey stood with his noble patron- 
 esses, and of the high estimation in which he was held 
 by them : they also contain no mean illustration of the 
 piety and virtue of the illustrious writers. 
 
 FROM THE DUTCHESS OF SOMERSET. 
 SIR, Percy Lodge, July the 9th, O. S. 1751. 
 
 1 RECEIVED your letter last week, and intended writing on Sun- 
 day as usual, but when that day came I found it impracticable ; 
 Mr. Saunders having found it more employment than I chose, by 
 sending a long letter of business which I was obliged to answer. 
 I hope your little pupil is well, though you did not name him in 
 your last. Mrs. Pearse * dined here yesterday, in her way to the 
 Forest; she looks thin, but otherwise well, and in pretty good 
 spirits. She owns that Mrs. Scot has done more for her than she 
 could have expected from the best daughter, and has taken the 
 whole trouble and business off her hands. I find she thinks her 
 circumstances will be easy, though not great ; the house in the 
 Forest is to be sold ; she is not yet resolved about that in London. 
 
 As things generally happen crossly, Lord Bateman and Mr. 
 Bateman came in a little before three, and old Saunders just at 
 twelve, but we left him to himself: however, he chose to stay din- 
 ner. Mr. Cowslad says you write to us because you think it civil, 
 when you are not a bit inclined to it : he is a good deal better, 
 and so am I, but we can neither of us yet boast of our activity. 
 
 My domesticks go on pretty peaceably, though Edward met 
 with a trial of his patience last Saturday, which would have stag- 
 gered yours or mine. He was almost mad with the pain of a hol- 
 low tooth, and went to Colebrook to get it drawn ; but the cruel 
 operator, instead of it, drew the only sound one in his head. I 
 do not know what you will think of me when I tell you I am going 
 to try the Glastonbury water here, and own to you that I am 5n- 
 
 * This is the lady referred to in p. C, who bequeathed to Mr. Liiidsey the 
 uext presentation to the rectory of Che^r Majn:t.
 
 366 APPENDIX. [NO. i. 
 
 duced to it by a persuasion that the discovery of it is in some de- 
 gree miraculous ; and if one may believe affidavits, witnessed by- 
 ministers of parishes and churchwardens, the cures it has perform- 
 ed are sb too, in scorbutic cases, king's evil, and asthmas, of many 
 years standing, as it is witnessed by their nearest neighbours. 
 I have had no letter from Lady Huntingdon, but I hear she is at 
 Cheltenham, and pretty well. Clavering has done plaguing me, 
 but I have sent his son ten guineas this morning. I have heard 
 but twice from Lady Northumberland since she left London, by 
 which I conclude, she finds diversions and company are not con- 
 fined to the town. You judge very rightly that a little spirit and 
 resolution would contribute greatly to my tranquillity; and I often 
 lament the want of it, not only as a misfortune, but as a fault, 
 since it is often necessary, to enable one to support one's inte- 
 grity through a wayward and designing world, where lew are what 
 they appear to be : yet even that would be of little consequence, 
 was one perfectly assured of being in the right one's self. 
 
 My gentlemen send you their compliments ; and I desire my 
 compliments to little H. who, I hope, improves in more things 
 than his French ; for, though that is a very proper accomplish- 
 ment of a gentleman, there are yet higher titles to be aimed at, 
 those of an humble Christian, and lover of all mankind. I am glad 
 you find the air you are in agrees with your health. Lord Albe- 
 marle is made groom of the stole, and Lord Rockingham lord of 
 the bedchamber. 
 
 I am, Sir, 
 Your affectionate friend and humble servant, 
 
 F. SOMERSET. 
 
 A Monsieur 
 
 Monsieur Lindsey, chez Monsieur Pillard, 
 k Blois. 
 
 FROM THE SAME. 
 SIR, 
 
 WE were all very sorry to find by your last letter that you hav ?. 
 had so violent a cold ; but if your weather has been (as I think by 
 your letter it has) like ours in England, it is no wonder that you 
 have suffered from it, for I never remember so cold and wet a sum- 
 mer. You may depend upon my silence, in regard to your ob- 
 servations on Lord W 's constitution, as I know the ticklishness 
 of treating some subjects without giving offence, which I am sure 
 neither you or I intend to do. I am so far from thinking you 
 oddly employed, when you were contemplating the storm of thun- 
 der and lightning, that I rather envy you for the fortitude which 
 i> necessary to be" a calm spectator of so awful and noble a scene. 
 My own want of that virtue often makes me apprehensive that I 
 am in the number of the wicked, who flee when no man pursueth,
 
 NC. i.] APPENDIX:. 307 
 
 while the righteous are bold as a lion ; yet I do not despair of be- 
 coming better, and consequently more courageous, as I can with 
 truth afu'nn it is the only point I have in view; and my most ear- 
 nest desire, to keep God in all my thoughts. Yet how apt are 
 the cares, and even the amusements of life, to displace his image, 
 and obtrude their own vexatious impertinence in his room ! Poor 
 Lady Thanet is dead. I am told that when Lady Huntingdon 
 heard of her illness, she sent to offer her to come and prepare her 
 for that solemn hour : but Lady Thanet sent her word it was in 
 vain, for she could neither be prepared to live or die. Her great 
 care upon her death-bed was the fear of being buried alive ; to 
 prevent which, she ordered herself not to be taken out of her bed 
 for twelve days. She has left her daughters ten thousand pounds 
 a-piece. The last we heard of the Dutchess of Richmond was, 
 that her doctors had little or no hopes of her. The mortality 
 which within two years and a half has been so remarkable amongst 
 men of the first rank, seems beginning amongst the ladies, but 
 still the same eternal round of dissipation is pursued ; cards and 
 gay parties are the great business of the modish world. The Duke 
 of St. Albans died last Saturday se'nnight, and I am afraid has 
 left his family in very indifferent circumstances. If going abroad 
 is a preservative for health, I may expect to be very well ; for 
 within these last three weeks I have been at London, twice at 
 Sion, dined with Mrs. Mordaunt, been at Thorpe with Mrs. Fo- 
 ley, visited at Bulstrode, and, in short, tired myself and my horses 
 sufficiently. To-morrow Lord and Lady Brooke, Lady Archi-* 
 bald and Miss Hamilton, Mrs. Mordaunt, and Mr. Hamilton, 
 are all to dine here ; and on Thursday Lord Guernsey and Lady 
 Charlotte. I dined last week at Isleworth with the Dutchess of 
 Somerset, and saw my little nephew, who is a fine child. Mr. 
 Bernard spoke of you in a very friendly manner ; 1 think he ap- 
 pears a modest pretty kind of man. A sermon of his is much talked 
 of at Isleworth for the singularity of the text, which was " Re- 
 member Lot's wife;" and his discourse greatly admired for the 
 piety and good sense of it. I am with very sincere friendship, 
 
 r Sir, 
 Your most faithful humble servant, 
 
 F. SOMERSET. 
 To the Reverend Mr. Lindsey. 
 
 FROM THE SAME. 
 
 SIR, Michaelmas Day, O.S. Sunday, 1751- 
 
 I PULLY intended writing to you, either by Sunday or Tues- 
 day's post, but was prevented by a swelled face and pain in my 
 head, which put me extremely out of order : it is not yet quite 
 gone; but as it is something better, 1 would no longer defer tell-
 
 368 AITENDIX. [NO. i. 
 
 ing you that I am veiy glad to see Lord and Lady Northumber- 
 land lay hold of the first opportunity in their povyer of showing 
 their regard for you. I only wish that the living of Chatton were 
 of greater value, or that in Yorkshire were entirely free, whichever 
 you choose ; they have had the kindness to tell me they will not 
 think of your leaving my family; but I know your thoughts in re- 
 lation to the duty of a parish too well to reckon upon keeping 
 you in it ; for which reason I must apply to you whenever it be- 
 comes necessary for you to change your situation, that you will 
 be so good as to choose a successor who will conduct himself as 
 nearly like you as possible, for I am as little fond of a pretty gen- 
 tleman in a gown as out of one. I opened Mr. Comber's. letter 
 because you desired me ; it did not contain above eight lines, com- 
 plaining of not hearing from you, begging to do it soon to relieve 
 hi$. fears for your health ; and telling you he had met with many 
 mortifications, that he feared he had lost Almini's correspondence, 
 by no fault of his, but her over delicacy. The huge paper en- 
 closed was two or three hundred lines, on the immensity of the 
 Divine Being, which appeared to me unequal to a much humbler 
 subject. 
 
 I had a very agreeable letter last week from Dr. Oliver, who 
 tells me that Lady Huntingdon is pretty well, and much employed 
 in attending Dr, Doddridge, who is in a deep consumption at 
 Bath, but is to set .out in a few days in order to embark at Fal- 
 raouth for Lisbon, from wlu?nce, it is Dr. Oliver's opinion, he wiH 
 never return. Lady F. Shirley was with me two days ago ; she 
 told me that Mr. Hervey is quite recovered: but Lady Pembroke's 
 marriage with a man of no birth or money (though, it is said, a 
 very serai We agreeable man,) pinned us down to mere worldly 
 conversation ; and to tell you the truth in a whisper only for your 
 own ear, her ladyship seemed to think, that as Lady Pembroke 
 could not be easy to live without him, he had acted more pru- 
 dently if she had taken him on any other terms! You will easily 
 believe this doctrine amazed me in the mouth of so pious a person, 
 and that I have not thought fit to mention it to one of my com- 
 pany, as he needs no new motives to censure whatever he fancies 
 aims at being more serious than the fine world in general. Mr. 
 Wiikins writes me word that Mrs. Wilkins is almost well, and pro- 
 poses being here himself a few days after Michadmas. 
 
 A. C. is ill at Oxford, and his wise father has wrote to desire 
 he may come hither 1o be taken care of and drink asses milk, and 
 desires me to send for Dr. Hayes as often as is necessary. This 
 I must'beg to be excused from, as Lord and Lady N. will be here 
 this week, and I expect Mrs. Pearse and Mr. Scot very soon. 1 
 have only one milch as?, of which my poor gardener is drinking 
 the milk, though I doubt to very little purpose, for he appears
 
 NO. r.] APPEKPIX. 369 
 
 quite spent in a consumption, though James's powder did cure 
 his fever. I thank you for the epigram, which I read without 
 blushing. I should have been glad to see the young nun take the 
 veil, but at the same time have felt some concern lest, in so ten- 
 der au age, she might have been influenced or awed into it by 
 her friends ; or supposing it were her inclination at present, how 
 little it could be depended upon to last fifty or sixty years, which 
 she may probably live. I saw Lady Fomfret last Saturday, and 
 said all I could think of to express your gratitude and my own, 
 both to her and the Bishop of Blois, for his civility to you and 
 your little charge, to whom I desire my blessing. I think the 
 King of France disposes of his money in giving portions to young 
 women much better than if it were to procure fire-works, mas- 
 querades, &c. 
 
 I had left all the space betwixt these two lines to direct my let- 
 ter, that it might not be a double one; but Lord and Lady N. 
 came in just as I was finishing it on Thursday and staid till eleven 
 o'clock this day : they bid me make their compliments to you, 
 and send Lord W. their blessing. Lady Pomfret sent us a let- 
 ter in English, which she has received from the Bishop of Blois, 
 where he expresses himself so kindly on Lord W.'s account, that 
 his father and mother as well as myself are extremely obliged by 
 the notice he takes in it both of him and you. 
 
 The Duke of Bolton I fancy will find a stronger restorative in 
 his Dutchess's death than from all the air in France; she died 
 last Monday was se'nnight. How widely do the great and little 
 folks differ in sentiments ! Poor Obadiah is in the deepest afflic- 
 tion for the loss of his wife. They tell me you will be obliged to 
 come over, if you accept either of the livings, in which case I 
 hope you will find a few hours, if not days, to let us see you at 
 Percy Lodge, where you may always be assured of a most friendly 
 and sincere welcome from, 
 
 Sir, 
 Your most faithful humble servant, 
 
 F. SOMERSET. 
 
 FROM THE SAME. 
 
 SIR, Downing Street, March 14th O.8. 1 762. 
 
 I HEARTILY wish my constitution would as readily enable me 
 to comply with the desires of my friends as my inclination sub- 
 mits to what they prescribe, but I am afraid I have little reason 
 to indulge so flattering a hope ; I have hardly enjoyed an h6uv's 
 health since I came hither, and though I have been out four or 
 five times I am now confined again with great pain an.d lameness : 
 a great inflammation upon my leg cannot be produced by fancy ! 
 
 2u
 
 370 APPENDIX. [NO. i. 
 
 and sitting continually in one place has brought an almost con- 
 stant pain in my stomach, attended with great oppression and 
 shortness of breath : these are not good ingredients to give me 
 spirits for mixing with the beau monde ; and indeed were I in 
 better health, I believe I should as easily enter into the manners 
 of the fine folks in the moon, as into the present fashionable way 
 of life in London, so different it is from what it was when I left 
 it three years ago. I have had a letter from Lady Huntingdon, 
 who seems very much pleased with Lady Rawdon's marriage, and 
 says that Lady Selina is much better. Lord Coventry was mar- 
 ried to Miss Gunning this day se'nnight, and Lady Charlotte 
 Capel is to be so very soon to Mr. Villiers, Lord Jersey's brother, 
 and Lady Di. Egerton to Mr. Seymour's son by Lady Hinch- 
 inbrooke. The Chapter is to be held on Friday for giving away the 
 gaiters, the new knights are declared, and they are not all those 
 who were first talked of: they are Prince Edward the little Stadt- 
 holder, Lord Lincoln, Lord Winchelsea ? and Lord Cardigan. 
 
 The constant good accounts you send us of Lord VV. are very 
 encouraging ; pray assure him of my blessing, and tell him his 
 papa has won the service of Dresden china, which was raffled for 
 at White's, and valued at 400/. I see by the advertisement that 
 Mr. Mason is going to publish a poem called Elfrida, which I 
 shall certainly buy if I am alive at the time it comes out. Miss 
 Blandy is condemned for the barbarous murder of her father, and 
 you will wonder at me for being discontented that she is only to 
 be hanged. H. is marched off at last, though I could not get her 
 out of my house till the new housekeeper had been two days in it. 
 I hope she will prove more peaceable. It signifies little what out- 
 ward appearances and ceremonies are observed, if the heart and 
 intentions remain inflexible ; and yet some shadow of regard to 
 the mere observances of religion, may serve to renew the remem- 
 brance that there is the reality of such a thing in nature, though 
 laid aside for the present j but here the names of times or seasons 
 are never thought of, unless when the fine ladies are expressing 
 their gratitude to Lady Cobham for comforting them in the Dut- 
 chess of Dorset's absence by having an assembly on Sundays. 
 
 The Dutchess of Somerset, my mother-in-law, did me the ho- 
 nour of a visit yesterday morning j she is not well, and is to go 
 to Bristol as soon as Lady Charlotte is brought to bed, which is 
 expected about the beginning of May. 
 
 I am with sincere friendship, 
 
 Sir, 
 Your most faithful humble servant, 
 
 F. SOMERSET. 
 A Monsieur 
 
 Monsieur Liudsey, a Oilcans.
 
 NO 
 
 . I.] APPENDIX. 371 
 
 FROM THE SAME. 
 
 SIR, Downing Street, March 19, 1752. 
 
 As I do not love to have any of my bright actions pass unob- 
 served by my friends, and as I am afraid they may be neglected 
 by the foreign news-writers, I had a mind to let you know under 
 my own hand, that I was last night at a ball at Northumberland 
 House, where all the people who are famed for beauty, youth, 
 gaiety, and grandeur, were assembled ; the house and suppers in 
 three rooms were truly magnificent, and the owners did the ho- 
 nours with a politeness and cheerfulness which I think could not 
 fail to please, at least it ought not, for it must have given them 
 infinite trouble as well as great expense, and poor Lady Northum- 
 berland had a violent cold. I saw Lady Coventry there, who is 
 certainly very handsome, but appears rather too tall to he gen- 
 teel, and her face rather smaller than one would wish, consider- 
 ing the height it is placed, and her dress appeared more in the 
 style of an opera dancer than an English lady of quality. Lady 
 Di. Egerton and Mrs. Selwyn's grandaughter, Miss Tovvnshend, 
 appeared either of them full as pretty in my eyes with the addi- 
 tion of great modesty. 
 
 The pure and eloquent blood spoke in their cheeks : 
 
 which it could do in very few there, for ,they cannot paint more 
 in France than our ladies do here ; and as we always run into ex- 
 tremes, white is as liberally laid on as rouge : poor Lady Mary 
 Capel had, I believe, only the latter, but that in such abundance 
 that it made her look older and plainer than ever I saw her. Now 
 I must tell you, under the seal of confession, that from some civi- 
 lities I had received from Lady Lincoln, I thought it proper to 
 make her some compliment ; but when I came near her with that 
 design, she was so very immodestly stripped that I was ashamed 
 to look toward her and forced to drop my speech. The wind last 
 Sunday alarmed me extremely here, but did me much greater in- 
 jury at Percy Lodge, where it blew down the high elm behind 
 King Edward's bench, turned the bench itself topsy-turvy and 
 broke it all to pieces, blew down several rod of paling, and some 
 of the best trees in my fields ; it broke a very tall fir-tree near the 
 Gothic bench, above fourteen feet above the ground, and carried 
 it over the wood into the Abbey walk, where it set it upright. Here 
 some bricks were blown off Payne's chimney, who was dressing 
 me, and rolled along the room over our heads ; and at that in- 
 stant we heard the most dreadful yell below stairs that you can 
 conceive : but what was our amaze when, upon running out, we 
 found the staircase so filled with smoke and soot that we could 
 scarce see one another or breathe ! and Lady C. Petersham, with 
 her hair about her ears, four children, and five or six maids with 
 
 2 B2
 
 Ai-rENDix. [NO. i. 
 
 another woman whom I did not know, all screaming as if they 
 were bewitched ! A stack of chimneys had fallen there, and the 
 fire catched in two or three places ; but by the mercy of God no- 
 body was hurt, and the fire soon stopped. The woman I did not 
 know was Mrs. Cibber, who was reading a new farce to Lady C. 
 when this accident happened. I meant to have dined alone that 
 day, so my meal was slender j but I could not help asking Lord 
 Petersham and Lady Caroline to partake of it, as they could have 
 nothing dressed at home, and none of their acquaintance (though 
 Lady Lincoln lives but two doors off and was alarmed at the noise) 
 had the humanity to invite them, which Lady C. seemed to re- 
 sent, and I thought with reason. As I have now wrote sooner 
 than my usual time, perhaps I shall exceed it before I write again; 
 and if the date of my next should not happen to please you, 1 hope 
 you will not tear the letter before you read it. Pray assure your 
 little charge of my blessing, and Kir. Thierchen of my remem- 
 brance. 
 
 I am, Sir, 
 Your very sincere and faithful humble sen-ant, 
 
 F. SOMERSET. 
 
 A Monsieur 
 Monsieur Lindsey, a Orleans. 
 
 FROM THE SAME. 
 
 SIR, Percy Lodge, March 5th, 1 754. 
 
 I FEEL myself extremely obliged to you for both your last let- 
 ters, and would have told you so sooner if I could have resolved 
 to send you half a side of paper with nothing but formal thanks, 
 which I think is not an obliging way of corresponding with one's 
 friends. 
 
 I was surprised to meet Lady Huntingdon upon the road last 
 Saturday was fortnight ; she was on her way to London, but her 
 coach drove by so fast that I had only time to send Lomas after her 
 with my compliments ; she seemed to me to look as well as ever 
 I saw her. 
 
 Poor Mr. Thierchen has been laid up with the gout almost 
 these three weeks, but insists it is only the effect of having worn 
 too short a stocking, in spite of the apothecary. A. has passed a 
 month with me since Christmas : if he is not quite so droll as he 
 was, he makes amends by displaying the seeds of every virtuous and 
 generous disposition, with the most docile temper I ever knexv : 
 he would not tell a lye to avoid the severest punishment that he 
 can have a notion of, and has no peace if he thinks he has offend- 
 ed the lowest person about the house. Poor Lord G. is the me- 
 lancholy reverse of all these amiable qualities : with the face of 
 a cherub, he is one of the most perverse, obstinate, ill-disposed,
 
 NO. I.] APPENDIX. 373 
 
 children that ever was born. He is severely and constantly whip- 
 ped, at least once a week, but discovers no fear of punishment, 
 and (what is much worse) no sense of shame when he is detected 
 in lies that he has stood in for a week together, or for taking 
 other people's things unknown to them ; and this last week he 
 even ventured to sell a reading-glass for two shillings, and there 
 is no making him confess how he came by it. 
 
 I am yet far from being in a good state of health, though, I bless 
 God, in a much less painful one than I was some months ago ; 
 I have now no remains of lameness, but I am, from the shortness 
 of my breath, obliged to be always carried up stairs and often 
 down; yet this is not to excuse me from a London journey. I 
 have promised to make my appearance there next Friday se'n- 
 night, if no unforeseen accident happens ; but hope not to make 
 a longer stay than I did last year, unless I am detained in West- 
 minster Abbey. 
 
 I was much obliged to you for sending that fragment of Milton, 
 which pleased me much, and I took the liberty to copy and con- 
 vey it to Miss Talbot, who was delighted with it, but made the 
 same objection with yours, that he was wrong in regard to that 
 part of the Bible account of David's misfortunes and their source ! 
 I must now, under the seal of confession, own to you, that after 
 reading the Bible every day of my life for forty years together, I 
 always understood it as Milton seems to have done. But since I 
 received your letter I have read the history of David in Samuel, 
 with all the attention I am mistress of, to find some other cause, 
 and rummaged the library to find some commentator who would 
 explain it but they all seem to be in Milton's error and even 
 consulted the only divine in my reach (Clavering), who stared, and 
 said he had always thought as Milton did. i hope you have some 
 neighbours that you can converse with ; for, as partial as I am to 
 retirement, I think absolute solitude is too melancholy a way of 
 life for creatures intended by the wise ruler of all things for society, 
 Our excellent friend Dr. Courayer has been very ill, but is got 
 quite well again, and I had a very good and cheerful letter from 
 him on Sunday morning. Indeed he has the only true cau.se for 
 cheerfulness, the reflection on a well spent life, and having pre- 
 pared himself to leave it whenever its great Author shall call him 
 from hence. This preparation 1 hope I have been seriously en- 
 deavouring after for many months and some years past ; but we 
 are so apt to flatter and deceive ourselves, that I dare not trust 
 myself too far, and find such continual defects in my best meant 
 actions, as would take away all hopes of their efficacy if I did not 
 trust in the merits and sufferings of our ever blessed Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 I have told you I am better, and -to outward appearances I am
 
 3/4 APPENDIX. [NO. i. 
 
 &o ; yet I should not be surprised myself, nor would have my 
 friends be so, if I should be dead before this letter reaches you. 
 Dr. Hayes calls my disease a nervous asthma, in which case I may 
 possibly suffer on some years longer ; but by my own feelings, 
 epeciallythe violent beating of my heart and jugular veins, I should 
 suppose it some great obstruction in my blood. I have hardly 
 left room to subscribe myself, Sir, 
 
 Your very sincere friend, &c. 
 
 F. SOMERSET. 
 
 No. II. p. 8. 
 
 FROM THE COUNTESS OF NORTHUMBERLAND. 
 
 DEAR SIR, Stamvick, June 1 7- 
 
 I KNOW your friendship for me will prevent your thinking a 
 letter troublesome, though it comes fraught with no other news 
 but that of my safe arrival at this place, which happened on Wed- 
 nesday last, after I cannot say a pleasant (for the first day we 
 werechoakedwith dust, and thesecond deluged with rain) journey 
 of three days, one of which we spent at York with Mrs. Stnithson, 
 where we have deposited Elizabeth. I find the whole country 
 here in an uproar, as they say their former Archbishop (the late 
 Metropolitan) Hutton died an Arian ; they own they do not know 
 what that is, but are sure it is something that is not the right 
 religion. We are impatient to hear of the taking of St. Male's ; 
 which good news I hope a few days more will bring us. We leave 
 this place for Newcastle to-morrow, where we shall stay a week 
 and then proceed to Alnwick. I had the ill luck to sprain my 
 knee in such a manner at York, that I am not able to stir a step 
 without a stick, which confines me from walking ; which, how- 
 ever, I the less regret, as the weather is thoroughly disagreeable, 
 being both damp and cold. As I am in some doubt about your 
 direction, I shall send this to Northumberland House, and order 
 them to carry it to Lord Huntingdon, where, I conclude, they will 
 be able to learn how to convey it safely to you. My Lord desires 
 his compliments to you, and I beg to trouble you with mine to 
 Lady Huntingdon, Lady Selina, and Mrs. Hastings. J am with 
 the truest friendship, Dear Sir, 
 
 Your most affectionate humble servant, 
 
 E. NORTHUMBERLAND. 
 To the Rev. Mr. Lindsey. 
 
 FROM THE SAME. 
 
 DEAR SIR, Almvick Castle, July 25th. 
 
 I AM very much mortified to find that you have entirely forgot 
 iji e, for I verily think that if you had not, you would have let me
 
 NO. II.] APPENDIX. 3/J 
 
 have had the pleasure of hearing from you before now ; to no other 
 cause can I assign it but your being in loVe, and to that account 
 will I place it, as I think love the only justifiable excuse for for- 
 getting one's friends; and where that passion is divested of some 
 of its sensual attributes, I think such an oblivion far from blame- 
 able, highly praise-worthy, as I am convinced no passion exalts 
 the soul so much as it does, nay, even in great measure, spiritua- 
 lizes it ; but this being a subject I am much more versed in the 
 theory than the practice of, I am liable, like other theoretical and 
 aerial castle-builders, to have no foundation for my sparkling edi- 
 fices ; but as they in beauty resemble the bubbles blown by chil- 
 dren, they probably do the same in fragility and short duration. 
 Thus far had I talked wisely without meaning (as many wise peo- 
 ple do), when I received the favour of your letter, for which I 
 heartily thank you, and assure you, your letters are always truly 
 welcome to me, come they often or seldom ; and though I am 
 always glad to hear from you when you have nothing else to do, 
 yet I am far from wishing you to write when you have either busi- 
 ness, company, or what you allow me to guess at to prevent you. 
 I was, as you observe, at Stanwick for two nights only; but not- 
 withstanding the shortness of the stay, I had time enough to hear 
 a most admirable character of Mrs. Lindsey elect, which gave me 
 extreme great pleasure ; and I also heard of a chance for a certain 
 four thousand pounds, which (though I assure you, in an inferior 
 degree) gave me great pleasure also. We set out for Scotland the 
 sixth day of next month, but of how long a duration our stay there 
 will be I know not. We go from Berwick by Haddingtoun to Edin- 
 burgh, and from thence by Stirling and Glasgow to Air, so that 
 we shall entirely cross that part of the island from east to west ; 
 but as we do not proceed to the Isle of Skey, I fear I shall return 
 without the gift of second-sight. Something of after-sight I be- 
 lieve I have mentioned to you that I really think I have of a night 
 when I go to bed, a very odd instance of which I had lately; but 
 the story is not interesting, and is besides too long for a letter. The 
 last accounts we had of Lord Warkworth were from Minden, 
 where he arrived July the 16th, after a most tedious march of 
 twenty-five days, (through miserable roads, in wretched weather,) 
 in perfect good health and spirits, and hoped to join the army 
 the 18th or 19th. You may believe I am under the greatest an- 
 xiety for a son so deservedly dear to me ; but to the care of the 
 Almighty I commit him, who, I hope, will cover his head in the 
 day of battle, and afford me the unspeakable pleasure of receiving 
 him again after the campaign safe and with honor. I am sure 
 he has not only my daily but hourly prayers, and I also beg to 
 recommend him to yours. You are very good to have wrote to 
 him ; I have sent him your letter, the receipt of which I am sure
 
 376 AITENDHC. [NO. ii. 
 
 will make him very happy. I am very sorry any company I had 
 deprived nae of the satisfaction of seeing you, or wishing you a 
 good journey, before you left London. Lord Ilchester's estate is 
 a noble one, and I hope he bestows it nobly ; otherwise I am sure 
 he does not deserve it. You have no notion how glad I was to 
 hear of Sir Harry Heron ; I was very desirous to know if any of 
 that family (one of the most ancient in this county) were yet in 
 being. If ever you, Sir Harry, and myself are in London at the 
 same time, I desire you will present me to him. I have often 
 heard Mr. Delaval (the member for this county) say, that his 
 mother frequently told him that in her memory nothing but tren- 
 chers were in use in Northumberland, and that his grandfather 
 had seventeen dozen of them ; and that in all the gentlemen's fa- 
 milies an officer called a trencher-scraper (for they were not to 
 be washed) was kept for that purpose only : and that Seaton De- 
 laval (the seat of Long Delaval) and Chipehase (the seat of the 
 Herons) were the only houses where they had pewter (and theirs 
 was only dishes, and but few of them), which was only used on 
 high days and holidays, and was admired by the whole country as 
 an unusual piece of magnificence. This anecdote of his ances- 
 tors' grandeur I dare say Sir Harry never heard. Supper bell 
 rings ; so I have only time to add my lord's compliments, and 
 that I am ever, Dear Sir, 
 
 Your faithful friend and humble servant, 
 
 ELIZABETH NORTHUMBERLAND. 
 
 No. III. p. 13. 
 
 FROM ARCHDEACON BLACKBURNE. 
 
 MY DEAR FRIEND, March 1, 1/56. 
 
 I AM much obliged to you for your last kind remembrance of 
 me from Bristol ; and if you had not made me a sort of promise 
 that it would be followed presently by another, you would pro- 
 bably have had this acknowledgement a post or two sooner. A 
 gentleman, whose correspondence does me honour, lately trans- 
 mitted to me a most curious case of a British dissenting clergy- 
 man, who went to Geneva to be ordained, that he might avoid 
 subscription to the Westminster Confession, or any such tests of 
 human orthodoxy. He was chaplain to the Scots Greys (being 
 yet unordained), travelled as tutor to two young gentlemen of the 
 first rank, was himself a fine gentleman and excellent scholar, and 
 yet, when, after having made the tour of Europe, and displayed 
 his ministerial talents in Holland with the greatest applause, he
 
 NO. III.] APPENDIX. 377 
 
 came to settle in a congregation in Ireland, he met with rather 
 worse treatment than Mr. Emlyn, being, as I understand him, 
 persecuted and put to flight for opinions which he really held not, 
 merely because he would not subscribe to those he did hold. By 
 the way, this account (if I mistake not) was sent me upon a chi- 
 merical suspicion which myfriend, himself a dissenter of eminence, 
 has entertained that I am secretly pushing for a settlement among 
 his brethren ; among whom he finds himself as uneasy as we find 
 ourselves in the church of England. And lest you should think 
 I have any such aim, it may not be amiss to inform you, that all 
 these surmises have arose from a letter I wrote to a loquacious 
 man, to enquire after the character of a dissenting academy in his 
 neighbourhood, with a view of furnishing a young man for whom 
 I am concerned, with a little mathematical learning. You must 
 not expect long letters from me from hence to the other side of 
 Easter, as 1 have not only additional sermons weekly, during 
 Lent, -nnd catechising, &c. but am pressed on all hands to dispatch 
 the Confessional, the plan after much debate, ah inlus el extra, 
 being now settled, and all occasions cut of squibbing at the fun- 
 gose Doctor, otherwise than as his solutions are considered in form 
 among those of other men. 
 
 March 2. No letter but one from Watson, announcing his safe 
 arrival, and transmitting a curious MS. (wrote by a lady) and 
 tending to prove an indispensable obligation upon Christians to 
 keep two Sabbaths in the week. When one sees what different 
 opinions are founded upon the Scriptures, by different heads, and 
 none of them void of plausibility, 1 am strongly tempted to parody 
 a striking passage in the Gospels thus : Except your charity ex- 
 ceed the charity of the Athanasians, methc/dists, mystics, and 
 zealots of every sect, ye shall in nowise enter into the kingdom of 
 heaven. O my friend, what shall we do to unlade our hearts of 
 the world, and to fill them with God, so as to do, think, and say 
 all to his glory ?. I am so far a mystic as to think this attainable, 
 and am miserable, wretchedly miserable, in finding myself so far 
 behind those who have already attained hitherto. Pray for me, 
 dear Mr. Lindscy, as I do daily for you, that we may be really in- 
 strumental in doing some of that good which is well-pleasing to 
 God ; and, at least, that this euSoxia may receive no let, either 
 from our indolence, or the incongruity of our doctrine or manners. 
 O, what a glory to carry with us one soul to heaven for seraphs to 
 rejoice over, and to raise the exultations of the heavenly host ! 
 What are all the cares, riches, pleasures, or anxieties in the world, 
 compared to this ? Teach me, for 1 know you can, how that frame 
 of mind 13 to be put on which must carry us to our utmost perfec- 
 tion in Christ. I am, with unabated love for you, the unworthiest 
 of all your fellow servants, F. B.
 
 APPENDIX. [NO. in. 
 
 FROM THE SAME. 
 
 Richmond, Nov. 15th, 1/57. 
 
 THE choicest blessings of heaven on your noble and thrice 
 worthy patroness for espousing, and on my dear good friend for 
 recommending, the cause of the fatherless. If any thing farther 
 remains to be done on our part towards forwarding the relief of 
 these orphans you will let me know, and in the mean time I beg 
 you would, with all humility, tender my sincerest acknowledge- 
 ments to her good ladyship, to whose humanity and Christian 
 charity I hold myself the more obliged, as some other would-be - 
 good ladies were applied to without success. Lady Northum- 
 berland indeed would have delivered our petition, but that was 
 to the other court, which we thought not so expedient as at Lei- 
 cester House. My lord, too, has done an act of humanity and 
 gratitude to a poor shoe-maker of this town, who was his school- 
 fellow, and often assisted him in his exercises at Richmond school, 
 which will make me love him as fong as I live. How shall I ex- 
 press the sense I have of the parental feelings of the good lady for 
 her afflicted son ! Would to God my poor intercessions might 
 take place, either towards removing, or alleviating what cannot 
 be removed ! I was lately in company with a physician who told 
 me he had been so fortunate as to prevent guttse serenae in two 
 ladies (one of them his own wife) by gentle and seasonable mer- 
 curial purges^ at proper intervals. He says the sight of both is 
 weak in general, and they have returns of the visual obstructions ; 
 but the cinnabar pills have as yet never failed to remove them, 
 and they pass their time very comfortably, so comfortably, that 
 if he had not told me this circumstance I should never have sus- 
 pected his lady (whom I sec very often) of any such infirmity. He 
 added, that in some other cases he had known this malady at- 
 tended with a defluxion, in which case a solution of camphire in 
 French brandy, softened with an emulsion of almonds, has done 
 service, by way of outward application. He adds, that he knew 
 an infirmity of this kind brought upon a young lady by over- 
 bathing in Harrowgate waters. If any farther information I can 
 get about these cases will be of use, let me know, and depend 
 upon my utmost endeavours. 
 
 Be ingenuous, my good friend : were any of the noble family 
 with which you are connected, to be opposed in a borough, where 
 your situation were the same as mine, could you be an indifferent 
 spectator ? I wish I had time to tell you the beginning and whole 
 progress of my engagements ; but Heaven has heard my prayers, 
 and I trust the disagreeable contest is now at an end for this time. 
 For such has been the firmness and unanimity of Mr. Yorke's 
 friend 1 -, that Sir Conyers Darcy thought proper the other day to
 
 NO. III.] APPENDIX. 3/9 
 
 send a message to the corporation, that, " in consideration of the 
 peace of ' the lown,\ie would acquiesce in any person the burgesses 
 should make choice of." This has amazed some people, who 
 knew not our preparations, of which the old knight had some in- 
 timations from London. Though, indeed, as he had secured the 
 returning officer, I for my part expected he would have put us to 
 our petition. Yesterday it was reported that the borough was 
 sold to a young baronet, \vho has made some purchases of that sort 
 in his own county. But this is so very dishonourable to a certain 
 principal officer of state, that I cannot tell how to believe it, 
 though apart from the circumstance of honour, it might not per- 
 haps be improbable. My good friend will be cautious of men- 
 tioning these matters as from me. However, take notice, all I 
 have been concerned in has been fair and upright, and void of all 
 corruption, which our worthy candidate abhors so much that he 
 could not be brought into some measures recommended to him by 
 some very honest friends as merely prudential, which if he had 
 taken, he might have secured his seat beyond all dispute ; but his 
 answer was, " That he had lived to the seventy-first year of his 
 life without one reproach from his heart of contributing to the 
 public corruption, and he would not sow the seeds of those thorns 
 at this time of life." You will now collect perhaps an apology 
 for me, without taking in my particular obligations and alliance 
 to this family. But after all, alas ! I find too feelingly, that al! 
 this is but to busy ourselves about burying the dead, when we 
 should be preaching the kingdom of God ; and it is impossible to 
 tell you the oppressions of my heart under a load of trash, which 
 my soul abhors, and from which it shall ever be my study for the 
 future to escape, if possible. 
 
 I have not time to collect all the scraps I have of David Hart- 
 ley's meditations, which are chiefly dispersed in M. P. H.'s letters 
 to me. But you rnay expect a summary of them from me within 
 a very few posts. What good may be done in our parishes, and 
 by whom the most, is a problem that I cannot undertake to solve 
 for myself, much less for you. Pray God direct you in every- 
 thing ; your present avocation is not to be found fault with, and 
 if Heaven had given me talents such as yours for consolation, I 
 should surely have dispensed with my public province (at least 
 for a time) when the occasion called me to the relief of such suf- 
 ferers. For the rest, you know I put the whole upon a prior obli- 
 gation to him who called me; an obligation I mean prior to all 
 engagements, to church-modes and church nonsense in support 
 of them. My principle of attachment to the Scriptures would 
 make me uneasy in any other church I know of. If I can be of 
 any service in this, God have the praise, it is a reason why I 
 should press forward. He will reform all in his good time, and
 
 380 APPENDIX. [NO. in. 
 
 will not impute a failure in duty to those who would but cannot. 
 In the mean time, I trust as to sincerity we have a good con- 
 science. We fail not on all proper occasions to bear our tes- 
 timony. We scruple not to acknowledge our own weakness in 
 being drawn in to subscribe, especially the last time, when we 
 fear the good opinion we had of a dear friend, and the regard we 
 paid to his judgement, prevailed more with us than any convic- 
 tion from the weight of his arguments, which we have since found 
 to be feeble and insufficient. In the mean time, this we know, 
 if we know any thing of ourselves, that though we labour under 
 manifold difficulties, arising from a large family, and a scanty in- 
 come, and the necessity upon us of spending every shilling of it 
 to answer the expectations of the world in our station, and to 
 avoid the least suspicions of avarice, yet would we not repeat our 
 subscription, to gain the wealth of the Indies, or the honour and 
 power of a popedom. Some people, my dear friend, would be 
 much mortified that they could not give their children that polish 
 of education which is necessary to recommend to respectable con- 
 nexions with the world. I do not boast when I say that I am 
 got above all this. My endeavours shall not be wanting to create 
 them the most important connexions with God : if I succeed 
 there, I and they are happy ; happy in our obscurity and disen- 
 gagements from many temptations ; happy in seeing our own in- 
 firmities, and ten times happy in the protection of a wise and gra- 
 cious Providence, who will never leave us nor forsake us. Here 
 come three of them to call me to dinner. 
 
 Grace and peace from the fountain of both be with you. 
 
 The following letter from Thomas Holiis, Esq. under the 
 fictitious name of Pierce Delver, throws some light 
 upon the reported invitation of the Archdeacon to suc- 
 ceed Dr. Chandler at the Old Jewry. 
 
 DEAR SIR, Saturday morning, Oct. 18, 1/66. 
 
 IT gives me great pleasure to hear of the perfect recovery of 
 the excellent A. D. (Archdeacon.) I fear he studies, labours too in- 
 tensely, though to such noble purposes and great effects ; and the 
 human machine though a very fine is yet a very delicate one. Let 
 us applaud his magnanimity, however, and wish him every good ! 
 
 At my visit to worthy Mr. Fleming, he told me, that he had 
 been assured the people of the Old Jewry were inclined to invite 
 the excellent A. D. B. to their chair, in the room of the late Dr. 
 C. if they thought he would accept it. The same was told me 
 more generally afterwards in mixt company. 
 
 September 27. Worthy Dr. H, (Dr. W. Harris) wrote me as
 
 .NO. IV.] APPENDIX. 381 
 
 follows : " What think you of A. D. B.'s succeeding the late Dr. 
 C. at the Old Jewry ? I sa\v Mr. Amory atTaunton, and he tells 
 me it is talked of by that society. The Confessional is much 
 read and admired." To this I replied generally, as I remember, 
 for I cannot copy every thing, as follows : 
 
 That I had avoided writing to you on the subject. 
 
 That I knew the incomparable A. D. had a real and high esteem 
 for the body of Protestant Dissenters. 
 
 That whatever his resolution might be, I was confident the pro- 
 position, if made, would be treated by him with perfect civility 
 and respect. 
 
 That for my own part, I should be sorry the A. D. should ac- 
 cept the proposition, however handsomely tendered, for his own 
 sake and the public ; as I was persuaded it would render uncom- 
 fortable, and shorten his valuable life by town air and customs ; 
 and lessen his power of doing great public good, by taking him 
 out of the alone, precise situation in which, with his powers and 
 magnanimity to effect it, he 
 
 " Rides in the whirlwind and directs the storm." 
 
 From Dr. H. I have not since heard. 
 
 For the rest. The Dissenters are, it may be, best seen in their 
 principles and not individually ; though the people of the Old 
 Jewry rank, not only in point of wealth, but of sense and polite- 
 ness, among the first of them. 
 
 I am, with highest respect to two gentlemen, Dear Sir, 
 
 Your affectionate friend and most obedient servant, 
 To the Rev. T. Lindsey, Catterick. PlERCE DELVER. 
 
 No. IV. p. 41. 
 
 A LETTER FROM HANS STANLEY, ESQ. TO MR. LINDSEY, ASSIGN- 
 ING HIS REASONS FOR DECLINING TO SUPPORT THE CLERICAL 
 PETITION. 
 
 DEAR SIR, Paultons, Nov. 12, 
 
 You certainly need no apology for addressing yourself to me 
 upon any subject; your own merit and our long acquaintance 
 entitle you to my attention, and give you a right to expect that 
 answer, which you are pleased to ask as a favour. 
 
 You will give me leave to follow your introduction of this mat- 
 ter, by assuring you on my part, that if your request related to 
 any private interest of your own within my small power, I should 
 heartily wish to serve you; but in the present case it cannot weigh 
 with me to promote innovations in the law, which I think not 
 only unnecessary, but extremely mischievous. .
 
 382 APPENDIX. [NO. iv. 
 
 The peace of mankind is a fortieth article of my religion, which 
 1 hold to be much more important than any of the thirty-nine 
 objected to by those who with a very blameable indiscretion (and 
 MO me, I believe, from worse motives) are willing to disturb it. I 
 shall not easily concede that any alteration either in these or the 
 Liturgy is necessary, unless they contain doctrines contrary to 
 sound morality and civil obedience, but even then I should by no 
 means concur in the prayer of your petition : I should rather be 
 led to a conclusion totally different, for I should think that the 
 specific article ought to be amended, and not the whole set aside ; 
 but this is a work in the first instance for synods and convocations: 
 many preparatory steps, which 1 have not wisdom enough to in- 
 dicate, ought to precede the parliamentary consideration. 
 
 I deny that any of the Reformers whose names are transmitted 
 r.o posterity with respect, ever adopted so wild an idea as that of 
 a Christian society without an established church holding certain 
 defined tenets. The liberty of judging for yourselves of the sense 
 of Scripture is a possession, which, you say, all men have a right 
 to enjoy; I not only agree with you in this proposition, but I 
 will add, that you have a right to teach and inform others ac- 
 cording to your own sense of Scripture, provided your lessons are 
 conducive, or at least indifferent, to the happiness of mankind 
 and the tranquillity of the state ; but these concessions do not 
 exclude every govefnment from giving the preference to such 
 forms, or to such doctrines, which appear most eligible in their 
 united public sense, which constitutes the law. Therefore the 
 ministers of Separatists are maintained at the expense of their 
 congregations ; dignities and preferment belong exclusively to 
 the established church alone j this has been, is, and ever must 
 be the rule in the most tolerant states, and even in the freest 
 republics. 
 
 The wisdom of Providence seems in its dispensations to have 
 reserved this authority for the future succession of Christian 
 churches: it never could be supposed that the poor, and the ig- 
 norant, who compose the greater number of the laity, could 
 give up their labour for, and pass their lives in, the investigation 
 of this divine system. It may perhaps be asserted, that the Scrip- 
 ture is so clear, and so full, that it wants no interpretation, nor 
 any supplementary addition. If this be true, how happens it, 
 that we are hitherto not better agreed ? Why has the world been 
 disturbed by so many leaders of sects and heresiarchs, who (if 
 they were all now alive upon the face of the earth) might com- 
 pose as large an army as that with which Alexander the Great 
 conquered the Persian empire? Yet, all these men were convinced 
 and maintained that their opinions were founded in, or derived 
 from, Holy Writ.
 
 NO, IV.] APPENDIX. 383 
 
 If the Scripture needs no explanation, I will turn Quaker, and 
 join in any measure which tends to set aside your whole order as 
 an useless expense. But if it does require explanation, I chuse 
 to trust that task rather to the well digested and mature studies 
 of our venerable Hierarchy, than to the crude transient notions, 
 which caprice, vanity, self-conceit, and folly may suggest to every 
 idle coxcomb, who wants to be taken notice of for his singulari- 
 ty. I am therefore (within the bounds of toleration which I have 
 laid down) an advocate not only for strict subordination, to over- 
 awe and coerce such dangerous impertinences, but for written ca- 
 nons, creeds, and articles to warn rash unthinking men of the 
 future censure and punishment they may incur ; for it is essen- 
 tial to justice to mark out plainly offences of every kind, and it 
 is an arbitrary exertion of power to inflict penalties without such 
 notice. I should at the same time strenuously oppose the com- 
 pelling any individual to sign any article of faith whatever. But 
 nothing of this kind is at present done: every man is left to his 
 own free choice, and every honest man will therein follow the 
 dictates of his own opinion ; nor will there arise the slightest in- 
 convenience if (from peculiar objections to the Liturgy, or the 39 
 Articles) some few persons more should chuse in the various pro- 
 fessions of laymen to follow an active life of virtuous industry: I 
 thank God we live neither in a desart country, nor an illiterate 
 age, and I hope we are not likely soon to want a decent and worthy 
 succession in our priesthood. 
 
 If (as you are pleased to inform me) bishops and others have 
 in their writings, preachings, &c. receded from what they have 
 signed, and what the law has enjoined, I do not think the pre- 
 cedent so good as to wish the practice general j nor does the ex- 
 ample of a College in Cambridge weigh greatly with me : I have 
 quite accidentally heard somewhat of the secret history which 
 has passed within those walls ; if I am not deceived, that signa- 
 ture has been chiefly promoted by a factious abetter of those 
 senseless seditious disputes which have divided us upon political 
 subjects, and which are already enough envenomed without your 
 throwing in the. fresh corrosive of religious controversy. How 
 total a fermentation such a mixture may produce is well known 
 to all those who have read the history of this country for the last 
 century. 
 
 As no church is so purely of divine institution as not to smell 
 a little of humanity, our Establishment may be liable to some er- 
 rors j yet does it leave you sufficient scope to be, as you actually 
 are, a very good man, and to contribute greatly to render your 
 parishioners such. The wisdom of government, ever since the house 
 of Hanover ascended the throne, has maintained your order in 
 the possession of sufficient respect, and has kept you perfectly 
 quiet; neither the good treatment you have enjoyed nor your
 
 o84 APPENDIX. [NO. iv. 
 
 want of power have been founded on the plan of any particular 
 administration, they have arisen from the general sense and tem- 
 per of this age. The reign of the Angelick and Seraphick Doc- 
 tors is past and gone ; were they now to appear again, the 
 world would busy itself very little about their subtilities; nay, I 
 am sanguine enough to believe that Prynne, Burton, and Bast- 
 wick would at present have few partizans unless they were per- 
 secuted, which I think very unlikely to happen to any man. The 
 vice of the present times is rather too much indifference about 
 religious matters, and opinions : if I might, therefore, as a real 
 friend, presume to advise the Clergy, they ought not, while total 
 infidelity is gaining ground upon them, to expose any partial 
 weaknesses of their system, and thus by trivial and frivolous dis- 
 agreements among themselves perhaps endanger the whole fa- 
 brick. I have sometimes in my more serious hours regretted that 
 the poor Apocrypha found no better advocate, because by re- 
 jecting those books the rest of the Bible was perhaps brought 
 under some degree of doubt ; and if the Liturgy or the Thirty- 
 nine Articles were now deserted, who knows where the growing 
 incredulity of mankind would stop ? 
 
 Upon the whole, my dear sir, I heartily wish it was possible 
 for you to desist from a design which I so highly disapprove and 
 must so entirely discountenance; but 1 well know the warmth 
 with which these speculations are pursued by those who have 
 once adopted them. I trust, however, there will be found so- 
 briety and understanding enough in the House of Commons to 
 reject your petition without any more debate than what every sin- 
 gle member has a right to command upon every question how- 
 ever improper to be moved. I beg you will believe that though 
 we differ so widely upon this public point, which I have endea- 
 voured to treat with all possible candor and frankness, I shall 
 ever be ready to receive your commands with regard to all mat- 
 ters which regard yourself, or in which I can prove to you the 
 affection and esteem with which I am, dear sir, 
 
 Your most obedient and most humble servant. 
 
 .H. STANLEY. 
 
 Correspondence of Dr. Markham, Bishop of Chester, af- 
 terwards Archbishop of York, with Mr. Lindsey, upon 
 his Resignation of the Vicarage of Catterick. 
 
 FROM THE REV. T. LINDSEY TO THE BISHOP OF CHESTER. 
 MY LORD, Catterick, Nov. 12, 1773. 
 
 IT is my duty, and full time that I should acquaint your Lord- 
 ship with my intention of resigning the vicarage of Catterick, in 
 your diocese of Chester, the latter end of this month.
 
 NO. IV.] APPENDIX. 385 
 
 If your place of residence had been within any convenient 
 distance, as it would have been more respectful, I should have 
 been desirous to have waited on your Lordship, and made my 
 resignation into your own hands. 
 
 I am obliged to take this step, after long deliberation, for the 
 relief of my own mind, not being able in any way to satisfy my- 
 self with officiating according to the present forms of our church, 
 and not thinking myself at liberty to make those very material 
 alterations that would satisfy me : I mean in changing the object 
 of worship, which to me appears to be sadly mistaken in many 
 parts of the service. 
 
 I have the honour to be, 
 
 My Lord, 
 Your Lordship's most humble and obedient servant, 
 
 T. LlNDSEY. 
 
 FROM THE BISHOP OF CHESTER TO THE REV. T. LlNDSEY. ' 
 REVEREND SIR, Sion End, near Brentford, Nor. 16, 1773. 
 
 I RECEIVED this morning the favour of your letter, acquaint- 
 ing me with your intention to resign your vicarage, and at the 
 same time signifying your motives. The business is so important, 
 and the time you mention so very short, that I am using the first 
 moment to give you my sentiments, in hopes that I may possibly 
 put the question in such a light, as may at least procure a sus- 
 pension of your design. For, to say the truth, my heart has 
 taken a very serious and sad concern in this transaction, not 
 only from the charity which I owe to you, as my brother, and 
 because I seek the truth, as I believe you do, but from the im- 
 pressions which I have received of your character from two very 
 good men, Mr. Cooper and Mr. Smelt. I have heard from them 
 that you are a sincere believer of the Holy Scriptures: upon that 
 ground I speak to you : the question is not to be tried at the bar 
 of human reason, but depends entirely upon a true explanation 
 of the divine writings, which those who have supported the opi- 
 nions which you seem to hold are used to interpret in such a 
 manner as the original languages can no wise suffer, and without 
 it they could never have contrived to get over a number of texts 
 which are as strong and explicit as any in the Bible. But car- 
 nal wisdom is followed. Philosophy will know every thing, and 
 has as yet discovered nothing; it is still a stranger to the essence 
 of the meanest thing about us, and yet will know the essence of 
 the Deity, and will say this and this is contrary to it. Our 
 religion is supported by the fullest and clearest testimonies, and 
 yet the whole of it is truly incomprehensible from the creation 
 of man to his final resurrection; bat the filiation of our Saviour 
 is not only a great mystery, but though explained to us as far as 
 
 2 c
 
 386 APPENDIX. [NO. iv.c 
 
 is useful in our present state, is from the nature of the subject 
 particularly involved. We are prepared for this difficulty by the 
 prophet Isaiah ; his words are, as quoted in the Acts, TT|V= 
 ysvsotv aurow TJJ 8>jyrj<rsTi ? But the embarrassment has chiefly 
 risen from the number of texts that seem to militate against 
 his divine nature; which must necessarily happen, as he is most 
 commonly spoken of in his inferior capacity, the man Jesus, the 
 visible Agent on earth, the Teacher, the Redeemer, in which 
 characters he has a more immediate relation to the human 
 race; and in which his office and ministration were exemplified. 
 But there are other texts which are very express. I will men- 
 tion a few of such as occur to me, and which I think least 
 liable to disputation, because they appear in both the Old and 
 New Testament, in the first applied to God, in the second to our 
 Saviour. 
 
 When Moses asks the name of God, he is told in those words 
 which denote eternal existence that his name is I am. Our Sa- 
 viour answers the Jews, Verily before Abraham was, lam. 
 
 Isaiah says of God, At his name every knee shall bow, of things 
 in heaven, &c. which very words are by St. Paul used directly of 
 our Saviour. 
 
 God is continually spoken of in the Old Testament, by the 
 names of the just one, the holy one, &c. The same are applied 
 to our Saviour. The appellation of the Lord is given to God 
 throughout the Old Testament, by which Christ is constantly 
 named in the New. 
 
 Indeed I do not know what they would make of that person, 
 who is so often declared to be far above all angels, and whose 
 shoes St. John Baptist (who had been declared greater than a 
 prophet) was not worthy to unloose. 
 
 I cannot flatter myself that this slight discussion of a great 
 subject should have so much weight, as at once to determine 
 you against your former deliberate reasonings; but it may call 
 to your memory, how often we are told pj t/Trsg^goysiv Trap' 6 n 
 p^oysiv, that without humbleness of mind our faith is always in 
 danger. It may prevent your taking a hasty step, by which, if 
 I do not misconceive your character, you of all men may be 
 made most miserable, if you should see occasion to change your 
 opinion, and then reflect that you had not only deserted your 
 station, but had encouraged schism and heresy. Indeed, if you 
 reflect that the words In the name of the Father, the Son, and 
 the Holy Ghost were given by our Saviour to the Apostles, 
 and that St. Stephen called upon Christ to receive his soul, you 
 cannot think yourself unauthorised in the use of our forms, and 
 may satisfy your conscience in acquiescing, at least, till all that 
 is said in support of them can be disproved. I write this for
 
 NO. IV.] APPENDIX. 387 
 
 your own use, and confidentially. I detest the wrangle of con- 
 troversy. Eit Tig Soxs* sivon <pjAovsxoj, TJJ,SJ oux s^o^v TOUT>JV 
 a-uvrfinzv. I quote by memory, probably incorrectly. Pray, con- 
 sider this, and give me your answer. 
 I am, with a true regard, 
 
 Your affectionate brother, 
 
 W. CHESTER. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM MR. LINDSEY's REPLY. 
 
 1 AM surely obliged to the friends your Lordship mentions 
 for giving your Lordship such a favourable representation of my 
 character, and feel the serious concern and kindness which dic- 
 tated the letter I have the honour to receive from you this 
 morning. 
 
 It was natural for your Lordship with these dispositions to- 
 wards me to bid me beware of precipitation in a matter of such 
 moment. But though suddenly and so lately communicated to 
 your Lordship, this resolution is no hasty step, but the result of 
 many years anxious enquiry and deliberation, and trying every 
 expedient that might give me ease. 
 
 And my faith is built not on a system of philosophy, but on 
 an impartial examination of the mind and will of God, as dis- 
 covered in the Old and New Testament. And I am constrained 
 on this occasion to tell your Lordship, that I am so persuaded of 
 the strict unity of God, taught by Moses and the prophets, and 
 last of all by our Saviour Christ, that though no one is further 
 from condemning others that differ, I should hold it impiety in 
 me to continue to worship Christ, or any other being or person. 
 I cannot, therefore, continue to lead the devotions of a congre- 
 gation in the church of England, who esteem it sinful in myself 
 constantly to use that worship and abet it. 
 
 Your Lordship will believe, all those texts which you point 
 out to me have fallen under consideration, and which if I note, 
 it is not in the spirit of dispute, which ill becomes me towards 
 you on such an occasion, but out of respectful attention to what 
 you are pleased to select. 
 
 [Mr. Lindsey having suggested the usual explanations of the 
 texts alleged by the worthy prelate, proceeds as follows :] 
 
 Whatever be the distressing consequences of this determina- 
 tion with regard to worldly things, I can never repent of it, as 
 led to it by no motive but a desire to approve myself to God, and 
 what my duty to him required.
 
 388 APPENDIX. [NO. v. 
 
 No. V. 
 Letters to Mr. Lindsey upon his Resignation. 
 
 FROM THE RIGHT HONOURABLE GREY COOPER. 
 MY DEAR Sill, Kew Lane, Nov. 6, 1773. 
 
 I HAVE received your letter, which filled my heart with grief, 
 and made my eyes glisten with tears; I have not a word to say 
 or an argument to offer against your resolution to quit your pre- 
 ferment; I must however lament the cruel necessity that forces 
 you out of a situation in which you and your good wife might 
 have continued blessings to your parish and neighbourhood ; 
 I will add only this short but sincere assurance, that it would 
 give me the utmost satisfaction to have it in my power to assist 
 you in any new course of life which you may think proper to 
 follow. Lord North has seen your letter, and was affected by 
 reading it: he has an excellent heart, and a just feeling for every 
 act of honour and Conscience. It is not yet decided who is to 
 have Catterick; Mr. Chayter has applied for it, and his brother- 
 in-law Mr. Robinson, my colleague; will you allow me to ask 
 what is the annual income of it, and on what account it is as 
 you say eligible > Perhaps it may be better than my brother's 
 at Mansfield, and in that case I would 1 try to manage an exchange 
 between Mr. Chayter and my brother. I beg pardon for trou- 
 bling you with such things at this time; but as soon as 1 receive 
 your answer I shall be able to inform you with certainty who 
 will be your successor ; at present I am rather inclined to think 
 it will be Mr. Chayter. My wife sends her best compliments to 
 you; she was much moved with the contents of your letter. 
 I am, my dear sir, 
 
 Your affectionate friend and servant, 
 
 GREY COOPER. 
 
 FROM EARL PERCY, LATE DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND, 
 
 NOV. 1773. 
 
 DEAR SIR, Stanwick, Wednesday morning. 
 
 I AM sorry to find by your letter which I received just now, 
 that I have been deprived of the pleasure of seeing you by a cold. 
 When my mother was so good as to shew me her answer to your 
 letter, I told her I thought she had said all that could be said on 
 that subject, but that I knew your way of thinking on that affair 
 much too well, to suppose any thing on earth could prevent you 
 from resigning a living, which your conscience told you, you 
 could no longer hold as an honest man, void of time-serving 
 hypocrisy. I hope, however, 1 shall have the pleasure of seeing 
 you here before you leave the country, as I do not think of going
 
 NO. V.] APPENDIX. 
 
 to town till after Christmas. At any rate I shall wish much to see 
 your Reasons, when they are published; and have not the least 
 doubt but they will give me great satisfaction. I beg my respects 
 to Mrs. Lindsey, and be assured I am and ever will be 
 
 Your sincere friend, 
 
 PERCY. 
 
 FROM THE REV. NEWCOME CAPPE. 
 
 DEAR SIR, York, Nov. 1, 1773. 
 
 YOUR truly Christian and heroical determination is above my 
 praise, and will afford you such hope and joy in God as will 
 render human praise unnecessary to you, and human censure 
 insignificant. I thank God from my heart, that there are men 
 in the world who will buy the truth and sell it not. Your ex- 
 ample, I think, cannot fail to increase the number of them. 
 Sure, it must impress some hearts with a conviction that there 
 is something serious in religious truth and liberty, and some- 
 thing real that is not of this world. The comfort and reward of 
 confessing Christ you must have, and your name I trust will be 
 held in everlasting remembrance by the friends of truth and vir- 
 tue, and will continue to do good when your personal services 
 are over. Those who esteem you as they ought, cannot be unaf- 
 fected with the inconveniences you may suffer, and that not in your 
 own person only, from your integrity. It is an afflicting thought ; 
 but the utility of your example is connected with this circum- 
 stance, and I hope in God that the righteous will not be for- 
 saken. As to the business you mention, Mr. Hotham (who 
 presents to you his most respectful compliments and the sin- 
 cerest tenders of his service) will join with me to do the best we 
 can for you. If you will send either the books or a list of them, 
 we will treat with a bookseller about them. If his proposal 
 comes not up to your idea of their value, and the books are nu- 
 merous enough, it may be worth while to sell them by a marked 
 catalogue, and this, if you approve of it, we will do. I am 
 greatly obliged to you for the tender regard you express toward 
 me and my little family, and I remain with the highest esteem, 
 and all manner of good wishes for you and every one that is dear 
 to you, 
 
 Yoiif affectionate humble Servant, 
 
 N. CAPPE. 
 To the Rev. Mr. Lindsey, at Catterick. 
 
 FROM THE REV. SAMUEL BADCOCK OF BARNSTAPLE. 
 REV. SIR, June 11, 1774. 
 
 HAVING read your Apology with peculiar pleasure, I cannot 
 resist the impulse of writing to you. There was a time when, 
 shackled by the bonds of intellectual slavery, I should have shud- 
 dered at your freedom, and have forgot your honesty amidst your
 
 390 APPENDIX. [NO. v. 
 
 heterodoxy. But now I measure mankind on a larger scale, and 
 if I see the former I forget the latter. My travels in the theo- 
 logic region have been variously conducted : but amidst every 
 intricacy I never lost sight of sincerity. When reason was hood- 
 winked, that like a faithful companion attended even my wan- 
 derings; and I hope I shall never forfeit the protection of such 
 a friend. I enter into your feelings with a sympathy which I 
 cannot express. I insensibly catch your spirit as it shines forth 
 in the mild lustre of primitive simplicity; and pray that I may 
 be a follower of those who through faith and patience pursue 
 the promises. 
 
 Most heartily do I congratulate you on that exalted superiority 
 of mind, which, abstracting you from the world, must inspire 
 you with such joys as the world cannot give nor take away. 
 They flow from that noble independence which is the first gift 
 of heaven. Go on and prosper. May the influence of your 
 example be as diffusive as corruption hath been ! Truth like the 
 ?un may be clouded, but cannot be extinguished No: it will, 
 when it begins to dawn, pursue its course till it gains the perfect 
 day. Then will the sons of ignorance and bigotry fly with dis- 
 may, when the Lord shall scatter the one with the breath of his 
 mouth, and eclipse the other in the brightness of his coming. 
 
 Fox's letter at the end of your Apology is really an excellent 
 one. I have translated it, to gratify a friend; and have been 
 urged to publish it for general entertainment in some paper or 
 magazine. 
 
 I beg leave to ask you one question, Was you the author of 
 a paper in the Theological Repository, signed Socrates Scho- 
 lasticus ? I think I trace Mr. Lindsey in it. Eornuensis is 
 the very person who is now writing to you ; and it would not in 
 the least lessen my esteem and love of you, if I was sure that you 
 had opposed me. In one respect I merited correction ; though 
 in another respect it was doing me too much honour. Let this 
 plead for my pertness. I was scarcely two-and-twenty when I 
 writ that paper, and did it in a hurry, urged on by the warm 
 solicitations of bigotry. 
 
 I suppose you are acquainted with that worthy man Dr. 
 Priestley. I am happy in his friendship, and owe much to his 
 writings. 1 love every good man with the most sincere affection ; 
 and in proportion as he is distinguished for the noble qualities of 
 disinterested zeal and sincerity, so proportionably do I value and 
 esteem him, as the highest character that earth can be blessed 
 with. On these principles 
 
 I am, dear Sir, 
 Your most affectionate brother and friend, 
 
 S. BADCOCK. 
 
 To the Rev. Theoph. Lindsey.
 
 NO. VI.] APPENDIX. 391 
 
 No. VI. 
 
 Extracts of Letters from the late Thomas Hollis, Esq. 
 under the title of Pierce Delver, to the Rev. T. 
 Lindsey. 
 
 As I think to be well informed, Mrs. Macaulay has lately 
 sold to Messrs. Dilly, booksellers, in the Poultry, the power of 
 making an octavo edition of her works, she reserving her right 
 afterward in those works for 9UO/. ! Also, the right of every 
 future volume which she shall write, for one thousand pounds 
 each volume ! 
 
 It seems this lady thinks there will be three more volumes to 
 the elevation of the house of Hanover. When those are written, 
 she purposes to write the History of the Tudors. And then, to 
 place a large Introduction before her History, which shall begin 
 with the earliest account of Britain, and stride down to her his- 
 tory of the Tudors. 
 
 The bargain seems to be a good one on her part. But, to 
 me, it would be a sad case to write of liberty, magnanimity, at 
 a price, and against a season, at any price ! 
 
 It seems for some time past, when only three volumes of her 
 History were published, Mrs. M. wanted Mr. Cadell to buy the 
 copyright of them, &c. ; but he chose not to meddle with her 
 History in so imperfect, uncertain a state. 
 
 On the present occasion, she has not said one word to him, 
 though always in every shape most respectful toward her and 
 vigilant to promote her interests. Mr. C. is rather concerned 
 at her behaviour; and tells me that he should have been glad 
 to have taken share in the octavo edition, but not in the agree- 
 ment for the future unbegotten volumes at any rate. 
 
 The other day I paid her a visit at her house in Berners Street, 
 Oxford Road, on a particular occasion, by desire. That house, 
 a new one, she has bought, and furnished handsomely. She had 
 the air of a princess, out-Cornelised the Cornelisians, and had 
 the frank Bath air upon her countenance. 
 
 It seems she keeps two servants in laced liveries, treats cle- 
 verly and elegantly, and in short, author or fine lady, surpasses 
 all her sex. 
 
 All this in confidence, for I respect her exceedingly, and she 
 is to be maintained in much just commendation for her many 
 extraordinary qualities and the cause sake. 
 I am, with great esteem, 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 Your affectionate friend and 
 
 most obedient servant, 
 
 PIERCE DELVEK.
 
 392 APPENDIX. [NO. vn. 
 
 FROM THE SAMEt 
 
 The writer considering the uncertainty and accidents of life, is 
 desirous of sending a copy of a curious letter written to him 
 by a worthy person, August 3, 1767. 
 
 ff THOMAS SECKER was born about the year 1693 or 4, son of 
 a reputable shopkeeper at Chesterfield, in Derbyshire. His sister 
 married Sam. Wildbore, of Brewhouse-yard, near Nottingham, 
 a protestant dissenter, and by trade a dyer. His brother George 
 was put to the Coventry business, where he lived many years, a 
 professed protestant dissenter; and, for aught 1 know, may yet 
 live ; though the ABP has one of his sons in the church. 
 
 " Thomas Seeker, after he left the Grammar-school, I think 
 went to the Academy at Attercliff, and, however this, he finished 
 at Sam. Jones's Academy in Tewksbury. There it was he 
 wrote some letters in the controversy between Dr. S. Clarke 
 and Leibnitz, on Liberty and Necessity, which gained him the 
 Doctor's favour. 
 
 " After this, he was some time with his sister aforesaid, in 
 Brewhouse-yard, where he constantly attended the worship of 
 the protestant dissenting church, under the pastoral care of the 
 Rev. Mr. Bateson, with whom he was very familiar. 
 
 " He then went to study physic at Leyden ; and then took the 
 degree of M.D. 
 
 * e Becoming acquainted with one of the sons of Dr. Talbot, 
 Bishop of Durham, he travelled with him; when great affection 
 for T. S. led the son to recommend him so strongly to the patron- 
 age of the Bishop, that he gave him expectation of providing 
 for him in the church : whereupon he went to Oxford, studied 
 there some time, and would have exchanged his diploma of M.D. 
 for that of D.D., but could not obtain any higher than LL.D., 
 which is his signature to this day. 
 
 " Bishop Talbot gave him a rich prebend in the Durham 
 Cathedral, and also soon a great living. He married a lady in 
 the Talbot family, as was thought by some in gratitude. Chan- 
 cellor Talbot was his friend; and he thus had the ladder of pre- 
 ferment made easy to him," 
 
 No. VII. 
 Letters from the Rev. W. Hopkins. 
 
 DEAR SIR, Cuckfield, March 29, 1/84. 
 
 I HAVE lately perused your Historical View of the State of 
 the Unitarian Doctrine and Worship, and take an early oppor- 
 tunity to express my grateful thanks for this useful and entertain-
 
 NO. VII.] APPENDIX. 393 
 
 ing history. But before I proceed to take any notice of the 
 contents of it, I cannot help sending my sincere congratulation 
 upon the victory you and Mrs. Lindsey have gained over one of 
 the greatest temptations of human life, and have set a noble 
 example of Christian fortitude, even in these times. You have 
 laid a glorious foundation for the establishment of genuine Chris- 
 tianity amongst all protestants, which of course will prove an 
 excellent means to demolish the gross corruptions of popery, 
 which derive some support from the flagrant errors yet remaining 
 in protestant churches. In your Historical View I meet with 
 many curious anecdotes with which I was unacquainted ; though 
 several years ago, I was engaged in a scheme something resem- 
 bling the Historical View, but was interrupted after some little 
 progress made in it. I was very much surprised to find that the 
 eminent Dr. Docldridge should contend for that very absurd 
 notion of Christ's being possessed of two natures; but the vast 
 convenience of being provided with a solution, well accommo- 
 dated to reconcile the most palpable contradictions, had too 
 much influence upon his mind. Philpot's case affords a strik- 
 ing instance of a cruel persecuting temper, at the very time he 
 was suffering himself for his religious principles. The cause of 
 Christianity was at first supported and propagated by fair and 
 open professions, though frequently attended with terrible evils. 
 But it is to be lamented, that during the corrupt state of the 
 apostate church, many nice arts have been employed to palliate 
 established forms, and hinder the progress of the plain simplicity 
 of the Gospel of Christ. Your strictures upon those great and 
 good men, Sir Isaac Newton, Dr. Clarke, and Bishop Hoadly, 
 are, I think, very just. What persecution could the bigots have 
 inflicted upon such persons, since this family came to the throne, 
 if they had taken very bold steps in maintaining the cause they 
 certainly had at heart? It may perhaps appear not impertinent 
 to take notice of a conversation that passed many years ago, 
 when I was very young, at a worthy clergyman's house, who had 
 been preferred by Bishop Hoadly, and likewise was intimate with 
 Dr. Clarke. The clergyman was speaking in a soft and cautious 
 way o.f his friend Dr. Clarke, and observed that lie could not 
 make it do very well: in other plainer terms, it was difficult to 
 make the Athanasian Creed consistent with subscription. But 
 the Doctor, he said, could say as much for a lad cause as any 
 o?ie. This declaration made a strong and lasting impression 
 upon my mind. It only shows that the Doctor was an able 
 pleader, and at the same time the cause was bad : and indeed 
 I found by dear-bought experience, that it proved a bad cause 
 to me. The learned Mr. Wasse, of whom you make mention, 
 gave a noble example to the members of Oxford and Cam-
 
 394 APPENDIX, [NO. vii. 
 
 bridge, by his open professions and declaration of holding a 
 debate with Dr. Potter, late Abp. of Canterbury, at that time 
 Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford. I have been always of 
 opinion, that the method proposed by Mr. Wasse was an excel- 
 lent one, and am really concerned that this plan has never been 
 imitated and reduced to practice. Of what use are theological 
 debates, as commonly held by the Professors of Oxford and 
 Cambridge, when the disputants are tied down to determine 
 the questions proposed by established standards of orthodoxy? 
 I cannot help my hearty approbation of your inserting Abp. 
 Herring's letter to Dr. Jortin : I am of opinion that this letter 
 will be of service to the cause. I have the satisfaction to find 
 in the list of your worthies, names which I never heard of before: 
 Viz. Mr. Maty, Mr. Harries, and Mr. Ross of Scotland. May 
 the number of such worthy persons perpetually increase ! My 
 own story relative to the cause is not worth relating, and I pass 
 it off in silence. But I would just remind you, that you have 
 omitted some Unitarians worthy of notice, viz. Gilbert Clerke, 
 follow of a college in Cambridge before the Restoration. As 
 the statutes obliged him to go into orders by a particular time, 
 he made it his choice to resign his fellowship, and all pretensions 
 to church preferment. The great Mr. Locke, the Rev. Mr. Tom- 
 kins, the Rev. Mr. Gibbs, two dissenting ministers who were 
 ejected from their congregations upon account of their Unitarian 
 principles. 
 
 Unitarians, as they are uniformly agreed in the grand points 
 of the question, should carefully avoid disagreeable altercations 
 upon their lesser differences. Upon a review, the whole of what 
 I now maintain is no more than this, that the direct invocation 
 of Christ is lawful upon some occasions, and that J cannot pro- 
 test against the lawfulness of it, as I have openly done against 
 the third and seventh petitions of the Litany, and all passages of 
 a similar nature. It is now high time that I should make my 
 sincere acknowledgements to you and Dr. Disney for the trouble 
 you have given yourselves about my translation, which I find is 
 clone in an handsome manner. I heartily wish all possible suc- 
 cess to your ministry at the Chapel in Essex Street, and lihwise 
 to the Society; and am, dear Sir, with my respectful compli- 
 ments to Doctor and Mrs. Disney, to Dr. and Mrs. Jebb, and 
 Mrs. Lindsey, 
 
 Your much obliged friend, 
 
 W. HOPKINS. 
 
 P. S. Unless my memory deceive me, for I am not in pos- 
 session of the tracts, Dr. Price and Dr. Priestley had a friendty 
 debate upon liberty and necessity. I profess myself strongly
 
 NO. VII.] APPENDIX. 395 
 
 attached to the cause of moral liberty in the strictest sense, in 
 opposition to necessity of every kind, whether arising from ex- 
 ternal or internal causes. If I remember right, Dr. Price main- 
 tained his point, viz. liberty, in an able and rational way; but 
 when he came to the grand difficulty, which has perplexed the 
 best writers upon the subject, viz. how to reconcile prescience 
 with liberty, he seemed distressed. It has generally been taken 
 for granted on both sides, that divine prescience must be admit- 
 ted as a truth. But really I entertain very great doubts, occa- 
 sioned by a careful perusal of a chapter in Crellius De Sapientia 
 Dei, which does not seem to have engaged the attention of the 
 learned so much as it deserves. A rational and sensible person 
 was going to write upon this subject, to whom I recommended 
 this chapter of Crellius ; but as he was unacquainted with the 
 learned languages, I engaged to translate part of the chapter. 
 If Dr. Price has never seen this chapter, and Crellius's works 
 have not fallen in his way, I should esteem it as a favour if you 
 would present my respects to him, and beg of him to accept of 
 this translation, if not disagreeable, which possibly may tend to 
 illustrate a subject he has frequently considered. The person 
 for whom it was originally intended has been dead some time. 
 If the Doctor be in possession of Crellius's works, I must ask his 
 pardon for this impertinence, as I am sensible he understand^ 
 the language much better than the translator. 'Tis proper to 
 add that I did not translate the whole chapter. 
 
 FROM THE SAME. 
 DEAR SIR, Cuckfield, April 29, 1/84. 
 
 LAST week your extraordinary favour came to hand, and I 
 think myself obliged to take an early opportunity to acknowledge 
 with gratitude the kind and friendly manner with which you treat 
 me. I thought it not improper to take notice of some names 
 omitted in your very useful work, and am really surprised that 
 the learned Mr. Peirce should escape my observation, of whom 
 I had conceived an high opinion, and some of whose excellent 
 works I have in my possession. With respect to Mr. Gilbert 
 Clerke, I can communicate no other particulars than what you 
 may find in Mr. Nelson's Life of Bishop Bull (pag. 497, 499, 
 502, 508 513). He seems to have given an impartial account 
 of the Life and Character of Mr. Gilbert Clerke j but what was 
 naturally to be expected, he speaks slightingly of his perform- 
 ances, in part of which he presumed to differ from the celebrated 
 Defender of the Nicene Faith. The Bishop, as you rightly ob- 
 serve, treats poor Mr. Clerke in an indecent manner, more espe- 
 cially as Mr. Nelson himself has given him a good character ; 
 I call him poor, for in one part of his life he ran the hazard, for
 
 39G APPENDIX, [NO. VIK 
 
 the sake of conscience, of wanting the common necessaries of 
 life. As I have the tract of Mr. Clerke, upon which Bishop Bull 
 made animadversions, I compared them together many years ago, 
 and I find this observation in a vacant space hefore the title page, 
 " The famous Bull wrote animadversions upon this treatise, but 
 he has left many arguments without the least appearance of an 
 answer, which strongly support the Unitarian cause j this cause 
 indeed is founded upon such powerful evidence, as cannot be 
 overthrown by the >vit of man." I am inclined to judge, that 
 Bull saw something which he could not answer, and this raised 
 his indignation. I entirely agree with Mr. Clerke, that Bull, iu 
 the last section of his Defence, relative to the subordination, had 
 yielded great part of the question up to the Unitarians or, rather, 
 had given it quite up. Subordination, in any sense, absolutely 
 demolishes the Athanasian system. All that appears of Mr. 
 Philip Gibbs is, that as he had been bred up in the Calvinistic 
 plan, upon a more exact examination of Scripture, and the study 
 of the best authors, he became an Unitarian, and gave up pre- 
 destination, original sin, &c. In consequence of his conviction, 
 he addressed a letter to his congregation, wherein he openly and 
 fairly delivered his sentiments : upon which they desired him 
 to withdraw peaceably from their communion. He was after- 
 ward taken into partnership with a considerable tradesman, and 
 died within a few years in that station. 
 
 Be pleased to return my best respects to Dr. Price, for taking 
 in good part what I thought might prove useful to his design. 
 But I find a disinclination in many learned persons to give up 
 the divine prescience. Crellius, I really think, has argued the 
 point with sagacity and deep penetration, and has stated the 
 case in such a guarded manner, as not to break in upon om- 
 niscience itself, when understood in a perfectly rational sense ; 
 and h#s likewise made it consistent with prophecies delivered in 
 the Old and New Testament. 1 did not translate the whole 
 chapter, but am of opinion that the whole deserves the careful 
 perusal of curious Beraeans. I perused several years ago with 
 peculiar satisfaction Dr. Price's Review of the principal Ques- 
 tions and Difficulties of Morals, and likewise his four Disserta- 
 tions. I objected only to one sentence in his dissertation on 
 Providence, which it is not necessary to mention, as it has been 
 taken notice of by ethers; and the Doctor, I dare say, can guess 
 at my meaning. I gave my hearty assent to his Political Trea- 
 tise, published at a seasonable time, well calculated to answer 
 those purposes the worthy author had in view, and which, I be- 
 lieve, have been eventually answered. I sincerely wish him joy 
 of his success. Upon the whole I ought to acknowledge with 
 gratitude, that I have received considerable improvement and
 
 NO. VII.] APPENDIX. 397 
 
 much rational pleasure from the excellent writings of Dr. Price, 
 which have engaged my attention, but am not qualified to form 
 a proper judgement of that part of them which are taken up in 
 curious and nice calculations, as being deficient in that branch 
 of science. I must beg the favour of you to express my parti- 
 cular satisfaction to Dr. Priestley, for the very candid observa- 
 tion he has made on our difference of sentiments, which shews 
 a disposition to promote peace and harmony among Christians, 
 and possibly an uniform agreement in some grand and essential 
 points through the whole Christian world. If Dr. Priestley judges 
 that there is no real difference betwixt him and Dr. Price, the 
 same thing may be said of myself, as, unless I am mistaken, we 
 are very nearly of the same sentiments. I certainly have ex- 
 pressed myself in a way different from that of Dr. Priestley, 
 with regard to some opinions he has published, and at the same 
 time have esteemed him for several of his practical treatises, 
 which have fallen in my way. I sincerely believe that he is well 
 disposed to promote the cause of natural and revealed religion, 
 which plainly appears from his tracts on that subject, and which 
 I had an opportunity of reading some time ago with satisfaction. 
 I am a stranger to his philosophical discoveries and disquisitions, 
 as having never acquired any thing farther than a superficial 
 knowledge of that science, which he has so happily cultivated 
 and improved. I heartily wish him success in all his commend- 
 able undertakings : philosophy, when in the hands of a truly 
 religious and ingenious person, has a natural tendency to display 
 the glory of the One Supreme God and Father of all. You 
 guess right about the book relative to the controversy of neces- 
 sity betwixt Dr. Price and Dr. Priestley, it not being in my pos- 
 session, and so should be glad to accept of your kind offer. 
 With respect to Dr. Priestley's present undertaking, by that little 
 acquaintance I had formerly with the primitive fathers, I am 
 induced to believe that the Doctor will be able to prove his point 
 to the satisfaction of unprejudiced inquirers. 
 
 It gives me peculiar satisfaction, that any thing I haye done 
 relating to the book of Exodus has your approbation ; only I 
 would observe, that your candid opinion of the author has pre- 
 vailed upon you to pass a too favourable sentence. I thought it 
 right to speak my mind freely of Dr. Kennicott's short attempt 
 to please the reputed orthodox, and presume he could not have 
 taken it amiss, if he had been alive. You are so very obliging 
 as to think of mentioning my name among the worthies, if your 
 very useful work should come to a second edition, which I heartily 
 wish it may for the public good ; but I make this request, that, 
 if upon a review you should judge it improper i'n any respect to 
 mention my name, you would suppress it. I am very much
 
 398 APPENDIX. [NO. vii. 
 
 concerned to hear of Dr. Jebb's precarious state of health ; but 
 you express some hopes that he may get the better of it, which 
 I sincerely wish may prove the case. You tell me great news 
 concerning the Bishops : surely a review will be attempted at 
 last, and possibly I may have the pleasure of seeing something 
 actually done in the glorious cause before 1 die, though far ad- 
 vanced in years. 
 
 I am, dear Sir, with my kind respects to Mrs. Lindsey, Doctor 
 and Mrs. Disney, Doctor and Mrs. Jebb, 
 
 Your very affectionate friend, and 
 
 deeply obliged humble servant, 
 
 W. HOPKINS. 
 
 FROM THE SAME, AND MARKED BY MR. LINDSEY, " THE 
 
 EXCELLENT MR. HOPKINs's LAST LETTER." 
 DEAR GOOD SIR, Cuckfield, December 17, 1785. 
 
 I HOPE to be able to send you some sort of answer to your 
 very kind and Christian letter, which I received the last post. 
 
 With respect to my scruples relating to church matters, they 
 are entirely removed by your determination. Your solicitous 
 concern for my welfare is very engaging, and which you have 
 plainly shown by procuring for me a very handsome present from 
 a worthy member of the Society. I accept of it with grateful 
 thanks, as my imprudent son has very much wasted my substance 
 by his vicious extravagance; but still I am provided with a de- 
 cent support by proper management. I will take care to employ 
 a person some day next week to call at your house for the gene- 
 rous gift. And as you think my name may be something in the 
 Society book, though a poor something, I revoke my design of 
 having it struck out, and refer the time of my little payment to 
 you and the Society. 
 
 I cannot conclude without taking notice, that your charity in- 
 duces you to entertain a more favourable opinion than I really 
 deserve; neither ought I to put myself upon a footing with such 
 worthy persons as yourself, who have maintained an unblemished 
 character all their lives; that of a poor humble penitent is all 
 that I can justly claim. 
 
 May the One Supreme God and Father of all give a blessing 
 and success to all your sincere endeavours to promote the cause 
 of his true religion, and likewise those of your worthy associates ! 
 and may all possible success attend the Christian Society which 
 you have formed for the same excellent purpose ! which is the 
 earnest prayer of, 
 
 Good sir, 
 Your highly obliged fitend, and humble servant, 
 
 W. HOPKINS.
 
 NO. IX.] APPENDIX. 
 
 No. IX. 
 
 P. Courayer to the Rev. T. Lindsey. 
 
 DEAR MR. LINDSEY*, A Percy Lodge, ce 29 Septembre, 1/51, 
 
 JE suis charme que votre progres dans la langue Frangoise 
 vous rende ma recommandation inutile. Car par vous mthne 
 votis saurez assez vous recommander a ceux avec qui vous ferez 
 connoissance. La science et la bonne conduite sont tin excellent 
 passe-par-tout aupres de tous les honnetes gens. 
 
 Quoi que je ne puisse convenir avec Mr. de St. Feme que rna 
 retraite ait etc une perte pour personne, je suis persuade, corame 
 lui, que si j'etois reste en France je n'y aurois pu demeurer sans 
 m'exposer a de grandes difficultez et a quelques dangers; -et 
 quelque mortification que j'aye eu a souffrir en quittant une 
 societe et un pais ou. je vivois avec agre'ment et satisfaction, je 
 ne me repens, point de cette demarche, qui m'a dedommage de 
 ce que j'ai perdu par les avantages que j'ai retrouvez ici, et qui 
 a mis ma conscience a convert des troubles et des tentations aax 
 quelles elle auroit etd exposee en demeurant dans ma patrie, 
 
 Rien n'est plus triste, comme vous 1'observez, que de volr 
 les hommes se persecuter pour des opinions sur des points ob- 
 scurs, dont la decision est aussi incertaine que le sont les points 
 memes en question, et qui d'ailleurs n'ont que tres peu d'mflu- 
 ence sur les moeurs et la conduite des hommes. Mais on veut 
 dominer sur la foi des autres; et la meme ambition qui porte les 
 princes a etendre leurs domaines, engage les theologiens a vou- 
 loir faire regner leurs opinions. C'est -un mal aussi ancien que 
 le monde, et il y a long terns que, comme 1'a dit un ancien, 
 rhomme se comporte en bete feroce a regard des antresj homo 
 homini lupus. Que faire pour remedier a ce mal ? En gemir 
 devant Dieu, lui demander la grace de changer le co2ur des hom- 
 mes, et de les ramener a des sentimens plus eclairez, censwrer 
 cet esprit de domination quand 1'occasion se pre*sente de le faire 
 avec utilite, et si on ne peut reformer les autres, s'eloigner soi 
 meme d'une pareille disposition, et laisser la liberte" a chacun d 
 suivre ses propres lumieres en conservant I'esprit d'union et de 
 charit6 qui fait proprement 1'essence de la religion. 
 
 La demande que vous me faites est si vague que je ne saurois 
 pour cette fois y repondre. Vous me priez de vous faire cou- 
 noitre quelques petits traitez que vous puissiez vous procurer. 
 Je ne sais ce que vous entendez par la. Sont-ce des ttaites de 
 piete, ou de controverse, ou de belles lettres ? Sont-ce o des 
 ouvrages de morale ou des sermons, ou simplement des ouvrage* 
 d'esprit? Pardonnez moi de ne rien repondre a une demande 
 qui est trop g<^nerale pour que je puisse y satisfaire. 
 
 * So in the original.
 
 400 APPENDIX. [NO. ix. 
 
 J'ai pris part coiumc toute la France a la naissance du Due 
 de Bourgogne. Je crois m6mc que c'est un bien pour toute 
 1'Europe, qu'un defaut de succession pourroit rengager dans une 
 guerre generale. Mou exil ne me rend point insensible aux 
 avantages de ma patrie. Mais comme ce n'est pas tout d'avoir 
 un prince a moins qu'il ne soit bon, mes voeux presentement se 
 bornent a en souhaiter un qui fasse le bonheur de son royaume, 
 et qui rende ses peuples aussi heureux que &a naissance leur 
 domic de satisfaction. 
 
 Apre quatre mois de sejour a Percy Lodge, je m'en retourne 
 cette semaine il Londres. J'ai la satisfaction de laisser la Du- 
 chesse en assez bonne sante. Je lui en souhaite la continuation, 
 d'autant plus que d'elle depend le support et la subsistance de 
 bieti des pauvres aux besoins desquels sa charite fournit. 
 
 Je ne sais si je dois vous faire mes complimens sur les bt'ndfices 
 que My Lord Northumberland vous offie. Le plus considerable 
 n'est qu'un depot, que je ne regarde pas trop comme 1-egitime, 
 et que nous regardons en France comme une sorte de simonie. 
 L'autre ne vous donne qu'une simple subsistance, et vous m'avez 
 souvent avoue que vous ne vous contenteriez pas d'une cure qui 
 lie vous donnat pas de quoi fournir aux pauvres dont vous seriez 
 charge. Ainsi j'attens que vous ayez pris votre resolution pour 
 savoir si je dois vous en feliciter. 
 
 Mr. Cowslad vous fait ses complirnens, quoi qu'il soit en 
 colere que vous ne lui ayez pas envoye" la recette de la creme 
 de Blois qu'il vous avoit demandee. Mes tendres amities a 
 Mr. de St. Perne, et mes complimens a My Lord Warkworth, 
 a qui je souhaite la continuation de sa sante. 
 
 Comme je suppose que la Duchesse vous mande les nouvelles 
 courantes, je ne me charge point de ce detail. 11 n'est question 
 pour moi que de m'entretenir dans votre souvenir, et de vous 
 demander la continuation de votre amide. Personne ne la 
 merite mieux, s'il suffit pour la meriter d'avoir pour vous autant 
 d'estime et d'attachement que j'en ai. II ne tiendra qu'a vous 
 de me fournir quelque occasion de vous en donner des preuvee, 
 et de vous couvaincre que personne n'est plus sincerement, 
 Mon cher ami, 
 
 Votre tres humble et 
 
 tres obeissant serviteur, 
 
 P. fr. LE COURAYER. 
 
 A Monsieur 
 Monsieur Lindsey.
 
 NO. X.] APPENDIX. 401 
 
 No. X. 
 
 From William Wells, Esq. of Boston in New England, 
 to the Author. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, Boston, March 21, 1812. 
 
 1 AM glad to hear you received the sermons safe. About six 
 weeks ago I forwarded to Mr. Freme a parcel for you, contain- 
 ing the first No. of " The General Repository and Review." 
 For this you are indebted to Mr. B. I think a letter from him 
 accompanied the Review, but am not sure, as I took no memo- 
 randum of the contents of the parcel. A second number will 
 shortly appear, which shall be forwarded by the earliest oppor- 
 tunity. I believe I mentioned in my last the name of the editor, 
 Mr. Norton, an excellent young man. Of his abilities you will 
 be able to judge. I think the first article, and the review of the 
 Horsleian and Priestleian controversy display a soundness of 
 judgement which at his age is rare. A number of young men 
 who have taken their bachelor's degree now reside at Cambridge 
 as theological students. Several of them are the sons of men of 
 fortune, some, as far as I can judge, of superior talents ; and all 
 are pursuing their professional studies with a zeal which is well 
 directed by the very worthy and learned Dr. Ware, professor of 
 divinity, and Dr. Kirkland the president, and an honesty which 
 is entirely unfettered and unbiassed by any system whatever. 
 We have to contend here, as you in England^ for the first prin- 
 ciples of protestantism, but I see no reason to fear that the en- 
 suing generation will be destitute of able champions for the right 
 of private judgement. 
 
 With regard to the progress of Unitarianism, I have but little 
 to say. Its tenets have spread very extensively in New England, 
 but I believe there is only one church professedly Unitarian. 
 The churches at Portland and Saco, of which you speak, hardly 
 ever saw the light, and exist no longer. The Mr. Thacher who 
 was formerly a member of Congress, and the Judge T. whom 
 Mr. Merrick mentions, are the same. He is one of the Judges 
 of our Supreme Court, an excellent man and most zealous Uni- 
 tarian. He is now on the circuit in this town, and tells me he 
 is obliged on Sunday to stay at home, or to hear a Calvinistic 
 minister. He is no relation to our friend. 
 
 Most of our Boston clergy and respectable laymen (of whom 
 we have many enlightened theologians) are Unitarian. Nor do 
 they think it at all necessary to conceal their sentiments upon 
 these subjects, but express them without the least hesitation 
 when they judge it proper. I may safely say, the general habit 
 of thinking and speaking upon this question in Boston, is Uni- 
 tarian. At the same time the controversy is seldom or never 
 
 2D
 
 402 APPENDIX. [NO. x. 
 
 introduced into the pulpit. I except the Chapel church. If 
 publications make their appearance attacking Unitarian senti- 
 ments, they are commonly answered with spirit and ability ; hut 
 the majority of those who are Unitarian are perhaps of these 
 sentiments, without any distinct consciousness of being so. Like 
 the first Christians, finding no sentiments but those in the N.T. 
 and not accustomed to hear the language of the N. T. strained 
 and warped by theological system-makers, they adopt naturally 
 a just mode of thinking. 
 
 This state of things appears to me so favourable to the dis- 
 semination of correct sentiments, that I should perhaps regret a 
 great degree of excitement in the public mind upon these sub- 
 jects. The majority would eventually be against us. The ig- 
 norant, the violent, the ambitious, and the cunning, would carry 
 the multitude with them in religion as they do in politics. One 
 Dr. M., in a contest for spreading his own sentiments among 
 the great body of the people, would, at least for a time, beat 
 ten Priestleys. Not to dwell upon the consideration, that Uni- 
 tarianism consists rather in not believing; and that it is more 
 easy to gain proselytes to absurd opinions, than to make men 
 zealous in refusing to believe, with what arms, when the ol noXXoi 
 are the judges, can virtue and learning and honour contend with 
 craft and cunning and equivocation and falsehood and intolerant 
 zeal ? Learning is worse than useless, virtue is often diffident 
 of her own conclusions, and, at any rate, more anxious to render 
 men good Christians, than to make them Christians of her own 
 denomination; and that self-respect, which is the companion of 
 virtue, disdains to meet the low cunning of her adversaries, or to 
 flatter the low prejudices of her judges. I think then it must be 
 assumed as an axiom, that a persevering controversy upon this 
 question would render the multitude bigoted and persecuting 
 talvinists. Then come systems and catechisms in abundance. 
 Every conceited deacon, every parishioner who has, or thinks he 
 has, a smattering in theology, becomes the inquisitor of his pas- 
 tor. In such circumstances learning and good sense have no 
 chance. They cannot even be heard. 
 
 The violent party here have chosen to meet their opponents 
 upon very unfavourable ground. Instead of making it a cause 
 of orthodoxy against heresy, they have very unwisely preferred 
 to insist upon a subscription to articles of faith. Tin's has given 
 great offence to many who are disposed to be in favour of their 
 creed, and thrown them into the opposite scale. Dr. Osgood 
 is really orthodox in sentiment, but a noble and determined sup- 
 porter of the right of private judgement, and on the best pos- 
 sible terms with our Boston friends. This is also the case with 
 the venerable Dr. Lathrop of West-Springfield, Mr. Palmer's
 
 NO. XI.] APPENDIX. 403 
 
 friend, and many others. In short, we are now contending for 
 the liberty of being Protestants. If we can persuade the people 
 (and we stand upon advantageous ground) that we have the 
 right to think upon religious subjects as our consciences and 
 the scriptures direct, things will go on very well. Learning, 
 good sense, and virtue will then produce their natural effects ; 
 and just modes of thinking upon subjects of this nature, as upon 
 all others, will necessarily prevail. 
 
 Will you, my dear Sir, excuse my unintentional prolixity ? 
 I do not know that you will approve my sentiments, nor am I 
 very confident of their justness; but I have seen the contest 
 between truth and falsehood, before the multitude ; between 
 every thing which is respectable, and every thing which is detest- 
 able, so unequal in politics, that I dread the event in matters of 
 religion. Still I would be no advocate for timidity, much less 
 for any thing like equivocation or evasion; and it must be con- 
 fessedj that prudence often degenerates into these vices. 
 I remain, dear Sir, 
 
 with the greatest esteem, 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 To the Rev. Thomas Belsham. W. WELLS, JUN. 
 
 No. XL 
 
 From the Rev. Thomas Fyshe Palmer, to Mr. Lindsey; 
 giving some account of his treatment on board the 
 Surprize transport. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, N. S. Wales, Sydney, Sept. 15, 1795. 
 
 IT was with inexpressible pleasure that I again saw your hand- 
 writing; receiving your letter and parcel of books safe, for which 
 I am much obliged to you. I long to read with attention the 
 Commentary on the Revelation, which I believe will nearly (from 
 a hasty glimpse of it) meet my own ideas. I am happy to find 
 that my edition of Elwall is in the hands of a person who will 
 give them away: it was printed for that very purpose, nor must 
 I allow your kind partiality to frustrate it. 
 
 I must begin with telling you that we have all enjoyed unin- 
 terrupted health, excepting that landing with weak eyes, and 
 using them very much at the time, the common malady of the 
 climate has ever since grievously affected them, so that I have 
 been obliged to give over reading and writing. But they are now 
 considerably better. 
 
 By this time you will, I imagine, have received the dismal nar- 
 rative of my sufferings on board the Surprize ; the master of which 
 
 2D2
 
 404 APPENDIX. [NO. XI* 
 
 accused me and Mr. Skin ing of hiring people to murder him and 
 the principal officers. He pitched on some unhappy people a- 
 our associates, and what he made them and us endure is hardly 
 to be credited. It must have been more than human help which 
 supported me. One week of it at any other time would have 
 dispatched me. In the torrid /one when 1 could not bear the 
 covering of my shirt, Mr. Skirving and I were shut up in a box 
 six feet square, and not suffered to pass the threshold. At night, 
 as a vast indulgence, we were separated, and I laid in a bed not 
 merely wet but soaked through with salt water and rain, which 
 my tyrant would not permit me or my friends to dry. The pre- 
 tended associates were much worse treated ; every cruelty and 
 every artifice were employed to make them accuse us. They 
 were flogged, and illegally reduced to half allowance. They were 
 loaded with sixty pounds weight of irons, and all chained to an 
 iron bar and exposed on the poop all weather, in that dreadful 
 temperature. When I landed, six or seven people went volun- 
 tarily to a magistrate, and swore that C. offered them great re- 
 wards if they would swear that I and Mr. Skirving hired them to 
 murder him and the principal officers, that he held a pistol in his 
 hand and threatened to shoot some if they did not, and to treat 
 them as we traitors were. The whole of this I have entrusted to 
 Mr. White, principal surgeon of the settlement, who went home 
 in the Daedalus in December last. I believe I should have fallen 
 before my inhuman tyrant, had it not been for the courageous 
 and active friendship of James Ellis and Mr. Boston, the young 
 man I wrote to you about, and his wife. They were threatened 
 with irons, even Mrs. Boston ; and when Mr. Boston landed, 
 C. blasted all his prospects by accusing him of jacobinism and 
 
 drinking destruction to the K . This last was proved to be 
 
 an infamous falsehood. They gave another signal proof of their 
 friendship. Somehow or other their knowledge of the arts was 
 spread abroad at Rio de Janeiro, and the Viceroy paid them every 
 attention, kept a splendid table for them, had a man of rank to 
 attend them, set them to work, and, when convinced of their abi- 
 lity, offered them any sum to set up in business, and 300/. per 
 annum each to settle at Rio. They firmly rejected the offer 
 (though both were without a shilling), and every solicitation made 
 use of for their compliance, as it was their firm belief that C. 
 would have murdered me in their absence. After such kindness 
 it followed of course that we lived together, and that they shared 
 what I had. It was fortunate for them that I had something left 
 from the plunder of C. and his crew. The destructive and op- 
 pressive monopoly of the military officers forbad every one to pur- 
 chase of the ships that came to this harbour. The military offi- 
 cers alone bought, and resold to all the colony at 1000 per cent.
 
 NO. XI.] APPENDIX. 405 
 
 profit, and often more. They firmly, but in guarded language, 
 insisted on the rights of British subjects to carry on any trade, 
 not prohibited, in one of His Majesty's harbours. This irritated 
 the whole governing despotic power of the settlement against 
 them. They were refused a grant, servants, and never employed, 
 though, by making salt and curing fish, they could have saved the 
 colony from a famine. Where every thing is so immensely dear, 
 you may guess that it has laid heavy on me ; but my money could 
 not have been so well employed. The worst is over. They ma- 
 nufacture beer, vinegar, salt, soap, &c. for sale. I have a farm. 
 But, above all, Governor Hunter, who is, I hear from ail hands, 
 a good man, and their friend, is arrived, and the despotism and 
 infamous monopolies of the last government are no more. 
 
 The clergyman here, Mr. Johnson, is a most dutiful son of the 
 church of England, thinking it to be the best constituted church 
 in the world. He is a Moravian rnethodist, and was bred, I be- 
 lieve, at Magdalen, Cambridge. I believe him to be a very good, 
 pious, inoffensive man. None of our household ever have heard 
 him, though I confess I could have heard him yesterday with plea- 
 *ure. It was tile first Sunday after Governor Hunter's arrival. 
 He exposed the last government, their extortion, their despot- 
 ism, their debauchery and ruin of the colony, driving it almost to 
 famine by the sale of liquors at 1200 per cent, profit. He con- 
 gratulated the colony at the abolition of a military government, 
 and the restoration of a civil one, and of the laws. Orders are 
 this day, Tuesday, given out, that no officer shall sell any more 
 liquor. 
 
 I rejoice to hear of the safety, the care, and the reception of 
 Dr. Priestley, and the door of usefulness opened to him in 
 America. 
 
 I have sealed up my letter to Mr. Rutt. I must therefore de- 
 sire you to get our mutual friend Dyer to tell him that I have re- 
 ceived his letter of June 23d, and the parcel of newspapers and 
 pamphlets, and especially the highly interesting (to us) Reports 
 of the Secret Committee, sent to the care of Mr. Johnson. He 
 must tell him that I am overwhelmed with his goodness, and only 
 fear that I shall not show myself sufficiently deserving of it. 
 He must know that Mr. Muir lives with me, and that he, Skir- 
 ving, and I live in great cordiality; our houses at Sydney are con- 
 tiguous, as also our farms in the country. 
 
 I have written by every conveyance, and by the last to Dr. 
 Disney, to whom and Mrs. Disney I must beg to be particularly 
 remembered. Mrs. Lindsey will accept of my best regard; her 
 spectacles often recall her to my mind. 
 
 Farewell, dear Sir. I hope it is reserved for me to see you
 
 406 APPENDIX. [NO. xii. 
 
 again in this state ; and I earnestly pray never to be separated 
 from you in the next. 
 
 I am your affectionate and obliged 
 
 THOS. FYSHE PALMER. 
 To the Rev. Mr. Lindsey, 
 
 Essex-street, London. 
 
 No. XII. 
 
 Select Extracts from the Letters of Dr. Priestley to Mr. 
 Lindsey, and from Thomas Jefferson, Esq. President 
 of the United States, to Dr. Priestley. 
 
 FROM DR. PRIESTLEY. 
 
 Birmingham, Aug. 26, 1 "89. 
 
 THE Archdeacon had indeed an euthanasia, and I find his friend 
 the Bishop of Carlisle died about the same time, and at about 
 the same age. They have been useful men in their day, and you 
 justly observe none are without their failings, and least of all great 
 minds. This I see confirmed, and I am sorry to see it so much 
 so, in Beausobre's History of the Reformation, which I have read 
 through with peculiar satisfaction. Luther had great delects 
 indeed, and of a very disagreeable kind ; especially envy, and dis- 
 like of other reformers. He wished all to follow him, and was 
 angry if they went one step farther. His behaviour to Carlostadt 
 and Zuinglius, &c. is inexcusable. But he had great and good 
 qualities notwithstanding, and would, I doubt not, have been an 
 intrepid martyr. Beausobre is far more satisfactory than Slei- 
 dan, but I am sorry that he goes no farther than the year 1530. 
 He certainly meant to have written more. The last volume is 
 particularly interesting 
 
 In a letter from Mr. Palmer in Scotland, you will see that he 
 corresponds with Mr. Robinson, of Cambridge, as an avowed 
 Unitarian. But he ought to make a public declaration, after 
 what he has written 
 
 FROM THE SAME. 
 
 Birmingham, Oct. 3, 1789. 
 
 AT my return I found a letter from Mr. Tayleur, with a bill of 
 150 pounds for the expencesof my Ecclesiastical History. I told 
 him I apprehended it would be considerably tqo much, and that 
 1 should consult with you, and did not doubt we should dispose 
 of the overplus to his satisfaction. I send you the letter and bill, 
 which I wish you would put into the hands of Mr. Chambers, who, 
 as usual, will give a receipt, and allow interest fur it. How uu-
 
 NO. XII.] APPENDIX. 407 
 
 boundedly generous Mr. Tayleur is ! I may well afford to give 
 
 my books, when they are paid for beforehand. Before I took 
 
 my journey I ordered 25 copies of my History of Early Opinions 
 to be sent to you. I am told they were immediately sent by a 
 waggon that goes to the Castle and Falcon, Aldersgate-street. 
 You say nothing about the parcel, and therefore it has not been 
 delivered. I am really desirous of giving a great part of the im- 
 pression. I cannot consider them as my property, and only wish 
 to place them where they may be of the most use. 
 
 You will be pleased to be informed, that at Manchester I met 
 with two Unitarian street-preachers, men of good sense and great 
 zeal, who had read hardly any thing besides the Bible, nothing 
 of mine or yours. They are Baptists, and 14 in number; not 
 more than two months' standing. One of them had been in Mr. 
 Wesley's connection. As they had hired a building for their 
 meetings in the winter, and were at expense in travelling to 
 preach in the neighbouring towns, &c. I gave them five guineas. 
 They are all working men. I was exceedingly pleased with their 
 conversation. They told me of another society of the same kind 
 in York of 60 members ; and others are forming in different 
 places. Young Mr. Toulmin was with me, and gave them some 
 of my small pieces ; and I promised to send them other books. 
 The name of one of them was John Laycock, and the other 
 
 Burton. Two others of their friends were also preachers. 
 
 They <spake with great fluency and propriety. .... 
 
 FROM THE SAME. 
 
 Birmingham, May 24, 1790. 
 
 I GREATLY admire Mr. 's spirit and zeal, but I cannot 
 
 approve of his plan. Neither Christianity nor the Reformation 
 was carried on in that way, but more silently and naturally,, like 
 the growth of corn, to which our Saviour compared the former. 
 So ostentatious a method of proceeding would engage our oppo- 
 nents in similar measures, and excite a spirit of party, which is 
 hostile to free inquiry. Besides, the relief of sufferers, publicly 
 held out, would draw endless claimants, to whom no satisfaction 
 could be given. Assistance in particular and well-known cases 
 may still be given, books may be distributed, and lay preachers, 
 who want but little money, may be encouraged, without making 
 much noise. The very apparatus and correspondence necessary 
 
 for such a scheme as Mr. 's would alone be very expensive, 
 
 and the same money may be much better employed
 
 408 APPENDIX. [NO. XII. 
 
 FROM THE SAME. 
 DEAR FRIEND, Birmingham, June 11, 1/90. 
 
 WE have had a melancholy scene here since I wrote last. Mr. 
 Robinson, who preached our charity sermon on Sunday last, was 
 found dead in his bed on Wednesday morning at Mr. Russell's. 
 He was much enfeebled in body and mind, but had been bent on 
 taking the journey, and exerting himself to the utmost. His dis- 
 order the physicians call angina pectoris. Two nights he was 
 with me, and on Monday evening he had a fit, from which I 
 thought he would hardly have recovered. However, he was much 
 better the next day, when he dined with Mr. Hawkes, and, aft^r 
 dinner, was in remarkably good spirits, and entertained us with 
 many stories and anecdotes. He ate a hearty supper, and went 
 to bed seemingly in good health ; but it was evident that he had 
 another fit soon after he went to bed, and that he expired in it ? 
 for he was almost cold at nine o'clock the next morning. 
 
 He was by no means fit to preach ; and though he was not at 
 a loss for words, he rambled into many things quite foreign to the 
 subject, dwelling much on Unitarianism at both meetings, though 
 they were different sermons. He used no notes. I have com- 
 posed a sermon on the occasion of his death, which I shall preach 
 next Sunday. We expect letters or messengers from Cambridge, 
 but expect to bury him here. 
 
 I am very glad, that you propose to omit the Creed, and to 
 make q, discourse on the occasion. Your example will give a 
 sanction to the measure every where else. Mr. Robinson said he 
 never felt so sensible a relief to his mind as when he read what I 
 published on the Miraculous Conception. He had always doubt- 
 ed the story, but never ventured to mention his suspicion to any 
 body. 
 
 He was correcting some of the last sheets of his History of Bap- 
 tism, which, I dare say, will be a curious and valuable work. 
 Yours and Mrs. Lindsey's most affectionately, 
 
 J. PRIESTLEY. 
 
 FROM THE SAME. 
 DEAR FRIEND, Birmingham, June 24, 1790. 
 
 You will see by the inclosed that I will not publish the Sermon 
 till I hear from the family. I beg therefore that you would take 
 back those I sent you, or take the trouble to deliver the altera^ 
 tions I may have occasion to make in it. 
 
 It is evident that Mr. Robinson, though an Unitarian, did not 
 wish to incur the odium of it with all his old friends. 
 
 I want to know how Mr. Dodson goes on with his translation^ 
 of the Prophets. I stick close tp my part, and hope to have
 
 NO. XII.] APPENDIX. 409 
 
 finished all that is essential before you come, at the end of the 
 next month, or the middle of it. I do a certain quantity per day. 
 We must make a point of dispatching the whole this year. I shall 
 see Mr. B., and talk to him about his part. I shall also write to 
 Mr. F.,'and give him any help that he may want. My method 
 is to paste paper to the margin of a quarto Bible, and make the 
 alterations there. This I think better, on every account, than to 
 write the whole, and especially much easier to those who exa- 
 mine it. 
 
 Yours and Mrs. Lindsey's most affectionately, 
 
 J. PRIESTLEY. 
 
 FROM THE SAME. 
 
 Birmingham, June 26, 1 / 90. 
 
 I SEND you with this a few copies of my Sermon for Mr. Ro- 
 binson, to be disposed of as presents to whom you please. Do not 
 forget Mr. Radcliffe. None will be sold in London or Cambridge 
 till it has been seen by the family, and they allow the account 
 given of Mr. Robinson. There can be no doubt of his change of 
 sentiment, whether it should appear in his writings or not. He 
 had been a cautious man, and forbore to announce his change 
 of opinion to his congregation ; but I hope he never deceived 
 them. The letter in the preface is Mr. C.'s, his son-in-law, the 
 same that called upon you. There was however something I can- 
 not account for with respect to his former opinion of the divinity 
 of Christ, unless he hold the indwelling scheme. For he said in 
 my hearing, he always thought the doctrine of the Trinity an ab- 
 surdity. On this supposition, however, I cannot vindicate his 
 writing that book. I hear he was uncommonly eager to read your 
 Reply. It was brought by Mr. C. before your present of it arrived, 
 and he sat up all night to read it, and was rnuch agitated by it. 
 He was also more affected than he ought to have been by the re- 
 ception he met with among his old friends after his change of 
 opinion was known. When Mr. Hobson, who was ail old ac- 
 quaintance of his, first saw him, he said, " They have killed 
 me j" and he complained to me, that among all his former friends 
 in London he had only two subscribers to his book. He had no 
 doubt been too fond of popularity, which is too often the case 
 with those who have the power of being p. However, his well 
 known change of sentiment cannot fail to have a considerable 
 effect. 
 
 FROM THE SAME. 
 
 Birmingham, July 6, 1790. 
 
 MR. ROBINSON certainly died a natural death, but not so I be- 
 lieve Mr. Silas Deane. Mr. W. Wilkinson says he always talked 
 of taking laudanum in extremity, and doubts not but he did it,
 
 410 APPENDIX. [NO. XII. 
 
 He had the greatest aversion to going to America with less honour 
 than he left it; and though he had nothing to fear, he was poor, 
 and would have been overlooked. He had lived a very licentious 
 life at Paris : but Mr. Wilkinson says he spent almost all he was 
 worth to purchase arms for the Americans, and was never repaid. 
 
 FROM THE SAME. 
 
 Birmingham, July 22, 1790. 
 
 IF you see Mr. Dodson, tell him it will by no means do to re- 
 print either Blayney or Bishop Newcome, as we must keep much 
 nearer to the phraseology of the present version than they do. We 
 must content ourselves with departing from it only for the sake 
 of some real improvement. I have now gone once through the 
 Psalms and Proverbs, and I will undertake Daniel and the minor 
 prophets, if he will do Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Or, as I have 
 more than six months before me, and I am determined to make 
 this my principal business, I can very well do the whole ; and if 
 you think so, you need not say any tiling to him ; or tell him that 
 I shall undertake it if he has not leisure, or that he may take 
 what he pleases, and leave me the rest. I fear some quaintness 
 in his style, and we must avoid every thing of the kind, as we 
 shall be laughed at. 
 
 LETTERS FROM DR. PRIESTLF.Y TO MR. LINDSEYSOON AFTER HIS 
 ARRIVAL IN AMERICA. 
 
 No. 1. 
 
 DEAR FRIEND, New York, June 15, 1/94. 
 
 WE have now been here near a fortnight, and I begin to expect 
 to hear from you, which is the greatest satisfaction that I expect 
 in this country. But I sometimes think that every thing here is 
 so promising, and every thing with you so threatening, that per- 
 haps even you and Mrs. Lindsey may be induced to end your 
 days with us. To accomplish this, I should at any time come 
 over and fetch you. Indeed, the difference between the aspect 
 of things here and with you is not to be expressed. I feel as if 
 I were in another world. I never before could conceive how sa- 
 tisfactory it is to have the feeling I now have from a sense of per- 
 fect security and liberty, all men having equal rights and privi- 
 leges, and speaking and acting as if they were sensible of it. Here 
 are no beggars to be seen, and families are easily maintained by 
 any kind of labour ; and whether it be the effect of general liber- 
 ty, or some other cause, I find many more clever men, men ca- 
 pable of conversing with propriety and fluency on all subjects re- 
 lating to government, than I have met with any where in Eng- 
 land. 1 have seen many of the members of Congicss on their
 
 NO. XII.] APPENDIX. 411 
 
 return from it, and, without exception, they seem to be men of 
 first-rate ability, though some of them plain in their manners. 
 With respect to myself the difference is great indeed. In England 
 I was an object of the greatest aversion to every person connect- 
 ed with government ; whereas here they are those who show me 
 the most respect. With you the Episcopal church is above every 
 thing. In this city it makes a decent figure, but the Presbyte- 
 rians are much above them, and the Governor (Clinton), who is 
 particularly attentive to me, goes to the meeting-house. 
 
 But the preachers, though all civil to me, look upon me with 
 dread, and none of them has asked me to preach in their pulpits. 
 This, however, does them no good. Several persons express a wish 
 to hear me, and are ashamed of the illiberality of the preachers, 
 and some are avowed Unitarians ; so that I am fully persuaded 
 an Unitarian minister, of prudence and good sense, might do 
 very well here. If I were here a Sunday or two more 1 would 
 make a beginning, and 1 intend to return for this purpose. The 
 greatest difficulty arises from the indifference of liberal-minded 
 men as to religion in general ; they are so much occupied with com- 
 merce and politics. One man of proper spirit would be sufficient 
 to establish a solid Unitarian interest ; and I am persuaded it will 
 soon be done. As I am much attended to, and my writings, 
 which are in a manner unknown here, begin to be inquired after, 
 I will get my small pamphlets immediately printed here ; and 
 wherever I can gel an invitation to preach I will go. With this 
 view I shall carefully avoid all the party politics of the country, 
 and have no other object besides religion and philosophy. Phi- 
 ladelphia will be a more favourable situation than this, and there 
 I shall make a beginning. It will be better, however, to wait a 
 little time, and not show much zeal at the first : and as my com- 
 ing here is much talked of, I shall reprint my Fast and Farewell 
 Sermons. 
 
 As it may serve to amuse you and Mrs. Lindsey, I will inclose 
 copies of some Addresses, and my answers ; and also some letters 
 from persons who are of a party opposite to the addressers, but 
 equally friendly to me ; and I find I have given as much satisfac- 
 tion to them by the caution I have observed in my answers, as 
 to the addressers, who, however, I believe, are now well satisfied 
 that I do not openly join any of their societies, though at first I 
 am informed they were very desirous of it. The parties are the 
 Federalists and Anti-federalists : the former meaning the friends 
 of the present system, with a leaning to that of England, and 
 friendship with her j the latter wishing for some improvements, 
 leaning to the French system, and rather wishing for war. With 
 a little more irritation the latter will certainly prevail. They are 
 now, I believe, by far the most numerous, especially in the conn-
 
 412 APPENDIX. [NO. XII. 
 
 try, though the other prevail in the towns, especially here. The 
 people of Vermont on the one hand, and those of Kentucky on 
 the other, can hardly be restrained from falling on the English and 
 Spanish settlements, and the latter particularly seem disposed to 
 break off from the Union rather thah not have their way. 
 
 The exchange is so greatly in favour of the drawer (near nino 
 per cent.) that I am drawing for most of my money in England. 
 On Mr. Chambers I have drawn for 300/. xvhich is very nearly 
 what I have in his hands, and I have told him that the small dif- 
 ference on either side he may settle with you. On Mr. Johnson 
 I have drawn for 50/. I wish you would mention this to them, 
 lest the letters miscarry. 
 
 As Dr. Disney desired me to write to him, and I had a parcel 
 to deliver for him to Bishop Prevost, I inclose the letter for him 
 in this packet to you. I have also written to Mr. Belsham, whom 
 I hope, some time or other, to draw hither. He will tell you my 
 scheme. But as I am going to Philadelphia, I shall soon know 
 more on the subject. 
 
 I was never more mortified than I now am at not having with 
 me any of my small tracts in defence of the divine unity, as my 
 being here leads many persons to wish to read what I have writ- 
 ten on the subject. If Mr. Johnson has not sent the box of books 
 (chiefly my own publications) that he was to forward to Philadel- 
 phia, desire him to do it the first opportunity. I shall reprint 
 them, and I flatter myself they will produce a considerable effect. 
 Indeed my coming hither promises to be of much more service to 
 our cause than I had imagined. But time is necessary, and I am 
 apt to be too precipitate. I want your cool judgment. You wait- 
 ed patiently a long time in London j but what an abundant har- 
 vest have you had there ! 
 
 Nothing can be more delightful than the weather is here at 
 present, and I do not think the climate will be at all too hot for 
 me. I have only two days more to stay here : to-day I dine with 
 Mr. Bridges, a friend of Mr. Kemble's, and to-morrow with Ge- 
 neral Gates, whom I have seen often, and like very much. I have 
 met him frequently, and he is particularly attentive to me, and 
 was so to my son before I came. 
 
 With my best respects to Mrs. Rayner and all friends, in which 
 my wife joins, 
 
 I am, dear friend, 
 
 Yours and Mrs. Lindsey's most affectionately, 
 
 J. PRIESTLEY. 
 
 P. S. When you have done with the Addresses, &c. please tq 
 forward them to Mr. J. Wilkinson by his banker, Sir B. Hamtnet.
 
 *0. XII. J APPENDIX. 413- 
 
 No. 2. 
 DEAR FRIEND, Philadelphia, June 24, 1 "94. 
 
 THIS is my third letter to you. The last was by the Hope, 
 from New York. On Thursday last I arrived at this place. Our 
 journey was very pleasant, and the aspect of the country better 
 than 1 expected. This city is by no means so agreeable as New 
 York; but, upon the whole, more eligible than any other for my 
 residence till our settlement be ready for me. With respect to re- 
 ligion, things are exactly in the same state here as in New York. 
 Nobody asks me to preach, and I hear there is much jealousy and 
 dread of me ; and on the whole I am not sorry for the circum- 
 stance, as it offends many who have, on this account, the greater 
 desire to hear me ; so that I have little doubt but that I shall 
 form a respectable Unitarian society in this place. The alarm of 
 the danger of Unitarianism has been sounded so long, that it has 
 ceased to be terrific to many; and I stand so well with the coun- 
 try in other respects, that I dare say I shall have a fair and can- 
 did hearing ; and at my return from the Susquehannah, where I 
 propose to go the next week, I believe some place will be prepared 
 for me. In the mean time t am .printing an edition of my Ap- 
 peal and Trial of Elwall, which will be ready, I am told, by the 
 next Monday. Part of the impression will be sent to New York, 
 where things are in as great forwardness as here. If I do not 
 greatly deceive myself, I see a great harvest opening upon me ; 
 and there is room for many labourers, but it will require great 
 prudence and judgment at first. Also, those that come must not 
 be discouraged at first appearances, and be able to support them- 
 selves, and at a greater expence than would be necessary in Eng- 
 land ; and in New York or here, greater than in London itself. 
 This unexpected expence makes a great proportion of the emi- 
 grants repent of their coming, the women especially, who do not 
 easily find any society. Notwithstanding the flattering attention 
 that is paid to me, I cannot help sometimes regretting the society 
 I had in England. But I am fully satisfied that I did right to 
 leave it, and I firmly believe that much good will be done here by 
 my removal, and in this I rejoice. 
 
 My wife will find much more difficulty than myself. All people 
 complain of the difficulty of getting tolerable servants, and we 
 find we acted unwisely in bringing any. The woman, for whose 
 passage we paid twelve guineas, behaved in such a manner that 
 my wife dismissed her the first week ; and the boy, for whose 
 passage we paid the same, and at least ten pounds in fitting out, 
 is run away, and, for any thing that we yet know, may have car- 
 ried many things with him. We shall know more before night, 
 when we shall examine the things that came from New York.
 
 414 APPENDIX. [XO. XII. 
 
 The boy is since found ; he had taken nothing; but as he was 
 bent on going to sea we have let him go. 
 
 I have seen Mr. P., who made a genteel appearance, and gave 
 good reasons for his wife not having heard from him. He had 
 written : his passage was uncommonly long and unfortunate; and 
 then an embargo was laid here on all shipping for England. 
 
 I fear too, that when this was heard of with you, an embargo 
 would also be laid on ships going from England to America, and 
 that this may be the reason why we have not yet heard from any 
 body, and indeed have had no news of any kind from England. 
 We must have patience ; but we are very anxious to hear what 
 passes on the continent of Europe. Here both the Indians and 
 the English are making encroachments; and if orders from Eng- 
 land do not stop these proceedings, a war will be inevitable ; and 
 people in the back settlements are so eager for it, that they can 
 hardly be restrained even now. 
 
 Since I wrote the former part of this letter, I have almost de- 
 termined to make my residence in Northumberland, and spend 
 a few months of the winter in this city. This will on many ac- 
 counts be better than living chiefly here. The expence will be 
 prodigiously less; I shall have more leisure for all my pursuits, 
 and I shall be, on the whole, of as much use in propagating Uni- 
 tarianism, as if I resided constantly in the town. I see so great 
 a certainty of planting Unitarianism on this continent, that I 
 wish you and Mr. Belsham would be looking out for proper per- 
 sons to establish in New York and Philadelphia, and also to sup- 
 ply the College, which you may take for granted will be esta- 
 blished at the place of my residence. A place of worship is 
 building here by a society who call themselves Universalists : they 
 propose to leave it open to any sect of Christians three days in 
 the week, but they want money to finish it. My friends think to 
 furnish them with money, and engage the use of it for Sunday 
 mornings. The society itself, I hear, intend to apply to me to 
 open it ; which I shall gladly do. A person with a proper spirit 
 and prudence may do great things here. Mr. H. was the most 
 imprudent of men, and did apparently much harm here; but even- 
 tually even that may be for the best. I find I have great advan- 
 tages, and I hope to make a good use of them. 
 
 I shall enclose an address to me from the Philosophical Society 
 in this place, which is the only one that I have received ; and 
 also the Preface to the American edition of my Appeal. Thomp- 
 son is here, and superintends the office where it is printed. He 
 will soon set up for himself. With all our respects, 
 
 Yours and Mrs. Lindsey's 
 most affectionately, 
 
 J. PRIESTLEY.
 
 NO. XII. 1 APPENDIX. 415 
 
 _J 
 
 A LETTER FROM THOMAS JEFFERSON, ESQ., PRESIDENT OF THE 
 UNITED STATES, TO DR. PRIESTLEY, SOON AFTER HIS ELEC- 
 TION TO THAT HIGH OFFICE. 
 DEAR SIR, Washington, March 21, 1801. 
 
 I LEAR NT some time ago that you were in Philadelphia, but that 
 it was only for a fortnight, and supposed you were gone. It was 
 not till yesterday I received information that you were still there; 
 had been very ill, but were on the recovery. I sincerely rejoice 
 that you are so. Yours is one of the few lives precious to man*- 
 kind, and for the continuance of which every thinking man must 
 be solicitous; bigots may be an exception. What an effort, my 
 dear sir, of bigotry in politics and religion have we gone through! 
 The barbarians really flattered themselves they should be able to 
 bring back the times of Vandalism, when ignorance put every 
 thing into the hands of power and priestcraft. All advances ia 
 science were proscribed as innovations ; they pretended to praise 
 and encourage education, but it was to be the education of our 
 ancestors ; we were to look backwards, not forwards, for im- 
 provement ; the President himself declaring in one of his answers 
 to addresses, that we were never to expect to go beyond them in 
 real science. This was the real ground of all the attacks upon 
 you : those who live by mystery and charlatanerie, fearing you 
 would render them useless by simplifying the Christian philoso- 
 phy, the most sublime and benevolent, but the most perverted 
 system that ever shone on man, endeavoured to crush your well- 
 earned and well-deserved fame ; but it was the Lilliputians upon 
 Gulliver. Our countrymen have recovered from the alarm into 
 which art and industry had thrown them ; science and honesty 
 are replaced on their high ground ; and you, my dear sir, as 
 their great apostle, are on its pinnacle. It is with heartfelt sa- 
 tisfaction, that in the first moments of my public action I can 
 hail you with welcome to our land, tender you the homage of its 
 respect and esteem, cover you under the protection of those laws 
 which were made for the wise and the good, like you, and dis- 
 claim the legitimacy of that libel on legislation, which, under the 
 form of a law, was for some time placed among them. As the 
 storm is now subsiding, and the horizon becoming serene, it is 
 pleasant to consider the phenomenon with attention. We can 
 no longer say there is nothing new under the sun ; for this whole 
 chapter in the history of man is new ; the great extent of our re- 
 public is new ; its sparse habitation is new; the mighty wave of 
 public opinion, which has rolled over it, is new; but the most 
 pleasing novelty is its so quickly subsiding, over such an extent 
 of surface, to its true level again. The order and good sense 
 displayed in this recovery from delusion, and in the momentous
 
 416 APPENDIX, [NO. XII. 
 
 crisis which lately arose, really bespeak a strength of character 
 in our nation which augurs well for the duration of our republic. 
 And I am much better satisfied now of its stability, than 1 was 
 before it was tried. I have been, above all things, solaced by 
 the prospect which opened on us in the event of a non -election 
 of a President* ; in which case the federal government would 
 have been in the situation of a clock or watch run down : there 
 was no idea of force, nor of any occasion for it. A Convention, 
 invited by the Republican Members of Congress, with the virtual 
 President and Vice -President, would have been on the ground in 
 eight weeks, would have repaired the constitution where it was 
 defective, and wound it up again. This peaceable and legitimate 
 resource to which we are in the habit of implicit obedience, su- 
 perseding all appeal to force, and being always within our reach, 
 shews a precious principle of self-preservation in our composition, 
 till a change of circumstances shall take place, which is not 
 within prospect at any definite period. But I have got into a 
 long disquisition on politics, when I only meant to express my 
 sympathy in the state of your health, and to tender you all the 
 affections of public and private hospitality- I should be very 
 happy indeed to see you here. I leave this about the 30th in- 
 stant, to return about the 25th of April ; if you do not leave Phi- 
 ladelphia before that, a little excursion hither would help your 
 health. I should be much gratified with the possession of a guest 
 I so mush esteem, and should claim a right to lodge you, should 
 you make such an excursion. Accept the homage of my high 
 consideration and respect, and assurances of affectionate attach- 
 ment. 
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 FROM DR. PRIESTLEY TO MR. LINDSEY. 
 DEAR FRIEND, Northumberland, April 15, 1803. 
 
 I AM happy to hear by Mr. B. that your health is still good ; 
 and as his letter is dated the first of February, I hope you have 
 got well over the winter. There is hardly any thing that I wish 
 for, or think of, more than the continuance of your life and 
 health, that you may see the last of my labours, and I may hear 
 your opinion of them. On this I have always laid more stress 
 than on that of all the world besides : and if you die before me, 
 I shall lose one of my most powerful stimuluses to exertion. As 
 to philosophy, I do not now give much attention to it, though I 
 do not wholly neglect it. With the good Dr. Heberden, Sir 
 John Pringle, and many others, who in early life engaged in phi- 
 
 The votes of the Senate were for some time equally divided between 
 Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Burr.
 
 ISO, XII.] APPENDIX. 417 
 
 losophical pursuits, but were real Christians, I think it-natural as 
 we draw nearer to a future and better world to think more of it, 
 and to have our reading and pursuits directed more than ever to- 
 wards it. 
 
 For the same reason I think more of my departed friends, Mrs. 
 Rayner, Dr. Price, Dr. Jebb, and others who have been my chief 
 friends and benefactors, than before ; forming conjectures (wild 
 ones no doubt) concerningour meeting and employment hereafter. 
 Such speculations as these have at least the effect to make the 
 thoughts of leaving the world, and our friends in it, less un- 
 pleasant, indeed sometimes almost desirable. If the disciplea of 
 Jesus rejoiced so much at his resurrection, what will they do at 
 his second coming, in his proper kingdom, and when ail their 
 friends will rise again, never to be separated any more 1 And the 
 firm faith that you and I have that even the wicked, after a state 
 of wholesome discipline (and that not more severe than will be 
 necessary) will be raised, in due time, to a state of happiness, 
 greatly diminishes our concern on their account. 
 
 Such reflections as these occur to rne more particularly when 
 I am not well, and my thoughts are less occupied with my pur- 
 suits. But though I had a pretty long relapse of bad health after 
 my last to you, when I thought myself quite well, and to have 
 recovered my usual good state of health, I am now again, I thank 
 God, pretty well, and nearly as busy as formerly. 
 
 Since I wrote the above I have received a letter from Mr. Jef- 
 ferson, on the subject of my pamphlet about Socrates, which I 
 will copy, and send it you the next post. I wish L could sent! 
 you all his letters ; but they are rather too long to copy, and a 
 specimen or two may be sufficient. 
 
 Yours and Mrs. Lindsey's 
 
 most affectionately, 
 
 J. PRIESTLEY. 
 
 FROM THOMAS JEFFERSON, ESQ., PRESIDENT OF THE UXITED 
 STATES, TO DR. PRIESTLEY, UPON HIS " COMPARATIVE VIEW 
 q# SOCRATES AND JESUS." 
 
 DEAR SIR, Washington, April 9, 1 80S. 
 
 WHILE on a short visit lately to Monticello, I received from you 
 a copy of your Comparative View pf Socrates and Jesus, and I avail 
 myself of the first moment of leisure after my return to acknow- 
 ledge the pleasure I had in the perusal, and the desire it excited to 
 see you take up the subject on a more extensive scale. In con- 
 sequence of some conversations with Dr. Rush in the years 1798- 
 99, I had promised some day to write him a letter, giving him 
 my view of the Christian system. I have reflected often on it 
 since, and even sketched the outlines in my own mind. 1 should 
 
 2 E
 
 418 APPENDIX. [NO. XII. 
 
 first tak^e a general view of the moral doctrines of the most re- 
 markable of the ancient philosophers, of whose ethics we have 
 Mjftk-Jent information to make an estimate : say, of Pythagoras, 
 Epicurus, Epictetus, Socrates, Cicero, Seneca, Antoninus. I 
 should do justice to the branches of morality they have treated 
 well, but point out the importance of those in which they are de- 
 ficient. I should then take a view of the deism and ethics of the 
 Jews, and show in what a degraded state they were, and the ne- 
 cessity they presented of a reformation. I should proceed to a 
 view of the life, character, and doctrines of Jesus, who, sensible 
 of the incorrectness of their ideas of the deity, and of morality, 
 endeavoured to bring them to the principles of a pure deism, and 
 juster notions of the attributes of God ; to reform their moral 
 doctrines to the standard of reason, justice, and philanthropy, 
 and to inculcate the belief of a future state. This view would 
 purposely omit the question of his divinity, and even of his in- 
 spiration. To do him justice, it would be necessary tp remark 
 the disadvantages his doctrines have to encounter, not having 
 been committed to writing by himself, but by the most unletter- 
 ed of men, by memory, long after they had heard them from him, 
 when much was forgotten, much misunderstood, and presented 
 in very paradoxical shapes. Yet such are the fragments remain- 
 ing, as to show a master-workman, and that his system of mo- 
 rality was the most benevolent and sublime probably that has 
 been ever taught, and more perfect than those of any of the an- 
 cient philosophers. His character and doctrines have received 
 still greater injury from those who pretend to be his special dis- 
 ciples, and who have disfigured and sophisticated his actions and 
 precepts from views of personal interest, so as to induce the un- 
 thinking part of mankind to throw off the whole system in dis- 
 gust, and to pass sentence as an impostor on the most innocent, 
 the most benevolent, the most eloquent and sublime character 
 that ever has been exhibited to man. This is the outline ; but I 
 have not the time, and still less the information, which the sub- 
 ject needs. It will therefore rest with me in contemplation only. 
 You are the person who of all others would do it best, and most 
 promptly : you have all the materials at hand ; and you put to- 
 gether with ease. 1 wish you could be induced to extend your 
 late work to the whole subject. I have not heard particularly 
 what is the state of your health : but as it has been equal to the 
 journey to Philadelphia, perhaps it might encourage the curiosity 
 you must feel to see, for once, this place, which nature has form- 
 ed on a beautiful scale, and circumstances destined for a great 
 one: as yet we are but a cluster of villages. We cannot offer 
 you the learned society of Philadelphia, but you will have that 
 pf a few characters whom you esteem, and a bed and hearty wel-
 
 NO. XII.] APPENDIX. 419 
 
 come with one who will rejoice in every opportunity of testifying to 
 you his high veneration and affectionate attachment. 
 
 TH. JEFFERSON. 
 
 Dr. Joseph Priestley. 
 
 FROM DR. PRIESTLEY TO MR. LINDSEY, CONTAINING REMARKS 
 UPON MR. JEFFERSON'S LETTER. 
 
 DEAR FRIEND, Northumberland, April 23, 1803. 
 
 IN my last 1 promised to send you a copy of Mr. Jefferson's 
 letter on reading my pamphlet entitled u Socrates and Jesus 
 compared." The above is that copy. He is generally considered 
 as an unbeliever : if so, however, he cannot be far from us, and 
 I hope in the way to be not only almost, but altogether what we 
 are. He now attends public worship very regularly, and his mo- 
 ral conduct was never impeached. 1 should, on several accounts, 
 be glad to make the visit he proposes, but my business will not 
 admit of it. If I leave this place, either the printing of my works 
 must be intermitted, or I must request the aid of Mr. C., which 
 I am not fond of doing ; and though he does his best, I find he 
 has not been sufficiently used to the work. j 
 
 DR. PRIESTLEY'S LAST LETTERS TO MR. LINDSEY, WRITTEN A 
 FEW WEEKS BEFORE HIS DECEASE. 
 
 No. 1. 
 
 DEAR FRIEND, Northumberland, Nov. 4, 1803. 
 
 1 CANNOT now expect to hear -often from you, but I shall write 
 as usual, as long as you or Mrs. Lindsey are living, provided I be 
 living myself. . But my health is such that I really do not expect 
 to survive you. 1 have now, of several months, the same feelings 
 that I had when I formerly had gall-stories ; but at the same time 
 I had a difficulty in swallowing, which, as it varied, and sometimes 
 disappeared, I hoped was nothing but a spasm in the oesophagus, 
 near the entrance into the stomach ; but it is now constant, and 
 it is painful to me to swallow any thing ; and if I do not eat very 
 slow, all that is in the oesophagus comes up ; and not only that, 
 but it fills again from the stomach, and this operation continues 
 till the stomach is entirely empty. My guard against this is eat- 
 ing very slowly. For the last three months I have not been able^ 
 to eat any flesh meat. I live on broth and vegetables, besides 
 milk and mild cheese ; but I take even these with difficulty. 1 
 am thankful, however, that excepting while I eat, I have but 
 little pain, though while I had gall-stones I had a good deal of 
 pain, and sometimes very acute. The first symptom of this dis- 
 order I had about a year ago, but sometimes I had nothing of it. 
 Of late, however, it has increased very much. But I have abuu- 
 
 2 E 2
 
 4 1() AFFENDI*. [NO. XII. 
 
 (hint reason to be satisfied with life, and the goodness of God in 
 it. Few have had so happy a lot as I have had, and I now see 
 reason to be thankful for events which at the time were the most 
 afflicting. 
 
 As to my daughter, I cannot grieve on her account. She had 
 nothing before her in this life but a prospect of increasing trou- 
 ble, and I hope soon to meet her in more favourable circum- 
 stances. I am only concerned about the children, and I do not 
 know what can be done for them. My only source of satisfaction, 
 and it is a never-failing one, is my firm persuasion that every 
 thing, and our oversights and mistakes among the rest, are parts 
 of the great plan, in which every thing will in time appear to 
 have been ordered and conducted in the best manner. When I 
 hear my son's children crying, I consider that we who are ad- 
 vanced in life are but children ourselves, and as little judges of 
 what is good for ourselves or others. 
 
 As you were pleased with my comparison of Socrates and Jesus, 
 I have begun to carry the same comparison to all the heathea 
 moralists, and I have all the books that I want for the purpose, 
 except Simplicius and Arriati on Epictetus, and them I hope to 
 get from a library in Philadelphia : lest, however, I should fail 
 there, I wish you or Mr. Belsham would procure and send them 
 from London. While I am capable of any thing I cannot be idle, 
 and I do not know that I can do any thing better. This too is 
 an undertaking that Mr. Jefferson recommends to me. 
 With every good wish, I am 
 Yours and Mrs. Lindsey's 
 most affectionately, 
 
 J. PRIESTLEY. 
 
 No. 2. 
 
 DEAR SIR, Northumberland, Dec. 19, 1803. 
 
 I AM once more made happy by the receipt of yours of the 9th 
 of September. I value your letters more than gold, but I am sen- 
 sible it is unreasonable to expect them from you, difficult as it 
 must now be to you to write. But a single line will suffice. 
 
 I thank God I begin to recover from an illness which has been 
 very near carrying me off. It was ill understood by our physi- 
 cians at first, and their prescriptions did me harm j but now I 
 hope I am in a good way, though exceedingly weak, and my feet 
 and ancles much swelled from that cause. I live now almost al- 
 together on animal food, which I was used to think would never 
 agree with me ; but still I cannot eat any fibrous flesh meat, only 
 the gelatinous parts, such as calves' feet ; and for some days past 
 I n.ive cat nothing but oysters, which agree with me better than 
 any thing else. On this, and soup or broth, with a dish of tea, I live
 
 NO. XII.] APPENDIX. 421 
 
 altogether. But by this means I am so much recovered, that I 
 hope soon to be able to eat as 1 used to do. I should not, how- 
 ever, tire you with my complaints ; but this encourages me to 
 hope that I may live a few years longer, so as to finish the work 
 I am printing and composing, which is my utmost wish. 
 
 With the work that I am now composing I go on much faster 
 and better than I expected; so that in two or three months, if 
 my health continue as it now is, I hope to have it ready for the 
 press j though I shall hardly proceed to print it till we have dis- 
 patched the Notes. It is upon the same plan with that of " So- 
 crates and Jesus compared," considering all the more distinguish- 
 ed of the Grecian sects of philosophy, till the establishment of 
 Christianity in the Roman empire. If you liked that pamphlet, I 
 flatter" myself you will like this. I hope it is calculated to show, 
 in a peculiarly striking light, the great advantage of revelation, 
 and that it will make an impression on candid unbelievers, if they 
 will read. But I find few that will trouble themselves to read 
 any thing on the subject ; which, considering the great magnitude 
 and interesting nature of the subject, is a proof of a very impro- 
 per state of mind, unworthy of a rational being. 
 
 The next thing I wish to do is to assist in the publication of a 
 whole Bible from the several new translations of particular books, 
 smoothing and correcting them where I can. I shall propose it 
 to some of our booksellers, cheerfully giving my own labour to so 
 useful a work. If any thing remain of the subscription to my 
 present publication, I shall spend it on others, particularly on the 
 Alphabetical Index to the Bible, which has been some time com- 
 pletely ready for the press. 
 
 I wish this. may come safely to your hands; but I dread the 
 approaching contest, which may throw every thing into confu- 
 sion. It has probably taken place before this time. But there 
 is a sovereign ruler, and he, we cannot doubt, will bring good out 
 of all evil. 
 
 The excellent character and behaviour of my daughter is a 
 great consolation to me in the thoughts of her death. 
 
 Hoping still to have the great satisfaction of hearing from you 
 a few times more, I am 
 
 Yours and Mrs. Lindsey's 
 
 most affectionately, 
 
 J. PRIESTLEY. 
 
 No. 3. 
 
 DEA.R FRIEND, Northumberland, Jan. 1G, 1804. 
 
 HAVING just received a box of books from Mr. Johnson, after 
 
 I had given up all expectation of them, I beg you would make an 
 
 apology for the impatience I expressed about them, and my dis-
 
 422 AP!>ENDIX. [NO. xil. 
 
 satisfaction with respect to his conduct. In my situation such 
 books are invaluable, especially as my deafness confines me in a 
 manner at home, and my extreme weakness prevents my making 
 any excursions. Winter also keeps me from my laboratory, so 
 that reading and composing are my sole occupation and amuse- 
 ment. Here too 1 have not the convenience of borrowing books. 
 
 This situation, however, is not without its advantages. I have 
 abundant leisure, and I have endeavoured to make the most of it. 
 I have now finished and transcribed for the press my Comparison 
 of the Principles of the Grecian Philosophers with those of Reve- 
 lation, and with more ease, and more to my own satisfac-"- 
 tion, than I expected. They who liked my pamphlet entitled 
 <( Socrates and JPSUS compared" will not, I flatter myself, dis- 
 like this work. It has the same object, and completes the scheme. 
 It has increased my own sense of the unspeakable value of reve- 
 lation, and must, I think, that of every person who will give due 
 attention to the subject. 
 
 We are all anxious to hear the result of the threatened inva- 
 sion. I have some faint hopes that it will not be undertaken, at 
 least upon England. What confusion and distress would it not 
 occasion in the most favourable issue ! God preserve you, my 
 friend, from the general calamity ! How enviable is our situation 
 compared to yours ! Our only consolation must arise from re- 
 garding the hand of God in all events, confident that the final 
 issue will be right and good. 
 
 Yours and Mrs. Lindsey's 
 
 most affectionately, 
 
 J. PRIESTLEY. 
 
 N. B. This is the last letter which Dr. Priestley wrote to his 
 venerated and beloved friend. That truly great and excellent 
 man, whose active spirit was incessantly engaged in devising or 
 performing something for the interest of truth and virtue, was re- 
 leased from his labours and sufferings on the 4th of February fol- 
 lowing, a little more than a fortnight after writing this letter. 
 
 No. XIII. 
 
 The following is a Catalogue of Mr. Lindsey's Pub- 
 lications. 
 
 1 . A Farewell Address to the Parishioners of Catterick. 
 
 2. An Apology on resigning the Vicarage of Catterick. 
 
 3. A Sequel to the Apology. 
 
 4. A Sermon preached at the Opening of the Chapel in Essex 
 Street, April 17, 1774.
 
 NO. XIII.] APPENDIX. 423 
 
 5. The Book of Common Prayer Reformed for the Use of the 
 Chapel in Essex Street, with Hymns. 
 
 6. A Sermon preached in Essex Street on Opening the New 
 Chapel, March 29, 1778. 
 
 7. Two Dissertations. First, On the Preface to St. John's 
 Gospel Secondly, On Praying to Christ. 
 
 8. The Catechist, or An Inquiry concerning the only true God, 
 and Object of Worship. 
 
 9. An Historical View of the State of the Unitarian Doctrine 
 and Worship. 
 
 10. Vindidce Priestleiance. An Address to the Students of 
 Oxford and Cambridge. 
 
 1 1 . A Second Address to the same. 
 
 12. An Examination of Mr. Robinson's Plea for the Divinity 
 of Christ. 
 
 13. A List of false Readings and Mistranslations of the Scrip- 
 tures. 
 
 14. Conversations on Christian Idolatry, 
 
 15. A Sermon on Forms of Prayer. 
 
 1 6. A Sermon addressed to the Congregation in Essex Street on 
 resigning the Pastoral Office among them. 
 
 17. Conversations on the Divine Government, showing that 
 every thing is from God and for Gpod to all. 1802. 
 
 18. Sermons with appropriate Prayers annexed, 2 vols. Print- 
 ed for J. Johnson and Co., St. Paul's Churchyard. 
 
 Richard and Ar(hu.r Taylor, PnnUn, Skat-Lane, Lundun.
 
 Lately pullished 9 Price 3?. 
 
 CMKISTIAN'ITY PLEADING THE PATRONAGE OF THE CIVIL POWER, 
 BUT PROTESTING AGAINST THE AID OF PENAL LAV'S. 
 CONSIDERED IN 
 
 THREE SERMONS 
 
 PREACHED IN ESSEX STREET CHAPEL, 
 BY 
 
 THE REV. THOMAS BELSHAM, 
 
 MIMSTtR OF TH CHAPJ.J-. 
 
 Fides guadenda est, non imperanda. Augnatin. 
 
 London : printed for Rowland Hunter, Successor to Mr. Johnson, No. 7-, 
 St. Paul's Church-yard.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 
 
 
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