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remembrance of those labours of love . His school was continued with increasing reputation and Success" about eight years . In the same year in which ne removed , to Co ^ gvshall * he married
Miss Marv Huntley , of Bur ford , a member of the Society of Friends , and sister to the Mr . Huntley before mentioned ; and while he resided here formed an intimate acquaintance with several persons of superior intellect , 7
and particularly with the late ' Mr . Edmund Rack , then , of Bard fie Id , in Essex , but who removed to Bath about the year 1775 , and Mr . Mathews' soon after ; the close . confinement of his school proving injurious to his health . Both of them lived at
Bath the remainder of their lives . Another of Mr . Mathews ' 3 most intimate friends at this time was the late Mr . Portsmouth , of Basmgstoke , in Hampshire , " a man of great respectability as a practitioner in medicine ,
as a scholar , and as a gospel minister among Friends . " He was much older than Mr . Aiathews , and had , like Mr . I ^ eteh worth , " suffered much pain . of mind from what he had observed of the narrow stm ) intolerant
spirit , " which prevailed among the ruling disciplinarians in the Society . In the hope it might do something * ' towards the removal of so great an evil , ' * this worthy man wrote 4 < An JEssay on the Simplicity of Truth , "
and the Use and Extent of Discipline in the Church of Christ , particularly addressed to the People called Quakers / ' and confided the perusal of his MS . to Mr . Mathews , desiring his
opinion as to the . propriety of its publication . Mrr Mathews not only approved publishing the tract , but undertook to superintend the press at Bath on the author ' s behalf , and with his free consent annexed a P . S . to it ,
on Tithes , and the practice of disowning those members of the Society of . Friends who paid them . This temperate work was no sooner published , under the signature of * ' Catholtcus , " than it caused much
inquiry in the Society after the author . Mr . IVIathews w-as of course suspected , * ' and though 1 was , " says he , " not re ' s trained by Jear , from avowing the facts ' as they stood , I thought it unnecessar y to qo so , and hoped the attempt to diffuse liberality of sentiment , rnjgfit be somewhat increased by preserving
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the secret . But my growimr d ; ., affaction with some articles in the dU * ci p line of Friends , induced ' me shortly after to take such steps in mv own person , as led to the conclusion , thai if L was not the author , I was completely of his school ; and as the event soon proved , was no longer to be tolerated as a member of the So
cietv . How justlv the disownment of Mr . Mathews , which took place in 178 : } ' , was attributed by him to the ruling individuals in the district of his residence , and bow much he was previously esteemed as a minister , maybe inferred from the following anecdote .
" I was not hasty , ' * says he , " in the discontinuance of my public ministry at Bath , where I reside , even after a minute of rejection fram membership had been recorded in the monthly meeting book ; both because I found
the spring of love frequently flow in my mind towards my little audience , and because the far greater part oi them had signed and sent me a wnV ten testimony of their regard for idb { n that character , with hopes thai it might continue , JBut my knowledge of the consequences to them , of
exposing , determi ne d me to conceal their names . Many of them are now dead £ in 1802 ] or removed to other situations . The coyisiitutional irregularity of continuing my public appearances £ as a minister ] was a sufficient inducement to me soon to desist : and
it was not long before I found myself most disposed to discontinue also a regular attendance of Friends * meetings . * Nearly twenty years after , Mr . Al . described his feelings towards the Society , and his attachment to the simplicity of their peculiar form o ) public worship , in the following
terms . It is then no matter for surprise that he continued an occasional attendant on their meetings for worship For the remainder of his life . "A man educated , habituated , and principled as I was , is very unfit to » tutf ot ]
satisfaction in the communion m other religious Society ; and I nave hitherto found more content in remaining a solitary retired character , than in resuming religious attends ** among those whom ( though 1 *« 7 affectionately regard them ) I cannw have full unity with as a body . j * £ external appearances of fellow y produce but little sati « f actl 0 U ?
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BG 6 Memoir of Mr . William Mathews
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1816, page 566, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2457/page/2/
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