whom he could fraternize, or in whose preaching he had any faith.
This suspicion was thoroughly reciprocal, and, except by Romaine and two or three leading clergymen of the Evangelical school, he was generally regarded as a conceited, dogmatic, dangerous man.
That he was nevertheless capable of attracting even the noblest hearts, when they had not been previously offended by his self-assertion and bigotry, is clear by the way in which his writings have affected such readers as Sterling; and even in his own day there were men of the same stamp who heartily believed in and appreciated him.
Such was the pious and conscientious William James Brook, vicar of Brighton and chaplain to the Prince Regent. Mr Brook not only had an intense sense of the responsibility of his office, and fearlessly rebuked the license of that voluptuous circle of which the Regent was the centre and the Pavilion the scene, but preferring conscience and duty to the prospect of the most exalted usefulness, to say nothing of the high preferment within his reach, determined to resign his living.
This act he ascribed mainly to the influence of Huntington's books. He writes to him from Brighton in 1805:—
"I cannot longer delay expressing some of the feelings of my heart. It has pleased God in His manifold mercies to make you instrumental in bringing me out of my country, from my kindred and my father's house, by sending some of your books to me when my mind was first awakened, and I began to fall into trouble." He then relates the effect of hearing him preach in London; and then goes on to say, "Receive this, a slight token of the union and harmony my soul delights to find in every remembrance of you, as of one whom God pointed out as a guide some years ago."
Another minister who was greatly affected by him was Mr Algar Lock, who afterwards became his assistant. Mr Lock was in much distress of mind, and imagined he had committed the unpardonable sin. Walking down Cheapside, he was suddenly so overcome by his emotion that he seized hold of a lamp-post to save himself from falling. A little old woman, who sat close by Bow Church selling tapes, saw him, and detected at once from his look what was the matter with him. "Oh," said she, "you must
