bequeathing chapels to us which we have had to pull down and rebuild, or abandon to some mere handful of occupants.'

'But on this plan,' replied Churchless, there will be no fixity, no permanence, in your church. A hundred years hence, or even fifty, there may be no trace of it; it will have disappeared.'

'Most probably. We even contemplate this prospect without dissatisfaction; for, as already suggested, we regard the attempt to maintain the identification of a living, spiritual, free church, with a particular place, to be a mistake that has, in many instances, proved in no small degree hurtful. We who are associated are so combined because both minister and people are mutually suited to one another. We are all furthered in the divine life, and we can all act together. Whenever, by deaths, and removals, and the coming in of dissimilar spirits, the present relation ceases to be such as to fulfil the end we have in view (church relationship being a means to an end, and not the very end itself), is it not every way best that it should cease? Then the various elements of which the church for the time being is composed can enter into fresh combinations. This, at least, is the great law at work throughout nature. The ocean is none the less a sublime reality, none the less a living power in this planet, because its billows, instead of being hardened into fixity, have free play, and are every instant changing.'

'Well, but' interposed Churchless.

"I know what you would say,' replied Broadly. The scheme is a new one; but as yet, and for true church purposes, it works well.' 'But you would like your children, and your children's children, to kneel where you have knelt, and your fathers before you,' Churchless suggested.

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That's well for you to say, who are a bachelor,' replied his friend; 'but the children will think for themselves, I have no doubt, as we have done before them. My parents worshipped in the parish church. I have worshipped now here, now there; with Moravians, Baptists, Independents. My children may be Wesleyans, Unitarians, Swedenborgians, for ought I can tell. Perhaps they may find a home in some parish church, who can say? By-the-bye, if we had justice done us, the principle you glance at might be indulged, and yet conscience and inclination in matters of worship have free scope too. The churches are national property. The time will come when this will be practically recognised, and then-who knows?-Dr. Arnold's scheme may be realized after all.'

'I forget your allusion.'

'He proposed that the parish church should be for the use of the parish at large, and not for the exclusive use of one sect; and thought that, by a friendly adjustment of the times of worship, all the different sects might hold each a service, in the same edifice, every Sunday.'

Just at this point of the conversation a thundering knock at the door (for the friends had returned from their walk) startled them, and

two gentlemen entered, deacons of a neighbouring church, who had come as a deputation to solicit subscriptions for a new chapel, which was to cost between six and seven thousand pounds. For a moment Churchless stared at them as if they had fallen down from some strange planet, while Broadly's face was lighted by a quiet smile, which, however, he instantly suppressed. And as the writer fears he may have extended his report of his two friends too far already, he takes advantage of the entrance of these new comers to make his own exit, notwithstanding he has left much still unsaid, and these two gentlemen greatly provoke him to daguerreotype them for the reader by way of interlude. Possibly, however, he may some day invite him to visit Mr. Eyebright as a Christian Spectator, and note his modes of action on the spot, and try how far he can join in worship with this Christian church of the nineteenth century, whose motto would seem to be-CHRIST OUR LIFE.

Robert Robinson, once of Cambridge.

FROM 1759 TO 1790.

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ROBERT ROBINSON was one of those distinctly marked and noticeable men, with that faculty of living before his time which always distinguishes true greatness, that it is a simple act of duty to preserve his name from oblivion. To him we may apply Milton's noble words, 'there will one day be a resurrection of names, as well as of bodies,' and such a resurrection we mean to attempt in this brief paper. the life and sentiments of this tabooed' man there arise many suggestions applicable to the present stormy agitations of the 'religious world,' and many lessons of caution to those who, because the 'orthodox' are not charitable, are disposed to rush into the equal intolerance of latitudinarianism.

Robert Hall, who was Robinson's successor, tells us that on hearing Mr. Robinson preach, he was so fascinated with his manner, that he resolved to imitate it.' This fit did not last long; for with characteristic dignity he afterwards said, 'Sir, if I had not been a foolish young man, I should have seen how ridiculous it was to imitate such a preacher as Mr. R. He had a musical voice, and was master of its intonations; he had wonderful self-possession, and could say what he pleased, when he pleased, and how he pleased.' And Dr. Olinthus Gregory, Robert Hall's biographer, says of him, 'He was a man of extensive powers, of some genius, and of considerable industry and research. Fascinating as a preacher, delightful as a companion, and perseveringly skilful in the insinuation of his sentiments, his influence could not but be great.'

In the quiet village of Swaffham, in Norfolk, Robert Robinson came of honest and respectable parents, in the year 1735, by whom he was

carefully brought up in the tenets of the Church of England. In a grammar-school at Scarning, which could boast of Lord Thurlow as an old pupil, he gained a considerable knowledge of the French, ast well as of the classical languages;' from which pursuits his mother, now a widow in reduced circumstances, was obliged to remove him at fourteen, and to 'apprentice him in Crutched Friars to a hair-dresser.' 'Although,' says his biographer, 'he appears to have been tolerably industrious at his trade, yet his love of literature shortly convinced his master that hair-dressing, shaving, and wig-making were not his forte." His pockets were generally full of old books, and like a lad who had determined to make something of himself, he was usually at his books by four or five in the morning. In after life, in one of his morning exercises, he speaks terribly of early rising-lying in bed after daylight ought to be thought a cruel punishment; let us habituate all our children and servants to consider lying in bed after that time as one of the ills of the aged and the sick, and not as an enjoyment to people in a state of perfect health.' In fact, early rising was a necessity of his nature, not of ours; he inherited it from his mother, who lived till eighty, and always rose at four. In their preachments about early rising, we do not remember to have been told what time matutinal disturbers may go to bed. As Charles Lamb says in his commentary on the old saw, 'That we should lie down with the lamb; we could never quite understand the philosophy of this arrangement, or the wisdom of our ancestors, in sending us for instruction to these woolly bedfellows. A sheep, when it is dark, has nothing to do but to shut his silly eyes, and sleep if he can. Man found out long sixes; and, since Elia's time, gas! This weakness of early rising, however, was almost the only mental failing of Robinson.

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In London the young hair-dresser heard Dr. Guise, and Dr. Gill, and sour old Romaine, and rousing, godly Whitefield, besides other metropolitan pulpit celebrities; the latter worthy he called his spiritual father,' and identified himself with his church. At twenty years of age he became a preacher among the Methodists, and preached his first sermon at Middenhall, in Suffolk.' He continued with the Methodists for two years. During this period he had an opportunity of manifesting that stern attachment to principle which afterwards was so characteristic a feature of his life. A rich relation who had promised to provide liberally for him, and who had bequeathed him a considerable sum in his will, threatened to deprive him of every advantage which he had been encouraged to expect, unless he quitted his connexion with the Dissenters; but the rights of conscience, and the approbation of God, were superior to every worldly consideration;' and thus, honest fellow, he began life a poor man.

Very soon he became an 'Antipædobaptist,' a long word, and as ugly as it is long; and from Norwich he removed to preach to a small congregation of Baptists at Cambridge.' He was now a married man; passing rich with a hundred pounds he had received with his wife,' and with such starveling salaries as were eked out to him. For

the first half-year they paid him '37. 12s. 5d.;' 'but he was a boy, and the love of his flock was a million to him.' In the course of a few years the dear, good, devoted Christians that expected from him two sermons on the Sunday, sometimes three, and three services in the week, did manage to give him about 907. a-year. They were a set of hard taskmasters, and had acquired a bad character,' a circumstance Robert Hall forgot when he spoke vehemently severely upon Mr. Robinson for leaving his church a wilderness, and bequeathing his successor a bed of thorns.'

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However, he was very happy in his work and in his studies; and he was a close student. Of his work, he says with the humour whose utterances were never few nor far between, 'My Master, Jesus Christ, has employed me to serve about forty shops in the country, besides my own parish.' Although a thorough Dissenter, he had not a particle of bigotry about him; and in fact, thorough Dissenters and thorough Churchmen are, on the whole, the most catholic. Concerning his 'evangelical High-church brethren,' he often said, 'Such an one will do little good; he has too much of the steeple in his belly.' In June, 1773, we find Mr. Robinson living at Chesterton, pleasant village by the river side, two miles from Cambridge. With him were living his wife, nine children, and an aged mother. Here he engaged in various secular concerns, to enable him to live honestly and honourably. He made several purchases of copyhold houses and lands, and was much employed in alterations and improvements. He hired the ferry adjoining his house, and would frequently employ himself in ferrying passengers across the river; he was also a considerable dealer in coals and corn.' In these pursuits he was very successful, and acquired considerable material for comfort, and much scandal from his brethren, concerning whom he quietly said, Godly boobies, too idle many of them to work, too ignorant to give instruction, and too conceited to study, spending their time in tattling and mischief; are these the men to direct my conduct or to censure my industry?'

On this subject Robinson held very strong and ultra notions; we by no means endorse all his opinions. On him necessity was laid to do something besides depend on his miserable salary; and hence he speaks strongly on the subject. Hear how he writes in 1785 about 'ministers of our churches addressing themselves to honest employments:''I feel three pounds gained honestly by the sale of a fat bullock produce more fire in my spirit than all the pretty but poor spangles can give me. With three pounds I can set fire to ten cold hearts frozen with infirmity and widowhood, poverty and fear. Half a guinea will purchase the native eloquence of a grateful old woman ; and she, if I set her to read, will give me a criticism of the heart, and the finest reading in the world. Oh! bless the old soul, what honied accents she pours into my ear! If I can honestly get and afford to give away three pounds, it will always be my own fault if I be not very happy. Now, then, set me to preach. How is it possible I should be dull! The luxury of living to the glory of God and the

good of society; the joy of having saved a forlorn and forgotten cripple from hanging herself in despair; the felicity of setting fire that burns to the glory of God, these are preparations of the pulpit which the cold consumer of midnight oil never derives from his accents and quantities. I was the other night in our vestry with several gownsmen just before the lecture. In comes one of my sister Abigails. "How d'ye do, Sarah? I am glad to see you returned safe from visiting your family at Soham." "Bless the Lord, sir, I am. We heard Mr. Watts on the Lord's day, and were very much edified indeed; but the day after we were coming out of town, my husband saw him, and, poor creature, he was so shocked; oh, sir!" Thunderstruck at all this, I trembled, expecting to hear before the gown that my poor brother Watts was seen drunk, or some such thing. Lord, thought I, happy is that man who hath not a foolish, babbling, good woman in his congregation. I looked pale. Sarah went on- "Oh, sir, there was the poor man on the top of a ladder a thatching a rick!" I laughed, but stamped, and said, "Have I bestowed so much instruction upon you and your husband for nothing? Are you yet in a state of infancy? I honour the man, and must be acquainted with him." "Dear sir, he works five days, and has only Saturday to study." "Well, Sarah, I shall try to convince him that he ought to work six days; for one day will never make him a scholar, and his people are only a set of turf-diggers, and fourteen pence more in his pocket every Lord's day will make him preach with more vigour, and rattle the gospel with more power into the turfmen's souls.""

We return, however, to the outline of his life. Engaged, as he was, in his secular pursuits, his mind was anything but bucolic. Rising at three in the summer, and we forget at what dark hour in winter, he pursued the life of a most laborious student. In 1775 he published, at the request of Dr. Stennett and others, a learned tractate on Marrying a deceased Wife's Sister.' In this treatise he discusses the question from an ecclesiastical and a civil stand-point, and arrives at the following conclusion, which we quote not only as illustrative of our own views, or as a contribution towards the adjustment of a vexed question, but as a demonstration of the clearthoughtedness of Robinson on a subject at that period scarcely agitated, or if agitated, denounced as impious, &c.:- We conclude, then, that it is right for a man to marry the sister of his deceased wife, and that in England it is lawful to do so; because whatever the legislators might intend, they have not sufficiently declared for it, or provided against it. But as the popular notion runs against the right, and as the courts of law might not protect the subject in this legal claim, and as a man may not be entirely safe who married the sister of his deceased wife, it is highly prudent for him to use all constitutional means of obtaining a declaratory law.

In the same year he published a translation from the French of the sermons of Saurin; in 1776, A Lecture on a Becoming Behaviour in Religious Assemblies,' to which we shall presently refer; quickly followed by a Plea for the Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ;' in 1777