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Another sabbath has now drawn to its close, and in the silence of the evening I am retracing my steps to Geneva; the birds are giving their farewell twitter as they settle on their roosts; clouds of gnats accompany me and tell me of a fine day to-morrow. Here and there I meet a pensive couple, dreaming of happiness which is not of earth; and not unfrequently is protruded over some garden-hedge the head of some poor housemaid, decked out in the finery on which her eyes have gloated for six long days. It is her sabbath, too, and dearly does she love this short interval of repose. It has been a happy day, said I, as I entered Geneva; and many lovely sabbath scenes have I added to my picture-gallery. Often and often I pass them in review before me, less disposed, at such times, to repine at the irksomeness of sickness, which has yet procured for me the privilege of Travel, and acknowledging with a most grateful heart that, to him who seeks for them, Divine blessings may be found in every path.

HENRY W

CHURCH GOVERNMENT.

On the occasion of a violent dissension between two religious societies, which came under his immediate notice, he speaks of "obtaining plenty of confirmation, if he had needed it, of his old opinion that churches are useless and mischievous institutions, and the sooner they are dissolved the better." The general tenor of his language implied a disapproval of any organized religious community. He believed that there was more of appearance than of reality in the union of church-membership; and that, at all events, its benefits were greatly overrated. With the exception of public worship and the Lord's Supper, he was averse to every thing institutional in religion. He never administered, nor ever witnessed in mature life (it is believed), the ordinance of Baptism, and was known to entertain doubts respecting its perpetuity. In writing to a friend (Sept. 10, 1828), he says, "I have long felt an utter loathing of what bears the general denomination of the church, with all its parties, contests, disgraces, or honours. My wish would be little less than the dissolution of all church institutions, of all order and shapes; that religion might be set free, as a grand spiritual and moral element, no longer clogged, perverted and prostituted, by comparative forms and principles."-Life and Correspondence of John Foster, I. pp. 61, 62.

CAUSE OF ERROR.

THE light of the understanding is not a dry or pure light, but, drenched in the will and the affections and the intellect, forms its knowledge accordingly; for what men desire to be true, they are most inclined to believe..... When the mind is once pleased with certain things, it draws all others to consent and go along with them; and though the power and number of instances that make for the contrary are greater, yet it either attends not to them or despises them, or else removes and rejects them by a distinction, with a strong and pernicious prejudice to maintain the authority of its first choice unviolated.— BACON-Novum Organon.

BRIEF HISTORY OF HYDE CHAPEL, CHESHIRE.

BY REV. JAMES BROOKS.

THE materials for writing a history of Hyde chapel are very scanty; for though the chapel had been built about 100 years when I came to Hyde, no one of my predecessors had ever committed any thing to press, nor left any manuscripts from which historical information could be collected. I wish, however, to place on record what I have learned respecting them, and at least to prevent their names from passing into oblivion; especially when I consider that, as I have been minister of the chapel more than forty years, and in the early part of my ministry have had the opportunity of conversing with the aged members of the congregation, who have long since been removed from life, no future minister can be placed in as favourable circumstances for undertaking the task as myself; for as time passes on, a greater dimness will rest on the past; and yet, in proportion to that dimness, the curiosity of posterity to know the history of the past generally increases. It is therefore desirable, and in my opinion it would be gratifying to our congregations, for each minister to write a history of his own chapel as early as possible, and place it on permanent record in one of our periodical publications. So connected in many respects are the histories of the different congregations, that great additional light would be thrown upon the whole; and the labour of any future historian of our religious body would be thereby greatly assisted.

Though Presbyterianism may be said to have been the religion of the nation during the Commonwealth, yet it was never universally established in England; but it took deeper root in Lancashire and Cheshire than in most other places. In these two counties alone more than 130 ministers were ejected from their livings for Nonconformity, and this accounts for the large number of Presbyterian chapels subsequently erected in these counties. Between the Restoration and the Accession of William III., however, few chapels were built, for the times would not admit of it. Public worship among the Dissenters was illegal, and heavy penalties inflicted on all who should assemble for that purpose. Some of our old chapels, indeed, were built during the temporary indulgence granted to Dissenters about the year 1672, which proceeded more from the King's wish to favour the Catholics than from any love of justice; but most of the Dissenters, distrusting the permanency of this indulgence, satisfied themselves with meeting still in temporary and inconvenient places. But though chapels were not built, the zeal of the Presbyterians was kept up, and their numbers increased through the labours of the ejected ministers, who embraced every opportunity of preaching to the people and founding religious. societies; and no sooner was the Act of Toleration passed than the Dissenters availed themselves of it for building places of worship. Most of their old chapels now in existence were erected between the years 1690 and 1720. The old chapel at Gee Cross, commonly called Hyde chapel, being at one extremity of the township of Hyde, was built in the year 1708. Presbyterian Dissent, however, had taken root in this neighbourhood a long time before, probably from the passing of the Act of Uniformity. We find in the Dissenters' register of baptisms

at Dukinfield, as far back as 1678, the names of children belonging to families in Hyde and the neighbourhood of Gee Cross, ancestors of the present congregation. Gee Cross lies between Dukinfield and Chadkirk-between three and four miles from Dukinfield, and two miles from Chadkirk; and it is probable that the Presbyterian families in Hyde and Gee Cross, before their own chapel was built, attended on the ministry of either the Rev. Samuel Angier, of Dukinfield, or the Rev. Gamaliel Jones, of Chadkirk.

The chapel at Chadkirk is a very ancient episcopal place of worship, but it was allowed to remain in the possession of the Presbyterians more than forty years after the Act of Uniformity, who conducted worship in it according to their own forms. Mr. Gamaliel Jones was the last Presbyterian minister that officiated in it. He was ejected from it in 1706; and the chapel at Hatherlow, situate about half a mile from Chadkirk, which is now in the hands of the Independents, was built for him the year after, it is said, chiefly at his own cost; and as the chapel at Gee Cross was built the year after that, it is probable that it was erected also in consequence of Mr. Jones's ejectment from Chadkirk chapel, where the Presbyterians around Gee Cross had been accustomed to attend divine worship.

Mr. Gamaliel Jones was the son of the Rev. John Jones, of Marple, an ejected minister. He appears to have been a person of some note amongst the Presbyterians of that day. As early as 1691, he acted as scribe to the meeting of ministers held at Knutsford twice in the year, and he continued to fill that office till his death. He was educated at Mr. Frankland's academy at Natland, which he entered April 16, 1679. He died in 1717, and was succeeded at Hatherlow by his son Joshua, who continued to be minister there a long time. Mr. Gamaliel Jones is described, in the Memoir of the Rev. John Ashe, as of a cheerful, communicative temper, and as one who had great pleasure in conversing with young ministers, to whom he gave every encouragement in his power. Dr. Clegg visited him in his last illness, and desired to know his dying sentiments of his Nonconformity. He replied "I assure you, and you may assure any others you think proper, I am fully satisfied as to the way I have chosen. I look upon the cause of Protestant Dissenters as the cause of God, and a cause that God will own; and if I was to begin again I would make the same choice, and take my lot among them."

The case of the Presbyterians being allowed to continue in the chapel at Chadkirk for some time after the Act of Uniformity, was not a singular one. In several other places the same circumstance occurred, especially in country situations, where the income was small, and when, perhaps, there was no episcopal clergyman to supply the chapel,-as at Chowbent; Norbury chapel, near Stockport; Ringhay, near Altringham; Ainsworth, near Bury; Toxteth Park; and Denton, where the Rev. John Angier, whose daughter was married to Oliver Heywood, officiated till his death in 1677. Mr. Angier was much respected by all classes. The Bishop of Chester often inquired after him in these terms"How does the good old man, Mr. Angier?" We are told by Dr. Calamy that most of the justices had a great respect for him, and that some of them were nearly related to his wife; and when bigots urged the putting in force against him the Act of Uniformity, the common answer was, "He is an old man and cannot live long-let him alone." His ministry till his death was attended by many families at Dukinfield and Hyde. Both these places are within two or three miles of Denton.

The first minister of the newly-erected chapel at Gee Cross was the Rev. John Cooper. He was son of Mr. Ralph Cooper, of Dukinfield, and had enjoyed the privilege of being trained up under the pastoral care of that excellent minister, the Rev. Samuel Angier, nephew of Mr. Angier of Denton, who had assisted his uncle till his death, and then founded a congregation of Presbyterians at Dukinfield. Mr. Cooper was baptized October 28th, 1681. He was educated under the Rev. Mr. Chorlton, minister of Cross-Street chapel, Manchester, who, for some time after Mr. Frankland's seminary was broken up, kept an academy for preparing young men for the ministry. Mr. John Cooper entered the academy May 15th, 1699. In 1705, he married Ann, daughter of Mr. Angier. He preached at Tintwistle a few years previous to his accepting the pastoral charge of Hyde chapel. He was ordained at Knutsford, August 8, 1710. The thesis given him was, "An Infantes fidelium sint baptizandi ?" He maintained the affirmative. The ordination sermon was preached by Mr. Worthington, of Dean Row, from 2 Cor. vi. 1: "We, then, as workers together with him, beseech you also, that ye receive not the grace of God in vain." Mr. Matthew Henry called for a declaration of faith and put the usual questions, and he was ordained by prayer and laying on of hands. The first baptism he entered, and which begins the register of baptisms at Hyde chapel, was immediately after his ordination, it not being customary nor allowed, at that time, for ministers to baptize or administer the Lord's Supper before they were ordained. This importance attached to ordination savoured of priestly assumption and superstition. led to the opinion that this solemn inauguration by prayer and laying on of hands conferred some new power, or imparted some additional grace; and it also put it in the power of a few to admit to the ministry, or exclude from it, any candidate that appeared before them. Mr. Hunter, in his Life of Oliver Heywood, speaks highly of this imposing ceremony, and expresses his regret that it is discontinued. But this is not surprising in him, for throughout the book he shews a strong bias towards established forms of worship. As the principles of religious liberty advance, priestly power declines, and men begin to see that one is their Master, even Christ, and all they are brethren. The practice more recently adopted, under the name of the "settlement" of a minister, is not liable to these objections. There is no laying on of hands, nor any pretence of conferring new ministerial authority, or of qualifying a minister to perform offices in the church which he could not do before. It is simply a public recognition of the engagement into which the pastor and the congregation have voluntarily entered, accompanied with the presence and friendly congratulations and good wishes of a few neighbouring ministers.

It

Mr. John Cooper had several children, but they all died in early life except two, a son and a daughter. There is no record from which we

*

The daughter, Ann, was married to the Rev. William Harrison, grandson of the Rev. Cuthbert Harrison, an ejected minister. Mr. William Harrison was educated at the University of Edinburgh, where he took the degree M. A. He was fixed first at Stand, removed to Buxton in 1737, and afterwards to Chinley, near Chapel en le Frith, to succeed Dr. Clegg. He was the father of the late Rev. Ralph Harrison, minister of Cross-Street chapel, Manchester. The death of his wife, in 1782, had such an effect on his spirits, that he retired from the 30

VOL. IV.

can gather his religious opinions: those of his father-in-law, Mr. Samuel Angier, were moderately orthodox. How far his opinions were the same, or whether they inclined to the liberal opinions that subsequently prevailed, cannot be known. It was his practice to baptize publicly in the chapel. When he happened to baptize privately, he always mentions the house in which the baptism took place. His method of admitting persons to the Lord's Supper seems to have been the same as that mentioned in the Life of Oliver Heywood as being his practice also. He had a private interview with the person; and on discovering his religious fitness in respect to Christian knowledge, and on his promising to live a holy life, he was admitted. He kept a list of the communicants, and the dates of their admission; and so exact was he in this, that when his wife first became a communicant, he makes the following entry: "My wife admitted; consented and promised to act as becomes a Christian, May 15, 1714." Opposite her name he afterwards wrote,-" Died, March 11, 1727, having been in health at the Lord's Table the sabbath but one before." His remarks are numerous. Opposite one name he writes, "Died in the Lord, I verily believe." Opposite another, "Between four and five in the afternoon, he entered into his rest; a very great loss to the church militant, to the congregation, at Hyde, to his daughter and the family." His incidental remarks, both in the list of communicants and in the baptismal register, shew a mind deeply impressed with earnest religious feelings, and alive to the importance of his office as a minister of Christ. Opposite some names he writes, " Ordered to withdraw," probably for some irregularity of conduct. It appears also that on a communicant removing from Hyde, he gave him a recommendation to some other congregation, and that he often admitted communicants with similar recommendations from other ministers. The number of communicants admitted during his ministry was 102. Of these, there remained at his death 46. He died April 27th, 1731, in his 50th year. He was buried at Dukinfield. His tomb is near that of Mr. Angier. The Rev. Thomas Hartley, who succeeded him, preached his funeral sermon at Dukinfield, where Mr. Cooper had lived during the whole of his ministry at Hyde. The text was, "Be ye also ready."

No certain information can be obtained respecting the ancestors of Mr. Hartley. All that is known is, that his father married the widow of Mr. Heywood, draper, of Ashton-under-Lyne, who at his death left a small estate as an endowment to Dukinfield chapel, and Mr. Thomas Hartley was the only issue from that marriage. Mrs. Hartley had a

ministry, and he survived her only one year. Writing to his son a short time before his own death, he says, "Since the death of your dear mother, I have lived a lonely, melancholy life. I shall always, while living, have her in remembrance. Her memory is precious, and reflects credit and honour on all you, my children. It pleased God to prolong her life to a good old age; and we lived in the conjugal state nearly fifty years, and had a real love for each other."

The son of Mr. Cooper (Ralph) was brought up to the medical profession, and settled in London; and at his death, 1781, left a good estate at Heyrod, near Stalybridge, to his nephew, the Rev. Ralph Harrison. The family of the Harrisons have some reason to be proud of their Presbyterian descent. On one side they are descended from Cuthbert Harrison, one of the ejected ministers, and on the other from the Angiers; and I believe every generation amongst them for a long time back has furnished a minister for our religious denomination.

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