George Dyer, Northampton, to Robert Robinson, Chesterton, near Cambridge, 2 August 1782.

Rev: and very hon: Sir,

I am now placed by ye God of providence at Northampton, nearly about the same distance, I suspect, from Cambridge, as it is from London.  The post goes out six times a week, and is, I suppose, not more than two days reaching Chesterton.  Gratitude therefore & respect, pleasure and duty are frequently soliciting me to drop a letter in the box.  And I feel myself strongly inclined to obey their solicitations.  But I know not how – & yet I do know – something is ever holding back my hand.  What is that something?  M.r R. knows.  Eheu!  cur manat rara meas lachryma per genas! –

I have, however, Sir, a private mode of conveyance: a post, w.ch is [in] danger of no robbers, & is the subject of no taxation: & which therefore sets out oftener, and travels w.th greater expedition than any post in Europe.  Since I did myself the honour of writing my last, this faithful traveler has been frequently at Chesterton.  It has knock[ed] respectfully at y.r door: & not content with a rap & away, like y.e postboy it has actually gained admission.  It has surveyed y.r hon: family with tears of gratitude & respect.  It hath addressed itself to heaven for their happiness.  May y.e good will of him, that dwelt in y.e bush be with you all!   This was it’s language.  It frequently meets you, Sir, on the road to London, and often takes it’s silent stand behind your chair at the Museum. The only things, w.th w.ch I have to charge this carrier, are its extreme silence, and distant reserve. It comes, it stays, it goes unobserved, and during it’s continuance conveys no information, and brings none back – naughty carrier –

How agreeable is it, hon: Sir, upon a change of situation to have the mind still keeping it ‘in place.’   How delightful to enjoy in some distant part of y.e world some respectable character, to whom y.e soul is still united by the strongest respect, and whom one may still approach as father, friend, & benefactor!  How is every care alleviated, & every pleasure enlarged, when one can write freely to a benefactor, & adopt such language as this!  Warm with a sense of your fairness, and indebted to you for y.r recommendation I find every thing agreeable to my wishes.  The country, y.e town, y.e family, y.e employment, all are agreeable, because they all put me in mind of you.  But alas! –

Did I enjoy, & c.d I w.th freedom approach such a benefactor, I would acquaint him with my real motives for leaving Oxford.  I would with humility assure him, that it has been my prayer night and day, that God would gently take me by the hand, & lead me as I could bear it, into all truth. I would entreat him to recollect, that enquiry is usually cautious, and dares not speak out, till she hersself [sic] has rec:d an answer: that during this delay ignorance will be growing clamorous, & enthusiasm boisterous: yea that honesty will be suspect of insincerity, and sincere piety will complain of lukewarmness.  I would farther entreat him to recollect, that amid variety of sentiment, each party only hears for itself, and can no longer receive profit, than it can hear with pleasure.  Under these circumstances, y.e preacher, if he love all, and wish to do all good, will aim to please all.  He will endeavour to forestall their attention.  He will be desirous of preoccupying their affections, that he may in future gain over their judgement.  Yea he will be in danger, if his principles be not well fixed, of sometimes, perhaps imperceptibly, admitting what may not appear to be true; yea sometimes of advancing, what he hisself does not cordially believe.  For I w.d entreat such a benefacter to recollect, that if the situation be such as to prevent y.e mind’s moving freely, y.e confinement must be burst, or the mind will set: that y.e mind like y.e body, when closely pent up, will contract diseases; or like a standing water, it will contract a stench & live upon it’s own filth – & then death, hell, & destruction will ensue!

Did I enjoy such a benefactor, & might I address him with freedom, I would once again assure him, that I feel the tenderest love for y.e people at Oxford: that I have every possible reason to believe [sic], that they have the same love for me, & that tho’ we agree to part, we part without differing.  I w.d assure him that while with y.e feelings of an orphan, deprived of it’s spiritual parent, I look towards Chesterton; I look towards Oxford with the feelings of a shepherd’s-boy; who had been placed by a good shepherd to guard y.e sheep & who during his keeping watch had contracted all y.e love of a real shepherd.  At y.e same time I would confess myself a miserable miserable sinner, not worthy of taking y.e name of Christ [?--paper torn], and infinitely unworthy of engaging in the Xtian ministry; unworthy of favours [?--paper torn] rec:d from M.r Robinson, and utterly unworthy of addressing his person, who feels his unworthiness of his heavenly and earthly benefactor, & who frequently is forced to adopt y.e humbling language, “I loath myself, I would not live always: & yet that I am enabled to say sometimes to y.e searcher of hearts, Oh! thou that knowest all things, knowest, that I love thee.

C.d I, hon: sir, address such a benefacter [sic] with freedom, I w.d take y.e liberty of making him acquainted w.th the manner, in w.ch my time is at present taken up: I w.d tell him it was divided between teaching & learning, & I would inform him how that division was made: I w.d acquaint him, that I find some little leisure for reading, & I w.d acquaint him with the books, w.ch I am at present perusing. I w.d inform him that I receive calls for preaching on Lord’s days, & that I w.th pleasure obey those calls: that my time is fully taken up; & yet not so fully, but that the mind steals away frequently from Northampton, & weeps in secret over y.e favours of his hon: benefacters at Chesterton & Trumpington – & longs – longs – longs – to hear they are all well.

May I hope, Rev: Sir, that my sincerest respects will reach y.r hon: family, & the Ladies at Trumpington, & other friends at Cambridge.  Lord God, thou knowest how cordially I respect them – Roll away time, and hasten, blessed period, when I shall no longer offend the divine majesty, oppose almighty love, and resist all conquering grace.  Hasten blessed period, when y.e unworthiest of creatures shall be w.th God, & spend a long eternity with those, whom he loves & esteems better than life.  I have been forced to write amid noise & confusion – the bell now rings for school – I must therefore conclude; for I can no longer rest, without assuring you by this very next post, how much I feel myself, hon: & Rev: Sir

most resp: y.r very obliged serv.t

& unworthy son in y.e gospel

G Dyer

Aug: 2. 1782.  Northampton.

Text: George Dyer Collection, Emmanuel College, Cambridge University, 9.12.1.B. The ‘Trumpington Ladies’ refers to two women, Ann and Susannah Calwell, a mother and daughter, who lived in a house belonging to Christopher Anstey of Bath, author of The New Bath Guide. Robinson became friends with them about 1777 and they allowed him a place to stay at times the use of Anstey’s extensive library in what was the home of his father in Trumpington. They also provided pecuniary assistance for him as well and were generous benefactors to the Academy at Bristol, giving £150 between them in 1774. In 1781 Robinson was commissioned by the Particular Baptists to write a history of the Baptists, and he worked many years on this, both at Cambridge and London. See An Account of the Bristol Education Society Anno 1770 (Bristol: M. Ward, 1776), 20; Stephen Bernard Nutter, The Story of the Cambridge Baptists and the Struggle for Religious Liberty (Cambridge: W. Heffer and Sons, 1912), 91.