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    among the dissenters . It is somewhat remarkable that both Pyle and he were then proselyted to those opinions ; so that the Church and the Meeting here became equally heterodox . This change in his sentiments appears to have extended further than what related to the Athanasian

    Trinity , and to have soon divided the congregation into two parties , one approving and the other disapproving of his ministry . It is probable that much , if not most of his discomfort

    here sprung from this source . 1 his difference of opinion , however , did not , in his time , produce a separation j for they all continued , as far as we can learn , to attend on his ministry , while he lived , notwithstanding their diversity of sentiments . The

    malcontents not only were Athanasian s , but appear to have been also strongly tinctured with Calvinism , and even with Antinomianism j which indeed has been thought to be little , or rather nothing more than " Calvinism run to seed . " To them it is

    no great wonder that Mr . H . ' s ministry proved unacceptable , or that they should cause him some disquietude and unhappiness . That such was really the case , may be inferred from his very epitaph - and it is further corroborated by oral tradition , as well

    as by the contents of the preface to a MS . volume of his , left by him ready for the press ; though , for some reason , to us unknown , it never was published ; and it has been now many years in the possession of the present

    writer , xhis volume was certainly far more worthy of publication than thousands that have been published since , and that are still daily publishing , it is entitled , " Plain and Easy Principles of Christian Religion rind Obedience ; or , The Necessity of keeping Christ ' s Commandments , in order to our preserving an Interest in his Favour , Demonstrated from John xv . 10 . By John Rastrick , M . A . sometime vicar of Kirkton near

    Boston in Lincolnshire , and now minister of the gospel at King ' s Lynn in Norfolk . * It is a sensible and notable

    * Asa manuscript it is very curious for the neatness and smallness of the writing ^ especially as it appears to have been written when the author was ahove seventy years of ® ge . Tlie beginning < f the Preface , where matter corroborative «>' " wlm * was above snj > - gfestcd occurs , reads thus : " Perceiving * that Antinomianism is in a great nai-t grown

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    performance , and contains many

    strik-— ^ to he the complexion of the Dissenting- iQ terest in England , as far as my obseivju tion reaches , to the great reproach of the Reformation , and scandal of the opposer of its progress ; and that many who pretend to be against it are yet fond of the

    doctrines and opinions on which it is found ed ; grounding all their divinity on the decrees of God alone , abstracted from his rule of government ; falling in with the hypothesis of necessity and fate , on which Hobhes founded his Atheism ; making * all G ( uFs government to be merely physical to the destruction of all reLi gion and mo

    rality ; not enduring to hear of a justification by works in any sense , though it he undeniably a scripture doctrine and expression , James ii . 24 5 asserting such an imputation of Christ ' s righteousness as is essentially and formally altogether unscriptural , and the like , by which means sinners are hardened in their sin ,

    comforted against necessary fears conducive to their safety , charity , alms-deeds , and all g-ood works at a fatal stop , people taught to presume without ground , calling a ^ ood conscience , or a consciousness of keeping Christ ' s commandments , the buildin ^ on a rotten foundation , though Christ saith

    the contrary , Matt , vii 24 ; learned , alle , and faithful ministers rejected and discouraged , and illiterate persons that will indulge men in their sopor iferous notions set up in their room—I say , perceiving and musing- on these things , and exercised by a party of weak Christians under the

    aforesaid impressions ; understanding the state of Christian doctrine amongst us , and the divided condition of the churches about it , and casting" my eyes upon that text in John xv . 10 , as one of the plainest

    and fullest decisive of these controversies , so many thoughts sprung- up in my mind upon it , that to preserve them , I immediately set pen to paper and wrote do-wn above twenty of the following propositions

    before I took it off , to which the rest wore quickly added . By which time I purposed to preach from that text , and lay them all before my own congregation icho so mnca needed it : which 1 did with different success \ viz . the usual distaste of the discontented party , but so much to the satisfaction and acceptance of others , my wor "

    thy friends , that I was greatly and constantly importuned to present them to tlieir eyes , \ is I had done before to their ears . And bavins been called to preach ai a meeting' of ministers at Nottingham , on the 26 th of June 1718 , I made no particular preparation for it , but took a text ont o the 22 d chap , of Matt , part of the paraWj * of the marriage-feast , the whole of wn « j ! i I bad preached over at home , but now only so much of it as would afford me mat ter suitable to the whole congregation , hon ministers and people . And being by *» .

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    604 Memoir of John Rastrick , M . A .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1815, page 604, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1765/page/4/