Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/363

 stated that Emlyn preached with ‘pistols in his pocket.’ Overtures were made to him (1 May) from the presbyterian congregation of Wood Street, Dublin, for whom he had once preached. In reply, Emlyn disposed of a rumour that he was ‘intirely addicted to the church,’ but declined to go to Dublin on the plea of business in England.

In the autumn of 1688 he left Belfast for London. Passing through Liverpool, he preached at St. Nicholas's for Robert Hunter, the incumbent, who took him for a clergyman, as he stood at the door of his inn. A second sermon at Liverpool (in August or September, just after Hunter's death) made the parishioners anxious to get him the living. He preached in other parish churches on his way, and reached London in December.

In May 1689 Emlyn became chaplain to Sir Robert Rich at Rose Hall, near Beccles, Suffolk. Rich, a lord of the admiralty, was a leading member of a presbyterian congregation meeting in a barn in Blue Anchor Lane, Lowestoft. At his desire Emlyn ministered at Lowestoft for about a year and a half, without accepting any pastoral charge. He was on good terms with John Hudson, the vicar, and took his people to charity sermons in the parish church. He was intimate with an old independent minister, William Manning, ejected from Middleton, Suffolk, and subsequently preaching at his own licensed house in Peasenhall. William Sherlock's ‘Vindication’ of the Trinity (1690) was read and discussed by Emlyn and Manning, with the result that Manning became a Socinian. He tried to convert Emlyn, keeping up a correspondence with him till his death (buried 15 Feb. 1711, aged 80). Emlyn's mind was not of the rationalistic order. He had supplied Baxter with circumstantial narratives of a ghost-story and of a case of witchcraft. Manning's influence brought him to a semi-Arian position, but no further. At what date he thus broke with established views is not clear; probably not till 1697, for on 18 Jan. 1697–8 he writes to Manning that he cannot hope to retain his charge, and is waiting for ‘a fair occasion’ to speak out.

The Dublin invitation had been renewed on 23 Sept. 1690, through Nathaniel Taylor of Salters' Hall, and accepted. In May 1691 Emlyn reached Dublin, and was ordained as colleague to Joseph Boyse [q. v.] His preaching was popular, avoiding controverted subjects, but puritanical in tone. On 4 Oct. 1698 he delivered a discourse before the societies for the reformation of manners, in which, while deprecating the ‘prosecuting any for differences of judgment in religion,’ he strongly advocated severe measures against vice and profanity, including sabbath-breaking. Among those attracted to his ministry was a churchwoman, Esther or Hester, younger daughter and coheiress of David Sollom, a quondam Jewish merchant, who had purchased (16 May 1678) the estate of Syddan and Woodstown in the barony of Slane, co. Meath. She had become, in her twentieth year, the widow of Richard Cromleholme Bury, a landed proprietor near Limerick, who left her a good jointure at his death (23 Nov. 1691). Emlyn married her in 1694 (license dated 10 July). On 13 Oct. 1701 she died, aged 29.

The ‘fair occasion’ for disclosing his views was brought about by the suspicions of Duncan Cumyng, M.D. (d. 8 Sept. 1724), an elder in his congregation who had been educated for the ministry. Cumyng noticed omissions in Emlyn's preaching, and interviewed him with Boyse in June 1702. Emlyn at once owned his heresy and wished to resign his charge. Boyse thought the matter must be laid before the Dublin presbytery, a body formed out of a coalition of presbyterians and independents. The ministers immediately resolved to dismiss Emlyn and silence him; subsequently, at the instance of his congregation, they agreed that he should withdraw to England for a time, but not preach. To this galling condition Emlyn would not bind himself. Next day he left for London, where he found friends, in spite of angry letters from Dublin. The Dublin divines engaged John Howe [q. v.] to talk him over, but without effect. Emlyn drew up and printed a paper containing his ‘case,’ which was met by a reply from Dublin, drafted by Boyse. A private letter from Boyse (3 Sept. 1702), very kindly written, advised Emlyn to seek some other engagement. On 16 Sept., at Cork, the Munster presbytery testified against his errors. After ten weeks' absence he returned to Dublin to settle his affairs, sold his books, and prepared to depart. Before doing so he put to press ‘An Humble Inquiry into the Scripture Account of Jesus Christ.’ It was printed off, and the dissenters were anxious to hinder it from getting abroad. Alarm had been excited by a Socinian tract, ‘The Scandal and Folly of the Cross removed’ (1699), with which Emlyn had nothing to do, though it seems to have been reprinted in Dublin. Two dissenters on the grand jury were eager to present the ‘Inquiry;’ one of them, Caleb Thomas, a baptist deacon, got a warrant from Chief-justice Pyne and seized the author with a part of the impression. There was some demur about accepting bail; the attorney-general (Rochford) was appealed to and gave his consent.

At the end of Easter term 1703 the grand