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his return to England, for a course of lectures, at Leeds, on moral and literary subjects, but it was not carried into execution. He likewise conceived a plan of delivering a series of discourses to young persons on Sunday evenings, "different from sermons only in being without texts," at the meeting-house where he attended.

"I intended my utmost efforts to simplify, illustrate and persuade, by every expedient in the power of a mind possessed of a measure both of amplitude and originality. But Mr. , a very good and sensible, but a timid man, tenacious of modes and notions which the Church and time have sanctioned, and dreading the profane and ill-omened flight of philosophy and fancy athwart the good old way, as peasants turn back in dismay at the sight of three magpies crossing their road, durst not admit such a measure, for it would not be preaching the Gospel.""-I. 39, 40.

The fact is, that at this time Foster occasioned some anxiety to his friends by his contempt of what he calls " ecclesiastical formalities." He had cast aside the clerical habit for coloured clothes, went with his hair tied, and wore a red waistcoat. And he doubtless greatly lessened his influence by a violation of the customs which the general sentiments of those amongst whom he lived esteemed appropriate to the office and character of a Christian minister. He was also dissatisfied with the mode of church-fellowship adopted among what are called orthodox Dissenting churches, and thought it useless and mischievous, -an opinion which he continued to hold to the end of his life.

"The general tenor of his language implied a disapproval of any organized religious community. He believed that there was more of appearance than of reality in the union of church-membership; and that, at all events, its benefits were greatly overrated. With the exception of public worship and the Lord's Supper, he was averse to every thing institutional in religion. He never administered, nor even witnessed in mature life, (it is believed,) the ordinance of baptism, and was known to entertain doubts respecting its perpetuity. In writing to a friend (Sept. 10, 1828), he says, I have long felt an utter loathing of what bears the general denomination of the Church, with all its parties, contests, disgraces or honours. My wish would be little less than the dissolution of all church institutions, of all orders and shapes; that religion might be set free, as a grand spiritual and moral element, no longer clogged, perverted and prostituted by corporation forms and principles.'”— Pp. 61, 62.

This, we take it, is a growing desire with free and enlightened and devout minds. And in this respect we have reason to rejoice in the liberal and comprehensive principles on which our own congregations are established. But at the period of which we have been writing, Foster's views would seem to have been in an unsettled state also in regard to many of the doctrines in the belief of which he had been educated.

"That denomination of people in which I have been conversant, have stronger causes of exception than the colour of a waistcoat;-my opinions have suffered some alteration. I have discarded, for instance, the doctrine of eternal punishments; I can avow no opinion on the peculiar points of Calvinism, for I have none, nor see the possibility of forming a satisfactory one. I am no Socinian; but I am in doubt between the orthodox and Arian doctrines, not without some inclination to the latter. It is a subject for deliberate, perhaps long investigation; and I feel a sincerity which assures me that the issue, whatever it may be, must be safe. In this state of thought and

feelings, I have just written to Mr. David, of Frome, requesting to be informed whether there be, within his sphere of acquaintance, an Arian congregation in want of a preacher, expressing to him, however, that my preference of such a congregation does not arise from a conclusive coincidence of opinion, but from a conviction that there only can I find the candour and scope which I desire.'"-I. 40, 41.

Early in the year 1797, Foster became the minister of a General Baptist congregation at Chichester. He continued in this place about two years and a half, and devoted himself with great earnestness and zeal to his sacred duties. But though much regarded by his people, he saw little or no fruit of his labours. The society, small when he became its pastor, and benumbed by religious indifference, became still less by frequent deaths and removals, and soon after his departure ceased to exist.

"Of Foster's hearers but few now survive who were then of an age to retain a recollection of his person and habits. A walk in the vicinity of the town is still known by his name; but his most favourite resort for meditation was the chapel, where the well-worn bricks of the aisles still exhibit the vestiges of his solitary pacings to and fro by moonlight."-P. 67.

During his residence at Chichester, he held a correspondence with his friend Hughes on the subject of his religious opinions, and appears to have acquired more settled views. He tells him that he holds accurately, he believes, the leading points of the Calvinistic faith, and expresses a desire to be recommended to a society in the Evangelic (Baptist) connection. It is impossible to read the letters which he wrote at this period without being forcibly struck with the spirituality of his mind, and his ardent aspirations for the attainment of that "divine discipleship which would make him zealous and useful and happy." On leaving Chichester, he resided for some time at Battersea, in the neighbourhood of London, with Mr. Hughes. Until now, his intercourse with persons of refinement and mental culture had been very limited. But here he was introduced to men of education and intelligence, and found scope for his conversational powers. In 1800, he became preacher at a small chapel at Downend, about five miles from Bristol, where he continued until 1804, when, chiefly through the strong recommendation of Robert Hall, he was invited to become pastor of a Baptist congregation in Frome, which he describes as "a large and surpassingly ugly town in Somersetshire, where the greatest number of the people are employed about making woollen cloth." The meeting-house in which he preached was that in which Job David long exercised his ministry. The society was in a very low state, and consisted of persons of different religious opinions. Some were "Trinitarians, in the common and simple sense, and some were a kind of Sabellians." Some were Baxterian, and others Calvinistic; and a few there were whose views were in accordance with those of their late pastor, which Mr. Foster describes as Socinian, but which, we suppose, would be more truly designated Unitarian. It was soon after his settlement in Frome that he published his celebrated Essays, which Robert Hall eloquently praised, which Sir James Mackintosh tells Hall he read with the greatest admiration, and which gave Foster a place with the most remarkable writers of his times. These Essays are thought to have originated in his conversations with the lady who afterwards

became his wife. On their publication, Mr. Hughes, by his own personal exertions, circulated nearly one-fifth of the whole edition.

"He presented copies to Mr. Wilberforce, Lord Teignmouth and other persons of note and influence. Horne Tooke has your volumes,' he tells Mr. Foster. I went over to make him a helper. He is considerably an approver. He says, 'Let him simplify; there is a basis of good sense. If he is a young writer, he will do.' I requested him to mention the publication: he will.' In about four months a second edition was called for. The degree of success,' Foster remarks, is indeed very unusual. I trust it is a direct favour and interposition of Providence, both for public utility and personal happiness. It will have been preceded and accompanied by numberless supplications of great sincerity and earnestness; a very principal part of which have been employed to ask for more of the spirit that would devoutly and benevolently wish to do good. I feel and lament a great deficiency in this point; but I am not content to do no more than feel and lament it.'"I. 274.

Foster's connection with his Frome congregation was brought to an early termination in consequence of a complaint in the throat. He resigned his charge in 1806, and undertook a literary engagement with the Eclectic Review, which was long his chief occupation and dependence. In 1808 he married, after an acquaintance of seven years. His own age was thirty-seven, that of the lady thirty-one; and they took up their abode at Bourton-on-the-Water, a village in the upper part of Gloucestershire, where his wife had previously resided. Here he pur

sued the studious and sequestered course which was so congenial with his feelings. His domestic life was full of satisfaction, and was a cause to him of the most lively gratitude. His health, too, enabled him, soon after his marriage, to engage in village preaching; and with this exercise on the Sunday, reading and reviewing in the week, and an occasional excursion for the benefit of his mental and physical health, his days and years passed. In a letter to his mother he observes

"I am sitting alone in my long garret, in which I spend a considerable part of every day, excepting the days on which I go out to preach. Here I have a little fire, and excepting along the middle of the floor, the room is crowded and loaded with papers and books, intermingled with dust that is never swept away. Along this middle space of the floor I walk backwards and forwards as much as several hours every day; for I cannot make much of thinking and composing without walking about, a habit that I learnt early in my musing life. Formerly I used to walk about the fields for hours together, indulging imaginations and reflections, thinking of myself and innumerable other objects; reviewing past life, and forming plans or vows for the future. Since I came to this village, I have walked in the fields in this way comparatively but little; this garret has served me instead. I have been more in habits of such kind of study as required to have books and pens at hand. But, nevertheless, I probably walk not much less than I did when it was in the open air. It would be a marvellous number of miles if it could be computed how far I have walked on this floor. It would be a length that would reach to the other side of the globe.”—I. 389.

In the year 1815, Robert Hall was visiting at Bristol, and Foster embraced the opportunity of again hearing this great preacher.

"The last sermon I heard him preach," he says, "which dwelt much on the topic of living in rain, made a more powerful impression on my mind than, I think, any one I ever heard. And this was not simply from its being the most eloquent sermon, unquestionably, that I ever heard, or probably ever

shall hear, but from the solemn and alarming truth which it urged and pressed upon the conscience with the force of a tempest. I suppose every intelligent person has the impression, in hearing him, that he surpasses every other preacher probably in the whole world. In the largest congregation there is an inconceivable stillness and silence while he is preaching, partly, indeed, owing to his having a weak, low voice, though he is a strong, large-built man; but very much owing to that commanding power of his mind, which holds all other minds in captivity while within reach of his voice. He has no tricks of art and oratory, no studied gesticulations, no ranting, no pompous declamation. His eloquence is the mighty power of spirit, throwing out a rapid series of thoughts,-explanatory, argumentative, brilliant, pathetic or sublime, sometimes all these together. And the whole manner is simple, natural, grave, sometimes cool, often impetuous and ardent. He seems always to have a complete dominion over the subject on which he is dwelling, and over the subject, on every side, to which he adverts for illustration. He has the same pre-eminent power in his ordinary conversation as in his preaching. What is best in the account, the power of religion is predominant over every other power in his mind. A devotional spirit is very conspicuous in his religious exercises, and it is said by those who know him best, to be the habitual character of his mind."-I. 384.

During his residence at Bourton, Foster lost his parents, and his own family was increased by the birth of five children. Of these, two died in infancy; his son, a promising youth, was taken from him when he was about fifteen; and two daughters, we believe, survive. Foster deeply felt his son's removal. Five days after his decease he wrote"John has left us now (all but his wan, insensible form), no more to return. The last complete sentence he uttered was, I know that my Redeemer liveth.' This was near the close; he retained his faculties till within the last hour; then, about midnight, seemed to sleep; and expired, I believe, without the sense of suffering. *My interest in the accumulation of valuable books in this room will be sensibly lessened by the extinction of the anticipation of their being hereafter a source of instruction and gratification to him. He needs now no such means of knowledge. And how many things by this time he knows which no books can tell! Late in his illness he mentioned it as one pleasing circumstance in the idea of the superior world, that knowledge will beam into the soul without the slow labour of difficult acquisition."-II. 24.

In 1817, Mr. Foster's health was so much improved, that he thought he might be again capable of stated pulpit labour, and he resumed his charge at Downend. A few months' trial, however, convinced him that, though physically capable of conducting the services, he had not the power of permanently interesting those whom he was called to address; and, disappointed at his failure, he relinquished the situation. It was about this time that he was asked to take a part in the anniversary of a Bible Society; and in a letter to the Rev. Michael Maurice, then minister of the Unitarian chapel, Frenchay, he remarks with reference to such meetings

"My own opinion or taste in the matter may perhaps partake of perversity or whim, but I will acknowledge I utterly loathe and abominate the prevailing spirit and manner of these meetings. From all I have seen of them, they appear to me to be, in a greater degree than they are any thing else, exhibitions of vanity, cajolery and ostentation. The ludicrous aping of the forms and ceremonial of the chief legislative assemblies-the rattling and clapping -the sort of prize-speech making, in which it is often so palpably evident that

the speaker's object is just to shine,—the fulsome dealing round of extravagant compliment,-all these give, to say the least, a farcical and operatic cast to the whole concern (in many instances, at least, I have felt this the irresistible impression), and form, in my apprehension, a flagrant abandonment of dignity, sense and honest truth. That money is obtained and the popularity of the good cause promoted, every good man must rejoice; but he must lament the necessity, if it be such, that so much of the agency for doing this good should consist in men's helping to inflate one another's vanity, and turning important matters into parading show and exhibition.”—II. 4.

These observations appear to us as just as they are striking. We trust they may have a good effect in those quarters where they are most needed. In 1818, Foster delivered his discourse on Missions; and in the same year, he preached a sermon on behalf of the British and Foreign School Society, which he enlarged into his famous Essay on the Evils of Popular Ignorance, which was very favourably received, and has had an extensive circulation. In the autumn of 1821, he removed from Downend to Stapleton, a quiet and beautiful village about three miles from Bristol, his last place of abode. In the following year, he was requested to deliver a lecture once a fortnight at Broadmead chapel. With this request he complied, and a part of the series of these lectures has been published in one volume since his death. His audience was not numerous, but "contained, probably, a greater porportion of intelligent and educated persons than most single congregations could have furnished. The preacher was aware that he was addressing friends, or persons who, from their knowledge of him as an author, felt no ordinary interest in listening to his instructions." Mr. Sheppard, who has contributed some interesting notices to the volumes before us, of Foster as a preacher and a companion, says that his

"Sermons were of a cast quite distinct from what is commonly called oratory, and indeed from what many seem to account the highest style of eloquence, namely, a flow of facile thought through the smooth channels of uniformly elevated polished diction, graced by the utmost appliances of voice and gesture. But they possessed for me, and for not a few hearers, qualities and attractions much preferable to these. The basis of important thought was as much original or underived from other minds, as, perhaps, that of any reading man's reflections in our age of books could be; still more so the mode and aspect in which they were presented. That unambitious and homely sort of loftiness which displayed neither phrase nor speaker, but things, while the brief word and simple tone brought out the sublime conception 'in its clearness;' that fund of varied associations and images by which he readily illustrated, not painted or gilded, his truths; the graphic masterstrokes, the frequent hints of profound suggestion for after-meditation, the cogent, though calm, expostulations and appeals, the shrewd turn of halflatent irony against irreligion and folly, in which, without any descent from seriousness and even solemnity, the speaker moved a smile by his unconscious approaches to the edge of wit, yet effectually quelled it by the unbroken gravity of his tone and purpose, all these characteristics had for me an attractive power and value, both by novelty and instructiveness, far above the quality of an oratory or eloquence more fashioned on received rules and models. I should scarcely be ready to except in this comparison, as it regarded my personal admiration and improvement, even the rapid and fervid, yet finished elocution of Hall; though this, as being more popular, while also more critically perfect, was, I suppose, more generally effective." — II. 487, 488.

However much Mr. Sheppard and a few kindred minds might be

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