Monthly Repository. No. CLX.] APRIL, 1819. [Vol. XIV. HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY. History of the Presbyterian Congregation in Lincoln. HE principal person who laid at Lincoln, was Edward Reyner, M. A., who was ejected from the Church of St. Peter's at Arches, in this city, on the passing of the Act of Uniformity in 1662. He had been long settled at Lincoln, was a popular preacher, and a man of considerable learning and talents.* After the rigorous treatment of the Nonconformists had abated, at the latter end of the reign of Charles II., Mr. Michael Drake, who had been ejected from the living of Pickworth, near Folkingham, and had retired to a mean habitation at Fulbeck, came every Sunday to preach to a few people at the house of Mr. Daniel Disney, at Lincoln, in the parish of St. Peter's at Goats, now (May, 1818) Mr. Hett's. In the following reign, when the Dissenters had more liberty, Mr. Drake removed with his family to Lincoln, and superintended a congregation which was very inconsiderable, and raised him, even with the patronage of the Disneys, but the small sum of £15. per year. However, his preaching seems to have been effectual in strengthening the cause of Dissent at Lincoln, as the society some years after the Revolution became more numerous and respectable. Mr. Drake was born at Bradford in Yorkshire, and was a member of St. John's College, Cambridge. In the year 1645, Sir William Armyn, a gentleman who favoured the reforming party, presented him to the rectory of Pickworth, near Folkingham, on the resignation of Mr. Weld, a person of considerable note amongst breaking out of the war retired into the associated counties, and at last fixed himself in Suffolk. Palmer, in his Nonconformists' Memorial, (II. 428,) says of Mr. Drake, that "he was a truly excellent and amiable person. In his friendship he was most hearty, sincere and constant; in his preaching and praying exceedingly affectionate and fervent; in his life very holy and unblameable; in his whole conduct he manifested more than ordinary simplicity and integrity. He was a man of great meekness and moderation, affability and courteousness, humility and selfdenial. He was remarkable for his carefulness to abstain from the appearance of evil, and patiently laborious in the gospel; an excellent Hebrician and scripture preacher. He was so unexceptionable, upon all accounts, that they who used to inveigh most freely against Dissenters, had not a word to say against him." He seems to have quite deserved this character, for, on his retiring to Fulbeck in the year 1662, he was treated with great respect by Sir Francis Fane, who was an old cavalier and as steady a supporter of the hierarchy and ceremonies as any man living. Yet Sir Francis conversed very freely with him, and once told him that the clergy of the Church of England had the worst luck of any in the world, for in all other countries and religions they were held in estimation, but here they were under contempt. Mr. Drake continued a Dissenter to his death; but his son Joshua * See Palmer's Noncon. Mem. 2nd Ed. Drake conformed, and accepted the II. 421-427. vicarage of Swinderby in 1692, on the presentation of Daniel Disney. This Joshua died in 1727, and was succeeded by his son, who died vicar thereof, 1765. or The congregation most probably increased after the passing of the Toleration Act; at least all the sectariaus were encouraged by this measure to make a more open show of their profession, and in the year 1725 Mr. Daniel Disney, assisted by a few substantial yeomen out of the country, and some respectable tradesmen of Lincoln, making ten in all, purchased a piece of ground and built the present chapel in the parish of St. Peter's at Goats. The property was vested by deed in these ten, and their successors, in trust, for the benefit of the society, "Church of Christ," as it was called, of which Mr. Thomas Cooper was the late, and Mr. Joseph Cappe the then pastor. When the ten trustees are reduced to four, they are to fill up, by a new appointment, to the original number of ten. It would almost appear by the provisions of this deed, that religious liberty was not even then considered as on a stable foundation. For it contemplated the possibility of a repeal of the Toleration Act, by providing that, on this event, the chapel and estate should become the private property of the trustees for the time being, their heirs, &c. It cannot be precisely ascertained whether the society at Lincoln was at this time Presbyterian or Independent, as it is merely designated as the "separate congregation or Church of Christ," and the trustees are not limited in their admission of ministers by any particular creed or doctrine. But it is most probable that it was of the former sect, as the society has come down to our times under that name. The doctrine was no doubt Calvinistical, though softened of the asperities which characterized the faith of the early Puritans. After this period the society seem to have flourished considerably, at least in their temporal concerns; for in no less than eight years after the building of the chapel, they were, by savings out of their fund, enabled to realize the sum of £150. in the purchase of a small estate at Caythorpe; and at the end of twelve years more they laid out £200. in the purchase of a house for the minister. All this seems to have been done from the common contributions of the members of the society, nothing appearing as a benefaction or bequest from any particular member. How long their affairs continued thus prosperous, and when they began to decline, does not exactly appear. But sometime about the year 1766 we find them encumbered with debt, and a few years after unable to support a resident minister. Their pastor, the Rev. S. Hodson, resigned on the payment of a small pension from the trustees, which be enjoyed till his death. To do all they could, the trustees agreed with the minister of the extra-episcopal chapel of Kirkstead, (the Rev. S. Dunkley,) then under the patronage of the Disneys, to preach at Lincoln six Sundays in the year, at the stipend of six guineas: this also enabled him to receive two annual benefactions, payable to the minister doing actual duty at the chapel under the appointment of the trustees: one a rent-charge out of the Kirkstead estate of £6., and the other a moiety of the rent of a close at Morton, near Gainsborough. The same gradual change had taken place in the doctrines preached by the ministers at Lincoln, from the period of building the chapel, as was general with respect to the whole Presbyterian sect, which had thrown off, one by one, all the more distinguishing points of Calvinism, and the ministers of this body had many of them become avowed Arians, and some of them at this time Socinians. Mr. Dunkley was a decided Arian; but the congregation did not all of them follow the new creed of their minister. Some, more warmly attached to the old doctrines, joined the Whitfieldian Methodists, which was probably the principle cause of the decline of the old congregation. Sometime about this period a society, which was a mixture of Particular Baptists and Whitfieldian Methodists, obtained leave of the trustees to hold their worship in the chapel on the Sundays, when it was not occupied by their own minister. Whilst these people kept together, a vestryroom was built, in which they were assisted by a donation from the trus tees. Soon after this they divided, the Baptists going to another place of worship; the Methodists remained and still continued to occupy the chapel on the terms before-mentioned. About the year 1789, Mr. Dunkley died, and the trustees neglecting to appoint a successor, the Methodists from this time to the year 1803 enjoyed the exclusive use of the chapel as a place of worship. During the time they had the possession, they remained in connexion with the successors of Whitfield, and preached Calvinism in all its purity; except in one instance or two at the latter part of this period, when the minister had been procured from the Independents, at the instance of one of the trustees. But they afterwards returned to their old connexion. For the last fourteen or fifteen years donations had been frequently given to some of the ministers by the trustees, and sometimes in pretty large sums. This was a species of support of which the affairs of this people seem to have stood in need, and which they probably might have long continued to receive, could they have stooped to a little condescension. But unfortunately for them, they were, some time in the year 1803, seized with ambitious notions. Some zealous men, and wise calculators, amongst them, to whom the laws of meum and tuum seemed familiar, insisted that their long occupancy by sufferance, gave them a full claim to the chapel and all that belonged to it, and it became no longer necessary to receive as a gratuity what they might claim as a right. In conformity to this opinion they, calling themselves the "Calvinistic Church at Lincoln," sent a notice to the acting trustee to produce to them his account of the receipts and expenditure of the funds belonging to the chapel. This was not taken any notice of, and they were preparing to follow this step by a more vigorous proceeding, when an event of an unexpected nature happened to them, and forced them to alter the nature of the attack. The trustees, after this refractory spirit had appeared amongst their tenants, were waiting for the most favourable opportunity for getting rid of them. They soon found this, and on procuring the keys in a peaceable way from the door-keeper, by the exercise of a little stratagem, they shut them out of the chapel. Finding the attack thus unexpectedly turned against them, the Methodists were puzzled how to proceed. But after a little delay the matter was brought information before the magistrates, on again by them, in the shape of an stating that they had been forcibly kept out of their chapel, &c. This mode of proceeding is founded on an ancient statute made in the times of turbulence and disorder, providing a summary remedy for persons forcibly dispossessed of their property. when the hearing came on, the maBut gistrates quashed the information on the ground of the informants not being able to swear that any force had been exercised. It is curious to ob. serve, that this Calvinistic Church, had their information been regular and admitted by the magistrates, intended to establish their right to the chapel by proving themselves Presbyterians; for which purpose they had mustered from their body three Scotsmen, who were prepared to make oath to that effect. Finally, they made a third attempt by appealing to the Board of Deputies in London, to have the least chance of any assistance from whom, it is necessary that they should belong to some one of the great Dissenting bodies of Presbyterians, Baptists or Independents. They chose now, for some reason or other, to state themselves to be of the last denomination. But as the trustees were able to shew, very readily, that the Rev. Mr. Griffiths, their pastor, who was one of the appellants, and a long line of his predecessors, came from Lady Huntingdon's Academy, this application was without effect, and the trustees have been ever since in the peaceable possession of the chapel and estate. In 1804, the few that remained of the Presbyterian society, together with several others who had recently adopted Unitarian views, applied to Mr. Belsham and Mr. Wellbeloved, Divinity Tutor of the Manchester College, removed to York, to recommend a minister to them. A gentleman of the name of Howson, a student at York at that time, was recommended to them upou trial, and Mr. Wellbeloved, at the request of the society, re-opened the chapel on the 19th of August, with a very appropriate sermon, in the morning, from Philip. ii. 2: "Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind." In the afternoon, he preached from Luke iv. 18: "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor," &c. On the next Sunday, August 26, Mr. Howson preached, and the society engaged him to preach for them one year, at a salary of £60. At the termination of the year he left Lincoln, and on the 28th of October, 1805, about two months after Mr. Howson's departure, Mr. Israel Worsley, through the recommendation of Mr. Belsham, preached twice, and the society meeting in the evening of the same day, gave him an unanimous invitation to become their minister. Mr. Worsley was not prepared to reside with them immediately, but came with his wife and family on the first of January, 1806, Mr. Wright, the Unitarian Missionary, having preached the Sunday before, three times. In the course of Mr. Worsley's first year of residence at Lincoln, he was informed that a stated minister had a claim upon the Kirkstead estate, then and now in the possession of Richard Ellison, Esq., to the amount of £6. annually, which had never been demanded since the death of Mr. Dunkley, of Kirkstead, in 1789. Mr. Worsley therefore claimed it, and it was afterwards granted annually without demur. To an active mind like Mr. Worsley's it was natural to inquire into the source of this annual allowance from Kirkstead, and this inquiry gradually led to the important discovery that Mr. Ellison was un justly holding in his own hands a very pretty estate of more than a hundred acres, which was left by the family of the Disneys, of whom Mr. Ellison purchased the whole of Kirkstead, for the support of the Dissenting cause in that village. See some interesting particulars on this subject, Mon. Repos. VIII. 81. Mr. Worsley laid the foundation of a chapel library by a present of nineteen volumes, which were gradually increased by presents from others, and annual subscriptions, partly during his time, and partly since his departure, to more than one hundred and thirty volumes. On the morning of April 11th, 1813, Mr. Worsley, in consequence of his acceptance of an invitation from the Unitarian Society in Plymouth, preached his farewell sermon, and in the afternoon, Mr. Hawkes preached his first sermon as his successor. In August the same year a Sunday school was instituted, which has averaged, from that time to the present, from seventy to eighty scholars. These are taught gratuitously, partly by the young people of the congregation, and partly by teachers who were formerly scholars. Since the institution of the Sunday school, a Sunday school library has been established, which now consists of more than a hundred volumes. Near the close of the year 1817, a Fellowship Fund and Religious Tract Society were commenced, and also a meeting on the Wednesday evening at the Vestry, commencing with a short prayer, then a portion of some work, connected with the Unitarian views, is read, and every one present is at liberty to make any remarks he may think proper: a short prayer concludes the exercise. All these are kept up with growing spirit, and will, it is hoped, lead to beneficial effects. S. and H. THE CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN LOCKE AND LIMBORCH, TRANSLATED, WITH HISTORICAL NOTES. The Correspondence between Locke and will communicate to me all his me Limborch, 1685-1704. (Continued from p. 149.) No. 40. Philip à Limborch to John Locke. Y letter reached are safely. I im OU will now learn that your last mediately read it to that eminent person; who, being then particularly engaged, proposed another time more convenient for a long conference, which the importance of the subject justly deserved. In a few days he invited me to renew my visit, when I again read to him your letter. He approves of your arguments, if the definition of God, which you propose, be admitted, for it is manifest that a Being absolutely perfect, or, which amounts to the same thing, containing in himself all perfections, can be only one. But he wishes for an argument not drawn from the definition of God, but merely from natural reason, and from which may be deduced a definition of God. He would thus form his demonstration : 1. Admit an eternal Being, inde. pendent, existing by the necessity of his nature and self-sufficient. 2. Such a Being is only one, and there cannot be several such Beings. 3. That Being who is one, contains in himself all perfections, and that Being is God. That eminent person says, that the first proposition is admirably established in your Essay of Human Understanding, [B. iv. Ch. x.] and by the same arguments which he has em ployed in his Demonstration, so that he has found his own thoughts expressed in your train of reasoning. But he anxiously desires to have your proof of the second proposition; which being clearly proved, the third may be easily deduced from the two former. He says again, that all divines and philosophers, even Descartes himself, assumed, rather than proved, the second. I have no doubt but he thod of argument on this subject. I think, however, that he will wait till he has seen your arguments, that he may compare your reasonings, which he is now considering, with his own. But who can pursue this subject without changing the order of these propositions, and placing the second of them in the third, and the third in the second place? For, when it has been proved that there exists a Being, eternal, independent, self-sufficient, from thence it may be farther shewn that such a Being must comprehend in himself all perfections; because it is impossible that any perfection can be wanting to an eternal, independent and self-sufficient Being. Thus having proved that such a Being must comprehend in himself all perfections, it may hence be inferred, that such a Being can be only one. But in such a method this difficulty occurs: we regard thought and extension, as totally distinct in their nature and properties (I adopt the terms of those who start this difficulty). But admitting thought to be eternal and independent, which I dispute, can we also regard extension or matter as eternal, self-sufficient and independent on eternal thought? Thus would be established the notion of two eternal Beings. Yet describing matter as eternal and independent, it would by no means follow that it included all perfections. Wherefore it seems necessary, first to prove that a Being, eternal and independent, is only one, before it can be proved that he comprehends, in himself, all perfections. For if the second proposition, that an independent Being is only one, were incapable of proof, it does not appear that religion or the necessity of worshiping that Being alone, would be done away, because I entirely depend on that one Being who created me. To him alone, therefore, I am obliged; him I am bound to love, with my whole heart and mind, and to obey all his commands. If besides that Being there exist another on whom I have no depeu |