NEWPORT-MARKET.-Particular Batpist, Extinct.

port the expences, the doors were again closed. Whilst in this state, a few friends of the Rev. Charles De Coetlegon, preacher at the Lock, entered into an agreement for Orange-street chapel, with a view to his preaching there; but Mr. De Coetlegon writing to the vicar of the parish for his consent, and not obtaining it, declined closing with the recommendation of his friends. Upon this, they parcelled the chapel into shares, and fitted it up in its present form, with an organ, and desk for a prayer reader, the liturgy was introduced, and having obtained the assistance of some popular preachers amongst the Dissenters, a respectable congregation was soon collected. It is now in a flourishing state, and the pulpit is supplied by a constant change of preachers. The place is ticketed in the manner usual in places of this description.

NEWPORT-MARKET.

PARTICULAR BAPTIST.-EXTINCT.

IN

N a manuscript list of Dissenting Churches in London, in the year 1731; there is one mentioned as meeting in Newport-Market. It was of the Particular Baptist denomination; and the meeting-house, we understand, was actually in the Market-place. Of the church, however, we can meet with no account; and though we have consulted some aged persons, yet we can find no one who remembers even the building. It must have been taken down more than half a century ago. The famous orator Henley, performed part of his strange career at this place. It was in his possession prior to the above period, and was probably fitted up in the first instance for his use. It then went by the name of the

GRAFTON-STREET.-Particular Baptist, Extinct.

"ORATORY." We have now before us a very curious collection of tracts by the said John Henley, printed mostly in the old English letter. Amongst them is "The First Sermon preached at the opening of the Oratory, on Sunday, July 3, 1726. On the design and reasons of the Institution." This will serve in a great measure to fix the date of the building in Newport-Market, as well as the commencement of Mr. Henley's labours there. Another tract in the same volume brings us to the close of the Orator's concerns in the same place. It is entitled, "The Butchers' Lecture. Preached at Newport-Market, on Easter-day in the evening, April 6, 1729. And on Low Sunday following, at the Oratory, removed from Newport-Market to Lincoln's-innfields. The first undertaking of the kind, and published at the desire of both auditories." Of this singular personage, and of his equally singular establishment, we propose to give a more particular description at the second, which was the last stage of his mortal existence. The building in Newport-Market passed from the episcopal Orator to the Baptists, as above-mentioned. How long they held it seems uncertain. Maitland, who wrote in 1738, does not mention this place in his list of Dissenting meeting-houses licensed in that year.

GRAFTON - STREET.

PARTICULAR BAPTIST.

THE meeting-house in Grafton-street was erected about the year 1750, for a society of Particular Baptists, that had met for many years in Glass-house-street, leading to Swal low-street, Piccadilly. Their pastor, at that period, was

GRAFTON-STREET.-Particular Baptist.

Mr. William Anderson, who being a person of some property, contributed largely towards the building of the new meeting-house. The ungrateful return he afterwards met with from some of his people is well known to many persons, and contributed in a great measure to hasten his death. Mr. Anderson's congregation continued to assemble in Grafton-street, for nearly half a century; but, in 1795, they resolved upon rearing a new meeting-house upon a larger and more expensive scale. From thence arose the present handsome building in Keppel-street. The history of this congregation, of which the Rev. John Martin has been for many years the pastor, will fall more properly under a subsequent division of our work.

Upon the relinquishment of Grafton-street meeting by Mr. Martin's congregation, it was taken upon lease by another society of Particular Baptists, under the pastoral care of Mr. Richard Burnham, lately deceased. This person, who was very popular, soon raised a considerable congregation, though they were mostly of the poorer sort. Being himself a high Calvinist, and possessing no small share of confidence, he innoculated his people with similar principles, and they looked up to his decisions as little short of oracular. His church may be called a school of the prophets, having produced several preachers, who, like himself, despised the common forms of education. The congregation is in a flourishing state under his successor.

Grafton-street meeting-house is a small square building, with three galleries, and fitted up in a convenient manner with pews and benches. Of the late pastor, the reader must be satisfied with the following brief account.

RICHARD BURNHAM was born about the year 1749. As his parents were in poor circumstances, his education became neglected, and he spent the early part of his life in VOL. IV.

E

gaiety and dissipation. When the mind lies uncultivated it becomes easily susceptible of vicious principles, which gain. strength by age, and are with difficulty eradicated. Mr. Burnham is said to have taken great delight in the vain. amusements of plays, balls, and concerts, which, as they were his element, so they engrossed the principal part of his time. Providence having cast his lot at High Wycombe, in Buckinghamshire, he was led to attend the chapel of the Wesleyan Methodists in that town. It was there that he is said to have received his first serious impressions of religion, under the ministry of a Mr. Williams, one of the preachers in that connexion. His external conduct was now reformed, and he is said to have reaped much pleasure in the change. His happiness, however, was only short-lived; for he was accustomed to relate a variety of mental conflicts respecting the nature of faith, which agitated him for a considerable time afterwards. The result of his speculations and suggestions was a settlement in those doctrines which usually pass under the name of Antinomianism; and he felt a strong desire to communicate them to others. It was not long, therefore, before he commenced preacher, and the success he met with was proportionate to his zeal and confidence. After he had been a preacher for some time, he embraced the sentiments of the Anti-pædobaptists, and received baptism by immersion from Mr. Thomas Davis of Reading. Not long afterwards he went to reside at Staines, in Middlesex, and was instrumental in planting a small Baptist church in that town. There he met with considerable opposition, from a prevailing dislike to evangelical religion, which operated in the removal from the parochial church of an excellent clergyman, the Rev. W. J. Abdy, now rector of St. John's, Horsleydown. Mr. Burnham's congregation being poor, and unable to contribute much to his support, he became embarrassed in his circumstances, which induced him to solicit the assistance of his London brethren. Although

GRAFTON-STREET.-Particular Baptist.

it would have been very difficult for any person of a penetrating judgment to discover the peculiar attractions of Mr. Burnham's pulpit performances, yet we are assured that during this visit to London he attracted large crowds of people to hear him preach, so that it was not long before he accomplished the object of his journey. Another beneficial event, however, resulted from this visit; for, the good people who crowded after him, did not fail to express the satisfaction they received from his preaching, and to represent the benefits that would result from bis settlement in the metropolis. Mr. Burnham was not blind to the force of this reasoning, for he easily foresaw that if he continued at Staines, his difficulties would speedily recur; he therefore closed with the wishes of his friends in London, and removed thither about the year 1780. A suitable place of worship having been found on the Surry side of Blackfriars'-bridge, in Green-walk, a church was formed there upon Antipædobaptist principles, and Mr. Burnham constituted pastor. The success of his preaching was soon apparent in the number of persons who presented themselves for churchfellowship, and both pastor and people grew into mutual attachment. At the above place Mr. Burnham preached, as we are informed, about two years, at the end of which period he removed with a part of his people, we believe, to Gate-street, Lincoln's-inn-fields, and from thence, after a short interval, in consequence of a division in his church, occasioned by his own misconduct, to another place which he called Salem chapel, in Edward-street, Soho. Upon the removal of Mr. Martin's church to a new meeting-house in Store-street, Mr. Burnham's people took a lease of the place in Grafton-street, whither they removed in 1795. There, after a period of fifteen years, he closed his ministerial labours.

Of Mr. Burnham's character we shall say but little, because we can say very little to his advantage. Popula