ven some Calvinists who attended were also that my ejectment had roused the as much pleased as any others. For attention of the non-professing part of see I might have the town. I was therefore determined ought that I can preached s. venty times seven discourses to preach somewhere. Several places in the same manner, and with the same were offered. 1 chose, as most consuccess but the genius of Calvinism venient, the large shop of Mr. S. a carexerted itself to prevent so good a work. penter, in London Street. Here I have The heads of all the above parties, and preached four Sundays, and though the many of the individuals among them weather has been cold, and, last Sunwere visited, and their prejudices, and day, very wet, yet the congregation their fears, and their ignorance, were has continued to increase, and, in the all wrought upon, till they were terri- evening, the place is greatly crowded fied exceedingly about my principles. indeed, though perhaps not twenty They were told that I denied Christ, religionists attend in the whole congrethat I called him an idol, that I had gation. declared I would destroy him; that I denied the inspiration of the scriptu.es; that I did not believe man had a soul; that I denied all future punishment, did not believe there was any hell, totally denied the being of the devil, and that it was doubtful if I admitted that there was either a God or a heaven. These fearful reports worked some days in secret, and it is even but lately that I have understood their number and exTheir effect, howtensive operation ever, on the minds of ignorant religionists, you may well conceive of without a description. more: 4th. As I had no place in which to give a lecture on a week evening, 1 delivered lectures to different classes of persons, two, three, &c. and once even four times in the week, in private houses. I began with about twenty persons in a company. The numbers have increased to thirty, forty, and even fifty, yet still select and respectable. I read most part of all these lectures, and all of some of them. A few orthodox or semi-orthodox at first attended them, but have now left me, except two or three, for they say, "I am capable of deceiving, if it were possible, the very elect." Consequently I have gotten quite a new school. My method is this: I neither sing nor pray, but begin by a short address on the rights of conscience, or on the use of reason in religion, or on the sources, nature, and effects of deism, or on the excellency of revelation, &c. &c. I state my subject, and read the whole, or enlarge extempore O jections are on particular parts. After I have done, conversa ion follows. made, or questions are asked, or some other interesting subject is discussed. Here are persons who some of them tell me that they have not been to any place of worship, except on a public occasion, But for five, or seven, or ten, or fifteen years. A few of these have been in the One of them told me, habit of reading their Bibles attentively, others not at all. after a lecture last week, that he had not opened his Bible for eight years past till since I came to Reading, and he believed he never should have opened it again had I not come. 2d. The consequence of these reports was that I was excluded from the Cudworthian meeting: the owner of it say. ing, that he fully approved of every thing which he had heard me deliver there, but as I did not believe the Deity of Christ and the doctrine of atonement, I must preach there no refusing at the same time to discuss these points with me, because, so he said, "I was too weighty for him in argument." About the same time most of the Cudworthians, Universalists, and Arminians, &c. forsook me, after giving me a sum to pay travelling expenses. Except Mr. S. and Mr. D. I had hardly a religionist left to encourage me. three days before I was dismissed from the Cudworthian meeting, Mr. W. C. my present kind and generous host, had invited me to take up my dwelling in his house, else I believe I must have returned home immediately; which was what the orthodox intended when they threatened to drive me out of Reading. 3d. Thus circumstanced I looked about me, and found that ten or twelve poor Unitarians and a great number of sceptical persons, some of them of good character, had attended my preaching, and my conversation parties. I found Among my present public hearers and attendants on my private lectures, are also some steady respetable churchmen, tradesmen with families. These have never concein d the selves further about religion than to go to church and They are desirous of putting the Fund to no expense; but if the new converts shou'd drop off, and the few hearty friends should feel themselves oppressed, they then hope that some assistance will be afforded by the Fund." preserve the r moral character. About 3d. That they will bear the travelling six or eight of them now search the expenses of the ministers. This they scriptures with great attention: four of mean to do by way of trial for oce them tell me that they neither knew nor year. cared any thing about religion further than to preserve their credit in society: that they never could understand any thing about Christianity, it was to them mystery and darkness, but they were content that the parson knew all about it, or at least, that he said he did so, although they often doubted whether he knew more than themselves. These are not yet weaned from the church. They have character and interest at stake, they say that I bave spoiled all that holy lethargy which they used to enjoy at church; for they can no longer worship any but the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. I have good hope of these, because of their steady and virtuous habits. There is also another interesting class of persons who now begin to attend me. These are young men, some of whom possess considerable intelligence. A few of them have some literary attain ments. Where intelligence and attainments unite, I find a strong inclination to deism is predominant in them. This is the natural effect of the stupefying absurdities of orthodoxy. I hope I have been so happy as to reverse a state of incipient deism in two of them with whom I have freely conversed, and as they are both virtuous, sensible, and rather learned also, I have the best expectations of them. From the above account you will see both what has been, and what is, the state of Unitarianism at Reading. The congregation in the morning is from 100 to about 130 persons. In the evening as full as the place can crowd. I think it can hold 300, but every ave nue is filled, so that there is, probably, nearer 40, among whom I have scarcely more than one who has been under a religious profession. The friends have concluded on consideration of your letter, 1st. That they will continue to meet in Mr. S.'s shop. He has generously offered it gratis, on Sundays only, for two years, or until they can get a better place. d. That there shall be a boardinghouse appointed for the ministers who may suc eed me, the expense of which they will jointly defray, together with expense of candles, and other incidents. In this state Mr. Vidler left Reading, after staying several weeks. He was soon succeeded by Mr. Wright, who spent four Sundays there. During this time he had the happiness of superin tending the formation of an Unitarian congregational library; towards which many books were contributed by your committee. In March, Mr. Bennett also devoted a month to this infant cause, most acceptably and successfully employed. Within these few weeks, Mr. Vidler has paid a second visit to Reading, and the following is the brief statement of things as he found them after some months absence, and as they are now. "May 11, 1812. "In my late visit to 'Reading I made the following observations. 1. That the morning congregation which is composed chiefly of the most steady friends of Unitarianism, consisted on an average of about a hundred persons. 2. That the evening congregation, among which are many inquiring persons, as well as many curious and idle ones, consisted on an average of at least two hundred. The number of the evening congregation is not so large at this season of the year as during the winter months. 3. That of about thirty families with whom I was acquaint.d in my first visit, and with whom I had more or less conversed upon various topics of Christian doctrine, and of whom I had formed a hope of their perseverance in truth, there is not one family which has drawn back, but several have been added by the labours of the brethren who have succeeded me. 4. That these families, with a rumber of others, individuals, have made very considerable progress in the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, not all indeed in the same degree, but all in such a degree as to justify the conclusion that there are, at least, an hundred persons in Reading who are prepared to form the foundation of an Unitarian cause in that populous, and, heretofore, orthodox town. 5. These persons, in general, are now in the habit of seriously reading the Scriptures, and paying the utmost de ference to their authority; which is the more to be wondered at as, a few of them only excepted, they had long given up any particular attention to them, because having taken modern corruptions of Christianity for scriptural doctrine, they had strongly doubted the truth of revelation. 6. They have, under the direction of Mr. Wright, established a chapel library, which is increasing both in number of subscribers and in books. This institution promises great utility in promoting the progress of Christian knowledge and virtue, especially among the younger part of them. I observed also that many persons in the middle, and some even in the decline of life, were inquiring after the knowledge of God and of Christ with all the avidity of youth. 7. They make no enthusiastic pretensions to what is usually called religious experience; but they have thus far attained in Christianity that having believed the doctrines of the gospel, they are persuaded that obedience to its precepts will insure to them eternal life without enduring the pains of the second death. 8. Their general character is a pleasing union of candour and simplicity, in receiving and obeying every doctrine and precept which comes to them recommended by the authority of the New Testament. Their first and leading desire being to become Bible Christians in doctrine, in temper, and in practice. 9. They have the pro-pect of procuring a convenient place of worship, in a good situation, in about twelve months time; meanwhile they continue to use the building with which the benevolent zeal of one of their friends has furnished them. Nor do they think it dishonourable that the religion of the carpenter's son is preached to them in a carpenters shop. If an intelligent, active, and pious Unitarian minister could be induced to settle among them, I am persuaded that he would soon collect one of the most numerous and respectable congregations that any provincial town in England contains." It remains only to add that your indefatigable missionary, Mr. Wright, spent the last Sunday at Reading, and that the intervals between the visits heretofore described were filled up by Messrs. Eaton, Marsom, and B. Flower, to whom the Society is much indebted for their ready and acceptable services. Many reflections occur to your Committee upon reviewing the occurrences of the last few months at Reading; but they must content themselves with remarking that this is probably an example of what might be done by similar means in many populous towns, and that no case could more fully shew the urgent necessity for a Society like yours, authorized and prepared to seize promptly every opportunity for spreading the knowledge of the pure gospel. We must, though unwillingly, conclude our extracts, with one quotation from Mr. Wright's Journal of a tour to the north in the autumn of last year. "Newcastle upon Tyne. We "Here I preached twice; one evening in the Hanover Square Meeting-house, where we had a pretty large congrega tion, considering that the people are not used to week evening lectures had some Calvinists and Methodists for hearers. The other evening I preached in Mr. Campbell's place, which was pretty well filled, some of the Hanover Square people attending, as well as some Calvinists and Methodists. Of Mr. Campbell I must give some account. He was of late a preacher of Mr. Haldane's, and his renunciation of reputed orthodoxy is quite recent. A Baptist congregation at Kendal was in Haldane's connection, until of late the minister and people became Unitarians; Haldane and his people at Edinburgh being informed of this change, wrote a curious letter to Mr. Cave, the minister, and his people at Kendal, informing them that they could have no more connection nor intercourse with them, but that they would pray for them. Cave and his friends wrote in reply, that as they did not see that prayer could be of any use further than it led those who prayed to use all the means in their power to accomplish that for which they prayed, they thought their prayers would do them no good, and could dispense with them. Some time after, Mr. B. one of the Kendal people, happened to be in Newcastle, and knowing of the Baptist society there in Haldane's connection, he went among them, and it was agreed for several of Mr. Campbell's people to meet Mr. B. at the house of the former, for conversation, after the morning service on the Sunday. When they met there Mr. C. was so unwell that he could not participate in the conversation, but he laid on a bed near enough to hear the debate. In answer to the arguments for the inferiority of Christ to God, which Mr. B. urged, his opponent said, this related simply to the economy in which he had taken an inferior station, and acted in an inferior capacity. Mr. B. immediately quoted and urged 1 Cor. xv. 24—28, to shew that when the economy terminated, Christ would still be inferior and subject. This made a deep impression on Mr. C.-he thought Mr. B. must omit something in the passage. The first leisure he had he resolved to re-examine the passage and subject: this he accordingly did, and things soon appeared to him in a new light. He said to himself, "If our views be right the passage ought to read, then shall the Son be EQUAL with him that put all things under him." He now entered upon the examination of Trinitarianism with that ardour and perseverance which belongs to a Scotchman (of which nation he is), when inspired by a love of truth and a spirit of free inquiry. The result is, that having fully satisfied himself, a few weeks since he openly declared to his congregation that he was become a Unitarian. Many of his people left him, a part remain, some seem to be disposed to return; in the mean time he goes on preaching, and doing all he can to promote what he believes to be the truth." Police. MARLBOROUH STREET. G. Kitchener and Dimond, apprentices, were charged with disturbing Mr. Wildey, a licensed preacher, at his room in Howland Mews, Tottenham Court-road, whilst preaching to his congregation. It appeared that Kitchener, in particular, had disturbed the congregation for the last six months. On Wednesday se'nnight he repaired again to the meeting-house, and disturbed the place by unmatur coughing, &c. when the preceptor ki the desk and turned him down stain The defendant, by his conduct at the door, in challenging Mr. W. to fight, swearing, &c. prevented the comm gation from being quiet, and maki promise to send some rowing lads the next Sunday. On the day pr mised a gang of hackney coachmen made their appearance, and after forcing the door-keeper from his station, they proceeded up stairs, upset the stools, struck at the preacher, and threw the place into the utmost con fusion by singing flash songs and swar ing. The defendant, Kitchener, wa ordered to find bail, but the prosecu tor liberally consented to his relcase, on condition that the constable should hold the warrant to apprehend him again if required. There was no case against Dimond. The Examiner, Nov. 8th, 1812. This abominable cry is again about to be set up, for the purpose of bolster ing up a crazy ministry. It is intend ed, we believe, to play off the Method ists against the Catholics. Some miusalready learned their lesson and begu ters of the former persuasion have to practise intolerance. The palps of the Tabernacle and Tottenham Cout Road Chapel have resounded with A Popery, and the pious attendants ba been exhorted, by their love of the gospel, to support the governmat against the wicked Papists. Wh will this end? Ought not the bett principled part of the Methodists and Calvinistic Dissenters to interfere at stop the march of bigotry; or, at least, to set the public right, and prevent the factions cries of a few unenlighten individuals being taken for the sease of the community, who, we verily believe, are wiser than the teaches referred to, and better know the Lord of conscience. GENERAL INDEX NAMES AND SUBJECTS. N. B. Those articles which are printed in capitals form an Alphabetical Table of Contents; those having R subjoined are Articles of Review; and those having O are Articles of Obituary, 146 561, 626 Aikin's, Dr. General Biographical A Lasco, John, an Antitrinitarian, 439 tants, 221, 303, 305 Anecdote of Dr. Nowell, Dean of St. Paul's, and the Queen, 22. Of Sir John Newport and a dishonest servant, 29. Of the Earl of Suffolk, ib. Of a robber, 29, 30. Of a hardened robber, 162. Of a reformed thief, ib. Of Lord Kenyon and a condemned culprit, 163. Of Dr. T. Taylor and a Popish priest, 220. Of Mr. Henderun, 289. Of Bishop Wayn |