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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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bright and serious young man , and was soon afterwards elected to a congregation in Plymouth , in the room of one Byfield , who had the best sense and parts of any Dissenter that ever lived there . He was generally much liked as a preacher , for he had a strong ,
musical voice , a lively imagination , and a . great command and flow of words , and this was adapted to the taste of his hearers : but * his usual topics were the common trite ones of the partv ; and though it has been said that he took much pains in composing them , they would never bear an examination ,
for they consisted of scripture phrases , all the common notions of divinitylectures at the Academy , and abundance of words and phrases signifying the same thing , without any connexion or strain of reasoning . This last faculty was the occasion of his being often very tedious in his public performances ; but he was generally forgiven for it , because he always tickled the ears and moved the passions . He set out in the world full in the belief of his divine commission , and always
expected the full respect to be paid to it which he thought was due to it . He was very fond of the Assembly , which began to have some influence in the beginning of his time ; and though he himself had no licence or
recommendation for preaching , but what his tutor gave him , yet he soon shewed a very particular fondness for dominion and power over such as came into the ministry after him , and was very active in promoting the interest of that body of men , who ( as plainly appears by
their minutes and transactions ) set up a spiritual tyranny , and successfully and smoothly carried it on for the course of many years under cover of three words—agreement , order and decency . The text he chose to preach on before this Assembly , plainly shews
what always was uppermost with him ; it was Paul ' s advice to Timothy , "Let no man despise thee , " which so well suited the temper and designs of those
men , that they desired him to print it , with which he very wiltfng-ly complied . I never heard that he had any notions in divinity or any thing else , but what he learnt from his tutor ; and I always took him to be one of that sort of
men , who set themselves to vindicate what they have been taught to believe , without troubling themselves to exa-
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mine whether it be true or false . He differed a little from the high Calvinists , as his friend Mr . Sandercock and some few others did ; but in general he came very roundly into every opinion which Orthodoxy and Presb yterianism had established . He had very
poor notions of liberty of thinking , or of charity for such as differed from him ; at the same time he was a man of great pride , and would very often shew his resentment , with a peculiar haughtiness and contempt , which never failed to provoke and disgust every man who knew what he was or from
whence he came . He would converse , however , with great freedom among his friends , and did not affect that distance or gravity which was so hateful in some others . He had a great ascendant over the most considerable of his hearers , but
I never heard that he concerned himself much with domestic affairs , or that he was fond of entering into family secrets . He proved very fortunate in two things—his marriages and his removal to Exeter : the first lifted him
above the common rank of Dissenters , and the second made him the head of a party , and both conspired to increase his pride . A Kingsbridge woman of a good fortune first liked him , and because he was a minister a 3 well as a man , married him , contrary to the advice of her relations . She in some
years dying childless , gave him a chance of mounting a little higher , for he then made his addresses to the eldest daughter of Mr . Savery , of Shilston , which being a Dissenting family , and at the same time influenced by old Mrs . Vinson , whom he governed
absolutely , the bargain was soon struck , and Mr . Enty married . And now he had more money , and a reputabla alliance , and in his way began to make a figure . Some years passed before the controversy about the Trinity broke out at Exeter . This was a lucky thing
for him , for Mr . Peirce was turned out there , and he chosen in his room , not only to do the part of a minister , but to manage the controversy , and , in short , to defend Orthodoxy and the
Assembl y against Mr . Peirce , who wrote with great strength and spirit against both . He now became the head of the party . All church affairs were directed by him , and he was very much caressed and applauded by bis
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326 Mr . John Foafs Biographical Sketches of tome of his Contemporaries
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1821, page 326, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2501/page/2/
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