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j ng and curious thoughts , f especially in the Appendix , where the Trinitarian controversy and that relating to the person of Christ are more particularly adverted to and discussed . We are assured that he intended to publish this work himself ; but being bv some means prevented , he left
inbretliren desired to publish my Sermon , I ^ vas forced to den y them thei r re quest at that time , because what I had delivered was nicked out of a great many discourses , and what I thought ivfis most proper for the auditory at thai time only , but would have
been a maiming" to the whole . Yet I did not despise their motion , nor lay aside all consideration of it . The importunity of some of them ran so much in my mind , that I thought , if I must write , I might digest the matter of that sermon into the following * Treatise , without deviating * from the design of it , but rather
conveniently adding * to the principles of it , which I have done , hoping" that they will accept it here , with the rest , by which the doctrines of tliat sermon are better stated , cleared and confirmed , than they wonld have appeared to have been if that sermon had gone alone . So in this way I shall answer the desires of my friends at home and my reverend brethren abroad at once ; and do what service I can to the church of God
before I die . " The whole Preface is very long " this being- but a small part of it . But this is enough to shew that there was in this congregation a party that disapproved of his ministry , as well as another
that highly approved of it , and that he experienced a great deal of discomfort from the former , who appear to have been very Calviiiistically or Antinomianly inclined , and withal very contentious , as their descendants or successors have been almost
ever since . * Some of those thoughts relate to the Theory of Comets , which he supposed to be worlds in a state of conflagration and dissolution ; and lie thought it probable our earth will hereafter become a comet and be
seen as suchiii remote regions of the universe . This comet . state of a heavenly- body » e considered as a state of iud&'meiit , aric ] J < . ml O 7 indicating * the previous apostacy and irreclaimable impenitence or rebellion of its rational inhabitants , which caused the very world they inhabited to be so devoted to destruction . Each of those devoted worlds , he thought had its saviour and oilers of
"' fircy sent to it long previous to that aw"land fatal catastrophe . Christ he be-» eved to be the Saviour only of this world , iom which he draws some curious inferences favourable to his own system . —Acc » r < W > r to his notion the same comet could be expected to appear twice in our sysein : nor would that , perhaps , even in "us day , be very . easily refuted .
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structions at his death for hrs son to do it afterwards : which vet he did not do , despairing perhaps of its convincing , or having * any good effect on the malcontents , and fearing it might
irritate them further , and so preclude the possibility of re-union , or a restoration of harmony in the congregation . But whatever consideration it was that prevented the publication of this volume , it is certain that harmony was never restored , or a re-union effected between
these two parties : the discontented or antinomian party went off afterwards , in the son ' s time , and formed a kind of Independent Society , which , after assuming various shapes , and undergoing divers changes , produced the Baptist congregation here , which now
meets at the new chapel in Broadstreet . Mr . Rastrick died in 1727 ' > at the advanced age of 78 . He was buried in St . Nicholas' Chapel , towards the west end , where his grave-stone is
still to be seen with a long Latin inscription or epitaph , of which the following translation has been given many years ago by the late Dr . Thomas Gibbons , exclusive of two expressions here added .
u Here lie the remains of the Revd . John Rastrick , M . A . Born at Heckin ^ 'ton near Sleaford in the county of Lincoln 5 and educated at Trinity-college in Cambridge . He was formerly vicar of Kirk ton in the same county , fourteen years : And afterwards , as he could not comply with some requisitions of the Church of England with a safe conscience , Was an undefatigable preacher of the gospel in this town twenty-six years To a Christian church in separation from
the establishment . He was a man of eminent piety , eliarity , and modesty ; of approved integrity , of remarkable study and pains ; And an adept in almost every part of learning , But especially the mathematics .
He was a pleasant companion , A truly Christian divine , An eloquent and powerful preacher , A faithful and vigil tint pastor , An intrepid reprover of vice And as warm an eneom ager of virtue Havinsr finished his course ,
Imbittered , alas ! with many trials , He joyfully yielded up his soul to God , August 8 , 1727 . Aged 78 . " He lived , as did also his son afterwards , in that house in Sp inner-lane , how
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Memoir of John Rastrick , M . A . 605
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1815, page 605, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1765/page/5/
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