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    members , separately and collectively , and says to head and hand , to eyes and brains , " I have rio need of you . " We shall endeavour to avoid the temptation of these examples , with whatever impunity they may have transgressed . The secrets of the conclave shall be sacred for us ; even those of them which may have become notorious ; except in so far as allusion may be needful for a proper notice of the publications in hand . This forbearance ought to be reckoned Tather meritorious , for the Body is very gentle ia the

    vindication of its rights . It has indeed imitated , though no doubt unconsciously , rather a singular model . Its rebukes are like Cobbett ' s predictions . The ingenious authors of the Rejected Addresses make that doughty politician say , " I prophesied that , though I never told any body , ' So , perhaps , and more veraciously , the insulted Body may hereafter exclaim , of Mr . Ivimey ' s farrago of offences against decorum and truth , c < I censured that , though I never told any body . "

    Before we attend to the immediate object of the Letter to Lord Holland , it may be interesting to extract the following brief and neat account of the origin and constitution of the General Body . " Shortly after the Revolution of 1688 , the Nonconformist Dissenting ministers , in and about the metropolis , united tog-ether , at first only on

    particular occasions , but afterwards more regularly , chiefly for the purpose of attending to matters which affected their civil rights and privileges , then so much exposed to injurious interference . This body at first consisted chiefly of Presbyterians and Baptists , the former at that time , and long after , holding the same views of Christian doctrine with the others . The Independents joined at a subsequent period .

    " The basis of this union was their common dissent from the Church of England , and their common interest in those civil rights and privileges for which , they and their fathers had been called to contend and to suffer . Though agreeing substantially at the time in their doctrinal sentiments , that agreement was not the professed ground of their union , nor did the parties , by examination or test , or any other process , take cognizance of each other ' s religious opinions .

    " Though constituting one body or association for certain general purposes , almost entirely connected with the great subject of religious freedom , each denomination exercises its own unquestioned and acknowledged right to choose and deal with , its own members , which is done according * to any form approved of by itself . The general body , as such , does nothing but receive a report once a year of the members who have been received , or who have died or left the respective separate bodies of which the general body is composed . No control is , or , by the constitution of the association , can be , exercised over the separate proceedings or members of the several

    denominations * " The ministers composing this body , as your Lordship knows , have enjoyed from the Revolution the privilege of personally addressing the King on all occasions in which they have deemed it prudent or becoming to present an address . Their congratulations on accessions to the throne and other important occasions ,, have always been received with marked attention and kindness , * and such answers , generally expressive of the disposition of the reigning monarch to protect them , have invariably been returned , as- have proved highly satisfactory to the Dissenters throughout the kingdom . " The ministers of the Three Denominations thus associated * though not possessed of any representative character , have , from the beginning to the present time , been connected with the great body of the regular Dissenters in the kingdom , under the well-known designation of Presbyterians , Independents , aad Baptists . They have commonly been ministers of the largest and most respectable congregations of their respective denominations in the me-

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    The Body . 427

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1829, page 427, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2573/page/59/