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    a few persons became complete Unitarians , and steadily avowed their sentiments , though their doing it exposed them to reproach . These new Unitarians had no person among them who was capable of speaking in public , they were most of them poor people ;

    but they were induced to meet together to read , pray , converse and do what they could to edify one another , and bear their practical testimony to the truth . They were assailed by op- ponents on every side , but were soon put into a way , of not only defending

    themselves , but of foiling their opponents : the plan was , never to attempt to build arguments on mere words , but to keep close to , and make a firm stand on , the plain facts and positive declarations of Scripture in which all Christians agree , as that there is aud

    can be but one God j that Jesus Christ is a man , who received all things from the Father ; who actually died , was buried and raised from the dead , and that the gospel is a system of the free grace of God , containing the free

    forgiveness of sins , &c , ; and to bring every thing doubtful to the test of those things which all admit , and to require their opposers to reconcile their peculiar opinions with the facts and declarations in which all

    Christians are agreed . Though the few persons who formed this infant society continued to improve , and the Unitarian doctrine became more known in the neighbourhood , scarcely any addition was made to their numbers for several years , and some of the first members of this

    little flock were removed by death : still those who remained continued firm in the cause , and were determined to persevere . Many times have I gone to Thorne , a hundred miles from the place where I resided ^ to preach a few sermons to from fourteen to twenty

    persons ; when there , I > sometimes visited and preached iu some of the neighbouring villages . In the intervals of my visits , sometimes personal differences arose among the few who assembled together , which , threatened

    to separate them ; but I had the happiness to succeed in bringing them to settle their differences and to walk together in love . Thus matter * continued , for at least about five years * without any great increase or visible prospect otf it ; Stilt I bad no * doubt

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    that if we steadily persevered we should succeed , and a flourishing society would be ultimately produced . I estimated that it would take about seven years to conquer the prejudices of the neighbourhood , so far as to obtain much success .

    At Stainforth , which I first visited nearty eight years since , there was at that time , not only no place of public worship , but no religious meeting of any kind , nor any outward profession

    of religion , until a worthy person , reputed an unbeliever , though it appears not avowedly such , came to hear me at Thorne , became an Unitarian , and procured me a room to preach in at Stainforth , and from the first I had

    always respectable though not large audiences . For several years , meetings have been regularly held at Stainforth , and the Stainforth and Thorne friends have united as branches of one connected church . At Stainfortb , as well as at Thorne , until lately , the brethren have had to conduct their

    meetings without any public speaker , and do what they could to edify one another and enlighten their neighbours , nor have they laboured in vain . During the last five or six years a number of favourable circumstances have arisen ; the Unitarian doctrine has made more , rapid progress , the number of Unitarians has much

    increased , and they have been joined by persons in better circumstances in life * who are zealous in the cause . La&t year a convenient and neat chapel we J erected and opened at Thorne j and lately a small but neat one has been

    opened at Stainforth . These places being three miles distant from each other , and the latter place having about six hundred inhabitants , and no place of worship belonging to the Established Church , the erection of »

    second chapel , though one minister will supply both places , seemed essentially necessary . Ojn the chapel at Stainforth a debt of nearly £ \ 3 O stiff remains , which , it is hoped , the Unitarian public , especially those who did not contribute towards the chapel- at

    Thome , will , by their liberal contributions , enable the friends speedily to remove . This is the more confidently hoped , not only from the importance of the object , but also from the consideration of the great exertions which the friend * at Stainfbrth and Thorne

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    Unitarianistnat Thorne and Stainfbi-th . ( J 5 JT

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1817, page 653, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2470/page/13/