expensive war, that the money was wanted for better purposes, and he did not see the least occasion for a college in Virginia. Blair represented to him that its intention was to educate and qualify young men to be ministers in the gospel, much wanted there, and begged Mr. Attorney would consider; that the people of Virginia had souls to be saved as well as the people of England. 'Souls!' said he, ' damn your souls! Make tobacco!'-I have the honour to be, gentlemen, etc., Obligation of Clergy to Nonconformist Pastors. CHAPTER XVIII. THE evangelical clergy of the Clapham fellowship were greatly indebted to Nonconformist pastors for tending their people, when severed from Evangelical them by removal to parishes in which the doctrines cordially believed by them were held in utter contempt. At the onset, the evangelizing party in the Church of England were few in number, and widely separated. Henry Venn* tells us that when he began his course, he only knew of Truro and Bradford as places where the gospel was preached by them in large towns. William Romaine could only reckon up as many as six or seven who were likeminded with himself. The converts of Venn in Huddersfield, on his transfer to Yelling, were left as sheep without a shepherd; and, after wandering in different directions, Moorhouse. were sheltered at length under the care of WILLIAM MOORHOUSE, for whom they built a chapel. Venn wrote to them, January 3, 1772 Venn and "Your meeting is built upon principles truly Christian. It is your high value for the sum and substance of the Christian faith, as it hath been taught you by us, and the efficacy of which you experienced, which led you to separate from the parish church, the beloved place of your stated worship." Memoirs of Venn, p. 203. + Ibid., Pref., p. xiv. In a letter to Moorhouse, dated September 26, 1772, he writes :— "God's Name be praised that your Church is in a flourishing condition. It has my daily prayers. I shall be glad to hear from you as my successor to a people whom I shall always love, and hope to meet in glory." So concerned was Venn for the "furtherance of the gospel," though by ministers not ordained by a diocesan bishop, that, at the instance of James Kershaw, one of his most attached friends, he collected £170 in London toward the cost of erecting Square Chapel, in Halifax, for TITUS KNIGHT, one of the Methodist converts, who became an Independent minister. Some of the preachers in the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion, declining episcopal ordination, also cast in their lot with Congregationalists. JOHN CLAYTON and EDWARD and Edward PARSONS were of this number. The former Parsons. became pastor at the Weigh House, London; and the latter, after preaching in several other places, received an invitation from the Church at White Chapel, Leeds, as the successor of Edwards. John Clayton Harmer, in one of his freely-written letters, says (Wakefield, February 26, 1779): "I am obliged to you for your account of Mr. Clayton. I did not know before where the Countess of Huntingdon educated her young gentlemen since the dismission of the six students from Oxford, which made so much noise some time ago. All, if I do not misremember, were connected with her ladyship. Mr. Clayton preached, I think, several times at the Countess's place of worship at Norwich, and was very well known and esteemed there. Upon the whole, the Weigh House seems to have undergone a considerable transformation since the time I was a pupil, when Mr. Wood preached there. Popularity in London seems to be an unaccountable kind of thing; and should you, dear Tommy, ever come into the ministry, approve yourself faithful to God and His truth, to the best of your understanding, in the first place; and, next, adopt every method you see practised, that tends to strike the human mind, which is not inconsistent with the solemnity that becomes a minister of the gospel of Christ, committing yourself in all things to His blessing, without which a Paul would plant and Apollos labour in vain, and doing this, calmly leave the event with God." * For the reasons already stated, the evangelical clergy had no means of training pious young men for the ministry, who might succeed them in their work. "Look at the state of the Universities," says Basil Woodd, "and the difficulty of good men getting orders. Hence, the people must starve or go away. Godly men must be silent. A godly minister, in contemplation of his own death, must advise his people to go." + Newton and Pagnell, At the instance of Clayton, a "plan of academical preparation for the ministry" was sketched by Newton; and it was resolved to establish Newport a new academy on liberal grounds, in which "the greatest stress might be laid upon truth, life, spirituality, and the least stress upon modes, forms, and non-essentials," "to unite and coalesce the respectable Dissenters and Methodists who seem willing to promote the business." A "society" was formed for this purpose, and the academy at Newport Pagnell, under the care of WILLIAM BULL, commenced with two students in June, 1783. William For a time, Bull was encouraged in his work by Newton and his friends; but the requisite funds not * Dr. Angus' MSS. + Pratt's Eclectic Notes, p. 45. being furnished by the " society," Mr. Thornton generously provided the means for continuing the academy during the lifetime of the first tutor. Under these circumstances, Newton lost his power as a director, and his interest in the object ceased. The Clapham party were disappointed. The interim academy had been projected for a twofold purpose the education of students of a subdued type of Nonconformity, and the partial training of others who might find a "living" within the pale of the Establishment. But livings were not easily obtained. "I lament," Bull says, "that I cannot get a title for poor Sparks. He preached an excellent sermon last Saturday, and I have ordered him to translate and preach it again in Latin next Saturday. Thomas Bull has just got a title for priest's orders from his crusty rector, who refused it but lately." Cornelius William Jay. CORNELIUS WINTER, a Congregational minister (who had been intimately associated with Whitefield), supported by Mr. Thornton and Mr. Welch, began to receive young men in his own Winter and house, to be trained for ministerial work. WILLIAM JAY, the son of a stonemason, was one of his first students. In his autobiography, he tells us that his father attended the ministry of a "Clarkean” Arian at Tisbury, but Mr. Turner purchased in the village a private dwelling-house, and obtained a licence for it to be used for worship. "I attended," he says, "the singing, the extemporaneousness of the address, and the apparent affection and earnestness of the speaker, peculiarly affected me; and what he said of the faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners,' was like rain upon the mown grass, or cold water to a thirsty soul. I scarcely slept that night |