18

REASONS ASSIGNED FOR THEIR PRACTICE.

it was their duty not to abandon their flocks at the command of men; and whereas they were straightly charged with the apostle, to preach no more in that name, they answered with the same apostle, whether it be right in the sight of God, to obey God rather than man, judge ye? Upon this, they gathered churches, set up separate congregations, and being ministers rightly ordained, they made no scruple to administer all ordinances of worship."

From the foregoing narrative, our author deduces the three following arguments, which may serve as a justification of his own practice. "First, I infer that the Dis

senters do not of mere choice differ from the church for the sake of dissenting, as some have maliciously insinuated, nor for trifles or indifferent things, as others allege; but of plain necessity, from true principles of conscience, a sense of duty, and scruples which they cannot get over. Secondly, That upon the Church of England refusing to abate what they cannot comply with, they nevertheless do not reject her as heretical or antichristian, but own her as a true church, subscribe willingly to all her doctrinal articles, and treat her members as brethren, being willing to preserve for her both their charity and respect. Thirdly, That would the Church of England enter upon a farther reformation, and abate in her discipline, government, and worship what these think is not warranted by the word of God, they would most gladly join with her again, and become one united body of Christians, in love, charity, doctrine, worship, and government. As to wishing all people of one mind, it can be extended no farther than to pray, and endeavour by instruction and persuasion, to enlighten the minds of those we think to be in error."*

* Review for April, 1707; vol. iv. p. 105-130.

CHAPTER II.

De Foe's Education at Newington Green.-Account of the Academies of the Non-conformists.-Defects of those Institutions-Some Particulars respecting Mr. Morton's Seminary.-De Foe's Vindication of his Tutor against the Aspersions of Wesley-Account of Mr. Charles Morton.— Dunton's Character of him.-De Foe's Attainments at the Academy.— His character at that period. He is intended for the Ministry-But diverted from that Profession. Unfavourable Character of the times.-His Defence of a Gospel Ministry.-And Statement of the Qualifications necessary for it.-Defends himself from the Charge of being Illiterate against Browne and Tutchin.-Scurrility of Writers at that time.

1675-1681.

ALTHOUGH the enemies of De Foe endeavoured to sink his reputation, by representing him as having been bred a tradesman, yet there is now sufficient evidence that he was intended for one of the learned professions-a circumstance overlooked by his former biographers. When he had, therefore, sufficiently qualified under inferior tutors, he was placed at about fourteen years of age, in an Academy at Newington Green, under the direction of "that polite and profound scholar," the Rev. Charles Morton, where he had great advantages for learning, and a very agreeable society.

Of the mode of education pursued in this seminary, no regular account has been preserved; but some judgment may be formed of it by a comparison with similar institutions, and by incidental notices in the works of De Foe and other writers.

The Academies of the Non-conformists being designed

Tong's Life of Shewer, p. 9.

20

ACADEMIES OF THE NON-CONFORMISTS.

as substitutes for the English universities, from which the law had excluded them, and being superintended by tutors who were educated in those establishments, comprehended all the principal branches of a learned education; such as the languages, logic, rhetoric, the mathematics, and philosophy. But as these institutions were intended principally for young men who had devoted themselves to the ministry in the churches of the Non-conformists, particular attention was paid to the study of divinity, upon their proficiency in which, their future respectability and usefulness mainly depended. They were not, however, confined to persons of that profession, but produced many who rose to eminence in civil life. Of the persons who conducted them, one of their own writers speaks thus: "In the English seats of learning, contrary to the practise of most of the other universities in Europe, the chief part of the business is performed, not by the professors of the different departments of science, but by private tutors. Of these, many ranked among the Non-conformists; and as tutors were needed for training up a rising race of pastors for the new-formed churches, they were as well qualified for the task as ever, and they could communicate their instructions in other places, as well as at Oxford and Cambridge.”*

Although the tutors in these seminaries were in general men of learning and abilities, yet, it is not to be pretended that the advantages they afforded were at all equal to those of the public universities. Amongst their defects, may be mentioned the want of public libraries, and of suitable authority for the preservation of discipline. Upon these and other inconveniences, De Foe has some sensible remarks in a work not commonly known, in which he expresses himself with great freedom, but invokes a candid judgment for the Dissenters upon account of their political oppression. ""Tis evident," says he, "the great imperfection of our

Bogue and Bennett's Hist. of Dissenters, ii. 14.

DEFECTS OF THOSE INSTITUTIONS.

21

academies is want of conversation: this, the public universities enjoy; our's cannot. If a man pores upon his book, and despises the advantage of conversation, he always comes out a pedant, a mere scholar, rough and unfit for any thing out of the walls of his college. Conversation polishes the gentleman; acquaints him with men and with words; lets him into the polite part of language; gives him style, accent, delicacy, and taste of expression; and when he comes to appear in public, he preaches as he discourses, easy, free, plain, unaffected, and untainted with force, stiffness, formality, affected hard words, and all the ridiculous part of a learned pedant, which is, being interpreted, a school fop. Whilst on the other hand, from our schools we have abundance of instances of men that come away masters of science, critics in the Greek and Hebrew, perfect in languages, and perfectly ignorant, if that term may be allowed, of their mother-tongue."

In animadverting upon the defects of private academies, our author notices another particular, in which he considers the mode of tuition to be reprehensible. "Many of the tutors in our academies," says he, "I do not say all, because I knew some of another opinion, being careful to keep the knowledge of the tongues, tie down their pupils so exactly, and limit them so strictly to perform every exercise, and to have all their readings in Latin or in Greek, that, at the end of the severest term of study, they come out unacquainted with English, though that is the tongue in which all their gifts are to shine. The usefulness and excellency of the languages is no way run down in this observation; but preaching the gospel, which is the end of our study, is done in English, and it seems absurd to the last degree, that all the time should be spent in the languages which it is to be fetched from, and none in the language it is to be delivered in." To this error our author attributes it, that so many learned, and otherwise excellent ministers, preach away all

22

MR. MORTON'S SEMINARY.

their hearers, "while a jingling, noisy boy, that has a good stock in his face, and a dysentery of the tongue, though he has little or nothing in his head, shall run away with the whole town. It is true," he goes on to observe," the head is the main thing that a tutor is to see furnished; but the tongue must be tuned, or he'll make no music with the voice. Acceptable words, a good diction, a grave, yet polite and easy style, are most valuable things in a minister, and without which, his learning cannot exert itself."*

From some of the defects above enumerated, De Foe makes an exception in favour of Mr. Morton's seminary. "There was some years ago," says he, "a private academy of the Dissenters, not far from London, the master or tutor of which read all his lectures, gave all his systems, whether of philosophy or divinity, in English, and had all his declaimings and dissertations in the same tongue. And though the scholars from that place were not destitute in the languages, yet it is observed of them, they were by this made masters of the English tongue, and more of them excelled in that particular, than of any school at that time. Here were produced of ministers, Mr. Timothy Cruso, Mr. Hannot of Yarmouth, Mr. Nathaniel Taylor, Mr. Owen, and several others; and of another kind, poets, Samuel Wesley, Daniel De Foe, and two or three of your Western martyrs, that, had they lived, would have been extraordinary men of their kind; viz., Kitt. Battersby, young Jenkyns, Hewling, and many more."+

The plan of education adopted by Mr. Morton, was, probably, not dissimilar to that of Dr. Kerr, at Bethnal Green, of which an account is preserved by Mr. Palmer, in his pamphlets against Wesley; and there is a like narrative in print, of the mode of tuition at Gloucester, from the pen of Archbishop Secker. Mr. Morton, who appears to have † Ibid. p. 320.

* Present State of Parties, p. 316–319.

Gibbons's Life of Watts, p. 346.