On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    Beloved by bis congregation , respected by those who were not of his opinion , Mr . Lindsey officiated in this chapel , till he was

    sevenly years o f Jige ; at \ vh ich time , according to a pre-detcrmination of his own , he resigned his charge . lie had the satisfaction in that time of observing

    that the good seed which he had sown , was not lost . His own

    congregation was numerous and respectable . He "had an extensive correspondence throughout

    England , by which he learned that his opinions were gradually making their way , and this intelligence

    was the more gratifying towards the decline of his life , as the societies in their infancy when he officiated in the chapel , were become numerous congregations , and by means of the missionary Fund , the state of the Unitarians

    was better defined , and considerably enlarged . In every undertaking , which had in view the promotion of the truth , whether

    in erecting a chapel , in establishing a society for the distribution of books , in promoting a missionary Fund , his purse was always open , and his exertions were never fruitless .

    During the period that Mr . Linrtscy officiated , application was made to parliament for the abolition oi the test act . It is needless to say , that he took an active part in thU measure . He had been of the

    established church , but whilst he v / as in it , he disapproved entirely of the act , both as injudicious

    and impolitic in itself , and as a profanation of a religious rite . The part that Dr . Priestley took in the application is well known , Und the intimacy contracted in

    Untitled Article

    Yorkshire had from a greater simi-i larityin religious opinion * , grown into the closest friendship . Mr . Li . ridsey and he were frequently writing on the same subject , and the Vindiriaj Priest lei a nae of the

    former will be read with delight by all , who contemplate l ^ r . Priestley not only as a philosopher , but as a sincere Christian and an eminent divine . At that time it was not apprehended , that religious intolerance could rear its

    banners in England . The high church party had triumphed sufficiently in the rejection of the application for the repeal of the test act , and the keenness of Dr . Priestley ' s arguments had exasperated the minister . The result was shewn in the riots of

    Birmingham , which drove the philosopher from his residence and . destroyed many of his writings , and valuable philosophical apparatus . A refuge was however

    open for him in Essex-street , to which place he made his escape from the violence of his persecutors' ; and the two friends pitying the blind zeal of their adversaries , were not without some solicitude

    for their future safety . Mr . Lindsey however' was determined to persevere in his course , and the storm blew over without injury cither to him or the chapel . Dr .

    Priestley found it necessary to change his country , but a constant intercourse was kept up by letter , and the regard he had for Mr . Lindsey is manifested in several of hi , s publications .

    The first acquaintance between these worthy men , took place at the house of the venerable Archdeacon Blackburne . At London , afterwards , Dr . Price , thj £ friend of

    Untitled Article

    4 Memoir of the late Rev . Theophilus Linds ey ^ A . M .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1809, page 4, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1732/page/4/