their body, being charged with Anti-trinitarian opinions, was still
retained in membership by vote of the General Baptist Assembly, this
being the first instance of any organization's formal acceptance of
latitude respecting the Trinity. In Ireland, deterred no doubt by the
harsh punishment of Emlyn, there was natural hesitation in avowing such
latitude; but in 1721 a division began in Ulster between those who
insisted on 'subscribing' the creed anew and those who opposed; and a
few years later the 'non-subscribers,' being excluded from the Synod,
formed a new Presbytery which in course of time became distinctly
Unitarian. The historic event for English 'non-subscription' was a
declaration made at a meeting of Dissenting ministers, Independents,
Baptists, and Presbyterians, held in 1719 at Salter's Hall, London.
Certain Exeter ministers had become unsound in doctrine, and refused to
renew their subscription to the creeds and articles, claiming to believe
'the Scripture'--a well-understood expression in those days. The
question of their exclusion was referred to London, and there again the
point of renewed 'subscription' was raised before the vote on the Exeter
case was taken. By seventy-three to sixty-nine it was decided that the
declaration of faith should be confined to 'the words of Scripture'--as
Sir Joseph Jekyll put it, 'the Bible carried it by four.' This was
widely recognized as setting open the door for liberty in matters of
religion, and the interesting fact should be recorded that Independents
and Presbyterians were found on both sides.

Here, then, we may for the present leave the English development; it was
slow, tentative, for the most part obscure. In one direction and another
the movement of thought might be perceived, in the Church, among the
'Congregationals,' or Baptists, or Presbyterians, as the case might be.
It was only long after that much preponderance of heretical opinion was
distinctive of Presbyterian congregations. In the Academies men like