THE HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES OF DISSENTING CHURCHES, &c. &c. SILVER-STREET. PRESBYTERIAN.-EXTINCT. IN Meeting-house-yard, Silver-street, and in the parish of St. Albans, Wood-street, and St. Olaves, Hart-street, stands a meeting-house, formerly one of the most celebrated among Protestant Dissenters. The date of it we cannot ascertain with precision; but suppose it to have been erected soon after the fire of London, or upon King Charles's Indulgence, in 1672. In its original state, it was a small oblong building, with three galleries, and plainly fitted up; but it now retains nothing of its former appearance. As it was shut in from the street, concealed from observation, it was admirably adapted to times of persecution; and this was the case with most of the Dissenting places of worship, built in the reign of Charles II. The congregation that originally assembled at the meetinghouse in Silver-street, was collected soon after Bartholomew-day, by Dr. Lazarus Seaman, an eminent Divine of the Presbyterian denomination, who was ejected from the SILVER-STREET.--Presbyterian, Extinct. living of Alhallows, Bread-street. He was one of those Divines who set up private meetings after the fire of London, when the hand of Providence had, in a most awful manner, scourged the inhabitants, and deprived them of those churches from which they had but a little before driven away their faithful pastors, and of which they now became unworthy. His congregation consisted chiefly of persons who had been his hearers at Bread-street, and still considered him as their spiritual shepherd. Dr. Seamen was followed in the care of his church by a succession of Divines as eminent for piety, for learning, and for pastoral duties, as any in their day. A Jacomb, a Howe, a Spademan, and a Rosewell, are names familiar to many of our readers, and will continue long to be remembered by the church of Christ. By the labours of these men, the Society in Silverstreet was established and built up in the faith once delivered to the saints, and continued long in a prosperous and flourishing state. The congregation was numerous, and consisted of many persons who were distinguished by their rank and property, or by filling important stations in society. Many of the nobility and gentry of those days, who had been educated under puritanical tutors, retained, amidst the general defection, an attachment to religious principles, and still patronized the Nonconformists, by attending their places of worship, and receiving them into their houses. Some of these considered it an honour to sit under the ministry of the great Mr. Howe; and many wealthy citizens likewise attended. That ornament to religion, and true patriotism, Sir Thomas Abney, Knt. alderman and Lord Mayor of London, attended regularly with his family, at the meetinghouse in Silver-street. As he was a member of this church, and dissented from principle, he went publicly during his mayoralty, in 1701; but, to shew his liberality, attended preaching sometimes in the established church. This liberal conduct gave great offence to the high-church party, and was the occasion of the controversy upon the subject of |