come down, as he was thought to favour the proceedings at the recruiting offices. I got up this morning at six o'clock, and saw the people breaking the furniture in Bride Lane. I have not forgot Mr. Fuller's book,* but I have not had time to get it, as it is only sold at particular places.”

Towards the close of 1794, he saw reasons to wish to leave the school at Islington, where the personal comforts of the pupils were but little consulted. His indulgent parents consented to a change, and he put himself under the care of the Rev. Ed. Porter, of Highgate, minister of the Presbyterian chapel† in Southwood Lane. Here he was treated with the greatest kindness, and gratefully records the almost maternal attentions of Mrs. Porter. Mr. Porter conducted his school without the assistance of an usher, and admitted his new pupil to much confidential intercourse. A conversation with Mr. Porter developed his wish to devote himself to the Christian ministry, which he states with much modesty in a letter to his parents dated February, 1795. At Highgate he met with a daughter of the celebrated preacher, Mr. Romaine, who lent him various religious books and was otherwise kind to him.

But we find him in the course of this year making another and a final change in his school. What the reasons of the change were do not appear, but its results were in every respect satisfactory. In August, 1795, he entered the highly respectable school in Well Street,‡ Hackney, of the Rev. John Eyre. This gentleman was the minister of a small Episcopalian chapel at Homerton, commonly known by the name of Ram's chapel.§ He was also one of the early Editors of the Evangelical Magazine and Secretary to the Missionary Society. Some extracts from Robert Aspland's letters will best describe his new school.

"The terms are thirty pounds per annum, washing included. Mr. Eyre is a nice man; I like him very much.` He asked Mr. Warren what I was intended for. He told him-You had some thoughts of my being a minister.' He questioned me and warned me particularly against being a minister unless I had the grace of God. He kindly said he would give me all the advice that lay in his power.”

In another letter, dated Aug. 26, 1795, he writes,

"I shall now, according to my mother's wishes, give you an account of Mr. Eyre's school. It is, in my opinion, a very good school. I like it much. We have family prayer twice a day. Mr. E. is a very zealous and religious man. He preaches twice a day at his chapel at Homerton. I like his preaching very much. You wished to know if he was of the Establishment. I suppose he is; but his place of worship is a chapel. He reads some of the Church

Probably Mr. Fuller's "Calvinistic and Socinian Systems examined and compared," which had been published the preceding year.

+ Mr. Porter published, in 1792, a sermon on the death of a daughter of Captain Lewis, aged seven years and two months. The preacher, with more kindly feeling than judgment, details the death-bed scene and triumphant words of this juvenile disciple.

The premises now belong to the Hackney Theological Seminary, over which the Rev. George Collison presides,-an institution which was liberally endowed by Mr. Townsend, formerly a member of Ram's chapel.

§ The chapel was originally built, in 1723, by Stephen Ram, Esq. Mr. Eyre was previously curate under Rev. Mr. Cadogan, at Chelsea. A great change has taken place in fifty years in the stringency of ecclesiastical

prayers. He very often preaches in churches, and very often in meetings of all denominations. I don't think he has the least bigotry. He preached on Sunday at Mr. Thomas's, the Baptist. Mr. Pearce, the Baptist minister of Birmingham, will, I expect, preach for Mr. E. on Sunday."

*

Mr. Eyre's school enjoyed, and not without deserving it, considerable reputation. The second master in the establishment was Mr. Wells, an amiable and intelligent man, who, as well as his principal, appears to have secured the confidence and affections of the pupils. Some not undistinguished men were pupils of Mr. E. Daniel Wilson, afterwards Vicar of Islington, and now Bishop of Calcutta, left the school a little before Robert Aspland came to it. The residence of the latter at Hackney continued for nearly two years. He appears to have been allowed much liberty, and to have spent nearly all his Sundays in London, where he resorted to various" orthodox" Dissenting chapels. He had become tolerably skilled in short-hand, and was accustomed to take copious notes of the sermons which he heard. It was probably about this time that the following incident occurred. † He was occasionally a hearer of William Huntingdon, who appended to his name S.S., Sinner Saved. Huntingdon at this time rented on Tuesday evenings the meeting-house occupied on Sundays by the Presbyterian congregation under the charge of Mr. (afterwards Dr.) James Lindsay in Monkwell Street. As a stranger, he sat at the end of the table-pew, immediately facing the preacher; and being used to make short-hand notes of curious passages uttered from the pulpit, he was in the act of writing down something startling, when there was a sudden pause, and on looking up he saw the orator's keen eyes fastened upon him, and the fore-finger of his right hand pointed at him: there followed immediately these words, which continued to ring in his ears after the lapse of half a century:-"What is that young man there scribbling? Does he want to learn to be a parson? Be swift to hear and slow to speak, young man!" Huntingdon sometimes preached sermons well worthy of being recollected, and notes of one on the books and parchments mentioned in 2 Tim. iv. 13, on the Fast-day, March 9, 1796, exist in the hand-writing of the "young man" thus strangely rebuked. For this a place may hereafter be found in the C. R. Other preachers whom he heard about this time were, Timothy Priestley, Dr. Rippon, Rev. Abraham Austin, Rowland Hill, Mr. Booth, and Mr. Smith, of Eagle-Street chapel. His predilection for the services of the Baptists became, in 1796 and 1797, confirmed. In a letter to his father, he states that he had in the first instance been induced to resort to their preaching, and to listen to the arguments adduced in favour of their system, by the frequent invectives he had heard against them. The reader will already have observed traces of the independence of his mind and his mental courage. Of the latter

discipline in the Church of England. But even the amiable Prelate who in 1796 presided over the Metropolitan see (Dr. Porteus) must have been scandalized at the ecclesiastical irregularities of Mr. Eyre, who not only exchanged pulpits with Dissenters and omitted portions of the Liturgy, but often preached alternately with Rowland Hill in London Fields. Mr. Eyre died in 1803, and his funeral sermon was preached at Ram's chapel to a most crowded audience by Rowland Hill.

* Mr. Wells afterwards established a school at Leominster.

+ See Christian Reformer, N. S., I. 351, note.

quality he gave a proof by purchasing and attentively reading, in August, 1796, Paine's "Age of Reason." He at the same time read Bishop Watson's "Apology for the Bible," and thus reports to his parents the judgment he formed on this controversy:-"Paine is utterly unable to cope with the Bishop. Like the feeble javelin of aged Priam, his attack on Christianity has scarcely reached the mark. It has fallen to the ground without a stroke." It is not often that youths of fourteen are prepared to read without injury Paine's caustic and unscrupulous appeals to the ignorance of his readers. In this case, happily, the mind of the student was prepared and protected, not only by familiar acquaintance with the Scriptures, but by deep and habitual piety. In a letter to his father, dated April, 1796, he gives a remarkable account of the way in which he had spent his Easter holidays. On the morning of Good Friday, he heard "an aged and very able preacher" (whose name is not given) "discourse from Hebrews ii. 9, in refutation of the Arminians and Socinians." The young hearer, little thinking what his own after-views would be, gave his mind and heart to the strong Calvinism of the preacher. In the evening of that day, not knowing where he could hear "gospel preaching," he went with some relatives to Mr. Thelwall's Forum. Though not insensible to the speaker's talent, and feeling some sympathy with him as a man who had been persecuted for his free politics, he perceived and resented the "Deism" of his remarks. On Easter Sunday, he rose early and hastened through the snow to hear a sermon before breakfast from "a good old man who preached at Mr. Reynolds's meeting in Camomile Street." After breakfast, he heard Mr. Booth, whose discourse, on Matt. xiii. 47, was "awful." In the afternoon, he heard from Dr. Rippon a very elaborate discourse" on baptism. In the evening, he was a hearer, at the Baptist chapel in Broad Street, of an "excellent discourse" from Mr. Smith, in defence of the justice of God in decreeing the damnation of his creatures. In a round of services, much in the same strain, including a public baptism at Devonshire Square, the whole of the holiday week was spent. The preaching appears to have been acceptable to him in proportion to the amount of Calvinism which it contained. It is somewhat curious, and may be regarded as an indication of his theological taste at that time, that during his two years' residence in Hackney, notwithstanding his discursive Sunday wanderings, no trace whatever exists of his having entered the Gravel-Pit meeting-house. It would have been interesting to observe the effect produced on his mind by the simple and earnest preaching, the clear elucidation of Scripture, the bold enunciation of theological doctrine, and the close logic of the discourses which he might there have heard, from ministers whose society and friendship he, ten years afterwards, greatly valued.*

66

During his youth, his health was not robust. Ague (then the common penalty of having been brought up in the fens-now, happily, through a better system of drainage, little known) followed him to Hackney. We find him in 1796 writing anxiously to his parents con

*The Rev. Thomas Belsham became, in 1794, morning preacher at the GravelPit, succeeding Dr. Priestley on his departure for America. In the spring of the following year, the Rev. John Kentish was associated with him as the afternoon preacher.

cerning his health, and fearing that the weakness of his lungs may prevent the fulfilment of his desire to become a minister.

Soon after he had entered on his sixteenth year, his mind became deeply impressed with the importance of "the ordinances of Christ," Baptism and the Lord's Supper, and he was uneasy at the reflection that he had not yet openly "dedicated himself to God by associating himself with some body of Christians." He hesitated, however, for a time, to take any step towards being admitted to "a church," from the feeling of uncertainty as to his continuance in the neighbourhood of London, and from a dislike of asking, immediately after becoming a member, for his dismission to another church. His wishes were directed towards the Baptist Academy at Bristol. He was in the first instance given to understand that, in order to admission into the Academy, it was necessary not only that the candidate should be a church-member, but that he should receive from the church testimonials of his possessing ministerial graces. His feelings naturally revolted from making the acquirement of church-membership a stepping-stone to his own personal advancement, and he anxiously inquired if he might not postpone his admission into the Baptist church until after his entrance into the Academy. In this difficulty he consulted the Rev. Timothy Thomas, the very worthy and amiable pastor of the society of Particular Baptists worshiping at Devonshire Square.* In him he had already found an instructive pastor, and he now found a judicious adviser.

Mr. Thomas interested himself warmly in the views and hopes of his young hearer, and wrote in his behalf both to Dr. Ryland and Mr. Fuller. Application had in the mean time been made direct from Wicken to Mr. Fuller, to which, as the result shews, he paid immediate and respectful attention. He probably felt considerable gratification in promoting the studies and religious welfare of a native of his own village. The following letters, now transcribed from the original autographs, were probably given by Mr. Thomas to him whom they chiefly concerned. The first letter is from Dr. Ryland to Mr. Fuller.

"Dear Brother, We have two new students from Rippon's, and are as full as we can hold-sixteen of them in all, including Flint and Page. But I suppose Ward will settle at Melksham next vacation, and Daniel will probably go to Ireland; Coles also is going to Scotland; so there will be three vacancies on the Bristol Fund. Mr. Webb, Mrs. Steadman's brother, will, I hope, be admitted for one; and I think there would be no great fear but young Mr. Aspland would be accepted for another, if recommended by you and Mr. Timothy Thomas; but he should be a church-member, though he need not on that foundation† to have been formally tried and recommended by the church. I should think he might as well join Mr. Thomas's church, as he is already well known there; he might then be dismissed to us. I know not how we could squeeze him into our house before the vacation; we have no

This is said to have been the earliest Baptist church formed in London. Its first minister was the celebrated William Kiffin. The predecessor of Mr. Thomas was John Macgowan, one of Dr. Priestley's coarsest assailants. The second title of his "Socinianism brought to the Test," was, "Christ proved to be the Adorable God, or a notorious Impostor." See Wilson's Dissenting Churches, I. 408-454, and "Remarkable Passages in the Life of William Kiffin," by Orme, p. 101.

+ Note by Mr. Fuller-"By that foundation,' I suppose is meant the foundation of the Bristol Fund.'

spare bed nor half-bed. Or, if it were absolutely necessary, I could baptize him, and he might have been here at his own expense for a quarter of a year, though that would seem more hurrying and forcing things forward than for him to join Mr. Thomas's. If a young man at his years gives pretty strong evidences of piety, I think such are the best persons to send to Scotland, if any, as it would not be so safe either for body or mind for them to become constant and popular preachers so early.

I should think it would be no bad plan for him to spend from this time to the first week in August at Kettering; then you might baptize him and send him here. In that case, an application should be made 'To the Managers of the Bristol Baptist Fund,' and directed to Mr. Harris, the sooner after the young man is baptized, the better, that so he may not have others apply before him, though I have already spoken for him to Mr. Harris. Yours cordially,

"13 April, 1797."

JOHN RYLAND.

The next letter, written on the same sheet of paper, is from Mr. Fuller to Mr. Thomas.

"My dear Brother, I suppose brother R. intended this to get to Birmingham time enough for me to take to the Armsby meeting; but it was somehow delayed, so that I did not receive it till a day or two after I returned. But judging the case of young Aspland of some consequence, I was unwilling to detain this letter till I sent you a parcel, and shall send it by post.

"The occasion of this letter was a letter which A. F. received from Mr. Aspland, Sen., since his return from London, concerning his son, wishing to know whether he could at the vacation go to Bristol, and whether it was necessary that he should be a member of a church, as the young man seemed to feel it unpleasant to join (suppose Mr. Thomas's church) under such circumstances, as it would have the appearance of his doing it merely with a view to the ministry. A. F. sent Mr. Aspland's letter to Bristol, and this is the answer. But brother Ryland mistakes the request, supposing that the young man wants to go immediately. He only wishes to know if he may depend on going at the vacation. By this letter, however, it should seem that brother R. would recommend his joining Mr. Thomas's church; and I wish so too; and perhaps the sooner the better, if agreeable to Mr. Thomas and the church at Devonshire Square and the young man himself. I suppose when he leaves Mr. Eyre he would wish to go home awhile. If it be settled for his going to Bristol, and he wishes to call at Kettering by the way, I should be glad to see him.

"Kettering, April 29, '97."

A. F.

He had, however, by the advice of his father, anticipated Mr. Fuller's counsel, and been proposed, a few days before this letter arrived, as a member of Mr. Thomas's church. He thus writes to his parents, April 18, 1797:

"I attended at Devonshire Square last sabbath afternoon, and the members being desired to stay while the rest of the congregation withdrew, I related to them my past experience, and Mr. Thomas proposed to me several simple questions, which I answered, and the members agreed upon admitting me, after having been baptized into full communion. I was very comfortable, and less intimidated than it was natural to expect. Mr. T. and the members acted in a manner which deserves my highest gratitude and esteem. They seemed happy to see me willing to follow the path of duty.”

Mr. Fuller had visited Mr. Thomas the previous month and preached at Devonshire Square, where, and at Mr. Thomas's house, R. A. "had much agreeable conversation with him." (MS. letter of March 22, 1797.) After interviews with this distinguished man were not always agreeable.