After this declaration, Dr. Beaumont's respect for the
rights of conscience made him for ever renounce the character of a
disputant; but during all the hardships to which Non-conformists were
exposed he steadily supported that of a friend. Barton found, in the
parsonage at Ribblesdale, a safe, honourable, and happy asylum from
the tempest which fell upon his party. His peaceable and friendly
disposition restrained him from every mark of enmity to the Church from
which he dissented; nor did he ever confound the mistakes of her
governors, or the faults of her officials, with the essentials of her
institution. Dr. Beaumont avoided every topic that might give him pain,
with a delicacy which proved that the gratitude of an obliged pensioner
mingled with the feelings of a generous host. Even Mrs. Mellicent never
abused Round-heads in his presence; and, as to fanatics, Barton thought
them as disgraceful to his sect as they were dangerous to the hierarchy.
He had the singular honour of escorting the venerable spinster, in her
purple camlet riding-hood, whenever she visited her niece Lady Evellin,
at the Hall, or her nephew Lord Sedley, at Bellingham-Castle; and the
cordial welcome he ever received from both families, proved their just
sensibility of his former kindness.
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