MEMOIRSOFDr.JOSEPH PRIESTLEY.[WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.]
Having thought it right to leave behind me some account of myfriendsandbenefactors, it is in a manner necessary that I also give some account ofmyself; and as the like has been done by many persons, and for reasons which posterity has approved, I make no farther apology for following their example. If my writings in general have been useful to my cotemporaries, I hope that this account of myself will not be without its use to those who may come after me, and especially in promoting virtue and piety, which I hope I may say it has been my care to practice myself, as it has been my business to inculcate them upon others.
My father, Jonas Priestley, was the youngest son of Joseph Priestley, a maker and dresser of woollen cloth. His first wife, my mother, was the only child of Joseph Swift, a farmer at Shafton, a village about six miles south east of Wakefield. By this wife he had six children, four sons and two daughters. I, the oldest, was born on the thirteenth of March, old style 1733, at Fieldhead about six miles south west of Leeds in Yorkshire. My mother dying in 1740, my father married again in 1745, and by his second wife had three daughters.
My mother having children so fast, I was very soon committed to the care of her father, and with him I continued with little interruption till my mother’s death.
It is but little that I can recollect of my mother. I remember, however, that she was careful to teach me the Assembly’s Catechism, and to give me the best instructions the little time that I was at home. Once in particular, when I was playing with a pin, she asked me where I got it; and on telling her that I found it at my uncle’s, who lived very near to my father, and where I had been playing with my cousins, she made me carry it back again; nodoubt to impress my mind, as it could not fail to do, with a clear idea of the distinction of property, and of the importance of attending to it. She died in the hard winter of 1739, not long after being delivered of my youngest brother; and having dreamed a little before her death that she was in a delightful place, which she particularly described, and imagined to be heaven, the last words she spake, as my aunt informed me, were “Let me go to that fine place.”
On the death of my mother I was taken home, my brothers taking my place, and was sent to school in the neighbourhood. But being without a mother, and my father incumbered with a large family, a sister of my father’s, in the year 1742, relieved him of all care of me, by taking me entirely to herself, and considering me as her child, having none of her own. From this time she was truly a parent to me till her death in 1764.
My aunt was married to a Mr. Keighly, a man who had distinguished himself for his zeal for religion and for his public spirit. He was also a man of considerable property, and dying soon after I went to them, left the greatest part of his fortune to my aunt forlife, and much of it at her disposal after her death.
By this truly pious and excellent woman, who knew no other use of wealth, or of talents of any kind, than to do good, and who never spared herself for this purpose, I was sent to several schools in the neighbourhood, especially to a large free school, under the care of a clergyman, Mr. Hague, under whom, at the age of twelve or fifteen, I first began to make any progress in the Latin Tongue, and acquired the elements of Greek. But about the same time that I began to learn Greek at this public school, I learned Hebrew on holidays of the dissenting minister of the place, Mr. Kirkby, and upon the removal of Mr. Hague from the free school, Mr. Kirkby opening a school of his own, I was wholly under his care. With this instruction I had acquired a pretty good knowledge of the learned languages at the age of sixteen. But from this time Mr. Kirkby’s increasing infirmities obliged him to relinquish his school, and beginning to be of a weakly consumptive habit, so that it was not thought adviseable to send me to any other place of education, I was left to conduct my studies as well as I couldtill I went to the academy at Daventry in the year 1752.
From the time I discovered any fondness for books my aunt entertained hopes of my being a minister, and I readily entered into her views. But my ill health obliged me to turn my thoughts another way, and with a view to trade, I learned the modern languages, French, Italian, and High Dutch without a master; and in the first and last of them I translated, and wrote letters, for an uncle of mine who was a merchant, and who intended to put me into a counting house in Lisbon. A house was actually engaged to receive me there, and every thing was nearly ready for my undertaking the voyage. But getting better health my former destination for the ministry was resumed, and I was sent to Daventry, to study under Mr. Ashworth, afterwards Dr. Ashworth.
Looking back, as I often do, upon this period of my life, I see the greatest reason to be thankful to God for the pious care of my parents and friends, in giving me religious instruction. My mother was a woman of exemplary piety, and my father also had a strong sense of religion, praying with his family morning and evening, and carefully teaching his childrenand servants the Assembly’s Catechism, which was all the system of which he had any knowledge. In the latter part of his life he became very fond of Mr. Whitfield’s writings, and other works of a similar kind, having been brought up in the principles of Calvinism, and adopting them, but without ever giving much attention to matters of speculation, and entertaining no bigotted aversion to those who differed from him on the subject.
The same was the case with my excellent aunt, she was truly Calvinistic in principle, but was far from confining salvation to those who thought as she did on religious subjects. Being left in good circumstances, her home was the resort of all the dissenting ministers in the neighbourhood without distinction, and those who were the most obnoxious on account of their heresy were almost as welcome to her, if she thought them honest and good men, (which she was not unwilling to do) as any others.
The most heretical ministers in the neighbourhood were Mr. Graham of Halifax, and Mr. Walker of Leeds, but they were frequently my Aunt’s guests. With the former of these my intimacy grew with my years, but chiefly after I became a preacher. Wekept up a correspondence to the last, thinking alike on most subjects. To him I dedicated myDisquisitions on Matter and Spirit, and when he died, he left me his manuscripts, his Polyglot bible, and two hundred pounds. Besides being a rational Christian, he was an excellent classical scholar, and wrote Latin with great facility and elegance. He frequently wrote to me in that language.
Thus I was brought up with sentiments of piety, but without bigotry, and having from my earliest years given much attention to the subject of religion, I was as much confirmed as I well could be in the principles of Calvinism, all the books that came in my way having that tendency.
The weakness of my constitution, which often led me to think that I should not be long lived, contributed to give my mind a still more serious turn, and having read many books ofexperiences, and in consequence believing that anew birthproduced by the immediate agency of the Spirit of God, was necessary to salvation, and not being able to satisfy myself that Ihadexperienced any thing of the kind, I felt occasionally such distress of mind as it is not in my power to describe, and which I still look backupon with horror. Notwithstanding I had nothing very material to reproach myself with, I often concluded that God had forsaken me, and that mine was like the case of Francis Spira, to whom, as he imagined, repentance and salvation were denied. In that state of mind I remember reading the account of the man in the iron cage in the Pilgrim’s Progress with the greatest perturbation.
I imagine that even these conflicts of mind were not without their use, as they led me to think habitually of God and a future state. And though my feelings were then, no doubt, too full of terror, what remained of them was a deep reverence for divine things, and in time a pleasing satisfaction which can never be effaced, and I hope, was strengthened as I have advanced in life, and acquired more rational notions of religion. The remembrance, however, of what I sometimes felt in that state of ignorance and darkness gives me a peculiar sense of the value of rational principles of religion, and of which I can give but an imperfect description to others.
Astruth, we cannot doubt, must have an advantage overerror, we may conclude that the want ofthese peculiar feelings is compensated by something of greater value, which arises to others from always having seen things in a just and pleasing light; from having always considered the Supreme Being as the kind parent of all his offspring. This, however, not having been my case, I cannot be so good a judge of the effects of it. At all events, we ought always to inculcate just views of things, assuring ourselves thatproper feelings and right conductwill be the consequence of them.
In the latter part of the interval between my leaving the grammar school and going to the academy, which was something more than two years, I attended two days in the week upon Mr. Haggerstone, a dissenting minister in the neighbourhood, who had been educated under Mr. Maclaurin. Of him I learned Geometry, Algebra and various branches of Mathematics, theoretical and practical. And at the same time I read, but with little assistance from him, Gravesend’s Elements of Natural Philosophy, Watt’s Logic, Locke’s Essay on the Human Understanding, &c, and made such a proficiency in other branches of learning, that when I was admitted at the academy (which was on Coward’s foundation) I was excusedall the studies of the first year, and a great part of those of the second.
In the same interval I spent the latter part of every week with Mr. Thomas, a baptist minister now of Bristol but then of Gildersome, a village about four miles from Leeds, who had had no learned education. Him I instructed in Hebrew, and by that means made myself a considerable proficient in that language. At the same time I learned Chaldee and Syriac, and just began to read Arabic. Upon the whole, going to the academy later than is usual, and being thereby better furnished, I was qualified to appear there with greater advantage.
Before I went from home I was very desirous of being admitted a communicant in the congregation which I had always attended, and the old minister, as well as my Aunt, were as desirous of it as myself, but the elders of the Church, who had the government of it, refused me, because, when they interrogated me on the subject of thesin of Adam, I appeared not to be quite orthodox, not thinking that all the human race (supposing them not to have any sin of their own) were liable to the wrath of God, and the pains of hell for ever, on account ofthat sin only; for such was the question that was put to me. Some time before, having then no doubt of the truth of the doctrine, I well remember being much distressed that I could not feel a proper repentance for the sin of Adam; taking it for granted that withoutthisit could not be forgiven me. Mr. Haggerstone above mentioned, was a little more liberal than the members of the congregation in which I was brought up, being what is called aBaxterian;[1]and his general conversation had a liberal turn, and such as tended to undermine my prejudices. But what contributed to open my eyes still more was the conversation of a Mr. Walker, from Ashton under line, who preached as a candidate when our old minister was superannuated. He was an avowed Baxterian, and being rejected on that account his opinions were much canvassed, and he being a guest at the house of my Aunt, we soon became very intimate, and I thought I saw much of reason in his sentiments. Thinking farther on these subjects, I was, before I went to the academy, an Arminian, but had by no means rejected the doctrine of the trinity, or that of atonement.
[1]BAXTERIANS, The famous Non-conformist Richard Baxter who flourished about the middle of the last Century, attempted a Coalition between the doctrines of Calvin and Arminius. The former of these held that God from the beginning had elected a few of the human race to be saved, without reference to their good actions in this life, and had left the rest of mankind in a state of final and inevitable reprobation. The latter was of opinion that the Christian dispensation furnished the means of final Salvation to all men, though the merits of the death of Christ would be ultimately advantageous to believers only. Baxter, thought with Calvin that some among mankind were from the beginning elected unto eternal life, and gifted from above with the saving grace necessary in the first instance to the several steps of a believer’s christian character; but he thought also with Arminius that all men had common grace imparted to them, sufficient to enable them if they chose, to attain unto final Salvation by using the means ordained by Christ and his Apostles. Calvin also held the final perseverance of the Saints, or as it has since been expressed that a believer might fall foully but not finally, whereas Baxter seems to have thought that not every one who had saving grace imparted to him would persevere to the end, or as the Arminian Methodists quaintly express it, he held that a believer may fall both foully and finally. The compromising doctrine of Baxter may be seen in his very learned and unintelligible work entitled Catholick Theology. He used to be an annual communicant in the Church of England by way of exemplying his accommodating opinions.T. C.
[1]BAXTERIANS, The famous Non-conformist Richard Baxter who flourished about the middle of the last Century, attempted a Coalition between the doctrines of Calvin and Arminius. The former of these held that God from the beginning had elected a few of the human race to be saved, without reference to their good actions in this life, and had left the rest of mankind in a state of final and inevitable reprobation. The latter was of opinion that the Christian dispensation furnished the means of final Salvation to all men, though the merits of the death of Christ would be ultimately advantageous to believers only. Baxter, thought with Calvin that some among mankind were from the beginning elected unto eternal life, and gifted from above with the saving grace necessary in the first instance to the several steps of a believer’s christian character; but he thought also with Arminius that all men had common grace imparted to them, sufficient to enable them if they chose, to attain unto final Salvation by using the means ordained by Christ and his Apostles. Calvin also held the final perseverance of the Saints, or as it has since been expressed that a believer might fall foully but not finally, whereas Baxter seems to have thought that not every one who had saving grace imparted to him would persevere to the end, or as the Arminian Methodists quaintly express it, he held that a believer may fall both foully and finally. The compromising doctrine of Baxter may be seen in his very learned and unintelligible work entitled Catholick Theology. He used to be an annual communicant in the Church of England by way of exemplying his accommodating opinions.
T. C.
Though after I saw reason to change my opinionsI found myself incommoded by the rigour of the congregation with which I was connected, I shall always acknowledge with great gratitude that I owe much to it. The business of religion was effectually attended to in it. We were all catechized in public ’till we were grown up, servants as well as others: the minister always expounded the scriptures with as much regularity as he preached, and there was hardly a day in the week, in which there was not some meeting of one or other part of the congregation. On one evening there was a meeting of the young men for conversation and prayer. This I constantly attended, praying extempore with others when called upon.
At my Aunt’s there was a monthly meeting of women, who acquitted themselves in prayer as well as any of the men belonging to the congregation. Being at first a child in the family, I was permitted to attend their meetings, and growing up insensibly, heard them after I was capable of judging. My Aunt after the death of her husband, prayed every morning and evening in her family, until I was about seventeen, when that duty devolved upon me.
The Lord’s day was kept with peculiar strictness.No victuals were dressed on that day in any family. No member of it was permitted to walk out for recreation, but the whole of the day was spent at the public meeting, or at home in reading, meditation, and prayer, in the family or the closet.
It was my custom at that time to recollect as much as I could of the sermons I heard, and to commit it to writing. This practice I began very early, and continued it until I was able from the heads of a discourse to supply the rest myself. For not troubling myself to commit to memory much of the amplification, and writing at home almost as much as I had heard, I insensibly acquired a habit of composing with great readiness; and from this practice I believe I have derived great advantage through life; composition seldom employing so much time as would be necessary to write in long hand any thing I have published.
By these means, not being disgusted with these strict forms of religion as many persons of better health and spirits probably might have been (and on which account I am far from recommending the same strictness to others) I acquired in early life a serious turn of mind. Among other things I had atthis time a great aversion toPlays and Romances, so that I never read any works of this kind except Robinson Crusoe, until I went to the academy. I well remember seeing my brother Timothy reading a book of Knight Errantry, and with great indignation I snatched it out of his hands, and threw it away. This brother afterwards, when he had for some time followed my father’s business (which was that of a Cloth-dresser) became, if possible, more serious than I had been; and after an imperfect education, took up the profession of a minister among the Independents, in which he now continues.
While I was at the Grammar School I learnedMr. Annet’s Short hand, and thinking I could suggest some improvements in it, I wrote to the Author, and this was the beginning of a correspondence which lasted several years. He was, as I ever perceived, an unbeliever in Christianity and a necessarian. On this subject several letters, written with care on both sides, passed between us, and these Mr. Annet often pressed me to give him leave to publish, but I constantly refused. I had undertaken the defence of Philosophical Liberty, and the correspondence was closed without my being convinced ofthe fallacy of my arguments, though upon studying the subject regularly, in the course of my academical education afterwards, I became a confirmed Necessarian, and I have through life derived, as I imagine, the greatest advantage from my full persuasion of the truth of that doctrine.
My Aunt, and all my relations, being strict Calvinists, it was their intention to send me to the academy atMile-end, then under the care of Dr. Cawder. But, being at that time an Arminian, I resolutely opposed it, especially upon finding that if I went thither, besides giving anexperience, I must subscribe my assent to ten printed articles of the strictest calvinistic faith, and repeat it every six months. My opposition, however, would probable have been to no purpose, and I must have adopted some other mode of life, if Mr. Kirkby above mentioned had not interposed, and strongly recommended the academy of Dr. Doddridge, on the idea that I should have a better chance of being made a scholar. He had received a good education himself, was a good classical scholar, and had no opinion of the mode of education among the very orthodox Dissenters, and being fond of me, he wasdesirous of my having every advantage that could be procured for me. My good Aunt, not being a bigotted Calvinist, entered into his views, and Dr. Doddridge being dead, I was sent to Daventry, and was the first pupil that entered there. My Step-mother also, who was a woman of good sense, as well as of religion, had a high opinion of Dr. Doddridge, having been sometime housekeeper in his family. She had always recommended his Academy, but died before I went thither.
Three years, viz. from September 1752 to 1755, I spent at Daventry with that peculiar satisfaction with which young persons of generous minds usually go through a course of liberal study, in the society of others engaged in the same pursuits, and free from the cares and anxieties which seldom fail to lay hold on them when they come out into the world.
In my time, the academy was in a state peculiarly favorable to the serious pursuit of truth, as the students were about equally divided upon every question of much importance, such as Liberty and Necessity, the Sleep of the soul, and all the articles of theological orthodoxy and heresy; in consequence of whichall these topics were the subject of continual discussion. Our tutors also were of different opinions; Dr. Ashworth taking the orthodox side of every question, and Mr. Clark, the sub-tutor, that of heresy, though always with the greatest modesty.
Both of our tutors being young, at least as tutors, and some of the senior students excelling more than they could pretend to do in several branches of study, they indulged us in the greatest freedoms, so that our lectures had often the air of friendly conversations on the subjects to which they related. We were permitted to ask whatever questions, and to make whatever remarks, we pleased; and we did it with the greatest, but without any offensive, freedom. The general plan of our studies, which may be seen in Dr. Doddridge’s published lectures, was exceedingly favourable to free enquiry, as we were referred to authors on both sides of every question, and were even required to give an account of them. It was also expected that we should abridge the most important of them for our future use. The public library contained all the books to which we were referred.
It was a reference to Dr. Hartley’s Observationson Man in the course of our Lectures, that first brought me acquainted with that performance, which immediately engaged my closest attention, and produced the greatest, and in my opinion the most favourable effect on my general turn of thinking thro’ life. It established me in the belief of the doctrine of Necessity, which I first learned from Collins; it greatly improved that disposition to piety which I brought to the academy, and freed it from that rigour with which it had been tinctured. Indeed, I do not know whether the consideration of Dr. Hartley’s theory contributes more to enlighten the mind, or improve the heart; it effects both in so super-eminent a degree.
In this situation, I saw reason to embrace what is generally called the heterodox side of almost every question.[2]But notwithstanding this, and thoughDr. Ashworth was earnestly desirous to make me as orthodox as possible, yet, as my behaviour was unexceptionable, and as I generally took his part in some little things by which he often drew upon himself the ill-will of many of the students, I was upon the whole a favourite with him. I kept up more or less of a correspondence with Dr. Ashworth till the time of his death, though much more so with Mr. Clark. This continued till the very week of his melancholy death by a fall from his horse at Birmingham, where he was minister.
[2]It will be seen in the course of these memoirs that from time to time as deeper reflection and more extensive reading incited him, he saw reason to give up almost all the peculiar theological and metaphysical opinions which he had imbibed in early youth; some of them with considerable difficulty, and all of them at the evident risk of considerable obloquy from those whom he highly respected, as well as from those on whom his interest appeared to depend.T. C.
[2]It will be seen in the course of these memoirs that from time to time as deeper reflection and more extensive reading incited him, he saw reason to give up almost all the peculiar theological and metaphysical opinions which he had imbibed in early youth; some of them with considerable difficulty, and all of them at the evident risk of considerable obloquy from those whom he highly respected, as well as from those on whom his interest appeared to depend.
T. C.
Notwithstanding the great freedom of our speculations and debates, the extreme of heresy among us was Arianism; and all of us, I believe, left the academy with a belief, more or less qualified, of the doctrine ofatonement.
Warm friendships never fail to be contracted at places of liberal education; and when they are well chosen are of singular use; Such was mine with Mr. Alexander of Birmingham. We were in the same class, and during the first year occupied the same room. By engagements between ourselves we rose early, and dispatched many articles of business every day. One of them, which continued all thetime we were at the academy, was to read every day ten folio pages in some Greek author, and generally a Greek play in the course of the week besides. By this means we became very well acquainted with that language, and with the most valuable authors in it. This exercise we continued long after we left the academy, communicating to each other by letter an account of what we read. My life becoming more occupied than his, he continued his application to Greek longer than I did, so that before his death he was, I imagine, one of the best Greek scholars in this or any other country. My attention was always more drawn to mathematical and philosophical studies than his was.
These voluntary engagements were the more necessary, in the course of our academical studies, as there was then no provision made for teaching the learned languages. We had even no compositions, or orations, in Latin. Our course of lectures was also defective in containing no lectures on the scriptures, or on ecclesiastical history, and by the students in general (and Mr. Alexander and myself were no exceptions) commentators in general and ecclesiastical history also, were held in contempt.On leaving the academy he went to study under his uncle Dr. Benson, and with him learned to value the critical study of the scriptures so much, that at length he almost confined his attention to them.
My other particular friends among my fellow students were Mr. Henry Holland, of my own class, Messrs. Whitehead, Smithson, Rotherham, and Scholefield in that above me, and Mr. Taylor in that below me. With all these I kept up more or less of a correspondence, and our friendship was terminated only by the death of those who are now dead, viz. the three first named of these six, and I hope it will subsist to the same period with those who now survive.
All the while I was at the academy I never lost sight of the great object of my studies, which was the duties of a christian minister, and there it was that I laid the general plan which I have executed since. Particularly I there composed the first copy of myInstitutes of Natural and Revealed Religion, Mr. Clark, to whom I communicated my scheme, carefully perusing every section of it, and talking over the subject of it with me.
But I was much discouraged even then with theimpediment in my speech, which I inherited from my family, and which still attends me. Sometimes I absolutely stammered, and my anxiety about it was the cause of much distress to me. However, like St. Paul’sthorn in the flesh, I hope it has not been without its use. Without some such check as this, I might have been disputatious in company, or might have been seduced by the love of popular applause as a preacher: whereas my conversation and my delivery in the pulpit having nothing in them that was generally striking, I hope I have been more attentive to qualifications of a superior kind.
It is not, I believe, usual for young persons in dissenting academies to think much of their future situations in life. Indeed, we are happily precluded from that by the impossibility of succeeding in any application for particular places. We often, indeed, amused ourselves with the idea of our dispersion in all parts of the kingdom after living so happily together; and used to propose plans of meeting at certain times, and smile at the different appearance we should probably make after being ten or twenty years settled in the world. But nothing of this kind was ever seriously resolved upon by us.For my own part, I can truly say I had very little ambition, except to distinguish myself by my application to the studies proper to my profession; and I cheerfully listened to the first proposal that my tutor made to me, in consequence of an application made to him, to provide a minister for the people of Needham Market in Suffolk, though it was very remote from my friends in Yorkshire, and a very inconsiderable place.
When I went to preach at Needham as a candidate, I found a small congregation, about an hundred people; under a Mr. Meadows, who was superannuated. They had been without a minister the preceding year, on account of the smallness of the salary; but there being some respectable and agreeable families among them, I flattered myself that I should be useful and happy in the place, and therefore accepted the unanimous invitation to be assistant to Mr. Meadows, with a view to succeed him when he died. He was a man of some fortune.
This congregation had been used to receive assistance from both the Presbyterian and Independent funds; but upon my telling them that I did not chuse to have any thing to do with the Independents,and asking them whether they were able to make up the salary they promised me (which was forty pounds per annum) without any aid from the latter fund, they assured me they could. I soon, however, found that they deceived themselves; for the most that I ever received from them was in the proportion of about thirty pounds per annum, when the expence of my board exceeded twenty pounds.
Notwithstanding this, every thing else for the first half year appeared very promising, and I was happy in the success of my schemes for promoting the interest of religion in the place. I catechised the children, though there were not many, using Dr. Watt’s Catechism; and I opened my lectures on the theory of religion from theinstitutes, which I had composed at the academy, admitting all persons to attend them without distinction of sex or age; but in this I soon found that I had acted imprudently. A minister in that neighbourhood had been obliged to leave his place on account of Arianism, and though nothing had been said to me on the subject, and from the people so readily consenting to give up the independent fund, I thought they could not have much bigotry among them, I found that when I came totreat of theUnity of God, merely as an article of religion, several of my audience were attentive to nothing but the soundness of my faith in the doctrine of the Trinity.
Also, though I had made it a rule to myself to introduce nothing that could lead to controversy into the pulpit; yet making no secret of my real opinions in conversation, it was soon found that I was an Arian. From the time of this discovery my hearers fell off apace, especially as the old minister took a decided part against me. The principal families, however, still continued with me; but notwithstanding this, my salary fell far short of thirty pounds per annum, and if it had not been for Dr. Benson and Dr. Kippis, especially the former, procuring me now and then an extraordinary five pounds from different charities, I do not believe that I could have subsisted. I shall always remember their kindness to me, at a time when I stood in so much need of it.
When I was in this situation, a neighbouring minister whose intimate friend had conformed to the church of England, talked to me on that subject. He himself, I perceived, had no great objection to it, but rejecting the proposal, as a thing that I could not think of, he never mentioned it to me any more.
To these difficulties, arising from the sentiments of my congregation, was added that of the failure of all remittances from my aunt, owing in part to the ill offices of my orthodox relations; but chiefly to her being exhausted by her liberality to others, and thinking that when I was settled in the world, I ought to be no longer burdensome to her. Together with me she had brought up a niece, who was almost her only companion, and being deformed, could not have subsisted without the greatest part, at least, of all she had to bequeath. In consequence of these circumstances, tho’ my aunt had always assured me that, if I chose to be a minister, she would leave me independent of the profession, I was satisfied she was not able to perform her promise, and freely consented to her leaving all she had to my cousin; I had only a silver tankard as a token of her remembrance. She had spared no expence in my education, and that was doing more for me than giving me an estate.
But what contributed greatly to my distress was theimpediment in my speech, which had increased so much as to make preaching very painful, and took from me all chance of recommending myself to any better place. In this state, hearing of the proposal ofone Mr. Angier to cure all defects of speech, I prevailed upon my aunt to enable me to pay his price, which was twenty guineas; and this was the first occasion of my visiting London. Accordingly, I attended him about a month, taking an oath not to reveal his method, and I received some temporary benefit; but soon relapsed again, and spoke worse than ever. When I went to London it was in company with Mr. Smithson, who was settled at Harlestown in Norfolk. By him I was introduced to Dr. Kippis and Dr. Benson, and by the latter to Dr. Price, but not at that time.
At Needham I felt the effect of a low despised situation, together with that arising from the want of popular talents. There were several vacancies in congregations in that neighbourhood, where my sentiments would have been no objection to me, but I was never thought of. Even my next neighbours, whose sentiments were as free as my own, and known to be so, declined making exchanges with me, which, when I left that part of the country, he acknowledged was not owing to any dislike his people had to me as heretical, but for other reasons, the more genteel part of his hearers always absenting themselves when theyheard I was to preach for him. But visiting that country some years afterwards, when I had raised myself to some degree of notice in the world, and being invited to preach in that very pulpit, the same people crowded to hear me, though my elocution was not much improved, and they professed to admire one of the same discourses they had formerly despised.
Notwithstanding these unfavorable circumstances, I was far from being unhappy at Needham. I was boarded in a family from which I received much satisfaction, I firmly believed that a wise providence was disposing every thing for the best, and I applied with great assiduity to my studies, which were classical, mathematical and theological. These required but few books. As to Experimental Philosophy, I had always cultivated an acquaintance with it, but I had not the means of prosecuting it.
With respect to miscellaneous reading, I was pretty well supplied by means of a library belonging to Mr. S. Alexander, a quaker,[3]to which I had the freestaccess. Here it was that I was first acquainted with any person of that persuasion; and I must acknowledge my obligation to many of them in every future stage of my life. I have met with the noblest instances of liberality of sentiment and the truest generosity among them.
[3]QUAKERS. That instances of liberality of sentiment with respect to religious opinion are frequently to be found among the Quakers there can be no doubt, but this is certainly no part of their character as a Sect. Thomas Letchworth one of the most acute and ingenious of their preachers at Wandsworth near London, who from the writings of Dr. Priestley had become a firm convert to his Unitarian opinions, informed me that the expression of those opinions would be attended with certain expulsion from the Society. Very lately Hannah Bernard, a female public friend who went from America to England, was prohibited from preaching by the Society, on account of her Unitarian doctrines.Thomas Letchworth has been dead many years. In the short contest on the question of liberty and necessity which was occasioned by Toplady’s life of Jerome Zanchius, he wrote a good defence of the doctrine of necessity signed Philaretes in answer to one from a disciple of Fletcher’s of Madely, under the signature of Philaleutheros. There is a trifling account of him containing no information, by one William Matthews.T. C.
[3]QUAKERS. That instances of liberality of sentiment with respect to religious opinion are frequently to be found among the Quakers there can be no doubt, but this is certainly no part of their character as a Sect. Thomas Letchworth one of the most acute and ingenious of their preachers at Wandsworth near London, who from the writings of Dr. Priestley had become a firm convert to his Unitarian opinions, informed me that the expression of those opinions would be attended with certain expulsion from the Society. Very lately Hannah Bernard, a female public friend who went from America to England, was prohibited from preaching by the Society, on account of her Unitarian doctrines.
Thomas Letchworth has been dead many years. In the short contest on the question of liberty and necessity which was occasioned by Toplady’s life of Jerome Zanchius, he wrote a good defence of the doctrine of necessity signed Philaretes in answer to one from a disciple of Fletcher’s of Madely, under the signature of Philaleutheros. There is a trifling account of him containing no information, by one William Matthews.
T. C.
My studies however, were chiefly theological. Having left the academy, as I have observed, with a qualified belief of the doctrine ofAtonement, such as is found in Mr. Tomkin’s book, entitled,Jesus Christthe Mediator, I was desirous of getting some more definite ideas on the subject, and with that view set myself to peruse the whole of the old and new testament, and to collect from them all the texts that appeared to me to have any relation to the subject. This I therefore did with the greatest care, arranging them under a great variety of heads. At the same time I did not fail to note suchgeneral considerationsas occurred to me while I was thus employed. The consequence of this was, what I had no apprehension of when I began the work, viz. a full persuasion that the doctrine of Atonement, even in its most qualified sense, had no countenance either from scripture or reason. Satisfied of this, I proceeded to digest my observations into a regular treatise, which a friend of mine, without mentioning my name, submitted to the perusal of Dr. Fleming and Dr. Lardner. In consequence of this, I was urged by them to publish the greater part of what I had written. But being then about to leave Needham, I desired them to do whatever they thought proper with respect to it, and they published about half of my piece, under the title of theDoctrine of Remission, &c.
This circumstance introduced me to the acquaintanceof Dr. Lardner, whom I always called upon when I visited London. The last time I saw him, which was little more than a year before his death, having by letter requested him to give me some assistance with respect to the history I then prepared to write of the Corruptions of Christianity, and especially that article of it, he took down a large bundle of pamphlets, and turning them over at length shewing me my own; said, “This contains my sentiments on the subject.” He had then forgot that I wrote it, and on my remarking it, he shook his head, and said that his memory began to fail him; and that he had taken me for another person. He was then at the advanced age of ninety one. This anecdote is trifling in itself, but it relates to a great and good man.
I have observed that Dr. Lardner only wished to publish a part of the treatise which my friend put into his hand. The other part of it contained remarks on the reasoning of the apostle of Paul, which he could not by any means approve. They were, therefore, omitted in this publication. But the attention which I gave to the writings of this apostle at the time that I examined them, in order to collectpassages relating to the doctrine of atonement, satisfied me that his reasoning was in many places far from being conclusive; and in a separate work I examined every passage in which his reasoning appeared to me to be defective, or his conclusions ill supported; and I thought them to be pretty numerous.
At that time I had not read any commentary on the scriptures, except that of Mr. Henry when I was young. However, seeing so much reason to be dissatisfied with the apostle Paul as a reasoner, I readDr. Taylor’s paraphrase on the epistle to the Romans; but it gave me no sort of satisfaction; and his generalKey to the epistlesstill less. I therefore at that time wrote some remarks on it, which were a long time after published in theTheological RepositoryVol. 4.
As I found that Dr. Lardner did not at all relish any of my observations on the imperfections of the sacred writers, I did not put this treatise into his hands; but I shewed it to some of my younger friends, and also to Dr. Kippis; and he advised me to publish it under the character of an unbeliever, in order to draw the more attention to it. This Idid not chuse, having always had a great aversion to assume any character that was not my own, even so much as disputing for the sake of discovering truth. I cannot ever say that I was quite reconciled to the idea of writing to a fictitious person, as in myletters to a philosophical unbeliever, though nothing can be more innocent, or sometimes more proper; our Saviour’s parables implying a much greater departure from strict truth than those letters do. I therefore wrote the book with great freedom, indeed, but as a christian, and an admirer of the apostle Paul, as I always was in other respects.
When I was at Nantwich I sent this treatise to the press; but when nine sheets were printed off, Dr. Kippis dissuaded me from proceeding, or from publishing any thing of the kind, until I should be more known, and my character better established. I therefore desisted; but when I opened the theological Repository, I inserted in that work every thing that was of much consequence in the other, in order to its being submitted to the examination of learned christians. Accordingly these communications were particularly animadverted upon by Mr. Willet of Newcastle, under the signature of W. W. ButI cannot say that his remarks gave me much satisfaction.
When I was at Needham I likewise drew up a treatise on the doctrine ofdivine influence, having collected a number of texts for that purpose, and arranged them under proper heads, as I had done those relating to the doctrine of atonement. But I published nothing relating to it until I made use of some of the observations in mysermonon that subject, delivered at an ordination, and published many years afterwards.
While I was in this retired situation, I had, in consequence of much pains and thought, become persuaded of the falsity of the doctrine of atonement, of the inspiration of the authors of the books of scripture as writers, and of all idea of supernatural influence, except for the purpose of miracles. But I was still an Arian, having never turned my attention to the Socinian doctrine, and contenting myself with seeing the absurdity of the trinitarian system.
Another task that I imposed on myself, and in part executed at Needham, was an accurate comparison of the Hebrew text of the hagiographa and the prophets with the version of the Septuagint, notingall the variations, &c. This I had about half finished before I left that place; and I never resumed it, except to do that occasionally for particular passages, which I then began, though with many disadvantages, with a design to go through the whole. I had no Polyglot Bible, and could have little help from the labours of others.
The most learned of my acquaintance in this situation was Mr. Scott of Ipswich, who was well versed in the Oriental languages, especially the Arabic. But though he was far from being Calvinistical, he gave me no encouragement in the very free enquiries which I then entered upon. Being excluded from all communication with the more orthodox ministers in that part of the country, all my acquaintance among the dissenting ministers, besides Mr. Scott, were Mr. Taylor of Stow-market, Mr. Dickinson of Diss, and Mr. Smithson of Harlestone; and it is rather remarkable, that we all left that country in the course of the same year; Mr. Taylor removing to Carter’s lane in London, Mr. Dickinson to Sheffield, and Mr. Smithson to Nottingham.
But I was very happy in a great degree of intimacy with Mr. Chauvet, the rector of Stow-market.He was descended of French parents; and I think was not born in England. Whilst he lived we were never long without seeing each other. But he was subject to great unevenness of spirits, sometimes the most chearful man living, and at other times most deplorably low. In one of these fits he at length put an end to his life. I heard afterwards that he had at one time been confined for insanity, and had even made the same attempt some time before.
Like most other young men of a liberal education, I had conceived a great aversion to the business of a schoolmaster, and had often said, that I would have recourse to any thing else for a maintenance in preference to it. But having no other resource, I was at length compelled by necessity to make some attempt in that way; and for this purpose I printed and distributedProposals, but without any effect. Not that I was thought to be unqualified for this employment, but because I was not orthodox. I had proposed to teach the classics, mathematics, &c. for half a guinea per quarter, and to board the pupils in the house with myself for twelve guineas per annum.
Finding this scheme not to answer, I proposed togive lectures to grown persons in such branches of science as I could conveniently procure the means of doing; and I began with reading about twelve lectures on theuse of the Globes, at half a guinea. I had one course of ten hearers, which did something more than pay for my globes; and I should have proceeded in this way, adding to my apparatus as I should have been able to afford it, if I had not left that place, which was in the following manner.
My situation being well known to my friends, Mr. Gill, a distant relation by my mother, who had taken much notice of me before I went to the academy, and had often lent me books, procured me an invitation to preach as a candidate at Sheffield, on the resignation of Mr. Wadsworth. Accordingly I did preach as a candidate, but though my opinions were no objection to me there, I was not approved. But Mr. Haynes, the other minister, perceiving that I had no chance at Sheffield, told me that he could recommend me to a congregation at Nantwich in Cheshire, where he himself had been settled; and as it was at a great distance from Needham, he would endeavour to procure me an invitation to preach there for a year certain. This he did, and I gladly accepting of it, removedfrom Needham, going thence to London by sea, to save expence. This was in 1758, after having been at Needham just three years.[4]