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great gravity asked me three questions : « What is your wme ? f € Where was you bred ? " €€ Have you a certificate from your tutor ? " I answered to them with great brevity , upon which ensued another very solemn and
considerable silence . At length , with great deliberation and indifference , he replied , that one Lorimer ( a minister always employed to examine ) was out of Town , but he would mention it at
his return , and I might hear further . Upon this we made our obeisances and retired , leaving him in the same mannerl y position in which we found him , and glad enough was I to get free from the greatest bundle of pride , affectation and ill manners I had ever
met with . From the moment after this audience , I thought it impossible for one of my make to pass a trial before such creatures as this . However , I was silent and resolved to see what I could make better out of my friend Calamy . As soon as he returned , I went to him , and met Chandler at the door . He asked me what I had
done . I did not know what he meant till he told me that the Doctor knew I had been with Williams and resented it . I did not know till then that they were rivals , though I think James Reed ought to have told me . Calamy , however , received me as usual , and all that ever he said of my affair afterwards was to ask me what I intended to do .
Upon my answering , < I don't know /' " Neither / ' said he " do I , " and so ended all my thoughts of being examined in London , I told this to Mr . Burroughs , who advised me to give myself no farther trouble , adding , that he knew that few or none of the
London ministers , in general , had ever been examined themselves , and that the only recommendation they brought to their congregations was a certificate of their lives and regular educations . He persuaded me , however , to take the oaths to his Majesty in some court
at Westminster , as soon as I could , which would appear to the world as the common step taken after having been examined . I thought this a good scheme , and had very soon an opportunity of putting it in execution ; for , on the Scotch Rebellion , all ministers
were ordered to take the usual oaths afresh . I went into the Court of Exchequer amongst the rest , and , after swearing , signed my name to the
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indenture , as they didv I remember Dr . Calamy seemed much surprised to see me there , and looked very hard at me . I soon wrote my father what I
had done , and though I gave not the least hint of any time , place , or persons concerned in my examination , yet it was generally believed I had been examined .
In order to improve myself to the best purpose during my stay , I conversed much at the Temple , and with such as were there acquainted ; for of the ministers I had known and seen enough ; I went often at Court , at the Parliament , and courts of Westminster , and I was very frequent at the
playhouse : and I I can trulv sav . that II house ; and can truly say , that gained more by these , and lived altogether as innocent as those who know nothing about these things farther than to rail at them . My private club was
with Seeker and Chandler ; we met often and talked freely , and from them I learnt to despise the prejudices of education , and the base roguery and partiality of party . I went , to some other' clubs , which consisted of all
sorts ; but you learnt little more among them than news , and sometimes , perhaps , saw and talked with a gentleman whom before you had only heard of . I saw more in the year and
a half I lived here than many do in half a century . I was in Westminsterhall at the coronation of George the First , and saw all the magnificent ceremonies which are used on those
solemn occasions . I saw the planet Mercury through a telescope in Moor Fields , during the total darkness of that grand eclipse which happened the April following . I saw the great fire in Thames Street which consumed
about 100 houses , and was near beingdestroyed by ignorantly standing too near a house that was blown up . I saw the Thames frozen over , and oxen , roasted on it , and walked myself on the ice from Westminster Stairs to the
Temple . I saw and was in monstrous city mobs , and saw the manner of their engaging . I saw all the guards , both horse and foot , encamped ia Hyde Park , with a regular train of
artillery ; and several reviews by his Majesty . I saw all the rebel lords and gentlemen taken at Preston brwgfet through Holborn ; was ptQWtot at their solenln trial in Weatminsteivhalji ; fe £ ard my Lord Cowper pronounce that eharm-
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Memoir * ofHimself > by Mr . Johk Fo $ * 195
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1821, page 195, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2499/page/3/
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