meeting-house, to hinder his entering the pulpit, for which another minister was provided. This, of itself revolting scene, was productive of great uproar there, and on this and several successive Sabbaths the town was in disgraceful confusion. Many of the lower order taking advantage of the contest, proceeded to outrage, by grossly insulting some of the principal people, and breaking several windows. During the contention, on one of the Lord's days, after the constables were withdrawn, a personal conflict ensued between Mr. H., with the assistance of two of his warmest friends, and several of his opponents, who had stationed themselves at the stairs of the pulpit to prevent his ascending to it in consequence of this the former were indicted for an assault, to be tried at the quarter sessions at Worcester, and were admitted to bail; but the trial never came on, it having been thought advisable to desist from a further prosecution. The issue of these violent proceedings was, that the minister was under the necessity of quitting the meeting-house, when he hired the assembly room at an inn, and for some months preached to his attendants, still claiming the house for which he had contended, as having a right to officiate there, he being the ordained and proper minister of that place. However this shocking disturbance might be viewed as dishonourable to the cause of Dis

sent, it is impossible that it should have afforded a pleasurable feeling to any, except the bigoted subjects of a church in which the exercise of just liberty in the choice of a teacher is precluded by purchase or patronage. By all others it must have been painfully witnessed, especially in a town accustomed from the days of the eminent Richard Baxter to a decent observance of the Sabbath. At length, in order to terminate this lamentable affair, and either to give up the house, which their fathers erected for the worship of God, or to silence the minister's claim to it for his life, a proposition was made on the part of the majority of subscribers to nominate an arbitration, and thus have recourse to the wisest mode of settling differences. This being acceded to, both parties entered into a legal engagement, under a penalty of five

hundred pounds, to abide by the decision. Accordingly two arbitrators, a minister and a layman for each party, and an umpire, were appointed, who assembled at Kidderminster about Michaelmas 1818, and having heard all the circumstances of the unhappy contention related by both sides, came to this decision: that the expenses incurred by either party in law proceedings should be added together and jointly defrayed; that Mr. H. might, if he thought proper, return to the Old Meeting-house, and preach there for the space of six months, and that at the expiration of the allotted term he should cease to officiate within the limits of the parish. The time allowed him having elapsed, he has resigned his claim and left the meeting; and the congregation is now at liberty to elect another minister. The people who have adhered to Mr. H. being indisposed to continue their attendance at that place, now he is excluded, are endeavouring to procure a new erection; but whether they will succeed is at present uncertain. I conclude with expressing my sincere hope, that the cause of Nonconformity may never again be dishonoured, in any of its branches, by such contrariety to the Christian spirit and practice.

SIR,

R. F.

York, May 4, 1819.

M spread of Unitarianism in Kentucky, in your last Number, [p. 242,] having probably excited some interest in many of your readers, I send you the following extract from a letter I received from a valuable friend in Massachusetts, with whom I have the privilege of occasionally corresponding, written in December last.

R. FLOWER's letter on the

"Of occurrences among us, that which has most excited public notice, is the removal of Mr. Holley, the most eloquent pulpit orator our country has known, from his society in Boston to the Presidency of Transylvania College in Kentucky. Mr. Holley had distinguished himself by his bold and animated discussion of theological opinions; and though he had surprised some by the freedom of his sentiments, yet his clear and forcible elucidation of Christian doctrines had made a great impression. On his

ning of this service is most unpromising to a Unitarian; for though the first words of the Creed, I believe in God the Father, are in the margin, they are expanded in the text into, I besubstance and three in person, Father, lieve and confess my Lord God, one in Son and Holy Ghost." There is, however, nothing of this theology in "the Form of Marriage," (p. 249). At the close of the service, "the minister commendeth them to God, in this or such like sort: The Lord sanctify and bless you: the Lord pour the riches of his grace upon you, that ye may please him and live together in holy love to your lives' end.' Then is sung the 128th Psalm, or some other pertaining to the same purpose." all the devotional part of the service. These appear to have comprehended I need scarcely add, that there was no form of wedding with the ring, nor any of the exceptionable language which the Church of England connects with that ceremony. This Calvin's Common Prayer Book was "the form used by the English at Geneva," during their exile in the reign of Mary. At the end of the French Protestant Testament, published at Charenton, 1668, I find, among other public forms, La Manière de célébrer le Mariage. This is in substance the same as the Geneva service. At the end is a short prayer, which, like every reference to the Deity through the whole service, is strictly Unitarian.

those who receive this doctrine. No doubt this is true; but still there will be this difference: those who are led to such an improvement of the death of Christ, by the authority of the numerous passages which are regarded as teaching the atonement, will consider the death of Christ, in this respect, as a much more important and significant event; as forming an integral and necessary part in the plan of redemption: inasmuch as they see it so frequently and expressly pointed out to their notice by God himself, as the way in which they have been saved. Our Lord's death is thus invested with a holy moral meaning, which is nearly lost when it is viewed so much with an historiau's eye, as a mean of confirming truth or advancing a cause. In this influence of the cross of Christ on the heart of a Christian, I think we may see the best explanation of the doctrine of the atonement. Lastly, that Unitarians should allow the extrayagance of Calvinists to drive them into an opposite extreme, appears to me lamentable. It is the rejection of this doctrine which makes the great breach between them and the rest of Christians it is this which makes the hearts of other Christians shrink from their communion as a dead and unholy thing: it is this which makes them to be esteemed impious, presumptuous and God-denying. So thinks the Christian world: for my self I will only say, it is this, possibly, which contributes to shed a chilly influence on their communion, which even they themselves are constrained to acknowledge and lament.

"

T. F. BARHAM.

January, the very just views of marI also mentioned at the meeting in riage, as a civil contract, entertained by the Short Parliament in 1653. That legislature has been assailed by the ridicule of almost all political writers, who, probably, were ill-informed of whom it consisted and how it was employed during the four

before me a collection of their Acts, all attested by of the Parliament," and "printed by "Hen. Scobell, Clerk John Field, printer to the Parliament of England, 1653." these would, I think, serve to shew A perusal of that the ridicule attached to " Barebone's Parliament," has been very ill

lection of papers called the Phoenix. deserved. In the second volume, 1708, at p. 204,

Praise-God Barbone, as he is named

it appears under the title of "Calvin's in the List prefixed to Scobell, or BarCommon Prayer Book." The begin- bon, as in the List of Commissioners,

under the Act for an Assessment, (p. 286,) was one of the seven members for the city of London, though not an Alderman. Being a very active member, his name, corrupted to Barebone or Barebones, was given to the Parliament. His name, Praise-God, has, I apprehend, been not unfrequently considered as a name fantically assumed by himself, whereas there can scarcely be a doubt that it was the choice of his parents, just as Frewen, Archbishop of York, was named Accepted. It appears also from the last Classical Journal, (p. 187, that in the name of the late celebrated scholar, Christian Gottlob Heyne, "Gottlob means praise God, and is frequently used as a Christian name in that part of Germany where Heyne was born." Another instance, among many which might be mentioned, is Deodatus converted into the well known Italian name, Diodati.

Mr. Granger, in his Biographical History, (Ed. 2, III. 68,) calls this senator, Barebone, aud commences a curious note, with the following gossip's tale, unauthenticated and unworthy of such a writer. I have been informed that there were three brothers of this family, each of whom had a sentence to his name; namely, Praise-God Barebone; Christ came into the world to save Barebone; and, If Christ had not died, thou hadst been damined Barebone. Some are said to have omitted the former part of the sentence, and to have called him only Damned Barebone." The senator is then described by Mr. Granger as a "furious zealot," on the authority of Roger Coke. In his Detection, (II. 89,) speaking of the interval, while Monk was maturing his treachery, that Author says, that "Praise-God Barebones, with a multitude of watermen and others, (who, it may be, could neither write nor read,) presented a petition to the Rump, for the excluding the King and Royal Family." In the next page he denounces "that leering heretic Barebones, and all his rabble." The time, however, is arrived when we look back, not without respect, upon watermen and others, even a reputed rabble who, like Milton, and unlike the courtly Presbyterians, would have saved their country from the

deep disgrace of the Restoration. But I return to the Acts of the Short Parliament, from a digression into which I have insensibly wandered.

Among several of a useful public tendency, is that to which I referred, and which you will probably wish to preserve entire, as now become an historical curiosity. It not only respects the contract and registry of marriage, but also the registry of births and burials. Much in the manuer of this Act, marriage is recognized and regulated as a civil contract by the Code Napoleon, (Nos. 75, 165,) and happily for France, it has beeu adopted, with whatever reluctance, in the Code-Royale of that legitimate race, with whose government she has been again blessed by the bayonets of Britain and the Holy Alliance.

J. T. RUTT.

"An Act touching Marriages and the Registring thereof; and also touching Births and Burials. Wednesday the 24th of August, 1653. Ordered by the Parliament, that this Act be forthwith printed and published. Hen. Scobell, Clerk of the Parliement. London, printed by John Field, Printer to the Parliament of England. 1653.

"Be it enacted, by the authority of this present Parliament, that whosoever shall agree to be married within the Common. wealth of England, after the nine and twentieth day of September, in the year one thousand six hundred fifty-three, shall (one and twenty days at least before such intended marriage) deliver in writing, or cause to be so delivered unto the register, (hereafter appointed by this Act,) for the respective parish where each party to be married liveth, the names, sirnames, additions and place of abode of the parties so to be married, and of their parents, guar dians or overseers; all which the said register shall publish or cause to be pub lished, three several Lord's days, then next following at the close of the morning exercise, in the public meeting-place, commonly called The Church or Chapt or (if the parties so to be married shall desire it) in the market-place next to the said church or chapel, on three market days, in three several weeks next following, between the hours of eleven and two; which being so performed, the register shall (upon request of the parties concerned) make a true certificate of the due performance thereof; without which c tificate, the persons hereinafter authorized