accompanied by a single unbecoming
reflection. He conjectures that Mr.
Emlyn's small society of Unitarians
assembled in a meeting-house in the
Old Bailey. To this conjecture is op-
posed the testimony of a contemporary,
Leslie, who says (Socin. Controv.
6 Dial. p. 40), that the place used by
Mr. Emlyn was Cutlers' Hall. His
words are, "The Socinians have now
for a long time had an open meeting-
house in Cutlers' Hall, in London,
their preacher one Emlyn, formerly a
Dissenting preacher in Dublin." Mr.
Wilson brings the history of Cutlers'
Hall no lower down than 1697, when
it was quitted by Beverley the Prophet
(II. 63 et seq.), after which it might
be occupied by Mr. Emlyn's congre-
gation. This supposition is counten-
anced by a passage in another of
Leslie's works less known, which
fixes the date of Mr. Emlyn's ministry
in London. We refer to "A View
of the Times, their Principles and
Practices, in the Rehearsals, by Phila-
lethes," in 6 vols. 12mo. The Re-
hearsal was a jacobite paper which
appeared twice a week. In the con-
clusion of No. 279, published Satur
day, January 17, 1707, (Vol. IV.
235, 2nd ed.), the writer says, "there
is one Emlin who was a Presbyterian
preacher in Dublin, but spewed out
by them for his Socinianism, and (to
their honour I speak it) they prose-
cuted him also at the law for it, and
he was fined and imprisoned. But he
found means to escape and came over
hither, and for these several years has
kept a publick meeting-house in Londan,

as he still does. And one of his con-
gregation (I was told his name) is
gone over to the Camisars, but still
keeps his Socinianism. And I have
a book generally said to be written by
this Emlin since he came over hither,
which is reckoned a master-piece of
Socinianism. And I know where he
lodges, if any body has a mind to
speak with him. In the Life of Mr.
Thomas Firmin it is told to his honour
that he had a design to have a Soci-
nian church or meeting set up in
London, and now we see it brought to
pass by way of moderation." This
furious author's zeal against Socinians
must have made him eager to find out,
and his wish to bring them into trou-
ble must have disposed him to make
public, their true place of assembly,
We may conclude, therefore, in the

absence of better evidence, that Mr. Emlyn preached at Cutlers' Hall: it was on the south side of Cloak Lane, Upper Thames Street.

The account of the "United Brethren" or Moravians (III. 420-426), gives a just and pleasing picture of this once enthusiastic and now declining, but always amiable sect.

The article "Essex Street, Unitatarians" (III. 479-491), is entitled to great praise. The anecdote of Mr. Lindsey contained in the following extract is quite new to us; the whole passage will shew Mr. Wilson's candour:

"The character and sentiments of Mr. Lindsey are so well known to most of our readers, that they require but little illustration from our pen. By the admirers of his theological system, the highest eulogium has been passed upon both, and its most strenuous opposers cannot but subscribe to the general excellence of his character. He appears to have set ont in life under strong impressions of the value and importance of the ministerial office, and his conduct as a parish priest, while be had the superintendance of a parish, was truly exemplary. That late excellent minister, Mr. David Simpson, of Macclesfield, as we find in his life, owed his first attention to sacred things, to the care of Mr. Lindsey. Soon after his entrance at St. John's College, he spent part of a vacation at the vicarage of Catterick. Before the visit closed, Mr. Lindsey took occasion to inquire of the young collegian concerning the nature of his studies, and the manner in which he employed his time. From the nature of the reply, he soon perceived that his young visitor had been altogether inattentive to the study of the Sacred Scrip

tures. After expressing his surprize, Mr. Lindsey, in a very emphatical and pointed

address, urged him to turn his attention to his hitherto neglected Bible. His remarks and advice produced a very serious effect upon Mr. Simpson's mind,' which was filled with conviction and remorse, and henceforward he became an altered man.❤ This simple anecdote will tell a thousand times stronger in favour of Mr. Lindsey's character, than the most laboured panegyric. If some of our readers should lament the change that afterwards took place in the theological opinions of so exemplary a person, and which went to the full extent of modern Socinianism, they will at the same time admire that noble disinterestedness, and integrity of conduct, which induced him to resign a situation,

* "Life of Simpson, apud Theol. Mag. for Nov. 1801."

Review-Wilson's Dissenting Churches.

Rot only of ease, but of affluence and bonour, for the possible alternative of poverty and contempt. Men who have the courage and principle to make this sacrifice upon the altar of conscience, whatever may be their individual sentiments, deserve to be enrolled amongst those illustrious confessors, whose names impart dignity to the human character."III. 486, 487.

We are a little surprised that the author did not furnish a more com

plete list of the publications of Dr. Disney. He has not mentioned the very valuable memoirs published by this gentleman of Sykes and Jortin. This is the more singular, as the Life of Sykes is quoted III. 385. There is a similar imperfection in the notice of Mr. Belsham's works. The author has been more careful in his catalogues of the publications of some of our "Orthodox" contemporaries. [See particularly the articles George Burder, II. 469-471, and Robert Winter, D. D. III. 544, 545].

The reader will be much amused with the lives of those " Orthodox" wits, Daniel Burgess and Thomas Bradbury, who were both pastors for many years of the respectable Independent congregation, New Court, Carey Street. Burgess once assigned, we suppose in the pulpit, a curious reason why the people of God, who descended from Jacob, were called Israelites; it was because God did not choose that his people should be called Jacobites (III. 498, Note). The following, with other anecdotes of Bradbury, are still related by his respectable

descendants:

"The gloomy state of public affairs, in Consequence of the intrigues that were carried on in favour of the Pretender, exsited in all true Protestants the most dismal apprehensions for the safety of the nation; when to their unspeakable joy, the storm suddenly blew over by the death of the Queen, after a short illness, on On that Sunday, August the 1st, 1714. very morning, as we are informed, while Mr. Bradbury was walking along Smithfield, in a pensive condition, Bishop Burnet happened to pass through in his carriage; and observing his friend, called out to him by name, and inquired the cause of his great thoughtfulness. I am thinking,' replies Mr. Bradbury, whether I shall have the constancy and resolution of that noble company of martyrs, whose ashes are deposited in this place; for I most assuredly expect to see similar times of violence and

727

persecution, and that I shall be called to suffer in a like cause.' The Bishop, who was himself equally zealous in the Protestant cause, endeavoured to quiet his fears; told him that the Queen was very ill; that she was given over by her physicians, who expected every hour to be her last; and that he was then going to the court to inform himself as to the exact particulars. He moreover assured Mr. Bradbury that he would dispatch a messenger to him

with the earliest intelligence of the Queen's death; and that if he should happen to be

in the pulpit when the messenger arrived, he should be instructed to drop a handkerchief from the gallery, as a token of that event. It so happened that the Queen died while Mr. Bradbury was preaching, and the intelligence was communicated to him by the signal agreed upon.* It need hardly be mentioned what joy the news gave him; however, suppressed his feelings during the sermon; but in his last prayer returned thanks to God for the deliverance of these kingdoms from the evil counsels and designs of their enemies, and implored the Divine blessing upon his majesty, King George, and the house of Hanover.

he,

He

then gave out the 89th Psalm, from Patrick's collection, which was strikingly appropriate to the occasion. Mr. Bradbury ever afterwards gloried in being the first man who proclaimed King George the First.

"This bold and unexpected proclamation could not but greatly surprize Mr. Bradbury's congregation, and excite their alarm for his safety. Accordingly, when he came down from the pulpit, some of his friends expressed their apprehension on his account; he, however, soon convinced them that he was upon safe ground, by a relation of what had happened. The sentiments of joy which were diffused throughout the nation by the Queen's death, will be better conceived than expressed; and from what has been already related, it may be supposed that Mr. Bradbury partook largely in the public rejoicing. This, he was not backward to declare, both from the pulpit and from the press; and it is commonly reported, that he preached soon after that event upon the following text: Go, see now this cursed woman, and bury her; a king's daughter. Mr. for she is Bradbury was one of the Dissenting ministers who carried up the congratulatory address to George I. upon his accession to the throne. As they were dressed in cloaks

"The messenger employed upon this occasion, is said to have been his brother, Mr. John Bradbury, who followed the medical profession."

ተ

"Private Information."
"2 Kings, ix. 34,"

We are told (IV. 32), that on the lease of the meeting-house in Peter Street, Soho, expiring, the landlord refused from pure bigotry to allow the use of it any longer to the Dissenters: this scrupulous churchman was no other than Mr. Horne, a poulterer in Newport Market, the father of the late celebrated John Horne Tooke, who inherited his father's high church principles, though they did not make him religious, and frequently spoke of the Dissenters with bitterness.

Princes Street, Westminster, gives occasion to some of the richest pieces of biography in the work (IV. 57 -118). The author has done justice to the able Nonconformist historian, Calamy. As this eminent divine was engaged in controversy with the French prophets, his biographer properly traces the history of those extraordinary enthusiasts, whom he doss not with Messrs. Bogue and Bennett survey with any feeling of doubt or wonder. [See Mon. Repos. IV. 634. Also III. 467.] With the memoir of Mr. Samuel Say, of whom and his papers there is a full account in our fourth and fifth volumes, we have a good portrait from a painting in the possession of the Rev. S. S. Toms, of Framlingham. In the biography of Dr. Kippis, which is well drawn up, there is a piece of advice to "Socinians," founded we apprehend upon a mistake. It is allowed that the Dr. "inclined to the distinguishing tenets of Socinus" (there was more than inclination), but it is added to his praise that he disapproved of the conduct of the modern Socinians, in assuming to themselves the exclusive appellation of Unitarians." Did then Dr. Kippis wish that Trinitarians should be called

"Said to have been Lord Bolingbroke." +The humble calling of his father gave occasion to one of the earliest sallies of John Horne Tooke's wit. His class fellows at one of the public schools were one day boasting of their families. Horne was silent, but being pressed on the subject of his parentage escaped contempt by a well-timed pun: bis father, he said, was Turkey merchant.

Unitarians? The extension of the term was never debated with regard to them, but in reference solely to the Arians, to whom the majority of the Unitarians of the present day are in the habit of applying it. Encouraged however by Dr. Kippiss example, Mr. Wilson proceeds seriously to advise the " Socinians" to drop a name which will always be withheld from them by intelligent " Anti-Socinians." This reminds us of the old practice of re-baptizing heretics. With submission, we venture to pronounce that the name Unitarian will not be always withheld from those that claim it by Anti-Socinians, whether "intelligent" or "unintelligent." A mass of. books must be destroyed in order to eradicate the term, and amongst them Mr. Wilson's History, in the third volume of which the running title for twelve pages together is "Essex Street Unitarian."

We are indebted to Mr. Wilson for a better biographical account than we had before seen of John Canne the Puritan annotator. He was a thorough reformer and upon the whole a very interesting character.. There is a statement here of the charge against him [see Mon. Repos. X. 418, 547] of designing a Bible "without note or comment." Canne emigrated from England to Holland, with other Brownists, to avoid persecution. He settled at Amsterdam, and there followed the art of printing for a livelihood: his name appears as printer to a 4to. tract before us (which is referred to by Mr. Wilson) entitled "Man's Mortallitie, &c. by R. O. 1643."* His being accessary in any degree to the appearance of a work designed to explode the common notion of the human soul, is a proof of his being at least a friend to free inquiry.

Canne preached whilst he was in

There is a large account of this book in Archdeacon Blackburne's Hist. View of the Controv. concerning an Intermediate State, ch. xv. It is there stated by mistake that the date of the first, Canne's, edition was 1644. The Archdeacon is also in error with regard to the date of the 2nd edition at London. He assigns the year 1655; but the year in a copy in our possession is 1674. This edition is (not as Blackburne says 24to. but) very small 8vo. The title is altered to Men wholly Mortal, &c.

Review-Wilson's Dissenting Churches.

now

Veil to a Cobler, if they know but How.

This lay-preacher was much persecuted, and dying under the sentence of excommunication, was buried in the highway, in a spot where many of his people afterwards directed their ashes to be laid.

A good story is related (IV. 155, Villiers, 156), of Richard Baxter. Duke of Buckingham, and Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, wits and debauchees of the court of Charles II. meeting the old nonconformist teacher as they were riding in the country, and wishing to have a little merriment at his Pray expence, accosted him gravely, Mr. Baxter, which is the nearest road to hell?" The good man replied, it may be supposed to their surprise and confusion,

66

"Rochester some say, But Buckingham's the nearest way." It is remarked (IV. 225), as a singular fact with regard to the Baptist church, Carter Lane, Tooley Street, that during the ninety-four years that it has existed, it has had but two pastors, Drs. Gill and Rippon, of whom the latter is still living, and, it may be added, actively performing his ministerial duties.

The introduction to the account of St. Thomas's, Southwark (IV. 294 et seq.), contains some reflections uncalled for by the subject. The decline of the congregation since the time of its having Calvinistic ministers is charged directly to its departure from the old Protestant doctrines;" but how many declensions has the historian recorded in churches that have never swerved from the Assembly's He has not accounted Catechism? for these, nor was it his province; and his work would have been fully answerable to its title if he had contented himself with giving the history of

Presbyterian churches without specu-
lating upon the causes of their decay.

He insinuates a charge against this
congregation of "an approximation
to the world." Can the reader guess
the reason? it is because the people at
St. Thomas's call their place of wor
ship an "Unitarian chapel." The
worldliness is not, we presume, in the
former of these terms; but what new
superstition would the writer intro-
duce, by thus dividing the noncon-
formists into worldlings or saints,
according as they denominate their
houses of prayer chapels or meeting-
houses?

This change, too, as well as the institution of Unitarian Lectures in the chapel, is attributed to the passing of the Trinity Bill; whereas both the Lectures and the inscription were, if we remember rightly, set up before that wise and just legislative measure had been adopted.

There is the error (p. 296 and 319) of Thomas for John Kentish; and Mr. Kentish is represented as having been afternoon preacher at St. Thomas's from the time of his removal from Plymouth, to his settlement at Birmingham, whereas he was for several years the afternoon preacher to the Gravel-Pit congregation, Hackney.

The author is mistaken also with
regard to Mr. Edmund Butcher's leav-
ing Sidmouth and being "now (1814)
at Bridgwater" (IV. 405). Mr. But-
cher is and has been for many years
the much-respected pastor of the Pres-
byterian congregation at Sidmouth.

We have an interesting memoir
(IV. 408-410) of John Humphrey,
one of the ejected ministers, who is
said to have survived all his brethren,
living to nearly his hundredth year.
Calamy relates that when he was
writing his account of the ejected mi-
nisters he sent to Humphrey for a list
of his writings: "The good old gen-
tleman," says he, "sent me word for
answer, that he desired no more than
to go to his grave with a sprig of rose-
mary." He complied, however, with
the request, and communicated with
the account of his publications some
anecdotes of his life, which may be
seen in Calamy.

We might extend our remarks, and
multiply our extracts, but we have
already exceeded the limits of our
review and must desist.

Our opinion of this work has been

freely expressed in the course of our
review; but we shall have misrepre-
sented our
own sentiments if the
reader have not gathered that we re-
gard it, with all its little defects, as
the most valuable contribution that
has been made of late years to the
records of nonconformity. It is en-
titled to a place in all our congrega-
tional libraries. We wish the author
had not so often indulged his religious
partialities; but, as it is, we cordially
thank him for his volumes, and if our
voice could have any influence over
him, we would earnestly intreat him
to favour the public in some shape or
other with the remainder of his histo-
rical collections.

A large Appendix is added to the IVth volume, on the present state of the Dissenting interest and other branches of ecclesiastical history,

OBITUARY.