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u Seeker ) betwixt study and conversation with our tutor » w ^ ° * * ways ready t 0 discourse freely of any thing that is useful , and allows us either then , or at lecture , All imaginable liberty of making objections against his opinions , and prosecuting them as far as we can . In this and every thing else , he shews himself so much a gentleman , and manifests so great
an affection and tenderness for his pupils , as cannot but command respect and love . " . —When Dr . Doddridge set on foot his academy , his friend Dr . Clark communicated to him Mr Jones ' s Lectures on Jewish Antiquities . A copy of these , very
neatly written , in two volumes octavo , is preserved in Dr . Williams ' s library . Of Mr , Jones ' s ability as a tutor , we cannot bat form a very high opinion from the merit and eminence of many of his pupils , among whom were the following : —Dr . Samuel Chandler and Dr . Andrew Gifford , of London ; Mr . Thomas Mole , of Hackney ; Mr . Richard Pears all , of
Taunton ; Mr . Henry Francis , of Southampton ; Mr . Jeremiah Jones , the learned author of " A new and full Method of settling the Canonical Authority of the New Testament ; " Dr . Daniel Scott , well known to the world by his learned and valuable writings ; Dr . Joseph Butler , afterwards Bishop of Durham , the author of that
most learned and valuable performance , " The Analogy of Natural and Revealed Religion ;* ' and Dr . Thomas Seeker , who also conforming to the Church of England , rose to the See of Canterbury . "Pp . 381 , 382 .
Under the head " Devonshire Square —Particular Baptist , " we have a very full biographical account of Mr . WiLliam Kiffin , the first pastor in that place , who was an eminent and wealthy merchant . He had been apprentice to John Lilburn , the brewer , who in the civil war held a colonel ' s commission
m the parliament service . Casting his lot amongst the Nonconformists , Kiffin endured a variety of persecutions , religious and political , under the hateful reigns of the Second Charles and Ja mes , from some of which he extricated himself only by means of his Nches . It is related that on one
oc-° asion the prodigal and needy Charles 6 to Kifhn to bo r row of him forty thousand pounds . The " Anabaptist " teacher apologised for not having"it in jj » power to lend his Majesty so much , "t told the messenger that if it would ; 0 f any service he would present him Wlth ten thousand . The offer was ac-^ Pted , and Kitiin used afterwards to
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boast that he had saved thirty thousand pounds . In Monmouth ' s unfortunate rebellion , two grandsons of Mr . Kiffin , Benjamin and William Hewling , took part , and being taken prisoners were put to death , under circumstances o £ great barbarity . We are told that their sister going to court to present a petition to the king on their behalf , was admonished by Churchill , afterwards Duke of Marlboro ugh , not to indulge hope , for , said he , pointing to the chimney-piece , ' * that marble is as
capable of feeling compassion as the king ' s heart . " James , who was as foolish as he was heartless , afterwards applied to KifBu with a request that he would promote his designs in the city , and received the same sort of rebuke which was
given him on an application for support to the old Earl of Bedford , father to Lord Russell . Having pleaded his age and infirmities , Kiffin added , his eyes fixed steadfastly on the king , and
tears running down his cheeks , — " besides , Sire , the death of my grandsons gave a wound to my heart , which Is still bleeding , and never will cldse but in the grave . " The king shrunk frona this manly refusal and cutting reproach into silence .
Kiffin survived the Revolution . He died in peace Dec . 29 , 1 7 01 , in the 86 th year of his age . Mr . Wilson has given a good portrait of him . It should have been mentioned in a memoir of Kiffin , that he had a controversy with John Bunyan on the subject of adult baptism by immersion being a term of Christian fellowship . Mr , Wilson , however , takes no notice of
this , but simply states in a note , p . 43 O , that Mr . Kiffin published only " A Sober Discourse of Right to Church Communion , in which he pleads for strict communion . " This was not Kiffin ' only publication , but it may be observed that it was the first piece published professedl y on this subject , Robert Robinson , in his ingenious tract entitled " The Doctrine of
Toleration applied to Free Communion , " [ Works , III . 143 , ] gives the following account of another work in which Kiffin had a share : " In 1672 , Mr . Bunyan , then in prison , published his Confession of Faith , and in it pleaded warmly for mixed communion . In an » wer to this , Messieurs Kiffin and
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Review *— ' -Wilson ' s Dissenting Churches- 547
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1816, page 547, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2456/page/47/
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