the Word became flesh"-(John i. 1, 14). How sublimely this marvellous revelation of the pre-existence of the Son of God, and his assumption of our human nature for our redemption, inspired the profound imagination of Milton, may be seen in his second immortal poem, "Paradise Regained." How constraining, how enrapturing, is the vision presented at the close of this poem :

"True image of the Father; whether thron'd
In the bosom of bliss, and light of light
Conceiving; or, remote from Heaven, enshrin'd
In fleshly tabernacle, and human form
Wandering the wilderness; whatever place,
Habit, or state, or motion, still expressing
The Son of God, with God-like force endued.
A fairer Paradise is founded now

For Adam, and his chosen sons, whom Thou

A Saviour, art come down to re-install,

Where they shall dwell secure when time shall be.
Hail, Son of the Most High, heir of both worlds,

Queller of Satan: On thy glorious work

Now enter; and begin to save mankind.

It will inform us the more of the Arian period of these old chapels if we introduce ourselves into the "Old Warrington Academy," founded for the training of our ministers in the year 1757, under the favour and presidency of Lord Willoughby, and the support of Sir H. Hoghton's family. The tutors were the learned Dr. John Taylor, Dr. Enfield, Dr. Priestley, and Dr. Aikin, the father of the celebrated Anna Lætitia Aikin, afterwards Mrs. Barbauld. Dr. Enfield, serving as the pastor of the Warrington chapel, as well as Rector of the Academy, after Dr. John Taylor's death, prepared for his congregation a fresh collection of hymns. Miss Aikin contributed five most beautiful hymns, to be found in various collections. Amongst these is her favorite Easter hymn, commencing,

"Again the Lord of life and light."

This production partakes of the Arian faith, as evidenced by the following verses:

And still for erring guilty man,

A brother's pity flows;

And still His bleeding heart is touched
With memory of our woes.

To Thee, my Saviour and my King,
Glad homage let me give;

And stand prepared like Thee to die,
With Thee that I may live."

This hymn breathes the Arian Christian faith that preceded the Unitarian propagandism. Dr. Priestley writing in his memoirs of himself and fellow-tutors at Warrington Academy states, "We were all Arians. The only Socinian in the neighbourhood was Mr. Seddon, of Manchester, and we all wondered at him." Yet not a great many years after, the writings of Dr. Priestley converted the old Presbyterian congregations and ministers to Unitarian Christianity, as stated in Dr. John Aikin's memoirs, "Few readers need be told that Dr. Priestley was at the head of the modern Unitarians, a sect of which the leading tenet is the proper humanity of Christ, and which confines every species of religious worship and adoration to the One Supreme."

It was not at all likely for one chapel to continue to serve all the Nonconformists of even a small town. Besides, the gradual abandonment of Trinitarian doctrine for Arian and, afterwards, for Socinian and Unitarian doctrine in the old Meeting-house alarmed not a few of the rigid Presbyterian and Independent Dissenters. As early as 1756 a number of gentlemen, in London, formed themselves into a society for educating young men for the ministry in the West Riding of Yorkshire, "in order to promote the interests of religion in that part of the kingdom." This movement was supported by the orthodox Dissenters, and ultimately led to the erection of the Independent College in Masborough, chiefly by the generosity of Mr. Joshua Walker. The brothers Walker had become very wealthy in consequence of the success of their great ironworks at the Holmes, where they constructed the cannon for the Peninsular War and manufactured the famous Hungerford iron suspension bridge, in the formation of which the celebrated Tom Paine, author of the "Age of Reason," had an important part. Wesley and Whitfield also laboured a good deal in Rotherham, and formed a local

society. But a division of opinion occurring therein, several members, including the important Walker family, seceded and formed an Independent or Congregational community, by whom the Masborough Chapel was built and opened in 1779 or 1780. So that there was, henceforth, no longer the necessity for all Protestant Dissenters to attend the original Meeting-house and to bring their children to be baptized by its ministers. Names formerly associated with it began to appear in connection with the Masborough Chapel, as Greaves, Longley, Rhodes, Walker, Elliott. Baptisms had not, however taken place at Masborough Chapel prior to 1780, and that may account for the following entry in the old chapel Register during Parson Allard's ministry :

Samuel s. James and Jane Walker, of Masboro, founder, b. 31 Jan., bap. 17th Feb., 1782.

This James Walker, however, did not belong to the principal family of that name.

It must not be overlooked that the promotion of Independency, with the congregational singing of Dr. Watts' and Dr. Doddridge's more orthodox and fervent strains, along with the advent of the Wesleyan mission, heralded by Charles Wesley's glorious hymns, could not but present a serious counteraction to the Arian and Socinian doctrines now being propagated in the old Meeting-house. Whether the philosophic fascination of Arianism could have permanently held its own against Trinitarianism is a question now too late to discuss.