On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
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
of filial piety , which lie had an opportunity of exercising Ions * after he had reached the stage of manhood . L # ike
many other men of superior talents , attainments and virtues , he courted the shade of retirement : nor can they who were best acquainted with him cease to regret that his habits were so sequestered . Mr . Bretland was a student in the Dissenting Academy at Exeter ; his tutors , if I mistake not , being the Rev , Samuel Merivaie , * the Rev . Mi-. caiah Tow good , t and the Rev . John
Turner . J In mathematical learning he was no common proficient ; and he had a taste especially for the reasonings and investigations of geometry , the influence of which on the general cast of his mind and of his compositions it was not difficult to perceive . His knowledge was various and accurate ; but theology , in all its branches , seems to have been his favourite pursuit .
It is a memorable circumstance that , half a century ago , Mr . Bretland avowed , from his pulpit in the Mint Meeting-house at Exeter , those religious principles which are professed , diffused and vindicated by most of the
book societies styled Unitarian , and the progress of which has of late 3 ears been comparatively wide and rapid . He then stood alone as the preacher of them in the West of England , and
was exposed , in consequence , to peculiar obloquy . In the avowal , too , of these principles—the absolute unity of God ,, and the unequivocal humanity of Christ—he continued stedfast to the
last . His pastoral relation to the congregation in the Mint , was of many years' duration ; and for a short time he was the colleague of the Rev . James
Manning , and of the late Rev . 1 imothy Kenrick , in the charge of the united societies assembling' respectively at the Bow and at Geprge ' s Meetinghouse . The elocution of Mr . Bretland
was extremely correct and pleasing : his discourses were usually practical , though argumentative ; and some of — - ¦ ¦ r- ¦ i _ j i . . ¦ -i . . hi _ i ¦ ¦ in mi - Lf-rrn - i - — / * Belshaui ' s Memoirs of Liitdsey , p . 219 , Note .
See the Sketch of his Life , &c . by Manning * , j > . 64 . J The early friend of the amiable John Scott , of Arnwell .
Untitled Article
them contained very beautiful and pathetic passages . * Tuition , either private ok public , was , for sonfe years , one of his
employments : in 1790 , he became the colleague of Mr . Kenrick , whose cha * racter and labours he most deeply venerated , in a seminary for the education of Protestant Dissenting ministers .
By an affecting coincidence , the day of Mr . Bretland ' s funeral was the day of the anniversary of the Western Unitarian Society , holden this year at Bath : f on which occasion one of his former pupils in the academy X publicly rendered a very interesting tribute of respect and
gratitude to the memory of both his excellent instructors . On the same day too , the society of which I am speaking expressly and formally recognized the principles on which it had been established in 1792 , and which , under the blessing of heaven , it has beeu enabled to assert and
illustrate with growing * success . I hat by such a recognition of them it has fulfilled the hopes and wishes of some of its oldest members , who were then present , is true : nor can I doubt that the issue of the discussion approves itself to the feelings and the judgment of nearly all the subscribers , of every class and standing .
I should be happy , Sir , were it in my power to annex a correct list of Mr . Bretland ' s productions from the press , which however were very few * and , I fear , are , with scarcely an
exception , out of print . The attempt shall be made ; but I must intreat some of your Correspondents to supply my omissions and rectify rny inaccuracies .
JOHN KENTISH . A Sermon on Acts xx . 26 , 27 , preached before aw Assembly of Protestant Dissenting Ministers in Exeter , May 10 , 1786- 8 vo . Pp . 36 .
The subject is " the duty of ministers declaring the whole counsel of God" It was followed , if I recollect rightly , by a postscript , and involved the preacher in a temporary and local controversy . * Mon . Repos . IX . pp . 703 , 704 . t Ibid . XIV . p 453 . t The Rev . J . H . 3 mnsby .
Untitled Article
474 Mr . Kentish on the Rev . Joseph JBretland ' x Publttations * < S * e .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1819, page 474, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1775/page/14/
-