It has been already stated that there was a society within the congregation at Parliament Court known by the name of the Church. In this society a spirit of free inquiry was encouraged, and no one appeared more ready to abandon an error or embrace a truth than Mr. Vidler himself. He observed with peculiar pleasure the promise of talents in the younger members, and delighted in bringing them forward as speakers. The aspiring and ungovernable temper of one or two individuals, however, hindered the good effects of Christian fellowship, and occasioned distractions in the Church, which continued even after their own secession with the small party which they had contrived to raise. By these Mr. Vidler was much harrassed and impeded in his usefuluess for years, till at length he and the congregation were compelled for self-preservation to resolve that there should be no other Church than the congregation, that the Lord's supper should be open to all, and that the New Testament, interpreted by every one for himself, should be the only rule of Christian communion.

For some time the congregation flourished in spite of the factions of the Church, and would in all probability have continued to flourish more and more, had not the enlargement of Mr. Vidler's mind and the proportionate diminution of his creed alarmed the greater part of the members, including some of his best friends, and raised even in this heretical society the cry of heresy against their minister. At first he held with the universal doctrine the tenets which are generally accounted evangelical, such as the Trinity, atonement, hereditary depravity and the special agency of the Holy Spirit: but he had already convicted

to customers, however casual or however inconsiderable their purchases. As a proof of this it may be mentioned that on one occasion Mr. Maurice, of the British Museum, passing Mr. Vidler's door in a coach, and observing stationery advertised, calfed to buy a sheet of paper to tie up some old books; when the readiness and evident pleasure with which Mr. Vidler served and assisted him, so impressed this gentleman that he became a good customer and presented the first volume of his "Indian Antiquities," then just published, to Mr. Vidler's eldest son, and continued afterwards to send the remaining volumes as they appeared..

himself of too much error to hold these or any other principles by a blind, implicit faith. He had invited discussions in his own Magazine which urged his mind forward in the path of inquiry. He commenced in that work, a controversy in which he maintained the Deity of Jesus Christ, but soon dropped it, apparently convinced that he had undertaken a task beyond his powers, and that this was a subject on which it behoved him rather to inquire than to decide. He gave up neither this nor any other article of his creed with rashness, for his maxim was never to surrender an opinion which he could possibly hold: but from the moment at least of his becoming an Universalist, he entertained a strong dislike of theological dogmatism and presumption, and an increasing disposition in favour of free inquiry and religious liberty. He accounted human creeds, his own as well as others', nothing, and held that every opinion and every system, however ancient or popular, or with whatever awe it was regarded, must be brought to the test of Scripture, and that Scripture can be interpreted only by the understanding of every individual Christian.

His views and habits in these respects are well described and illustrated to the writer's hand by Mr. Teulon, who was one of his earliest acquaintances in London, who for years went with him side by side in his religious progress, and, who having for a short period, under a misconception, withdrawn his religious intimacy, is now anxious in the true spirit of Christian frankness and magnanimity to bear his testimony to the virtues of his deceased friend. Truth," he says, "made no hasty impression on his mind; as far as I observed it was extremely gradual, but when it entered, it took full possession. I remember this on the subject of faith: in a discourse he publicly declared that it was the gift of God, and that a man who had not the true faith could no more convert another to the faith, than any other than a human being could be the parent of a human offspring. After this discourse, at supper on the Sunday evening, I referred him to his words, and asked him if it was not grace that was the gift of God and not faith, and if the apostle would have rejoiced at the gospel being proclaimed out of strife and contention, if he had not known that though pro

claimed from the worst of motives, it was itself the meaus, and only means, of transforming man into the image of God. He fell into a study, then took his hat and walked out, and on the next Sunday morning published in his sermon his changed sentiment. "Whilst he believed in the doctrine of the Trinity, he brought me one step towards Unitarianism. We were conversing on the Trinity. He asked me for my strongest arguments in its fayour: we discussed and be overturned several. I at last, as any only resort, brought forward the Hutchinsonian system of fire, light and air. Brother,' le replied, must you and I build our theology on human philosophy?' Many months after this we had at the Conference, Phil. ii. 6,7, Who being in the form of God, &c.'; several explained the passage in various ways, but chiefly on the Arian and Unitarian systems: he began to sum up and reply to the evidence with observing, that he might say with the Prophet, I have nourished and brought up children and even they have rebelled against me, and then went on replying to the arguments in the spirit of love, thanking God that he lived to see the day that so many speakers could deliver their sentiments without uttering an unkind word or reflection on each other.

"No man ever did so much in a church or society to encourage freedom of thought and speech as he did at Parliament Court; and every liberal idea that the members of that church held was derived from him: their enlightened thoughts were his; their unfounded jealousies, their criminating language and their domineering tempers were derived from their own heads and the Corresponding Society. Not that he was at all times gentle; for if he saw any one, though his dearest friend, infringe his right of judgment, or if he did but suspect it, he towered over him in the majesty of insulted indignation, and poured upon him a thunder-storm."

In asserting Christian liberty, Mr. Vidler hazarded nothing with his flock, who had been obliged to learn this doctrine before they could become Universalists, and who were obliged to hold it up constantly in self-defence but he felt that he had the painful duty to discharge of exercising his understanding on topics which had hitherto engaged only his affections,

and which the greater part of his religious associates considered highly dangerous. The exercises of his mind were now serious and trying. He examined and re-examined his faith, and in every stage of the process found that he had lost some of the arguments for the popular opinions on which hẻ had most securely rested. Though not terrified, he was completely humbled. In his last illness he assured the writer that no language could describe the self-distrust which he felt when he perceived that his whole religious system was unscriptural. He seemed to himself to know nothing: preaching Was an insupportable burden: he would have cheerfully embraced any situation, however low or laborious that he could have procured, which would both have furnished bread for

his table and have allowed him to fill the place of a Christian learner. His post, however, was assigned him; he was obliged to appear before the public as a teacher; but as he could not dis semble his opinions or feelings his sermons consisted of doubts and inquiries; and his preaching, though unsatisfactory to many of his hearers and painful to himself, was at once the instrument and the record of his religious improvement. He had become an Unitarian before he had lost his aversion to Unitarians, whom he had always been taught and accustomed to regard as a mere philosophical sect, destitute of the simplicity, piety and zeal that characterize the true disciples of Christ. He knew none indeed of that denomination, and whilst his inquiries forced him into an acquaintance with their writings, he perused them with great caution and with a secret resolution that whatever conviction they might produce upon his understanding they should not alter his religious character, which he flattered himself was of a superior cast to that of these authors. As his familiarity with Unitarian books increased, he was surprized to find in them, contrary to the popular reproach and to his own expectation, a marked deference to the authority of Holy Scripture, and a system of biblical interpretation which was built upon a thorough and critical knowledge of the sacred volume, and which approved itself to all the maxims of common sense and all the principles of true learning. No less was his astonishment to perceive

He

that the authors of these decried books, whilst they preserved themselves from the theological jargon of the schools and the degrading folly of the times, set the highest value upon Christian wisdom, and recommended their scheme of truth as the means of more exalted piety and purer virtue. was now ready to accuse his own prejudice which had so long blinded him to these treasures of Christian excellence. He saw that if some Unitarians had been philosophers, they had not been worse but better Christians on that account. His mind underwent, in short, a complete conversion; he began to breathe a different air, and to live a new spiritual life; nor had he any higher ambition than to follow Lardner, Priestley and Lindsey, in their imitation of the one common master, Jesus Christ.

To a mere student in the closet, such a change as this would have been of the highest importance: in his own case Mr. Vidler foresaw that it would be productive of fearful consequences. His heresy on one point of faith had raised against him a tumult which it required all his strength of mind and all his faith to become able to disregard; what might he not expect when he should abandon all the tenets on which the prejudices of the religious world are fastened and on which their passions feed and invigorate themselves! His congregation which had experienced some vicissitudes was now in a high state of prosperity, and the growing number and affection and ability of the members might justly embolden him to rely upon an increasing provision for the decline of life; but his avowal of what was called "Socinianism" would inevitably divide and perhaps disperse the society, and deprive him of all opportunity of acting in the character of a Christian teacher. The universal doctrine was likewise spreading through. out the kingdom, and he was looked up to as the head of the rising sect; but all his influence would be in a moment annihilated by his abandon ment of reputed orthodoxy, on the reception of which in its more essential principles the Universalists, no less than others, placed the salvation of the soul. Some of his most devoted friends, too, on whose liberality he mainly relied in the present state of his worldly circumstances, were pecu

liarly zealous Trinitarians, and these he should estrange for ever by the profession of the Unitarian doctrine, without the possibility, at his time of life, of gaining other friends to take their places.

Such were Mr. Vidler's prospects on becoming an Unitarian. Had he been worldly-minded, or careless of religion, or hypocritical, they would have checked him in the course of inquiry and induced him to veil his doubts and to hide his convictions under a mysterious phraseology, which has in so many cases kept up the appearance of "orthodoxy" when the reality has long vanished. But his make of mind and heart would allow him neither to deceive nor to be des ceived. He looked about carefully and patiently for the path of duty, and when he had found it, no consideration could turn him aside: converting his resolution into prayer, his language, familiar to the ears of his religious friends, was, Take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth; for I have hoped in thy judg ments: so shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth me, for I trust in thy word: so shall I keep thy law continually for ever and ever: And I will walk at liberty, for I seck thy precepts.

The first sermon in which Mr. Vidler explicitly renounced the doctrine of the Trinity proved that his apprehensions of the consequences were too well-founded. Great alarm was instantly excited and many of his oldest and most opulent friends dis solved their connection with the con gregation. Their secession weakened the bond of union, and the divisions which prevailed amongst the members who remained in communion at Parliament Court deadened the zeal of the society and it appeared fast sinking into decay. The salary which Mr. Vidler received during the last year that he preached the Trinitarian doctrine was not less than £250 his annual stipend dwindled soon after his change of opinions to £30, and at this low point it continued for. many years. This alteration in his circumstances deprived him of many comforts and of the means of usefulness, and necessarily threw him into a state of irksome dependance upon his private friends; but it did not quench his thirst after truth, much less destroy

his spitit of independence. He con. tinued to inquire and to study and to communicate the result of his investigation to his people; often indeed doubtful of the result, but always relying upon Divine Providence, and determined never to relinquish his post while he could find the means of subsistence, and a sufficient number of hearers could be preserved to defray the expences of the chapel.

His total change of creed rendered his past pulpit studies in great mea. sure useless; he had almost every thing to unlearn as well as to learn; his old phraseology adopted from the Calvinists clashed with his newly formed faith and with the Scriptures: his public duties were on these accounts more laborious, but his preparations for them at home were proportionably diligent, and thus happily his mind was relieved from the burden of thoughts, more anxious and less improving.

For a long time, Mr. Vidler felt himself a stranger in the new connection into which he had entered. At the period when he made the avowal of his Unitarianism, which was about the year 1802, there were few societies of persons professing that doctrine established for its promiotion, and none which could call into action the services of a popular preacher and compensate by their support for the loss of other connections. To some Unitarians it was even matter of doubt whether their system could yet he laid before the people with any chance of success. An extempore preacher was scarcely known in the denomination and was not likely to be generally welcomed. The Presbyterian stiffness bound up the body and rendered it averse to all zealous exertion. Mr. Vidler had therefore exchanged systems rather than parties: he found that the party was still to arise with which he could co-operate. Some respectable and leading individuals amongst the Unitarians, it is true, gave him countenance and support, but he received patronage rather than fellowship, and the feeling upon his own mind which he strongly expressed a little before he died was that he was tolerated amongst his new friends, but not estimated according to his measure of públic talents and his capacity of usefulness. The feeling in this case

arose, as the event shews, from no extravagant, self-valuation or mortified ambition, but solely from his ardent wish to serve the cause of truth, and his anxiety to devote to it those powers which he had throughout the whole of an active life employed in the promotion of error.

About the time of his becoming an Unitarian, his church applied for admission into the Assembly of the General Baptists. The application was strenuously resisted by the inore

orthodox" part of that denomination, on the ground of the church professing the universal doctrine. The case was referred to all the churches in connection, and the majority of votes was in favour of the admission. On this decision, the minority with drew from the assembly and formed a distinct association. Mr. Vidler was then and probably continued to the close of his life a decided Baptist; thongh he evidently saw in the end that there were more difficulties than he had once been willing to acknow ledge, attending the question of the perpetuity of baptism.

Desirous of making every effort for the promotion of his opinions, which had cost him so much and were valuable to him in proportion to their cost, he instituted in the spring of the year 1801, a Thursday Evening Lec ture, at the chapel in Leather Lane, Holborn, assisted by the subscriptions of a few friends who had formed themselves into an " Unitarian Evangelical Society." But the attempt was not sufficiently successful to justify its renewal.

In the year 1806, Mr. Vidler's parental feelings were severely tried by the loss of his second daughter, in the eighteenth year of her age, who was justly endeared to her parents and family by her virtues, and whose mental endowments gave a promise of much respectability and usefulness! Her father displayed on this, as on other similar occasions, the strength of his mind and that entire command of his feelings which was a peculiar feature of his character, by officiating at her interment in Bunhill Fields, and afterwards preaching a funeral sermon for her in his own pulpit.

The establishment of the Unitarian Fund in 1806 was an event most glad dening to Mr. Vidler's heart. He assisted in the institution of the society!

and was mainly instrumental to its first successes. In promoting the ob. jeet he was willing to be or to do whatever was proposed. He under took many journeys as a missionary, and his services in this capacity will long be remembered with gratitude and delight. From the moment of the formation of the society he pronounced that a new era had arisen amongst the Unitarians, and he always confidently predicted that Divine Providence would smile upon it, and bless it and make it a blessing.

On quitting business in 1804, Mr. Vidler had retired to the rural village of West Ham, where he occupied apartments in the house of a widowed sister, whose affection and kindness contributed essentially to his comfort. In one of the rooms of this house he carried on for several winters an evening lecture which was well attended. He resided at West Ham until his Just illness.

In the latter end of the year 1808 Mr. Vidler experienced a new and severe bereavement in the death of his wife, in the 56th year of her age, to whom he had been married twentyeight years. This was the only death in his family that affected his feelings too much to allow him to perform the customary funeral rites. On this occasion he solicited the services of Mr. John Evans. When Mrs. Vidler was seized with her mortal illness, he was absent in Cambridgeshire on a missionary journey. Being summoned back or a letter, he set out from Wisbeach in a postchaise on his returu, after dark, and was unhappily overturned down a steep bank: he received a severe shock in the fall, from which he never completely recovered.

After being for a long time in a languishing state, the congregation at Parliament Court revived; some that had left the chapel returned, several Unitarian families in the neighbourhood connected with other congregations contributed to the evening Tectures, and many strangers were attracted to the place and led to settle nit as habitual worshippers by Mr. Vidter's able preaching. The last few years of his public life were the hap

His Letters to the Secretary of the Unitarian Fund, written on these journeys, from Reading and other places, may herewter see the light.

piest that he had known since he left Battle, and in one respect happier than any he had ever experienced, for his creed was not now at variance with his understanding or his feelings. He saw around him a society united in its views of truth and zealous for the cause which was near his heart. Hie could rely upon the co-operation of his neighbouring brethren in the mis nistry, between whom and himself there was a cordial sympathy. And he was supported in alt his plans for the success of the congregation by several affectionate and liberal friends, who fulfilled his wishes from the joint motives of affection for him and regard to the interests of truth. If there be any thing to regret with regard to this period of Mr. Vidler's connection with the congregation, it is that the members generally were not sufficiently alive to the temporal interests of their minister, but allowed him to stand in need of the more private assistance of some individuals amongst them, which in addition to his salary would have proved inadequate to his wants in a state of declining health, if his wants had not been anticipated by a few members of his family, whose kindness was measured by their affection and not by their opulence. On this subject, Mr. Vidler himself uttered no complaint; but his patience and disinterestedness onght not to impose silence upon his biographer, who writes for the benefit of survivors.

Mr. Vidler's great and increasing corpulency had for a considerable period indicated disease. It caused him great personal inconvenience, and in the winter and spring seasons he suffered extremely under an asthma. To reduce his bulk he denied himself the sustenance which nature demanded, and took laborious exercise in working

+ Ilis constitution at different periods ran into opposite extremes. When he and spare habit of body, and so weakly as to be constrained to preach sitting. He had the usual symptoms of consumption; of which, however, he was cured, Mr. Tealon says, by smoking tobacco, in order.

first settled in London he was of a lean

to promote expectoration, on the recom

mendation of a French minister who said that he himself and his predecessor in the ministry had both been cured of the same disorder by this practice. When Mr. Vidler had effected his cure, he laid aside the pipe, and substituted the suufi-box.