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Mr , Fell , Mr . 3 erry , and Mr . Smith , " were successively resident tutors . He was a diligent student , but not uniform in his application . It was his maxim to " read little and think
piuch ;* ' a maxim that should be adopted with caution by a young man , as it might otherwise prevent his acquiring ample materials for thought , and especially as it might disqualify him for general society . Justice to the deceased requires that we should state , if it be asserted that he was one
of the students who were expelled in the year 18 O 3 from that institution , that this is not strictly true , as he had at that time finished his studies , but as he was involved in the charges that
yrere alledged against the others , the following facts may enable the public properly to appreciate that event . Most of the venerable and respectable ministers who at other times were
always active in the service of that institution , refused to take any part in that act of expulsion . The meetings were composed partly of persons who before had not attended , and partly by those who had rendered themselves
famous by their exertions against the X'irtuous and learned Mr . John Fell . These facts respecting the active persons in that affair are striking , since jhey represent them as persons whose ** highest praise is blame . " They are not mentioned to degrade your useful Magazine into a vehicle of recrimination , but to vindicate the honour of a
young man who is now unable to hear or to repress that slander which not unfrequently attempts to sull y the me-Xnory oithc ]' ust . After leaving Homerton , Mr . Denney preached for a short time at Rochford , to which place he was invited to return ; but having received an
invitation to be the minister of the Presbyterian congregation at Kingston-upon-Thames , which he accepted , he was ordained their pastor by the Rev . Hugh Worthington , Rev . Dr . Rees , and JRev — Taylor . When he first comjnenced his studies he was a Calvinist , paving received his first religious sentitofnts among Christians of that deno-
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mination ^ and having errpneously as $ sdated in his mind Christianity an <} Calvanismas synonimous . For several years his train of reading being confined solely to books favouring that system , he continued to maintain his
attachment to its " peculiar doctrines . ' * Hi $ enquiring and impartial mind could not rest satisfied with this exclusive reading , and when he began to think freely , he soon was compelled to embrace more consistent opinions of the unity of God and more humane and rational
sentiments respecting the destiny of man . In relinquishing his old notions , and in embracing others , he was remarkabl y cautious and deliberate . He was sensible of the trouble to which the change that was taking place in his views would expose him ; but this did not impede the freedom of his mind , nor did it excite murmuring and fretfulness . He writes to a friend respecting this— - " Our sentiments have disqualified us for promotion in the church , while the dominion of bigotry , superstition , and interest is so universal : but there arc
monsters more frightful than poverty and obscurity , I mean dependance and canting . ' * But while he was pursuing truth
with ardour , and framing projects for usefulness , and discharging the duties of his office withgeneral acceptance , he was attacked with a complaint in the liver , to which he at last fella
victim ; he was however doomed to spend nearly two years debarred from what had at once been his employment and amusextient—J * is books and studies . He laments overthis in another letter— - f For a long time my health will be in the inverse ratio to my attention to
study ; but to deny oneself of books , is not the way to calm the perturbation of a feeling and inquisitive mind . * ' The anxiety he felt to pursue his studies produced this perturbation of mind ; but he read and thought with an attention too severe to be able to
relieve himself , b y absorbing his faculties in some interesting work . He was indebted to the kindness of his brothers ( his father and mother were ) not alive ) at Coggeshali , for every ' ' " ¦ .. . . ' * /
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50 Obituary .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1806, page 50, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1720/page/50/
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