Unitarianism in America: A History of its Origin and DevelopmentCooke, George Willis
History
Unitarianism in America: A History of its Origin and Development
Cooke, George Willis
Unitarianism -- United States
[46] Theophilus Lindsey, 1723-1808, was a curate in London, then the tutor
of the Duke of Northumberland, and afterward a rector in Yorkshire
and Dorsetshire. In 1763 he was settled at Catterick, in Yorkshire,
where his study of the Bible led him to doubt the truth of the
doctrine of the Trinity. In 1771 he joined with others in a petition
to Parliament asking that clergymen might not be required to
subscribe to the thirty-nine articles. When it was rejected a second
time he resigned, went to London, and opened in a room in Essex
Street, April 1774, the first permanent Unitarian meeting in England.
A chapel was built for him in 1778, and he preached there until 1793.
He published, in 1783, An Historical View of the State of the
Unitarian Doctrine and Worship from the Reformation to our own Times,
two volumes of sermons, and other works. In 1774 he published a
revised Prayer Book according to the plan suggested by Dr. Samuel
Clarke, which was used in the Essex Street Chapel.
[47] Four Generations of a Literary Family: The Hazlitts in England,
Ireland, and America, 23, 26, 30, 40, 43, 50; Lamb and Hazlitt:
Further Letters and Records, 11-15.
[48] Monthly Repository, III., 305. Mr. Hazlitt "arrived at Boston May 15,
1784; and, having a letter to Mr. Eliot, who received him with great
kindness, he was introduced on that very day to the Boston
Association of Ministers. The venerable Chauncy, at whose house it
happened to be held, entered into a familiar conversation with him,
and showed him every possible respect as he learned that he had been
acquainted with Dr. Price. Without knowing at the time anything of
the occasion which led to it, ordination happened to be the general
subject of discussion. After the different gentlemen had severally
delivered their opinions, the stranger was requested to declare his
sentiments, who unhesitatingly replied that the people or the
congregation who chose any man to be their minister were his proper
ordainers. Mr. Freeman, upon hearing this, jumped from his seat in a
kind of transport, saying, 'I wish you could prove that, Sir,' The
gentleman answered that 'few things could admit of an easier proof.'
And from that moment a thorough intimacy commenced between him and
Mr. Freeman. Soon after, the Boston prints being under no
_imprimatur_, he published several letters in supporting the cause of
Mr. Freeman. At the solicitation of Mr. Freeman he also published a
Scriptural Confutation of the Thirty-nine Articles. Notice being
circulated that this publication would appear on a particular day, the
printer, apprised of this circumstance, threw off a hundred papers
beyond his usual number, and had not one paper remaining upon his
hands at noon. This publication in its consequences converted Mr.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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