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    judgment , happy memory , and free commanding elocution ^ attracted the notice and admiration of Mr . Fosters tutor and fellow-students . His academical exercises expressed clearness

    m his conceptions ^ a talent for close and just reasonings and modesty and integrity in the avowal of his sentiments . The candour of his spirit , the tenderness and benevolence of his mind , and his piety , were hig hly esteemed . In 1718 , when he was twenty years and a half old ^ he entered into public life , by beginning to preach ; but circumstances soon constrained him to withdraw into a studious retirement . Mr . Hallet , jun . his tutor ' s son ^ had held a secret correspondence with Mr . Whiston , about the time when he was engaged in publishing his " Primitive Christianity ; " the consequence of which was , that he began to waver in his belief of the received doctrine of the Trinity , and to incline to the Arian scheme . Wlien the class to which he belonged came to be lectured on Pictet ' s chapter concerning the Trinity , Mr .

    Hallet , in confidence , communicated his ideas to a few of his fellow-students . About five or six of them entered into the same views , but conversed together on the subject with great secrecy and caution . The notion , however , by degrees got abroad amongst some of the citizens , who at first talked of more

    than they understood . The matter reached the ears of the ministers , who began to he alarmed : the danger of heresy was uppermost in their conversation , in their prayers and sermons * . Suspicions fell particularly on the learned Mr . Pierce , one of the ministers at Kxet ^ r . An inquisition into his sentiments

    was set on foot . Some other respectable gentlemen , who sustained the character of ministers in the city and the neighbourhood , were implicated in the like suspicion . They were called upon , in order to remove the doubts entertained concerning their orthodoxy , not only to explain , in their own words , their sentiments on the doctrine of the Trinity ; but thev were also

    required to sign the first and second Articles of the Church of England , and the Answer in the Assembly ^ Catechism on the subjecst , as test of truth and orthodoxy . Thus Protestant Dissenter , forgetting their own principles , attempted to introduce other standards of faith than the Holy Scriptures .

    Mr . Foster , from his first coming to the academy , had expressed a disdain of all human authority in matters of religious opinion , faith , and practice . A furious controversy , to which the preceding circumstances gave birth , broke out and spread through the West . Mr . Foster , though his ministerial labours * MS . Letters of Mr . Fox , a gentleman of Plymouth , anda student under Mr , Hallct , who was educated for the ministry .

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    2 Memoirs of Dr . James Foster .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1807, page 2, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2376/page/2/