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and for the examination of critical inquirers into biblicalliterature . than for the use of families in general . Mr * Holdeu ' s style was copious , flowing , and elevated ; and this was so much his habit as to appear in his most familiar letters . His excursion into Holland did not interrupt the harmony which subsisted between him and his congregation at Maldon , with whom he continued to live upon th ^ most friendly terms ' till his death . At different periods of his-ministry , he was much afflicted with what is frequently the effect of a sedentary life , the stone .
He bore the racking torments of this disease with truly Christian fortitude and patience * It was followed with an ulcerous disorder at , the neck of the bladder , which at length , on the 4 th of August , mSj terminated his days . The number of Unitarian Dissenters at Maldon had been for many years but small ; and the principal supporter of the interest not long surviving , the congregation ceased to meet .
The known liberality of Unitarian ministers has led them , in past times , not to press their sentiments . In their public discourses they have very much confined themselves to morals , grounded indeed on the Christian revelation , but not immediately connected with their own peculiar opinions . The consequence has been , that the young have too often grown up without any direct information respecting the leading sentiments of rational
religion . Carried away , therefore , by the current of the times , many of them have joined themselves to the religions establishment of their country . That time is now past : liberality and charity are still characteristic of the Unitarian ; but he also sees the importance of supporting , in express terms , rational views of natural and revealed religion , as alone effectual against the equal attacks of infidelity and superstition .
Soon after his decease , Mr . Holden ' s place of worship was engaged by a number of persons of Calvinistic sentiments , who much abound in that county . They have taken down the old meeting-house , and erected on the same spot a new and elegant place of worship ; but as ministers of that persuasion are generally more liberal and enlightened than their congregations , and as they allow themselves to read , inquire , and reflect , are , and
must be , from time to time , either coming over to us , or converting their flocks , I by no means despair of hearing that the Dissenters at Maldon are become Unitarian . Examples of thi ^ nature are by no means unknown in the kingdom , and will be followed , as a spirit of free inquiry shall become more general m the professing Christian world . Mays , 1806 . F .
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Hev . JL Holden * 363
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1806, page 563, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1730/page/3/
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