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thought would sometimes come into his head by night which pleased him , and that he then constantly struck a light , and went to his study to write it down ; and that when lie was writing against Dr . Nicolls , his usual custom was to go into his study when the bell rung at nine in Cambridge , ( for there
he lived at that time , ) where he always sat till four or five next morning , and never thought the time long . I remember he told me of a passage which befel him one night , which was somewhat uncommon . His study window , which looked into a church-yard , being open , as he stepped to draw it fast , he fancied he saw a horse without a head .
It being very dark , he imagined he might mistake , and , therefore , he looked more narrowly , and at last plainly perceived that it moved and walked as horses commonly do . He then shut his window , and though he was in . no fear , having no opinion of such like
things , yet he was willing to be satisfied , and went and looked again . The same very plainly appeared and moved as before , and he left it in very great uncertainty ; but next morning , upon looking again into the yard , he discovered the delusion , for it was really a horse which was all white with a black
head , and which , therefore , m the dark , could not be seen like the rest of the body . This he said confirmed his opinion , that all these things , fully examined , will prove mistakes occasioned either by a person ' s fear or some other accident , and this I
mention to shew somewhat of his way of thinking of such matters . But to return . He was exceedingly well versed in the learned languages , but especially in the Latin , which appears by his Vindiciae , &c , though I have been credibly told that it was corrected very accurately by the then Master of Westminster School , who was looked on as
an exceeding great critic in that tongue . He was a very good philosopher and mathematician , but what he chiefly bent his studies to was divinity and explaining the Scriptures . He has given a specimen of his talent this
way , in a Commentary on some of St . Paul ' s Epistles , after the manner of Mr . Locke . I never thought him a fine preacher ; for his common discourses were loose and unstudied , and he had a sort of cant in delivering them
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which pleased his hearers , because it chiefly affected the passions , and because he talked a great deal without notes . In his prayers he was often very jejune and dry , unless he hap - pened to fall into a particular train of thoughts which touched him , and then
he * would proceed with great elevation , without cant , tautology or nonsense . His sentiments in religion were generally suited to those of the vulgar , and notwithstanding his genius , he seemed to go on in the common road with very great content ; and though he
never subscribed the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England , having nobly and honestly refused to do so on the true principle of a Nonconformist , yet he came down to Exeter in the full belief of them all excepting one . He was very well read in the
fathers , and went very far into some points of chronology , and into the fashionable and abstruse parts of critical learning , which he always made use of in clearing and explaining
difficult parts of Scripture . He seemed to have very high notions of his divine commission , and very well pleased to give laws at the head of the Assembly ; and had not his falling into the Unitarian scheme convinced him that he
should one time or other stand in great need of the charity of his fellow-christians , he would , I fear , have shewn but very little to such as should happen to differ from him ; and he in some things gave , notwithstanding , very plain proofs of a haughty , bigoted disposition . He conversed where he was
acquainted with very great freedom , and when he was well he liked to be jocose and entertaining ; for he told a story with great humour , and would laugh immoderately when any thing hit him , whether told by another or by himself . He was quite a gentleman in his behaviour , and understood and practised
good manners , and he knew how to behave himself to people of all ranks and parties without discovering any of that unpolite shyness , or mean sheepishnesis , with which most of his corps are infected for want of knowing and conversing with people better than themselves . Fie lived in his family
with great decorum , if he was not sometimes a little too severe in exercising his authority , for I know he hath condescended to the discipline of
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330 Mr . John Foafs Biographical Sketches of some 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 330, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2501/page/6/
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