ACCUSATION AGAINST SIX STUDENTS.

105

tlemen as enthusiasts, for having adopted expressions that were Scriptural and authorized by the offices of our own Church. Mr. Higson was much dissatisfied with the answer of Dr. Dixon, and determined to proceed further against the youths whose opinions he had denounced in vain to the head of his own hall. How far he was an instrument in the hands of others does not fully appear, but it is very certain that his efforts were acceptable to men of high station at Oxford. He began to make most assiduous inquiries relative to the objects of his complaint, and at length brought distinct articles of accusation against six of his pupils, named James Matthews, Thomas Jones, Joseph Shipman, Benjamin Kay, Erasmus Middleton,' and Thomas Grove. The charges were heard before the Vice-Chancellor and his Assessors. Their names were David Durell, D.D., Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, and Visitor of St. Edmund Hall; Thomas Randolph, D.D., President of Corpus Christi College; Thomas Fothergill, D.D., Provost of Queen's College; Thomas Nowell, D.D., Principal of St. Mary's Hall, and the Rev. Thomas Atterbury, A.M., of Christ Church, at that time Senior Proctor. These gentlemen having heard the evidence brought before them, declared the six students to have been guilty of "crimes" worthy of expulsion, and thereupon the Vice-Chancellor pronounced sentence that they be expelled. There can be no question, and it is only fair to admit it in the outset, that these young men had in some degree deviated from the course prescribed by the Statutes of the University, but not in a way, except for the hatred then prevalent of spiritual religion under any form, that could have brought on them more than an admonition from their superiors.

1 Afterwards Curate to Messrs. Romaine and Cadogan, and author of the "Biographia Evangelica."

106

DR. DIXON'S TESTIMONY TO THEIR CONDUCT.

This the history of the case will prove. No event of the day produced a stronger sensation, and never was such a string of accusations before exhibited to the world, to excite surprize and indignation. Before these are alluded to, it is proper to mention that they were accused, in addition to religious irregularities, of disobedience to the authority of Mr. Higson, their tutor. They were, however, fully acquitted of this in the eyes of their Principal, Dr. Dixon, who spoke of them in the highest terms before the Vice-Chancellor and his Assessors, and afterwards assured Mr. Richard Hill in private, that he "never remembered in his own, or in any other College, six youths whose lives were so exemplary, and who behaved themselves in a more humble, regular, peaceable manner." A declaration to this effect from such a quarter, plainly proves that the disobedience to their tutor was not a little exaggerated. All their actions were distorted and magnified into monstrosities, by being viewed through the medium of prejudice against their piety.

Just previous to their trial, and ten days before the sentence of expulsion was pronounced, Mr. Richard Hill wrote in the following terms to Mr. Jones. A portion of this letter remains among his papers, and is called by him "Part of my letter to Mr. Jones, before his expulsion from the University of Oxford for the sin of praying." The letter itself is extremely creditable to his judgment.

DEAR SIR,

Wigmore-street, March 1, 1768.

Your letter, together with that of Dr. Dixon to Mr. Middleton, came to hand last night. As I know Mr. Middleton intended I should see the Doctor's letter, I ventured to open it, and to communicate the contents

MR. HILL'S LETTER TO MR. JONES.

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of it to Lord Dartmouth, who joins with me in the entire approbation of Doctor Dixon's sentiments and advice, and in the propriety there would have been in shewing it to the Archbishop, in case Mr. Middleton had offered himself for ordination; but that design upon the most mature deliberation being laid aside for the present, I have enclosed the letter to you, and desire you will give it to Mr. Middleton. With regard to yourself, let me entreat you by no means to desert your post, but keep in the way of duty, and look up by faith and prayer to Him whose cause it is for which you are called in question, and who is engaged to make all things work together for good to his church and people. The Act of Parliament, the Canon, and University Statute against Conventicles, were originally compiled to prevent seditious assemblies against the Church or State by Papists, or other Dissenters from the Establishment, as the Preamble prefixed to the Act of Parliament, and the words of the Statute and Canon do fully evince; but none of them do give the least prohibition to members of the Church of England to assemble in private houses, or any other places for the purposes of prayer, expounding, religious conversation, or any other means of mutual edification which are not contrary to the doctrine, peace, and discipline of the Church. Nay, so far from it, that Mr. Robert Nelson, author of the Fasts and Festivals, (than whom there never was a stronger churchman or more exact disciplinarian), by the approbation of the greatest dignitaries in divinity, himself established many meetings and societies of this sort, an account of which may be seen in Dr. Woodward's book of these Societies, which I will endeavour to get and send to you in a few days; and indeed the very nature of the thing is the fullest proof of its reasonableness, for what sort of a church must that needs

108

MR. HILL'S LETTER TO MR. JONES.

be, which, under the notion of an illicit assembling, would forbid its members from joining together in prayer, reading the word, or even speaking of what concerns their immortal souls? Now, therefore, before you can come under the censure of the Act of Parliament, the Canon, or Statute, it must be proved (at least it ought to be so) that you are dissenters from the doctrines or discipline of the Established Church, or disturbers of the public peace. But that you are faithfully attached to the former, the subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles at your matriculation, and your present willingness to abide by that subscription, do testify; and your ready acquiescence in attending the stated worship of the Church of England, and your desire of being a regularly-ordained minister in that establishment, are the most evident demonstrations of your being well-affected to her discipline; and if you are deemed disturbers of the public peace because you have met a few friends to pray for the welfare of the University, and a plentiful increase of the kingdom of the Prince of Peace within the pale of that church which is established among us, viz., in the pure Apostolical Church of England, then, I say, upon what a sandy foundation must she stand, if her sons are prohibited to build one another up in their most holy faith, or to join in prayer for her prosperity at any other time than when they are within her walls! What a reflection would it cast upon the wisdom of our pious ancestors, to suppose they could compile a statute which should lay every good Christian under such a dreadful restriction. But if every meeting for a religious purpose among members of the Established Church, should be construed in the light of a conventicle, and if your superiors and seniors in the University should think proper to lay their injunctions upon you not to meet any of the towns-people again,

MR. WHITFIELD'S LETTER TO THE VICE-CHANCELLOR.

109

then I would submit to their authority, and tell them that what you did before was done without the least design of offending against the public peace, and the doctrine or discipline of the Church. As to what is urged against Mr. Middleton before he was a member of the University, and consequently not subject to the statutes, I think it cannot affect him any more than what it did twenty years before, yet I hope he will freely acknowledge his error, and declare his future intention of regularity."

The expulsion of these six young men took place on the eleventh of March, 1768, and early in the following April, Mr. Whitfield printed a letter on the subject, addressed to the Vice-Chancellor; and in June, Mr. Richard Hill published his pamphlet, called Pietas Oxoniensis. Whitfield told Dr. Durell plainly, that whatever pretences may have been made for the sentence passed, "such as disqualification in respect to learning, age, being of trades, &c. &c. (nugæ tricæque calenda), it is notorious and obvious to all intelligent persons, that the grand cause of these young men's expulsion was this, namely, that they were either real or reputed Methodists." "But," after a few more pointed observations, he proceeds, "lest any more innocent youths should hereafter suffer barely for the imputation of a nick-name, give me leave simply and honestly to inform you, Reverend Sir, and through you the whole University, what not barely a reputed, but a real Methodist is. He is one of those whom God hath chosen in Christ out of mankind, to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation, as vessels

1 It will shortly appear that these were amongst the charges alleged against them.