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OBITUARY.
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Untitled Article
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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.
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Anthony Robinson , Esq . " Were the Supreme Being to appear before me and say—Mortal ! lo , in / my right , haud is all truth , and in my left hand the love of truth : choose between them : I should make answer—Lord ! give me the contents of thy left hand , those of thy right hand can be held by
none but thee . "—Lessing , Anthon y Robinson was born in July , 1762 , at Kirkland , near Wigton , in Cumberland . His father , John Robinson , and his direct ancestors during several centuries , had resided on their paternal inheritance , and were , in the language of the Northern counties , Statesmen . In the happy mediocrity of his birth Mr . R . took pleasure , but rather in accordance with the prophet ' s prayer than as a
modification of family pride . He received his education at the endowed grammar school of Wigton , where mathematics and the higher classics were taught . Being the youngest of three sons , he was designed by his father for trade , and his education was therefore probably limited
by that object . Of his attainments in school learning little is known . It was a peculiar feature of his mind to hold in too little estimation every thing purely ornamental . Neither the fine arts nor polite literature had any value in his eyes , except in subserviency to serious truths and important duties . His avowed indifference to classical learning must have manifested itself both as cause and
effect in the direction of his studies . He served an apprenticeship at Cockermouth , in Cumberland , but his father's death having left him in the possession of a small property and master of his own actions , on attaining his majority he availed himself of his liberty by becoming a pupil of Dr . Caleb Evans at Bristol , the head of an academy belonging to the Calvinistic Baptists . We are unable to account for Mr . R . ' s abandonment of
the Church of England , in which he was brought up , or his preference of a community so widely different from the Establishment . But we find , that having submitted to the rite of baptism , he pursued his studies for the usual period of three years ; and at the end or that period accepted , under the auspices of his respected tutor , aii invitation to supply
Obituary.
OBITUARY .
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for six months an orthodox Baptist Church at Fairford , in Gloucestershire ; he had , however , scarcely assumed the ministerial office before his sensitive and scrupulous mind was disturbed by the discovery that he was not universally
acceptable to the congregation . On this he wrote to the chnrch , inviting his own dismissal . In answer , he was informed , in respectful and kind language , that some members found his ministry * * not adapted to their edification . " And he was released from his engagement .
He now returned to the North , and even then contemplated resuming his first pursuits as a man of business . From this he was diverted by an invitation through his friend Mr . Job David , then a General Baptist Minister at Frome , who had recommended him to the church
of that community , assembled at Worship Street , London . And it is worthy of remark , as shewing how early Mr . R . had made known to his friends that peculiar mode of thinking , which afterwards gave occasion to such notable productions from his pen , that Mr . David urged as a reason for his friend ' s remaining in the ministry the intolerance of their churches . As if a correction of this
vice was a fitter object for the labours of an ardent and vigorous mind than the support of any system of abstract metaphysical opinions . In no other way , propably , could Mr . R . have been brought to adopt the ministry as a profession . A rapid and : striking change had taken place in his opinions and feelings , when he first assumed the ministerial office at
Fairford . No sooner was the duty imposed on him of accurately defining the articles of the creed he was to promulgate , than , his faculties being sharpened by that sense of duty , he felt his inability to fathom the mysteries of orthodoxy , and he trembled before the responsibility of being an assertor dogmatically of any doctrines . He was informed that the
learned Mr . Bulkeley , who preached in Worship-Street Meeting , was " in some sort a Unitarian . " In fact , neither Mr . B . nor Mr . Noble , the last pastor of the church , had deviated further from popular opinions than Arianism . The unfixed state of the ' church on the dogma concerning the person of Christ , - was a recommendation to the young divine ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1827, page 288, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1795/page/56/
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