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cerned in the ordination ; several went over from Newton , and my friend Mr . Joseph Hallett , with some others * came down from Exeter . I staid at home . I thought that too much power was assumed by the ordainers ,
and had no notion of paying any compliments to them as such , or of giving any countenance to the solemnity $ neither had I any acquaintance with , or value for , the persons to be ordained , one being a conceited
enthusiast , and the other of a plain , blundering understanding . Some notice was taken of my absence ; some fancied themselves slighted ; and Mr . Hallett , with whom I then corresponded , wrote to me about it . He had high notions
of the ministerial power , and thought that that power was derived from the apostles , who had their commission from Christ , so that his opinion was , that Christ had granted a charter , ( that was his word , ) by virtue of which all ministers had a commission and
power to rule and act in the church as such , at all times and upon all occasions . At that time I believed nothing of this , and therefore I told him plainly ,
that I thought ministers had no power but what was given them by the people or the laws of the land ; that they were in reality the guides , teachers and servants , but not lords and rulers of the
people ; that they were hired and paid as such , at so much yearly , to tell truth and explain the Scriptures $ and that if they were workmen in their way , and understood their business , and knew how to behave with decency and good manners , they deserved re *
spect and a handsome maintenance , but yet I did not see that they were to be complimented as embassadors , or that they had any kind of credentials to produce which could demand or require any such respect . To this I received a very warm answer . He supposed , he said , I had been reading
some such books as the " Rights , " and , without entering into the merits of the cause , advised me , with the air of a tutor , to read such answers to them as he directed me to , and , by way of conclusion , he hinted that 1 had made indecent reflections on the
ministry , which he should look upon as a design to break our correspondence . This gave me a mean notion of ln * m , which I had never entertained before . I saw plainly that he loved
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power , that he had a disposition for rule and management , and that he only wanted an opportunity to exert himself . But Providence never indulged him in this ; for the Assembly divided before he could get into the saddle , which obliged him to behave better than he would have done otherwise . I
answered him with indifference and some resentment , and in short told him , that if friendship was to be broke for difference in opinion , especially about trifles , that it was worth neither seeking nor keeping . I thought I should have heard no more of him , but he cooled and renewed our
correspondence with a very civil letter . After three quarters of a year ' s stay at Newton , I returned home . My time was divided between my books and the ministers whose conversation
was most agreeable to my father's taste and temper . It had been determined always that I was to live some time in London before I began to preach , that I might have something more than the common education in
the Dissenting way , and learn a little more of the world than was usual for such to know . But still subscribing the Thirty-nine Articles lay heavy upon me . I had talked with my father
and with as many friends as I could trust , but without any satisfaction . My father did not care what I did , as long as I got to a pulpit at last , and most who had taken them were sneaks
and shuffles , thinking they had given the world full satisfaction for abusing it once very solemnly , by resolving they would not do so a second time . In short , I found that after all the pretences to honour and conscience which Dissenters talked so much of ,
a man was fully forgiven for being a rogue to promote his interest , and if he was more scrupulous than his neighbours , it was thought an effect of pride and vanity . While tilings were thus , Dr . Edmund Calamy came into
Devonshire , and was at the Exeter Assembly in 1713 . He was considered as a head of his party , and taken great notice of ; for , in his Life of Mr . Baxter , he had given a large and particular account of all the ministers
ejected in King Charles the Second ' s reign . He was to came to Plymouth . As I was designed for London , my father thought it could not be amiss to shew liim some respect , and so he
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134 Memoirs qf Himself \ by Mr . John Foa ? .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1821, page 134, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2498/page/6/
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