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short time, but afterwards relinquished the preached but one sermon, when he was so exceedingly agitated and confused, that he ministry, and continued in various secular was scarcely able to proceed. There was, employments, till disabled by old age.— Among his pupils were, Mr. Collins, of also, unhappily, a great defect in his organs Bath, who bequeathed him his' library; of speech, and his pronunciation was exceedingly harsh, uncouth and disagreeable. Dr. Savage, Dr. Price, and the benevolent These circumstances discouraged him from Mr. Howard; all of whom left him some renewing the attempt, so that quitting the token of respect. Howard, in particular, before his last journey, gave him an untipulpit entirely, he devoted himself to the mited order to draw upon his banker for instruction of young men, whose education for the ministry among Protestant Dis- whatever money he might want; but such was Mr. Densham's integrity, that, although senters, was patronized and assisted by the Independent fund. His department in- at that time possessed of no more than cluded the languages, mathematics, moral twelve or thirteen pounds a year, in the and natural philosophy. On the death of funds, he chose rather to sell out, and dini Dr. Ridgley, who filled the divinity chair, nish the capital, than accept a discretionary in the same seminary, he was prevailed upon offer, which he could not do conscientiously to add to his course on those subjects lec- while he had any thing of his own remaining. tures in divinity, and to teach the oriental The late Mr. Whitbread hearing of his dislanguages, assisted in the other branches interested conduct, begged his acceptance by a learned colleague, Mr. Joseph Den-, of an annuity of twenty pounds during life. sham. Mr. Eames was a man of extensive This he accepted, but to shew his gratitude, learning, and a universal scholar. Dr. Jeft Mr. Whitbread eighty pounds in his Watts once said to a pupil of his, (Mr. will, by way of acknowledgment." It may Angus) Your tutor is the most learned be mentioned to the honour of the latter, man I ever knew.' He excelled particu- · that he relinquished the bequest to Mr. D.'s nearest relations. Mr. Densbam died at larly in classical literature, and in a prohis apartments in Kingsland Road, July 18, found knowledge of mathematics and natural philosophy. His scientific learning 1792, leaving behind him a pattern of ins procured him the acquaintance and friend- tegrity that has been but rarely equalled. ship of Sir Isaac Newton, to whom he was He compiled Mr. Howard's first book on on some occasions singularly useful. Sir prisous, and was urged to draw up a life Isaac introduced him to the Royal Society, of that benevolent man, but his infirmities of which he became a member; and he was prevented.—Gent. Mag. August, 1792." employed, in conjunction with another gen- —II. 73, 74. tleman, to prepare and publish an abridgment of their transactions. With his great talents, Mr. Eanies united a diffidence and bashfulness of temper, that very much concealed his merits. He was of a candid and

liberal disposition, and a friend to free inquiry, which exposed him, as it is said, to much opposition and uneasiness from some narrow-minded persons. He was instru, mental in training up many persons of learning and worth; and, among others, the eminent Archbishop Secker was some time under his care. His death took place June 29, 1744. What a change (said Dr. Watts, who dedicated to him his Treatise on Geography and Astronomy) did Mr. Eames experience! but a few hours between his lecturing to his pupils, and his learning the lectures of angels.'-Monthly Mag. April, 1803.

"Mr. RICHARD DENSHAM above-mentioned, was a pupil of Mr. Eames, whom he afterwards'assisted in the academy. Such was his proficiency in the mathematics, and in classical as well as theological learning, that upon Mr. Eames's death, Dr. Jennings, who succeeded to the office of principal tutor, made it a condition of his accepting that situation, that Mr. Densham should be his co-adjutor. But this he declined. Mr. Densham preached occasionally for a

Carter Lane, Doctors' Commons, is. behind none of the churches in the value of its pastoral names. The three first are familiar and endeared to every well-informed Nonconformist, viz. Matthew Sylvester, Richard Baxter and Edmund Calamy. Dr. Samuel, Wright enjoyed a respectability and popularity which after the lapse of more than half a century is scarcely forgotten.

Thomas Newman (there were two persons, father and son, of the name of Newman, John and Samuel, about the same time at Salters' Hall,) is yet remembered with great respect. His assistant, the late Mr. Edward Pickard, preached his funeral sermon, to which, when it was published, there was subjoined a paper, written and subscribed with Mr. Newman's own hand, in which there is the following good confession :

“I make no doubt but some of my own sentiments in Christianity might be errors in judgment. I full well know I was fallible; but I can as truly say, that I was a sincere lover and searcher after truth; and upon the most impartial search into my own breast, I never could discern any degree of

Review-Wilson's Dissenting Churches.

there are now only five, one (Dunning's Alley) having become extinct: these we believe, are the churches under the pastoral care of Messrs. Evans, Gilchrist, Moon, Dan Taylor and Shenston. The question of the influence of endowments upon Dissent ing congregations is difficult of decision; most readers will think, we believe, that our author has in this case pronounced an opinion (II. 175) for which he was not qualified.

A large space is properly allotted by Mr. Wilson to the biography of Dr. Daniel Williams, the great benefactor to the Dissenters, especially of the Presbyterian denomination. In one instance the biographer censures, where he ought, in our judgment, to have commended him. We extract the passage as far as it is historical:

"During the troubles of Ireland, at the latter end of the reign of King James the Second, he was driven from thence, after escaping some threatening dangers by the tyrannical and violent proceedings of a popish administration. He returned to England in 1687, and made London the place of his retreat. Here he was of great use upon a very critical and important occasion. Some of the court agents at that time, endeavoured to bring the Dissenters in the city, to address the king upon his dispensing with the penal laws. In a conference at one of their meetings, upon that occasion, in the presence of some of the agents, Mr. Williams declared, That it was with him past doubt, that the severities of the former reign upon the Protestant Dissenters, were rather, as they stood, in the way of arbitrary power, than for their religious dissent: so it were better for them to be reduced to their former hardships, that declare for measures destructive of the liberties of their country; and that for himself, before he would concur in an address which should be thought an approbation of the dispensing power, he should chuse to lay down his liberty at his Majesty's feet. He is said to have pursued the argument with such clearness and strength, that the company present rejected the motion, and the emissaries went away disappointed. There was a meeting at the same time of a considerable number of the city clergy, waiting the issue of their deliberations; who were greatly animated and encouraged by this brisk resolution of the Dissenting ministers.”—II. 199, 200.

Mr. Wilson says it was absurd, infinitely absurd in the Presbyterians to quarrel with their liberty, on account of the quarter from whence it came. We

673

see not the absurdity: we see on the
contrary a wise and constitutional,
jealousy of the court. Had the dis
pensing power been admitted, what
security would the Dissenters or any
other class of the community have had
for liberty, property or even life? The
decision adopted by the Dissenters at
the instance of Dr. Williams, is virtu-
ally justified by Mr. Fox, who shews
(Hist. of James II. passim) that the
liberty granted to Nonconformists was
merely a pretext for granting liberty to
Papists, and that that was ultimately
designed to introduce and establish
arbitrary power. As Dissenters, we
should have blushed for our forefathers,
if they had truckled to a mean and
treacherous tyrant, and, for the sake of
a momentary peace, a merely sectarian
advantage, had bartered away the an-
tient liberties of Englishmen.

"New Broad Street, Petty France, Presbyterian, Extinct," enjoyed the services of several respectable ministers, of whom Dr. Daniel Williams was the third in succession, and Mr. John Palmer the last.

"JOHN PALMER.-This gentleman was born in London, in the year 1729. His father carried on the business of an undertaker, in Southwark. Both his parents. were serious persons, of the Calvinistical persuasion, and members of the Independent church in Collier's Rents, Southwark, under the pastoral care of the Rev. John Rogers. They devoted their son to the ministry, and after giving him a school education, placed him under the care of the learned Dr. David Jennings, under whom he pursued his theological studies. Upon the death of Mr. James Read, in 1755, Mr. Palmer was chosen assistant to Dr. Allen, at New Broad-street; and upon his removal to Worcester, in 1769, succeeded to the pastoral charge.

"Mr. Palmer's first publication, we bglieve, was A Sermon occasioned by the Death of King George II. preached at New Broad-street, Nov. 2, 1760, op 1 Chron, xxiv. 27, 28.' In 1766, he revised, corrected, and prepared for the press, a posthumous work of the Rev. John Alexander, of Birmingham, with whom he had been upon terms of peculiar intimacy. It was entitled, A Paraphrase upon the fifteenth Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinth ians; with Critical Notes and Observations, and a preliminary Dissertation. A Commentary, with Critical Remarks upon the sixth, seventh, and part of the eighth Chapters to the Romans: To which is added, a Sermon on Eccles. ix. 10, com posed by the Author the day preceding his

occasion.

for the abolition of subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles. Though he was bred up and educated in Calvinistical principles, yet he gradually relinquished them, and, at length, imbibed the Socinian scheme. He died at his house in Islington, June the 26th, 1790, aged 61 years. Mr. Palmer was for many years one of the trustees for Dr. Williams's charities."-II, 227—

229.

There was another Dissenting mi

Death. London. 1766. Quarto. In 1769, Mr. Palmer published an Oration at the interment of the Rev. Timothy Laugher, of Hackney; which was annexed to Dr. Kippis's funeral discourse upon the same His next publication, we be-, liere, was a small octavo volume, entitled, Prayers for the Use of Families, and Persons in Private.' This little work passed to a second edition, in 1785, and has been much esteemed by those who are called rational Dissenters. lu 1779, he pub lished, Free Thoughts on the Inconsis-nister of the same name, John Palmer, tency of conforming to any Religious of Macclesfield, and afterwards of BirTest, as a Condition of Toleration, with mingham, who was also an author and the true Principles of Protestant Dissent.' an Unitarian. He corresponded in the It was in this year that he was called to Theological Repository with Dr. Priestlament the loss of an intimate friend in the ley, who has given an account of him Rev. Caleb Fleming, D. D. whose death in that work, VI, 217, 224. be attempted to improve, in a sermon at New Broad-street, August the 1st, in that year. This discourse was afterwards printed, together with an oration at the Doctor's interment, in Bunhill-Fields, by Dr. Towers. The text of Mr. Palmer's sermon is, 2 Cor. i. 12. In the same year he published, in octavo, Observations in Defence of the

Liberty of Man, as a Moral Agent; in Answer to Dr. Priestley's Illustrations of Philosophical Necessity. This is a judicious and able piece upon the subject, and in the following year, he published a defence of it in • An Appendix to the Observations;' occasioned by Dr. Priestley's letters to the author, in defence of the doctrine of Necessity. Mr. Palmer's last publication, which was printed in 1788, was, ' A Sum-, mary View of the Grounds of Christian Baptism; with a more particular Reference to the Baptism of Infants: containing Remarks argumentative and critical, in Expla

nation and Defence of the Rite.'

In the history of “Pinners' Hall, Independent, Extinct," our author encour ters the unwelcome names of Dr. James Foster and Dr. Caleb Fleming, He says jected those doctrines which are purely of the former (11 280) that "he re matters of revelation," and without meaning it, unsays this slander again and again; and of the latter, (II. 286, 287) that most of the doctrines of revelation" afforded him subject of ridicule," that he discovered emnity to those doctrines which are the peculiar glory of the gospel," and that he set down for fools and enthusiasts all who were not Socinians." Dr. Foster's reputation and Christian character are so well established that it has long seemed unnecessary

against the spiritual Bacchanals who to protect him either dance over the graves of heretics [M. Repos. II. 63, 64,] or the Sicarii who strive to wound the good name of men of creeds different from their own, when conscience or cowardice restrains them from more honest persecution; but Dr. Caleb Fleming is less known. and therefore less respected and less secure from the attacks of bigotry. It is suflicient however for his vindication that his life was unblameable; that be made considerable temporah sacrifices for conscience sake; that he was inces santly employed in promoting, according to his own persuasions, the interests of truth and freedom; that by Dr. James Foster, whose assistant he had been, he was recommended to his congregation as his successor; that between his flock.

"Some years before the publication of the last piece, Mr. Palmer had desisted from any ministerial work. The lease of his meeting-house expiring about 1780, the congregation, which was in a very reduced state, did not judge proper to renew it, and the society dissolved. After this, Mr. Palmer wholly left off preaching, and retired to Islington, where he lived privately to the time of his death. He married a lady of considerable property, and during the latter years of his life, kept up but little connexion with the Dissenters. He was a man of considerable talents, and accounted a very sensible and rational preacher. His pulpit compositions were drawn up with much perspicuity, and delivered, with great distinctness and propriety. He allowed himself great latitude in his religious sentiments, and was a dead himself there subsisted great hartermined enemy to any religious test what soever. In this particular, be differed from several of his brethren, who, notwithstanding, favoured the application to parliament

mony and friendship; that he enjoyed the esteem of the most respected of his brethren, one of whom, Mr. John --. Paliner, pronounced the highest culo• r*

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use.

675.

In a History of Dissenting Churches we did not expect an account of a fanatical Deist who delivered lectures. at Carpenters' Hall [II. 290, 292). This was Jacob Ilive, a printer and letter-founder. He published several pamphlets, for one of which" Remarks on the Bishop of London's (Dr. Sher lock's) Discourses" he was imprisonedTM in Clerkenwell Bridewell two years. During his confinement he appears to have written "The Book of Jasher,” which he procured to be privately printed, and which purported to be a translation from the original of Alcuin, a British monk. It is a small folio. live died in the year 1763. There is an account of him in Gough's British Topography, I. 637.

́gium upon him in his funeral sermon; account, with all its faults, of no small and especially that he was for years the confidential friend of Dr. Lardner. The list of his publications is enough to prove both the impartiality and the activity of his mind. His theological system was of his own framing from the Scriptures. He was the zealous advocate of revealed religion, of Protestantism, of nonconformity, and of some doctrines which are accounted orthodox, such as the immortality of the soul, the sanctity of the Sabbath, and the liberty of the will. His Unitarianism only was against him. But for that, the present historian, who reports the opinion and feeling of a large body of theologians, would not have termed his "specimens of divinity" " wretched," or his interpretations of Scripture perverse; nor would he in a virtual comparison of him with "Mr. John' Dove, a member of Mr. Pike's congrégation," who was known by the name of "The Hebrew Tailor,” have given the seeming preference to that leartied artificer. Mr. Wilson has, however, made some amends to Dr. Fleming, by inserting in his work a handsome engraving of him, from a Portrait in Dr. Williams's library, and a full and tolerably correct list of his publications. The number in this list is sixty, and there are several in our possession not included.

A life of Dr. Fleming was looked for at the hands of the late Dr. Towers, who came into possession of his papers, including, according to Dr. Kippis (Life of Lardner, p. xcvi.), “a series of letters written to Dr. Fleming by Dr. Lardner, in which he freely disclosed his thoughts concerning men and things." Why will not the representative of Dr. Towers, who is so capable of doing justice to the characters of the friends of truth and freedom, gratify our wishes? If he had not considered this gentleman as the proper biographer of Dr. Fleming, the late Dr. Toulmin would have communicated a memoir of this decided, intrepid, zealous and laborious Unitarian teacher, to the Monthly Repository. Notices of him are scattered through this work [III. 485-487. IV. 151. VI. 44. VIII. 339. X. 283], which we refer to in the hope that they may excite suitable attention to a neglected character. It is right to add that should a complete memoir of Dr. Fleming he prepared for the press, the compiler will find Mr. Wilson's

The Old Jewry is rich in Dissenting biography, having been always cetebrated for the number and respectability of its congregation and the eminenci of its ministers. At the beginning of this article, the historian notes down,^ what from the specimens lately given the reader might not have observed, that "the words Calvinist and Arian he uses as terms neither of honour nor reproach, but for the sake of convenience" (II. 305).

We cannot even enumerate all the ministers that as pastors, assistants or lecturers have rendered the Old Jewry»so distinguished a Dissenting station, but must content ourselves with a few notices and remarks.

Mr. Wilson relates a "very striking anecdote" (H. 322-326), of John Rogers, one of the Bartholomew confessors, and father of Timothy Rogers, minister at the Old Jewry. The anecdote is, in substance, that Mr. Rogers was on the point of being sent to jail for his Nonconformity, by Sir Richard Cradock, a persecuting Jus tice of the Peace, but was delivered by Sir Richard's grand-daughter, a headstrong girl of six or seven years of age, who took a liking to the Puritan preacher and threatened to drown herself if he were ill-used. Mr. Timothy Rogers once related this story at the house of a Mrs. Tooley, where he was dining in company with Mr. T. Bradbury; when the hostess revealed that she was the grand-daughter of Sir R. Cradock, and the person to whom the story referred. Her guests were anxious to learns her religious history,