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HALL, ROBERT (1764-1831)

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 850 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HALL, See also:ROBERT (1764-1831) , See also:English Baptist divine, was See also:born on the 2nd of May 1764, at Arnesby near See also:Leicester, where his See also:father, Robert Hall (1728-1791), a See also:man whose See also:cast of mind in some respects resembled closely that of the son, was pastor of a Baptist See also:congregation. Robert was the youngest of a See also:family of fourteen. While still at the See also:dame's school his See also:passion for books absorbed the greater See also:part of his See also:time, and in the summer it was his See also:custom after school See also:hours to retire to the See also:churchyard with a See also:volume, which he continued to peruse there till nightfall, making out the meaning of the more difficult words with the help of a See also:pocket See also:dictionary. From his See also:sixth to his See also:eleventh See also:year he attended the school of Mr See also:Simmons at Wigston, a See also:village four See also:miles from Arnesby. There his precocity assumed the exceptional See also:form of an intense See also:interest in See also:metaphysics, partly perhaps on See also:account of the restricted See also:character of his father's library; and before he was nine years of See also:age he had read and re-read See also:Jonathan See also:Edwards's See also:Treatise on the Will and See also:Butler's See also:Analogy. This incessant study at such an See also:early See also:period of See also:life seems, however, to have had an injurious See also:influence on his See also:health. After he See also:left Mr Simmons's school his See also:appearance was so sickly as to awaken fears of the presence of See also:phthisis. In See also:order, therefore, to obtain the benefit of a See also:change of See also:air, he stayed for some time in the See also:house of a See also:gentleman near Kettering, who with an impropriety which Hall himself afterwards referred to as " egregious," prevailed upon the boy of eleven to give occasional addresses at See also:prayer meetings. As his health seemed rapidly to recover, he was sent to a school at See also:Northampton conducted by the Rev. See also:John See also:Ryland, where he remained a year and a See also:half, and " made See also:great progress in Latin and See also:Greek." On leaving school he for some time studied divinity under the direction of his father, and in See also:October 1778 he entered the See also:Bristol See also:academy for the preparation of students for the Baptist See also:ministry. Here the self-See also:possession which had enabled him in his twelfth year to address unfalteringly various audiences of grown-up See also:people seems to have strangely forsaken him; for when, in accordance with the arrangements of the academy, his turn came to deliver an address in the See also:vestry of Broadmead See also:chapel, he See also:broke down ontwo See also:separate occasions and was unable to finish his discourse. On the 13th of See also:August 178o he was set apart to the ministry, but he still continued his studies at the academy; and in 1781, in accordance with the provisions of an See also:exhibition which he held, he entered See also:King's See also:College, See also:Aberdeen, where he took the degree of See also:master of arts in See also:March 1785.

At the university he was without a See also:

rival of his own See also:standing in any of the classes, distinguishing himself alike in See also:classics, See also:philosophy and See also:mathematics. He there formed the acquaintance of See also:Mackintosh (afterwards See also:Sir See also:James), who, though a year his junior in age; was a year his See also:senior as a student. While they remained at Aberdeen the two were inseparable, See also:reading together the best Greek authors, especially See also:Plato, and discussing, either during their walks by the See also:sea-See also:shore and the See also:banks of the See also:Don or in their rooms until early See also:morning, the most perplexed questions in philosophy and See also:religion. During the vacation between his last two sessions at Aberdeen, Hall acted as assistant pastor to Dr See also:Evans at Broadmead chapel, Bristol, and three months after leaving the university he was appointed classical See also:tutor in the Bristol academy, an See also:office which he held for more than five years. Even at this period his extra-See also:ordinary eloquence had excited an interest beyond the See also:bounds of the See also:denomination to which he belonged, and when he preached the chapel was generally crowded to excess, the See also:audience including many persons of intellectual tastes. Suspicions in regard to his orthodoxy having in 1789 led to a misunderstanding with his colleague and a part of the congregation, he in See also:July 1790 accepted an invitation to make trial of a congregation at See also:Cam-See also:bridge, of which he became pastor in July of the following year. From a statement of his opinions contained in a See also:letter to the congregation which he left, it would appear that, while a See also:firm believer in the proper divinity of See also:Christ, he had at this time disowned the See also:cardinal principles of Calvinism—the federal headship of See also:Adam, and the See also:doctrine of See also:absolute See also:election and reprobation; and that he was so far a materialist as to " hold that man's thinking See also:powers and faculties are the result of a certain organization of See also:matter, and that after See also:death he ceases to be conscious till the resurrection." It was during his Cam-bridge ministry, which extended over a period of fifteen years, that his See also:oratory was most brilliant and m6st immediately powerful. At See also:Cambridge the intellectual character of a large part of the audience supplied a stimulus which was wanting at Leicester and Bristol. His first published compositions had a See also:political origin. In 1791 appeared See also:Christianity consistent with the Love of Freedom, in which he defended the political conduct of dissenters against the attacks of the Rev. John See also:Clayton, See also:minister of Weighhouse, and gave eloquent expression to his hopes of great political and social ameliorations as destined to result nearly or remotely from the subversion of old ideas and institutions in the See also:maelstrom of the See also:French Revolution. In 1793 he expounded his political sentiments in a powerful and more extended pamphlet entitled an See also:Apology for the Freedom of the See also:Press.

On account, however, of certain asperities into which the warmth of his feelings had betrayed him, and his conviction that he had treated his subject in too superficial a manner, he refused to permit the publication of the pamphlet beyond the third edition, until the references of political opponents and the circulation of copies without his See also:

sanction induced him in 1821 to prepare a new edition, from which he omitted the attack on See also:Bishop See also:Horsley, and to which he prefixed an See also:advertisement stating that his political opinions had undergone no substantial change. His other publications while at Cambridge were three sermons—On See also:Modern Infidelity (r8or), Reflections on See also:War (2802), and Sentiments proper to the See also:present Crisis (1803). He began, however, to suffer from See also:mental derangement in See also:November 1804. He recovered so speedily that he was able to resume his duties in See also:April 1805, but a recurrence of the mali.dy rendered it advisable for him on his second recovery to resign his See also:pastoral office in March 18o6. On leaving Cambridge he paid a visit to his relatives in See also:Leicestershire, and then for some time resided at Enderby, See also:preaching occasionally in some of the neighbouring villages. Latterly he ministered to a small congregation in See also:Harvey See also:Lane, Leicester, from whom at the See also:close of r8o6 he accepted a See also:call to be their stated pastor. In the autumn of 1807 he changed his See also:residence from Enderby to Leicester, and in 18o8 he married the servant of a See also:brother minister. His proposal of See also:marriage had been made after an almost momentary acquaintance, and, according to the traditionary account, in very abrupt and See also:peculiar terms; but, judging from his subsequent domestic life, his choice did sufficient See also:credit to his penetration and sagacity. His writings at Leicester embraced various tracts printed for private circulation; a number of contributions to the Eclectic See also:Review, among which may be mentioned his articles on " See also:Foster's Essays " and on " Zeal without Innovation "; several sermons, including those On the Advantages of Knowledge to the See also:Lower Classes (181o), On the Death of the Princess See also:Charlotte (1817), and On the Death of Dr Ryland (1825); and his pamphlet on Terms of Communion, in which he advocated intercommunion with all those who acknowledged the " essentials" of Christianity. In 1819 he published an edition in one volume of his sermons formerly printed. On the death of Dr Ryland, Hall was invited to return to the pastorate of Broadmead chapel, Bristol, and as the See also:peace of the congregation at Leicester had been to some degree disturbed by a controversy regarding several cases of discipline, he resolved to accept the invitation,, and removed there in April 1826. The malady of renal calculus had for many years rendered his life an almost continual martyrdom, and henceforth increasing infirmities and sufferings afflicted him.

Gradually the inability to take proper exercise, by inducing a plethoric See also:

habit of See also:body and impeding the circulation, led to a diseased See also:condition of the See also:heart, which resulted in his death on the 21st of See also:February 1831. He is remembered as a great See also:pulpit orator, of a somewhat laboured, rhetorical See also:style in his written See also:works, but of undeniable vigour in his spoken sermons. See Works of Robert Hall, A.M., with a Brief Memoir of his Life, by Olinthus See also:Gregory, LL.D., and Observations on his Character as Preacher by John Foster, originally published in 6 vols. (See also:London, 1832); Reminiscences of the Rev. Robert Hall, A.M., by John See also:Greene, (London, 1832) ; See also:Biographical Recollections of the Rev. Robert Hall, by J. W. See also:Morris (1848); Fifty Sermons of Robert Hall from Notes. taken at the time of their Delivery, by the Rev. See also:Thomas Grinfield, M.A. (1843); Reminiscences of College Life in Bristol during the Ministry of the Rev. Robert Hall, A.M., by See also:Frederick Trestrail (1879).

End of Article: HALL, ROBERT (1764-1831)

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