interested in Foster's services, it is quite clear, we think, that Nature never designed him for a preacher; and he seems to have been altogether wanting in that "charm of manner" which imparts life and interest and power to the discourse from the pulpit. A very great accession was made to his "resources of social enjoyment by the settlement of the Rev. W. Anderson in Bristol, as classical and mathematical tutor of the Baptist College, in 1825; and soon after, by the return of Mr. Hall to spend his last years in the scene of his early ministry." In 1829, he was invited to take part in the ordination of a minister over the congregation meeting in Swift's Alley, Dublin, with which, when a young man, he had been connected. But so rooted was his antipathy to the formal and ceremonial in religion, that he at once declined the proposed service, which, he says,

"I have always intensely hated, as a poor aping among us who have no ecclesiastical institution, of a ceremony which has all manner of propriety (as consistent with the pretensions) in an established ecclesiastical order. It carries an appearance, and (though this be somewhat reservedly avowed) it makes, and is understood to make, a sort of pretension of conferring some kind of speciality of fitness, qualification and authorization to perform the duties of a Christian minister. There is a notion that the ceremony creates something more effective and sacred, in the relation between him and the people, than could be contained in a serious and deliberate engagement between them to accept each other in that relation. Now my wish would be, that every notion and practice of this kind, in short every thing sacerdotal and ceremonial, were cleared out of our religious economy."-II. 109, 110.

In the year 1832, Mrs. Foster died, having been for some time in a very precarious state of health. She was a woman of strong intellect; "and for a refined perception and depth of reflective feeling, her husband declared that he had never known her equal." He deeply felt her loss. In a letter to a friend we find him saying,

"Left quite alone for some hours in the house. I have been walking about the different rooms, and looking at the various objects, the fire-places, the books, the furniture, the prints suspended round the walls, with the pensive and mournful consideration,-'She will see these apartments, will be seen in them, no more.' There is a strange sinking of the heart at the thought."

And again, to the same friend, after the funeral

"I have returned hither, but have an utter repugnance to say, returned home-that name is applicable no longer. There is something that seems to say, Can it be that I shall see her no more; that I shall still, one day after another, find she is not here; that her affectionate voice and look will never accost me; the kind grasp of her hand never more be felt; that when I would be glad to consult her, make an observation to her, address to her some expression of love, call her 'my dear wife,' as I have done so many thousand times, it will be in vain-she is not here? Several times-a considerable number-even since I followed her to the tomb, a momentary suggestion of thought has been, as one and another circumstance has occurred, 'I will tell Maria of this.' I have not suffered, nor do I expect to feel any overwhelming emotions, any violent excesses of grief; what I expect to feel is, a long repetition of pensive monitions of my irreparable loss. The things which belonged to her with a personal appropriation; things which she used or particularly valued; things which she had given me, or I had given her; her letters or my own to her; the corner of the chamber where I know she used to pray; her absence-unalterable absence at the hour of family worship, of social reading, of the domestic table; her no more

*

being in her place to receive me on my return home from occasional absence; the thought of what she would have said, or how she would have acted, on subjects or occasions that come in question; the remembrance how she did speak or act in similar instances; all such things as these will renew the pensive emotions, and tell me still again what I have lost,-what that was, and how great its value, which the Sovereign Disposer has in his unerring wisdom taken away."-II. 203, 209, 210.

In the year 1833, the Rajah Rammohun Roy visited Bristol, and was the guest of Miss Castle, whose mansion was very near Foster's house. From some cause he had entertained a strong prepossession against this remarkable man, and had no wish to see him. But when invited to meet him at Miss Castle's table, he could hardly avoid the interview. And he candidly remarks, after the Rajah's death—

"My prejudice could not hold out half an hour after being in his company. He was a very pleasing and interesting man; intelligent and largely informed, I need not say-but unaffected, friendly, and in the best sense polite. I passed two evenings in his company. In the former instance, when the afterdinner company consisted of Dr. Carpenter, and sundry other doctors and gentlemen, Churchmen and Dissenters, he was led a little into his own religious history and present opinions. He avowed his general belief in Christianity as attested by miracles, but said that the internal evidence had had by much the greatest force on his mind."-II. 219.

Foster admits that the Rajah's opinions were "near about” in agreement with the "modern Unitarian school." But when he observes that he does not think Unitarians have any exact knowledge of his religious views, he must have surely forgotten, or could never have read, the controversy of the Rajah with Dr. Marshman, which would seem to leave no room for doubt on this subject.

66

The latter years of Foster's life were saddened by the loss of most of those friends whom he loved best upon earth. Very touching is the letter which he addressed to Mr. Hughes, when that faithful friend, with whom he had been intimately connected more than forty years, was lingering on the very verge" of the grave; and want of space alone prevents our transferring it to our pages. And now, increasing bodily weakness, and the failure of sight and memory, warned Mr. Foster that his own earthly course was drawing to a close. His lungs had been diseased for many years, and for some time he had been in a state of great debility. But

"He sat up for a few hours almost daily till the day before his death. Towards the latter part of the time he often expressed a wish to be left alone for a little while, saying that there was much he ought to think of, and that in a state of great debility it was a difficult thing to think.

"His family were much struck by the perfect dignity and composure with which, as soon as he relinquished all hope of even a partial recovery, he resigned himself to the Divine appointment.

"On Saturday, October 14th, 1843, the day before his death, he complained of feeling some confusedness in his head, and was much oppressed in his breathing; he was therefore obliged to desist that day from his usual practice of hearing some one read to him; and finding it very difficult to converse, he requested to be left quite alone during the afternoon and evening. This desire was complied with, some of his family going occasionally into his room,

"During the last two or three days of his life, the Scriptures (chiefly the Psalms) were, by his own desire, exclusively read to him."

but so as not to disturb him, till the usual hour of retiring to rest; they then particularly requested that some one might be allowed to sit up with him through the night. This, however, he steadily refused, though, in consequence of a long-continued fit of coughing, he was in a state of greater exhaustion than usual. The kind old servant who attended upon him, from an apprehension lest she should disturb him, did not go at all into his room in the course of that night, as she had been in the habit of doing every night for the past fortnight. But towards four o'clock she went to the door of his room to listen, and being satisfied from the sound she heard that he was sleeping, returned without going in. At about six o'clock she went again to the door, and this time, hearing no sound, she went in and found that he had expired. His arms were gently extended, and his countenance was as tranquil as that of a person in a peaceful sleep. Death had taken place but a very short time, for only the forehead was cold.”—II. 357, 358.

We have already, we fear, exceeded the limits assigned us for this article. We had marked several passages from the letters, and also from the journal, which we should have been glad to set before our readers, but we must be satisfied with referring to the volumes themselves. Many thoughts also crowd upon our minds respecting the religious and intellectual character of Foster, on which we have left ourselves no room to dwell. His mental powers were undoubtedly of a high order. His writings shew much reflection and originality. But he was not a man of extensive or systematic reading on any subject, and the want is very manifest in him of a sound and judicious discipline of the mind in early life-of a liberal and enlightened education. Most painful, too, are the morbid views which he took of human nature. If he looked abroad upon society, it was generally with a gloomy feeling, and wickedness seemed every where to meet his eye. He regarded this world with such horror as a place for the rising race to come into, that he rejoiced to hear of the death of a young person, and thought parents should be greatly consoled in the loss of children by the reflection, that they were delivered from the dreadful dangers to which continued existence here would have exposed them. The religious opinions in which he ultimately rested were, for the most part, those which would probably be called moderate Calvinism. He contemned, however, "the circle and the spell of any denomination, as a party of systematics professing a monopoly of truth." Whilst at Chichester, he observed in a letter to Mr. Hughes, with regard to his opinion respecting the person of Christ-" A candid and honest statement would be, that I deem it the wisest rule to use precisely the language of Scripture, without charging myself with a definite, a sort of mathematical hypothesis, and the interminable perplexities of explication and inference." How much controversy and division would the world have been spared, had professing Christians always adopted the same wise and safe course on this subject! In the same letter, Foster states that he is "probably in the same parallel of latitude with respect to orthodoxy (we suppose he meant with reference to the Trinity), as the revered Dr. Watts in the late maturity of his thoughts." We are not aware whether any change took place in the state of his mind in relation to this matter. We have seen no indication of it in these volumes. Foster was a believer in the doctrine of philosophical necessity, and, as we have before intimated, he rejected the doctrine of eternal punishment. There is a 4 Q

VOL. II.

long and deeply interesting letter to a young minister, in the second volume of the work before us, on the latter of these doctrines, which well deserves attention, in which he states that he has little to say in the way of criticism, of implications found or sought in what may be called incidental passages of Scripture, or of the passages dubiously cited in favour of final, universal restitution; but that it is the moral argument that presses irresistibly on his mind-that which comes in the stupendous idea of eternity. He also remarks, that a number of ministers (not large, but of great piety and intelligence), within his acquaintance, were disbelievers in this doctrine of the eternal punishment of the wicked, though they did not feel themselves called upon to make a public avowal of their opinions, but were content with employing in their ministrations strong general terms in denouncing the doom of impenitent sinners.

"For one thing, a consideration of the unreasonable imputations and unmeasured suspicions apt to be cast on any publicly declared partial defection from rigid orthodoxy, has made them think that they should better consult their usefulness by not giving a prominence to this dissentient point; while yet they make no concealment of it in private communications and in answer to serious inquiries.”—II. 416.

If Mr. Foster meant to justify this temporizing conduct on the part of those whose especial duty it is, as the appointed investigators of sacred Scripture, to make an open statement of what they believe to be the truth, we think he has failed in his object. This "accommodating flexibility in the intolerance of" churches, cannot be reconciled with Christian candour and simplicity. And melancholy is it indeed to reflect, that ministers of the gospel," who, of all men, should live under the constant eye of God," should yet so often submit to "the thraldom of authorized custom," against their better judgment, and thus afford "the most signal examples of the fear of man."

It is impossible to peruse attentively the Life and Correspondence of Foster without feeling that he was a man of earnest and deep piety. There is, in this respect, a beautiful consistency in his character. From the first letter which he wrote after his removal from the home of his youth to the Baptist College, to the last which he penned in his sick room, shortly before his death, it is manifest that he was one who walked with God, and whose thoughts were often occupied with eternity In many particulars we differ from him in opinion, but it is a pleasing thought, that the pious and good of all religious communions have in common the best, the vital portion of Christianity, and that they will meet together at last in that world of nobler life and action, where all controversies shall be ended and all difficulties solved where the page of universal truth shall be spread before them, and every portion of it illumined by the clear and glorious light of Heaven.

I.

NEANDER ON ARNOLD AND BLANCO WHITE.*

In directing our attention to the articles on the lives of Arnold and Blanco White, by Neander, reprinted from the Berlin Annals of Scientific Criticism, it was not because we hoped to rectify our opinion of those excellent men, but because we hoped by these means to become better acquainted with the distinguished author. It must be confessed that German Protestant theology is still very ill understood by us. It is not at all difficult to become acquainted with the doctrines they profess, and we give to their professions all the credit we give to those of other schoolmen; but in Germany and England, the technical terms of theology have very different meanings. The learned and liberal divines of Berlin and Heidelberg profess all the doctrines contained in the German symbolical books; but we doubt whether they could pass with credit through an examination in any English orthodox school. As to the High-Church or Pusey party, this is so well understood, that the imperfect alliance formed between the Anglican and Prussian Evangelical Churches has been beheld with horror by that rising body in the Church. That model Bishop, Henry of Exeter, has delivered in a solemn protest against the abomination; and by far the ablest of the High-Church oracles (the Christian Examiner) proclaims the now fashionable tolerance of the Jews, in which the Germans join, to be one of the signs of the coming of Antichrist. But the Evangelical Churchmen and Dissenters, who, generally speaking, are more offensively and coarsely intolerant than their rivals, are at least as adverse to Teutonic influence, even where their influence is most to be respected-in biblical criticism. And as to ourselves, who have certainly no unfriendly feelings towards them, we confess we do not fully understand them; and we have gladly made use of these little writings as a sort of test, not of speculative opinions, but of Christian sentiments; as in those frequently recurring cases, where the direct relations between two bodies cannot be ascertained, the end is gained by learning the relation of each to a third body.

Of late years, none of the illustrious deceased has attracted such universal attention as the honoured Dr. Arnold, and few have been more generally respected and lamented than the late amiable and upright Blanco White. We were curious to see in what light these excellent men would be beheld by the leaders of the German Protestant Churches. Dr. Arnold during his life had been the object of even an extraordinary portion of vituperation from political writers; but on his death the hostility ceased in an instant, and his exemplary merits were ungrudgingly acknowledged. And even towards Blanco White, notwithstanding our national horror of Unitarians and other infidels, we beheld with pleasure on the part of the public a milder tone of reproach, with an ampler portion of kindness and good-will, than we had dared to expect. We wished to know how much of these sentiments had passed over to Germany, the only country on the continent in which any interest is felt in Anglican Protestantism.

Ueber das Leben des Joseph Blanco White, &c. On the Life of J. B. White, by Dr. August Neander.

On the Theology of Thomas Arnold. Translated from the German of Dr. A. Neander.