tions, annual collections, and legacies. The number of scholars at first was forty; afterward it increased to fifty; then to one hundred and forty; and has since been two hundred. It was the first institution of the kind wherein the Protestant dissenters were concerned; and into it objects are received without distinction of party. Such an institution has the merit of being a rational, fair, and benevolent mode of opposing superstition and bigotry, abridging no one's security and rights, and leaving the event to the operation of knowledge and understanding; and it reflects honour on the spirit and resolution of its first founders, who set it on foot in the reign of the tyrannical and bigoted prince, James II. when the dissenters had scarcely emerged out of a state of persecution. It will not, it is presumed, be thought beneath the importance and dignity of general history, to mention here two small publications which the press produced at this period; especially as the history, through which the reader has been led, records the virtuous and manly struggles made to secure the liberty of writing and publishing on the subject of religion, according to the views any might entertain, and exhibits memoirs of the progress of theological inquiries. The importance of publications is also to be estimated, not by the number of pages, but by the nature of the subject, the ability with which they are executed, and the effect they produced, or the impression they were calculated to leave on the public mind. One of the pieces, both anonymous, to which we refer, was entitled, "A brief History of the Unitarians, called also Socinians: in four Letters to a Friend." The publisher, to whom they were written, having left them some time with a gentleman, a person of excellent learning and worth, they were returned to him with a letter, expressing great approbation of them, which was printed with each edition. The first of these letters represented the Unitarian doctrine concerning the unity of God, the humanity of Christ and the Holy Spirit, as the power and inspiration of God; aimed to confirm and prove it by a series of scriptural arguments, and closed with a concise history of it. The design of the three following letters, was to reply to the arguments of the orthodox; and, that the answer might be full and satisfactory, they were occupied in the illustration of all the texts usually alleged as proofs of the Trinitarian doctrine. The passages out of the Old Testament are first explained, then those out of the Gospels and Acts, and lastly those out of the Epistles and the Revelations. This mode of discussing a question, which depends purely on divine revelalation, will be admitted to be proper and fair. It shewed that the author was not afraid to lodge his appeal with the Scriptures, and it was adapted to lead the reader into an investigation of their meaning according to the rules of sober criticism and just explanation. It went particularly, to obviate a reflection cast upon the Unitarians, as exalting their reasonings above the plain and express revelation of the Scriptures. The first edition of this tract was in 12mo, in 1687. It was afterward reprinted in a collection of Unitarian Tracts, in quarto, 1691. The other tract published at this period, which I have mentioned as worthy of particular notice, was entitled, "A Rational Catechism." It was distinguished, not only by the good sense, and the vein of close but familiar reasoning which ran through it, but by the peculiar method in which it was drawn up. Catechisms, in general, have consisted principally, if not solely, of speculative points, drawn from the theological systems of the day, and of the country where they are published. These are conveyed in an authoritative manner, as absolutely necessary to salvation; and are to be committed to memory, without any attempt to prove them by reasoning level to the capacity of the learner. The author of this tract, conceiving that neglecting to examine into the bottom of things, was the cause of that variety of opinions from whence arose rash judgments, animosities, hatreds, and persecution, began his piece with the first principles discernible in human nature; and, avoiding all sentiments controverted amongst Christians, confined himself to those truths only as all agree in, and which lead directly unto practice, professing not to advance every thing that he might think useful, but only what he judged most useful. The dialogue, into which form the work is thrown, divides itself into three parts; the principles of natural religion; those of Christianity, or the great advantages derived from the gospel; and the rules of conduct which it supplies. The instructions and conclusions which the catechumen is led, in a great degree, to draw for himself, and by his own reflections, arise in a chain of reasoning from this principle, " that every man seeks happiness ;" which happiness must be, principally, mental and spiritual. The means of attaining to it in the knowledge of God and the practice of his will are hence gradually developed. This piece is ascribed to Mr. Popple. It was first printed by licence, in 1688; another edition of it appeared 1690, 12mo. And it was reprinted at Amsterdam in 1712.* * Preface to the work. Hollis's Memoirs, p. 263; and a Critical Review of it in the Bibliotheque Universelle et Historique, tom. 9. p. 95, &c. |