THEOPHILUS LINDSEY was born at Middlewich, in Cheshire, on the 20th of June, 1723. He had, for his godfather, Theophilus, Earl of Huntingdon; and the Ladies Anne and Betty Hastings took him under their immediate patronage in his childhood. He commenced his education at an academy in his native place, from which he was removed to the grammar-school, at Leeds, where he continued until May, 1741, when he was admitted a scholar at St. John's college, Cambridge. After having taken the degree of B. A., he obtained a fellowship in 1747. About the same time, he entered into holy orders, and was presented, through the interest of his noble friends, to a chapel in Spital-square. On the recommendation of the Earl of Huntingdon, he, soon after, became chaplain to Algernon, Duke of Somerset; and, in 1754, accompanied Lord Warkworth, afterwards Duke of Northumberland, to the continent, in the capacity of tutor. On his return to England, he was presented to the valuable rectory of Kirby Whiske, in Yorkshire; which, three years afterwards, he exchanged for the living of Piddletown, in the county of Dorset.

In or about the year 1762, he began to entertain grave doubts relative to the doctrine of the Trinity; and, after carefully examining the Scriptures, as well as the arguments of various theological writers on the subject, he is stated to have become firmly convinced, that God the Father alone ought to be worshipped. Having arrived at this conclusion, he appears to have felt some scruples as to the propriety of retaining his preferment; but, as his biographers assert, from honourable motives, which, however, are left unexplained, he determined, for the present, not to relinquish it.

During the same year, he declined becoming chaplain to his former pupil the Duke of Northumberland, then lordlieutenant of Ireland, although he was distinctly promised considerable promotion, if he thought proper to accept

the offer. In 1763, he exchanged his living for the less valuable vicarage of Catterick, in Yorkshire, which, however, he preferred, because it was nearer to the residence of his immediate connexions. On this occasion, it became necessary for him to subscribe again to the Thirty-nine Articles, an assent to which, notwithstanding his opinions with regard to the Trinity, he deemed a minor point; his chief difficulty, as to remaining in the church of England, being the form of public worship. He thought, that if Scripture could be, in any way, reconciled with the ritual, he might, without scruple, hold his preferment, which he felt deterred from resigning, by a fear of losing his opportunities to be useful; and considered himself warranted in retaining it, by the example of many eminent men, who, although they thought as he did, still remained in the church.

These arguments not being sufficient to satisfy his conscience, he attempted to persuade himself, that the Trinity was a mere allegorical representation of the Deity, and constantly preached the unitarian doctrine. Priestley, it is said, advised him to alter the liturgy, so as to accord with his own opinions, and to convert his church into a meetinghouse; but this he declined to do; and, at length, after having officiated at Catterick for several years, his scruples as to the honesty of acting as a minister of the church of England, essentially differing, as he did, on one of its most important tenets, became so formidable, during a severe fit ofillness, that he determined on resigning the vicarage. "Upon the most calm and serious deliberation," he observes, "after weighing every circumstance, I am obliged to give up my benefice, whatever I suffer by it, unless I would lose all inward peace and hope of God's favour and acceptance in the end."

He still, however, procrastinated his resignation, in the hope that an application to parliament, from a strong party in the church, for substituting a

power to alleviate the severity of their sentence. In 1795, appeared his vindication of Priestley, prefixed to a republication of that eminent author's reply to Paine's Age of Reason; and, in 1802, he printed his Considerations on the Divine Government. Besides the works already mentioned, and some minor pieces, he wrote two dissertations; the one entitled, On the Preface to St. John's Gospel; and the other, On Praying to Christ. Two volumes of his sermons were published after his decease, which took place on the 11th of November, 1808.

Although it would be difficult to justify the renewal of his subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles, after he had ceased to be a believer in the doctrine of the Trinity, and notwithstanding the impropriety of his continuing to act as a minister of the church of England, while he dissented from its tenets in a fundamental point, yet, on the whole, the character of this eminent divine appears to have been worthy of much admiration. Had he been a mere worldly-minded man, he might, by concealing his scruples, have procured considerable preferment: such a course he scorned to adopt, although with a weakness, which many deem venial, he permitted himself, for several years, to retain a benefice, the income of which was necessary for his support. There seems to be no doubt but that, had his means been more ample, he would have abandoned the established church, even before his removal to Catterick. But his fear of poverty induced him, for many years, to temporize with his conscience, the power of which he was, however, unable to subdue; and, at length, he sacrificed every motive of interest to its dictates. Nor did he procrastinate the relinquishment of his vicarage until, by an accumulation of its revenues, he could,

as it were, afford to be honest: on the contrary, he had expended so much of his income, in gratifying his desire to be extensively benevolent, that, notwithstanding his frugality, he possessed little or nothing, except his books; and he tendered his resignation at a period when his prospects were so dreary, that he could not, in the most remote degree, have foreseen the brilliant success of his subsequent career.

Of his theological opinions, the reader is necessarily left, in accordance with the plan of the present work, to judge entirely for himself: his talents, both as a writer and a preacher, were certainly far above mediocrity; and his conduct in private life was decidedly admirable. Belsham, his biographer, and successor as minister of the unitarian chapel, in Essex-street, and who restored his reformed liturgy,, which Disney, the colleague of Lindsey, had, after the death of the latter, discarded, describes him as having been “one of the most upright, consistent, and eminently virtuous men, that ever adorned human nature.'

Although differing so essentially from the doctrines of the church of England, he appears to have entered into only two controversies; the one with Robinson, on some doctrinal points; and the other with Price, which originated in a misconception of those opinions which were advocated by the latter. On his death-bed, he is described as having been a singular pattern of meekness under suffering. When one of his friends suggested, "that he doubtless bore his sufferings patiently, because he felt, more than ever, the truth of his favourite maxim, that whatever is, is right,' he replied, with unexpected animation, Whatever is, is best." This, according to his biographers, was the last sentence which he distinctly articulated.

ROBERT, the son of Michael Robinson, an exciseman of indifferent character, was born at Swaffham, in the county of Norfolk, on the 8th of June,

1735. His mother, the daughter of a respectable gentleman, who, though incensed by her marriage, afforded her occasional assistance, states that at seven

years of age, he was "a pretty scholar, and had been at a Latin school a year and a half. His master," she adds, "was very fond of him, and used to say that he never knew a child that discovered so much capacity." At this period he was removed to a grainmarschool at Scarning, under the superintendence of a clergyman named Brett.

His mother now entirely lost the aid of her father, on account of the profligacy of her husband, who becoming much involved, fled, with a view to avoid his creditors, from Scarning to Winchester, where he soon afterwards died. His widow, though much distressed, contrived, out of the proceeds of a small lodging-house, and her earnings as a needle-woman, to keep her son at the grammar-school; where, at the age of thirteen, he is said to have acquired a very respectable knowledge of the classics. He had also become tolerably conversant with French, in studying which he had the advantage of frequent intercourse with the French usher of the grammar-school, who lodged at his mother's house. This excellent woman appears for some time to have entertained a hope, that he would have been sent to college by her father; who, however, died without making any provision either for his grandson or herself. His master then endeavoured to procure him a situation, but failed, it is suspected, on account of the youth's ignorance of arithmetic. Under these circumstances, Mrs. Robinson was glad to accept of an offer, made by a hairdresser, named Anderson, residing in Crutched Friars, the brother of one of her female friends, to receive him as an apprentice without a premium. She accompanied him to London, early in March, 1749, and contrived to support herself and provide him with clothes, by labouring with great assiduity at needle-work.

At this period he began to keep a diary, in which he recorded the most minute circumstances that occurred to him. By this we learn, that, although his master denied him the use of a candle, he constantly rose between four and five o'clock in the morning; diligently studied the Scriptures; and took great delight in attending the pulpits of celebrated divines of all denominations. To Whitefield, whom he termed "his

spiritual father," he wrote several letters, which, according to his biographer, Dyer, breathe the genuine spirit of a dutiful son, and the self-abasing language of a sincere Calvinist. One or two of these epistles, were accidentally read in his presence, by Whitefield, a circumstance which appears to have afforded him the most intense delight.

Religious subjects, at length, engrossed nearly the whole of his attention, and he began to entertain thoughts of devoting himself to the diffusion of the Gospel. At this time he was in the habit of preaching, alone, in his own room, a practice to which has been attributed his subsequent "facility in colloquial address." His master, by whom he appears to have been greatly beloved, having consented to cancel his indentures, he proceeded to Mildenhall, in Norfolk, where, at the age of twenty, he delivered his first discourse before a small congregation of Methodists, from Job c. ix. v. 2. The innocence of his youth, the agreeableness of his manners, and the enthusiasm of his genius, says Dyer, all conspired to render him popular; and, in a short time, he received an invitation to preach at the Tabernacle, in the city of Norwich; where he continued to officiate, until the immorality of one of its ministers induced him to secede from the society with thirteen of its members.

He now became pastor of a small congregation in St. Paul's, Norwich; and, according to the practice of the independent churches, drew up his confession of faith, which comprehended the various points of doctrine supported by the Calvinistic methodists. This solemn avowal of his adherence to dissenting tenets, it is said, deprived him of the regard of an opulent relative, who had previously intended to have bequeathed him a considerable legacy.

In 1759, he married a farmer's daughter, named Ellen Payne. On the 8th of July in the same year, he preached for the first time at Cambridge, (which subsequently became the scene of his most brilliant efforts,) from Corinthians c. xv. v. 3; and in 1761, he accepted an invitation to become pastor of a small congregation there; the members of which could scarcely afford him £20 per annum. His ministry was, however, so successful, that, in the course

of a few years, the society included above two hundred highly respectable families; and a commodious place of worship was erected for him at their expense. The younger collegians are said to have frequently attended his chapel for the purpose of ridiculing him; until, at length, two of them were prosecuted for their indecorous conduct, and one of them was compelled to insert an apology in the papers; the other being excused on account of his previous good character. The senior members of the university appear, however, to have formed a just estimate of his merits; they not only treated him with marked respect, but allowed him free access to the libraries, and even granted him the uncommon privilege of taking books away with him to peruse at his own residence.

In 1773, his salary, though much increased, being still inadequate to the support of his already numerous family, he took a small copyhold estate, which, with assistance, he was subsequently enabled to purchase, at Chesterton, near Cambridge; where, with a view to better his circumstances, he engaged in business as a farmer, a corndealer, and a coal-merchant. At the same time, but without diminishing his exertions as a divine, he began to distinguish himself as an author. In 1774, he published a work, for which he received twenty guineas, entitled Arcana; or, the Principles of the late Petitioners to Parliament, for Relief in the matter of Subscription. In this production, which materially advanced his reputation among the dissenters, he is said to have displayed great penetration, lively reasoning, and a happy facility for simplifying and illustrating his subject. He had previously (in 1770) printed, by way of specimen, two sermons from the French of Saurin, and these being favourably received, he published a volume, translated from the works of that celebrated preacher, in 1775; which was followed, at intervals, by four others, including an able prefatory dissertation on the Reformation in France, Memoirs of Saurin, and Reflections on Deism, Christian Liberty, Human Explication of a Divine Revelation, &c. &c.

Cotemporary with the first volume of his translations from the eminent

French divine, appeared his curious treatise, appended to The Legal Degrees of Marriage Stated and Considered, by John Alleyne, barrister-at-law, in which he maintained that it was lawful for a man to marry his wife's sister. In 1776, he produced A Plea for the Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in reply to Lindsey's Apology for resigning his vicarage of Catterick, and to Jebb's Short State of Reasons for abandoning his benefice, a work of great ability, for which he was honoured with the thanks and compliments of Bishops Hinchcliffe and Halifax, Dean Tucker, and other eminent churchmen. In the following year, he printed a tract, entitled, The History and Mystery of Good Friday; in which it is observed, he attacked with great learning, and still more point and humour, the folly of those religionists who observe festival days. Shortly afterwards, he supplied Kippis with materials for the life of Baker, the antiquary, to be inserted in the Biographia Britannica; and in 1778, he produced A Plan of Lectures on the Principles of Non-conformity; containing outlines of the entire differences between the church of England and the dissenters; the object of which, was to confirm the latter in their principles, and to furnish them with reasons for secession. This work obtained the commendation of Lord Shelburne, in the house of peers, and was ably defended by Fox, against an attack that had been made on it by Burke, during a debate in the commons, on the test and corporation acts. About the same time, he produced a translation of Claude's celebrated Essays on the Composition of a Sermon, in two volumes, octavo, with notes; which he afterwards more extensively illustrated by curious and often humorous anecdotes, sensible reflections on the beauties, and caustic observations on the defects, perceptible in the discourses of many celebrated modern preachers. For this work he is said to have received £400.

In 1780, he visited Oxford, and proceeded thence to Scotland, where he was offered a diploma of D. D., which he modestly declined. In the following year, with a view to produce a more charitable spirit among his brethren, the Baptists, he published The General Doctrine of Toleration applied to the