THEIR AUTHORS AND ORIGIN. 217
of " The History and the Mystery of Good Friday," 1777 ; and of " A Plan of Lectures on the Principles of Nonconformity," of which also several editions were sold ; and of several sermons and pamphlets.
During his life, Robinson had passed through many changes of religious association ; at first he was under parents without piety, who designed him for the Church ; afterwards he was con nected in turn, it is helieved, with the Wesleyans, Independents, and Baptists ; and at all times he was a man of great vehemence of character, and of intense, almost morbid, love of liberty. These considerations may perhaps account, in some degree, for the sad changes of doctrine that marked his later years. About the year 1780, he began to separate from his former religious asso ciates, and to take pleasure in the society of such men as Paulus and Dr. Priestley. His biographer, the Rev. William Robinson, on a review of the evidence, concludes that " he was one of the most decided Unitarians of the age, but never a mere humani tarian." It was on a visit to Dr. Priestley, at Birmingham, to preach for him, in 1790, that Robinson was found dead in his bed. He had continued to preside over his church at Cambridge till the time of his death, but not without dissatisfaction, on the part of some, on account of his change of doctrine.
In a catalogue of his works up to 1781, Robinson thus de scribes his own contributions to Christian verse. " While R. was among the Methodists, the Rev. George Whitefield published eleven hymns composed by him for a fast-day (1757)." In an advertisement on the title-page of the work referred to, Mr. White- field speaks of these hymns as from " an unknown hand," and says that he prints them " for the use of the Tabernacle congre gation, as they breathe a spirit of devotion and loyalty." These hymns were not marked by the excellencies that characterize the author s later productions. His own next note is, " Mr. Wheatley, of Norwich, published a hymn, beginning,
Come, thou fount of every blessing ! since reprinted in the hymn-books of Messrs. Madan, Wesley,
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