reproduced with scarcely a verbal variation from the
original.

At this date a principal member at Pinners' Hall
was Viscount Barrington, whose eminent station and
ability enabled him to exercise an extensive influence
among Nonconformists. His lordship had already
attained to some celebrity by writing in defence of the

* A parody on this poem soon afterwards appeared, and
the author portrayed Dr. Hunt in less brilliant, though
possibly truer colours, e.g. :

" The busy Hunt, with little skill,
Takes mighty pains to extol his own freewill ;
So dull his meaning, and his action too,
He really pleases but a very few."



PINNERS' HALL. *7l

principles professed by himself and by his brethren.
Dr. Fleming communicated to the editors of the
Biographia Britannica some particulars of the
friendship which existed between Dr. Hunt, Lord
Barrington, and the freethinker, Anthony Collins.
At the Viscount's seat in Essex these friends were
wont to meet ; and they made a point of gratifying
their critical taste by introducing a Greek Testament
with the dessert. One day Collins so far committed
himself as to express some admiration of the charac-
ter of St. Paul. While in a magnanimous mood,
the infidel admitted that the Apostle was at the least
" a man of sense and a gentleman." Collins further
confessed that, he would have believed in miracles
had Paul himself laid claim to miraculous power.
An immediate reference to such a circumstance
having occurred in the apostle's life, confounded
the unwary deist, and he soon after withdrew from
the company.*

The eminent orator James Foster next succeeded
at Pinners' Hall, and continued to occupy the pulpit
till his death in 1753. Being a native of Exeter he
was educated in that city ; and his first tutor at the
Grammar School became so delighted with the genius
and learning of his protegti, that he openly boasted
of him about the town. Foster continued his studies
in a Nonconformist academy at Exeter, where his

* Lardner's Sermon on the Death of Dr. Hunt ; Biographia
Britannica ; Gentleman's Magazine, vol. vi. ; History of the
Dissenting Churches.



72 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.

abilities and kindly nature exalted him into high
favour. He won the friendship of Dr. Conybeare,
Bishop of Bristol, and conscience alone, it would
seem, debarred young Foster from taking a foremost
position in the Established Church. His public
ministry began in 1718, in the midst of that con-
troversy respecting subscription to theological doc-
trines which, arising in the West, reached a climax
of violence at Salters' Hall in the following spring.
Unfortunately for his good influence and reputation,
Foster imbibed the sentiments of Pierce, who origi-
nated the dispute, and was thus never popular in the
western counties. He wandered from place to place
without affording his hearers any satisfaction ; at
one time the eloquent preacher, with a yearly stipend
of fifteen pounds, simultaneously ministered to two
congregations in the neighbourhood of the Mendip
Hills. So unacceptable indeed were Foster's earlier
endeavours, that to relinquish his profession in favour
of trade appeared a manifest duty; and he only
escaped the glove craft by accepting a chaplaincy in
a gentleman's family. This change of fortune was
shortly succeeded by a call to London, whither he
removed, and settled in Barbican with Jeremiah
Burroughs ; thence, on the death of Dr. Hunt, he
removed to Pinners' Hall. After settling there,
Foster's great abilities were appreciated to a degree
beyond the most sanguine anticipation.

Foster possessed every attribute requisite for at-
taining popularity. He was a correct scholar, and a



PINNERS' HALL. 73

good critic ; lie inherited large stores of miscellaneous
knowledge, all available at command. He possessed
a voice of great compass, which he controlled with con-
summate art ; and this contributed in no small degree
to the successful working of his other powers. His
elocution was admired by the best judges, including
Johnson; and although surpassed in pronunciation
by Watts, the most fastidious were never offended by
his delivery. Whether in their lowest key, or other-
wise in the peroration, his tones rang clearly through-
out the building. One thing effected by these ac-
complishments was the attraction of large numbers
of women to the chapel a crowning triumph of
genius ; so at least thought Foster's contemporaries.
In 1746 Foster frequently visited Lord Kil-
marnock during that nobleman's confinement in the
Tower previously to his execution the penalty he
paid for having actively shared in the rising for the
Young Pretender. While admitting his treason, the
prisoner confessed that his crimes had been occa-
sioned by the demands of extravagant and dissolute
habits. Hope of retrieving his decayed fortunes, he
said, allured him into joining the desperate adven-
ture for Charles Edward. Foster drew up an ac-
count of the imprisonment and death of Kilmarnock,
but was so lastingly affected by the Earl's untimely
fate, that, till the close of life, the dark impression
never could be effaced from his kindly nature.

Many eulogies on the oratorical powers of Foster
are still extant, having mostly appeared in the



74 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.

Gentleman's Magazine. His popularity surpassed that
of all contemporary Nonconformists, and therefore,
at various times, Sylvanus Urban contributed some
fitting mites to the common flattery, e.g. :

' ' But see the accomplished orator appear,
Refined his language, and his reason clear ;
Thou, Foster, only hast the pleasing art
At once to charm the ear and mend the heart."

' ' In him (great modern miracle) we see
A priest from avarice and ambition free ;
Thee, honest Dissenters, we with pride may own
Our Tillotson, and Rome her Fenelon."

" Truth stands by thee displayed to mortal sight
In naked majesty supremely bright ;
While from thy arm her darts unerring fly,
And folly, vice, and superstition die."

One section of the press depreciated the doctor's
work and character. In the Weekly Miscellany of
June the 7th, 1735, he is depicted as a "teacher of
false doctrine ; a spreader of sentiments injurious to
Scripture and the cause of Christianity."

Foster's contemporaries accounted for his popu-
larity by tracing its origin to an eminent physician,
who, on being driven by stress of weather into Pin-
ners' Hall, was favourably impressed by the preacher's
powers, and in consequence made him a subject of
eulogy throughout his connexion. This absurd
accounting for success gained sufficient currency to
be widely credited. If we accept it as truth, how



PLSTNEHS' HALL. 75-

happily has England changed ! Preachers of to-day
may be congratulated, since modern intelligence so
quickly appreciates merit. The necessity for Dissent
to seek constituents in Belgravia, or in any way to
be beholden to the good offices of a fashionable
physician, has completely passed away.

Considering the religious apathy of the period,
Foster's fame appears to have been somewhat singu-
lar, if not unparalleled. The then unusual number
of two thousand persons subscribed for his work on
Natural Eeligion ; and but for this success such
was the author's liberality he would have died in
poverty. Among the number of Foster's eminent
admirers appears the name of Alexander Pope, who
seems to have been an occasional hearer. In his-
Epilogue to the Satires, the poet has bequeathed
us a graceful tribute to the preacher's power :

" Let modest Foster, if lie wi.ll> excel
Ten Metropolitans in preaching well."

Such praise awakened the ire of the High Church
party. The principles of that party made it appear
too extraordinary to be probable, or even possible,
that a dissenting teacher, in an old room originally
dedicated to pins and needles, should show talents
then vainly sought among George the Second's
bishops. Anglican spleen was fittingly expressed
by Warburton's sneering note on the above couplet,
which, as an insult to taste and sense, is scarcely
worthy of quotation.



76 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.

Other celebrated hearers, however, besides Pope,
crowded to the feet of Dr. Foster. During his
Sabbath-evening lectureship at the Old Jewry, the
attractive force of his eloquence drew to the chapel
the wits, the courtiers, clergymen, and freethinkers
of the town. Whiston, the translator of Josephus,
on seceding from the Establishment, became Foster's
-disciple. Nevertheless, there were certain observers
who dared to speak the reverse of compliment
e.y.:

" But see the bold Socinian now appear,
Full fraught with, pride, but void of fear ;
For Foster truly has the running art
To please the ear, but leaves one in the dark."

Such having been the character of Dr. Foster, it
need occasion no regret that his influence has not
been lasting. Let us rather grieve that one who to
great intellectual powers added other endearing
qualities, yet forsook the light oi the Cross and
the teachings of Paul for the lifeless dogmas of
'Socinus.*

The last pastor of the old Independent church,
Pinners' Hall, was Caleb Fleming, a native of Not-
tingham, and born at the end of the seventeenth
century. He received his early education in the
neighbourhood of his home, but had no intention

* Funeral Sermons for Dr. Foster by Caleb Fleming and
Charles Bulkley ; Protestant Dissenters' Magazine ; Gentle-
man's Magazine, vols. v. and xxiii. ; History of the Dissent-
ing Churches.



PINNEES' HALL. 77

of following the course lie did till, on removing to
London, he extended his studies, and commenced
preaching. In 1738 he accepted the pastorate at
Bartholomew Close; and, while stationed there, he
occasionally assisted Dr. Foster, at whose death
Fleming and his people removed to Pinners' Hall.
There our divine laboured on until infirmities common
to age compelled his retirement. After the pastor's
decease, in 1778, the Society was dissolved. Fleming
and Lardner maintained a close friendship ; the two
having found great delight in corresponding on doc-
trinal and historical themes, although their homes in
Hoxton Square were only separated by a few paces.
Fleming was unfortunately a strong Socinian parti-
san ; and it is therefore well that his publications,
sixty in number, are now forgotten, being chiefly
met with in the remote nooks of our public libraries.
The doctor's extreme hostility to the orthodox faith
caused many even of his own party to shun his '
acquaintance ; yet ample proof remains that he ;
suffered in worldly matters for conscience sake.
His principles prompted him to abandon prospects
which opened before him of Church preferment. A (
portrait of Fleming will be found in Dr. Williams's
Library; but the features are not those of a man
who possessed a happy disposition.

Thus, the end of this church in Pinners' Hall
was not worthy of its opening promise. In tracing
the history of Nonconformity, it invariably follows
that, so far as churches have receded from those ,



73 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.

central truths of the Gospel Christ's divinity and
atonement so far has the power to accomplish their
mission diminished. It is not always easy to discover
when heresies in a given society first made their
appearance, or what the causes were which led to
the introduction of pastors of a lower theological
standard. The history of Pinners' Hall is the story
of a religious degeneracy hardly to be paralleled in
the annals of Dissent.*

/f I BI

* Palmer's Sermon on the Death of Dr. Fleming ; History
of the Dissenting Churches, &c.



r III.

CEOSBY HALL.

CROSBY HALL, as the finest remaining specimen of
the domestic architecture of old London, has seen
changes, humiliating and otherwise, since the days
in which it was forsaken by its lordly possessors
and the Nonconformists. By turn it has served as
a packing-shed and a wine-cellar. About seventy
years ago a tradesman of the former calling used it
for a workshop ; and posterity has witnessed how
pipes of claret and Sauterne can desecrate the time-
honoured pavement. The hall is now a dining esta-
blishment ; but as the premises have been offered for
sale, some reasonable fear may be entertained re-
specting this interesting relic, which, if permanently
secured, might properly be transformed into a library
and reading-room for the City of London.

Crosby Hall, as it now exists, is a portion of a
sumptuous mansion erected by Sir John Crosbie in
1470. The present room was known as Eichard
the Third's Chapel, that tyrant having once been
lodged there for a few nights, on which occasion



80 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.

some of his villanies were planned. Originally the
house was the most lofty of London private resi-
dences, and to the citizens of a ruder age it was
doubtless an object of prominent interest. The site
was bought of Alice Ashfield, the Prioress of Saint
Helen's. About five years only did Sir John Cros-
bie survive the completion of his mansion. Sub-
sequently the property passed out of his family.
Years later the house was inhabited by Sir Thomas
More. In Elizabeth's reign the apartments served
as a lodging for some foreign ambassadors, and occa-
sionally for a lord mayor. On the accession of
James the First, the French ambassador, with a
grand retinue, occupied the place, imparting to the
chambers a magnificence such as had seldom or
never been equalled within their walls. About
1640 it fell into the hands of Sir John Langham,
afterwards to be destroyed by a calamitous fire ; but
the Hall, escaping unscathed, was converted into a
meeting-house of the Presbyterian denomination.

Thus Crosby Hall was destined to become asso-
ciated with other and nobler objects. When, in
1672, Charles the Second proclaimed his Indulgence,
the premises were hired by Thomas Watson, the
ejected minister of St. Stephen's, Walbrook, who
gathered upon the spot a flourishing congregation.
Watson owed much to the patronage of Sir John
Langham, the owner of the property, for Sir John

(in those rough days was a staunch friend of Non-
conformists. As a pastor, Watson was laborious and



CROSBY HALL. 81

conscientious. Previously to the opening of Crosby
Hall he had habitually preached as opportunities
were afforded, either in private or otherwise. The
pastor's conscience was sufficiently tender, arid he
believed apparently in the divine right of kings, for
after siding with Charles, through the Civil Wars, he
brought trouble upon himself by mixing with cer-
tain conspirators who sought to anticipate the Re-
storation by bringing in the exiled heir. Watson,
was one among other divines whom Cromwell, on
account of this business, imprisoned in the Tower.
One of the number Christopher Love was exe-
cuted for traitorous practices ; and supposing so
terrible an example would act as a salutary warning,
the government released the remaining prisoners.
Watson enjoyed a good reputation for scholarship,
and was besides an able preacher. He indulged in
authorship to the great admiration of a wide circle
of readers. Many of his works were composed
during the period of enforced silence, and one of
them, Heaven Taken by Storm, was instrumental in
the conversion of Colonel Gardiner. He also com-
posed A Body of Divinity, the same being con-
tained in a folio of one hundred and seventy-six
sermons on the Assembly's Shorter Catechism.
He moreover possessed, even for Puritan times, an.
uncommon gift in prayer. At one service he had
for an auditor Bishop liichardson, who was agree-
ably surprised at the fervour and beauty with which
the pastor prayed. At the conclusion of the service

6



82 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.

the prelate followed Watson home for the double
purpose of expressing gratification and of begging a
copy of what he had heard. " Alas ! " exclaimed the
pastor, " that is what I cannot give ; for it was no
studied thing, but uttered as God enabled me from
the abundance of my heart and affection." The
bishop expressed great astonishment at finding a
man who could thus intercede with heaven without
a book.

Watson continued pastor at Crosby Hall until the
failing of his natural vigour compelled him to resign.
He spent life's closing years in rural retirement,
and lived to see the Revolution consummated, and
those principles of freedom in the ascendant for
which he had so greatly suffered. He died in his
study, while engaged in prayer, in 1689.

A more illustrious man associated with Crosby
Hall was Stephen Charnocke, whom the Christian
world agrees to honour as a luminous star in the
Puritan galaxy. The Charnockes were a family of
ancient and respectable standing in the county of
Lancaster. In the olden time one of their number
was distinguished by the Bobriguet of Eosicrucian
Charnocke, and during the sixteenth century this
singular character attained some celebrity as an
alchemist. He once determined on exploring Eng-
land in quest of that knowledge which he deemed
so indispensable to one of his absurd profession.
While accomplishing these studious peregrinations he
stayed for a season at Oxford, but soon after he settled



CROSBY HALL. 83

in Salisbury, where he allied himself to a celebrated
chemical investigator. A chemist or alchemist, as
he existed in the days of Elizabeth, was a being very
widely differing from any known species of the modern
pharmaceutist. He was a creature whom the vulgar
regarded with awe and the literate with curiosity.
He commonly passed his days and nights within the
precincts of two apartments. In one of his rooms
he hurriedly swallowed his food, and took, in restless
snatches, what little sleep his excited brain permitted
him to enjoy. In his working room he was con-
tinually engaged among crucibles, furnaces, salts,
and the mysterious lapis pliilosoplwrum. Occa-
sionally these disciples of the philosophers' stone
stooped from their lofty pursuits to the degradation
of authorship, but unfortunately for this later age,
their directions about reducing baser metals into
golden ingots of a hundredweight each are usually
written in a professional jargon unintelligible to
common people. Like his compeers, Eosicrucian
Charnocke not only laboured at his fires, but com-
posed several treatises, and a portion of his literary
effusions was dedicated to Queen Elizabeth. He
once tolerated a slight interruption in his studies,
and in the interim married Mistress Agnes Norden,
of Bristol. His last days were spent in the neigh-
bourhood of Bridgwater. Our old alchemist is found
to have burnt himself out, but profiting by experi-
ence he contrived a laboratory of fireproof construc-
tion a highly necessary precaution, if we consider

6*



84 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.

that his little sleeping-room adjoined. Rosicrucian
Charnocke died in 1581, and lies in the churchyard
at Otterhampton.

Stephen Charnocke, the justly celebrated author
of the Discourses on the Existence and Attributes
of God, was the f son of a lawyer in the City of
London, and born in 1628, not far from the spot
so intimately associated with his name and labours.
He was entered at Emanuel College, Cambridge, arid
there studied under Archbishop Bancroft. At an
uncertain period, during the last years of Charles
the First, Charnocke was engaged as a preacher in
Southwark. In 1649 he relinquished his charge
and removed to Oxford. While there his splendid
endowments won the high favour of the Presby-
terians, who elected him proctor of the University,
or, as Anthony Wood sneeringly puts it, he was
"then taken notice of by the godly party for his
singular gifts." When we consider how high he
ranked among the Puritans it will appear extremely
singular that the particulars of his life should be so
scanty, the last five years of which were spent with
Watson at Crosby Hall. Charnocke's friend, John
Gunter, is commonly supposed to have prepared some
additional memoirs now not known to be in exist-
ence. Our author himself wrote an account of his
conversion and early career, but unfortunately these
papers, with his entire library, perished in the Fire
of London.

On leaving Oxford, in 1656, Charnocke visited



CHOSBY HALL. 85

Ireland, to reside for some years with Sir Harry
Cromwell, in Dublin Castle, meantime receiving a
salary of 200 a-year. The Lord-lieutenant was
also accompanied by a number of eminent divines,
so that in such a sphere, and among such associates,
Charnocke was encompassed by pleasant surround-
ings. His stated labours agreed both with his
capacities and predilections. His lectures in the
cathedral, and in the old church of Saint Wesburgh,
were thoroughly appreciated, and encomiums on the
preacher came from persons of all parties. His lively
fancy and graceful delivery set off his great powers
to the best advantage. Persons to whom the ele-
vated piety which animated the orator would have
been but small attraction, were drawn as by an irre-
sistible charm around him. These useful and happy
labours were interrupted by the Eestoration. After
finally quitting Dublin, Charnocke passed fifteen
years either in travelling or in studious seclusion.

In 1675 Watson obtained the assistance of Char-
nocke. After settling at Crosby Square the latter
took up his residence with a glazier's family in
Whitechapel, and in an apartment of this trades-
man's house wrought out those profound discourses
on the Attributes of God which have made their
author's name dear and familiar to students where-
ever the language in which they w r ere spoken is
known: Few, surely, will be able to renew their
acquaintance with Crosby Hall without feeling an
additional interest in the structure which once re-



86 ANCIENT MEETING HOUSES.

sounded with the living voice of the preacher of
these celebrated pieces.

Though only in his forty-seventh year when he
engaged himself at Crosby Hall, Charnocke had
grown prematurely old. Persons who remembered
him as he appeared in Dublin, twenty years before,
could scarcely recognise in Thomas Watson's assistant
the original of their favourite orator. Because his
memory had once proved treacherous he could not
be prevailed on again to trust it ; his sermons were
consequently written at length. His weakened eyes
rendered a glass a necessity, and this, in his nervous
trembling hand, was doubly inconvenient. Notwith-
standing these many drawbacks, Charnocke con-
tinued to be almost the idol of many admirers.
Indeed, when we consider the position he held, we
get a fair conception of this man's modesty, who,
during his whole life, only published a single sermon.
In his declining years he endeavoured to bring before
his hearers a complete body of divinity ; and he was
busy with the discourses relating to the Attributes
of God, when death ended his labours. His col-
lected works were published by his executors, Edward
Veal and Eichard Adams ; and the Christian com-
munity of the era of William and Mary was not
slow in discovering our author's extraordinary merits,
for a third edition appeared twenty-two years after
his decease. On the 27th of July, 1680, death
found Charnocke in the midst of his labours, but
more than willing to respond to the summons.



CKOSBY HALL. 87

Having throughout life set a notable example of
redeeming time, rest to his weary spirit was the
more welcome. A broadside of poems celebrated
his departure, an original copy of which is extant,
whence we learn how sincerely the people bemoaned
their loss, e.g. :

" O surely now great darkness doth draw on,
"When God such shining stars as he calls home ;
Methinks I could have rendered up my breath
To have saved him from grim conquering death."

His remains were carried from the house of
Eichard Tyinns, in Whitechapel, to Crosby Hall,
and thence to St. Michael's, Cornhill, where John
Johnson preached the funeral sermon. The coffin
was committed to the earth hard by the tower,
beneath the belfry of that fine old sanctuary. Many
tearful eyes, as they took a farewell glance of the
grave, proved the sincerity of the mourners' grief
a grief well excused by the poet already quoted :

" Sure when such a Moses doth fall asleep
It is high time for Israel to weep."

Numbers are still attracted by the internal beauties
of St. Michael's, but how few of such visitors re-
member, while passing into the church, that they
are walking over the dust of Charnocke !

There is a story told, on the authority of Bishop
Parker, about Charnocke's having been engaged in a
conspiracy against the government of the Kestoration.
One Presbyterian minister was hanged on account of