ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY of London united to build a preaching-house and dressing-rooms adjacent to a. pool near Fair Street, Horsleydown, which was used as a baptistery." Notwithstanding the exclusion of Unitarians from the benefit of the Toleration Act, there was, from the Revolution onwards, a vigorous anti- trinitarian propaganda, and both Arianism and Socinianism gained numerous adherents. In 171 8 a violent controversy was aroused in the west of England by the exclusion from their pulpits of two Presbyterian ministers at Exeter because of their heterodox opinions about the Trinity." Both parties applied to the London ministers for advice, and a general meeting or synod of the whole body — Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists — in and around London, was convened at Salters' Hall meeting-house on 1 9 February 1 7 1 8—1 9, when a draft letter of advice was considered.^" On the second day of meet- ing, 24 February, a proposal that the advice should be accompanied by a declaration of belief in the doctrine of the Trinity, as held alike by the Established Church and by the Westminster Assembly," was rejected by fifty- seven votes to fifty-three ; the majority, with few exceptions orthodox Trini- tarians, fearing to compromise Christian liberty by any test unless in the very words of Holy Scripture. At the next meeting, 3 March, the proposal was revived with some modification, but the moderator. Dr. Oldfield, refused to put the motion, whereupon sixty members of the synod withdrew, and with some others, under the presidency of Dr. Lorimer, subscribed the declaration, which they sent to the inquirers at Exeter with a letter of advice to the effect that, in their opinion, the denial by a minister of the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity was a sufficient reason for withdrawing from his ministry. The ' Nonsubscribers ' on the other hand advised them that the only erroneous teaching that would warrant such withdrawal was that which contradicted ' the plain and express declarations of Holy Scripture ' ; *^ with their advice, however, they also sent a letter disavowing the Arian doctrine, and affirming their own sincere belief in ' the Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity, and the proper Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ.' Both parties published their respective statements, and a swarm of pamphlets followed on both sides, the whole number of publications arising out of the controversy in the years 17 18—19 being nearly seventy.*' Shortly after this a further step was taken in the organization of London Nonconformity. The ' Board of Baptist Ministers residing in and about the Cities of London and Westminster' was constituted on 20 January 1723, and a similar Board of Congregational Ministers was constituted 25 September 1727, the members being such as 'had been known and approved preachers, and chose to be ranked among the Congregational ministers, and did not '* W. Wilson, op. cit. iv, 253-5. It was a wooden building, the large room being 30ft. by 20ft., and cost about ^130. The passage which led to it was nicknamed ' Dipping Alley.' " Peirce, Case of the Ministers Ejected at Exon ; tVestem Inquisition, &c. '° yinJication of the Subscribing Ministers. *' True Relation, &c. (B.M. Tracts, 1 760, no. 3).
- ' Authentic Account, &c. (B.M. Pressmark 698, h, 15, no. 4).
'^ Altogether 152 ministers took part in the Synod, or signed one or other of the 'Advices.' Of these 103 were London pastors, twenty-five country pastors, and twenty-four assistants or occasional preachers. Of the ' Subscribers ' twenty-nine were Presbyterian, twenty-six Independent, nine Baptist, and fifteen unspecified ; total seventy-nine. Of the ' Nonsubscribers ' forty-three were Presbyterian, nine Independent, thirteen Baptist, and eight undescribed ; total seventy-three. About a dozen London ministers took no part in the contro- versy, among whom were Edmund Calamy, Presbyterian ; and Isaac Watts, Daniel Neal, and Zephaniah Marryatt, Independents. T. S. James, Presbyterian Chapels and Charities, 705 et seq.
