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church. In 1791, he removed to the Baptist College at Bristol, about the time that Robert Hall quitted the situation of classical tutor, to commence his ministry at Cambridge. Between his successor, Joseph Hughes, and John Foster, now his pupil, an intimacy was formed which, to the great enjoyment of both, was maintained without interruption till the death of the former of the two friends. Foster's first pastoral engagement was at Newcastle-on-Tyne, whence, after a location of three months, he removed to Dublin, where he had temporary charge of a small Baptist meeting, between whom and their pastor there appears to have been but little congeniality. Shortly after we again find him in Yorkshire, and afterwards at Chichester, where he became minister of a General Baptist Church in 1797. Three years after he was settled at Downend, five miles from Bristol. His next engagement was at Frome in Somersetshire; it was during his residence here that his "Essays" were published. His correspondence at this period contains numerous allusions to his minis-long life deserve to be esteemed a felicity.' terial and literary labours :

of all our difficulties. Do you not find it so? With a full measure of this religion in the heart, half the gloomy feelings of life would vanish; for the prospect of its end would be divinely animating, and all the cares of the course would be alleviated by a habitual trust in Providence, and a solid assurance of all dispensations and temporary evils tending and conducing towards final and infinite felicity. Let us then resolve to make more vigorous and constant efforts to obtain a large augmentation of this internal, this infinite and never-failing consolation. This is the only kind of labour, experience and reflection continually tell us, of which the result is infallible and infinitely estimable. Be this then our earnest care. If this concern go right, nothing else will long be suffered to go wrong. The shortness of this vain life, if it is thus employed, will be the grandest consolation. And this sacred possibility of making the shortness of life a felicity, is so much the more welcome that there is nothing I have yet found, or expect to find, that can make

"It was during his residence at Frome "The congregation here is still small, that the Essays,' by which Foster atthough not so small as at first. In the tained his great celebrity, were published. evening, generally, there are as many They appear to have originated in his as would make a pretty good congre- conversations with the interesting friend gation for the meeting at Downend, (afterwards Mrs Foster) to whom they but the size of the meeting makes were addressed, while on a visit to her these appear but few. I have not yet brother-in-law, the late Dr Joseph Mason attained, nor probably ever shall (from Cox, of Overn. In our many converthe loftiness of the house I suppose sations while you were here,' Foster it may be), the power of talking away observes, in a letter designed to be inwith the rapid facility that I had some- troductory to the Essays, 'it could not times at Downend. I am obliged to speak fail to occur to us, by what a vast world more slowly, and that makes me speak of subjects for consideration we are surmore in one set manner, and deprives rounded. Any glance into the distance me of those variations of manner which in quest of a limit, found no limit to the accompany a talking style of preaching. diffused and endless multitude of subjects, I am likewise obliged to take somewhat though it would soon find one to the more previous pains with my sermons, as power of investigating and understanding I cannot so well trust myself to the re- them. In these letters I shall sources of the moment. In consequence revive some of the subjects which engaged of this I seldom make a sermon quite so and interested the social hour, and shall bad as I sometimes did in your neigh-perhaps recall some of the hints or views bourhood; though I doubt on the other that there presented themselves, in order hand whether I have ever made one so to display them with greater amplitude good as some of the most successful of and precision.' those you have heard. My greatest difficulty is to feel the influence of religion in my own mind, a sufficient degree of which would inspire in public a zeal and energy that would easily triumph over a few difficulties, and most of all over that barren, uninterested coldness which I so often feel and deplore. My dear friend, to cultivate individual Christianity is, and probably ever will be, the greatest

"In writing to Mrs Mant from Frome (June 20, 1804), Foster says, 'I have confined myself very much, for many months past, about literary business, in which I expect to be confined for months and years to come, should life be prolonged. Having been idle almost all my life, I am at last become diligent, which I hope I shall continue to be, the remainder of it. I hope to be always con

strained to it by a sense of duty; at
present the want of that same metal,
which I have lost all hope, at last, of
gaining, by the discoveries of dreaming,
is an additional stimulus. One part of
this labour has been about a volume
which I have written, and am sending in
two or three weeks to be printed; from
which, however, I do not expect much
pecuniary advantage, as being a first
production of a quite unknown person.
If, however, the first should be successful
(a very uncertain experiment), I may
produce more, and the second will have
a better chance, if the writer have gained
any notice by the first. The first volume
will, I suppose, be several months in print-
ing. It is on a very few subjects partly
moral, partly philosophical (as it is now
the fashion to call so many things), and
partly religious The writing is not with-
out some merit, at least in parts; though
I can easily imagine to myself something
better done, incomparably, and though
no reader will probably see more clearly
where and what the faults are, than I
shall myself.
I think I have
not a great deal of vanity, that is, the
love of praise. I feel I have some of it,
and there is nothing that excites, when
I reflect, more self contempt than this
feeling. To seek the praise that comes
from God only, is the true nobleness of
character and if the solicitude to obtain
this praise were thoroughly established
in the soul, all human notice would sink
into insignificance, and vanish from re-
gard, except as a good man might con-
sistently wish for the favour of men, in
order to influence those men to what
is good, by means of their opinion of
him; or again, as it may be very cor-
rect to wish to gain the applauding
feelings of a few dear friends and con-
nections, in order to secure more com-
pletely their affectionate feelings.'
Vol. i. p. 268-272.

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and lament a great deficiency on this point; but I am not content to do no more than feel and lament it."

In 1808 Mr Foster was married to the lady to whom his Essays were addressed -a person of fine mind and of christian character, and qualified to appreciate the high qualities of the man to whom she was united. The union was mutually and eminently happy.

In 1806 Foster was necessitated to resign his pastoral charge at Frome by a swelling of the thyroid gland, which, if not produced by public speaking, was alarmingly aggravated by the labours of the pulpit.

After this period he resided chiefly in the neighbourhood. Towards the close of 1817 he accepted of an invitation to resume his labours at Downend, one of the scenes of his early ministry; but his engagement was of short continuance.

"Mr Foster's long practice in village preaching, and habitual endeavour to accommodate his diction and mode of illustration to unlettered congregations, might reasonably have led him to hope that, in the scene of his former labours, he would not be wholly unsuccessful yet scarcely six months had elapsed when the failure of his efforts was so evident, that he could not hesitate on the propriety of relinquishing the situation. Several of his more intelligent and serious hearers, of the class whose benefit he had chiefly laboured to promote, were withdrawn either by death or a change of residence; others ceased to attend, from a preference for a style of preaching more adapted to operate on the feelings than to promote a thoughtful piety; and of those whom habit brought weekly to their usual seats, several showed an utter listlessness more depressing than their absence, which would have at least allowed the charitable hope that they were deriving some The success of this his first and princi- benefit elsewhere. In communicating pal work, and on which mainly his fame his determination to resign in a letter to rests, was speedy and decisive. In about Dr Bompas, he remarks,-' It will be four months a second edition was called recollected I was very far from sanguine for. "The degree of success," Foster in commencing it, but I really did not remarks, "is indeed very unusual. I anticipate quite so complete a failure; trust it is a direct favour and interposi- I did fancy it possible that a natural tion of Providence, both for public utility manner of speaking, that illustrations and personal happiness. It will have and pointed applications, tending to prebeen preceded and accompanied by clude the too usual dulness and formality numberless supplications of great sin- of religious discourse, and that a lancerity 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

NO. XII. VOL. III.

guage generally clear of hard or fine words, might perhaps engage, in some considerable degree, the attention of even uncultivated minds; and, indeed, I

4 A

grossed with such engagements, as it appears from his correspondence that they interfered with and frustrated literary undertakings on a larger and more permanent scale, which he had at one time contemplated, and even commenced after the publication of the Essays.

In 1826 he lost his only son, a youth about whose spiritual state his parents were for a period in great anxiety, arising from the singular shyness and reserve of the young man; but from this painful suspense they were most mercifully relieved before his death, by an unexpected and highly satisfactory disclosure of his views and feelings in prospect of departure.

think I have hardly preached in any regret that he allowed himself to be enother place where they did not engage it somewhat more than they have done here. It cannot be honestly denied, that, by the application of a great deal of time and effort, a more obvious and attractive mode of exhibiting religious subjects would be attainable (that is, as a habitual strain; for some of my sermons I should perhaps consider as in this respect nearly as much adapted as I could well make them); but I cannot feel the duty of making a laborious effort to change my manner, for the sake of attracting persons to whom, after all, it would be less attractive than the very crudest exhibition at the Methodist meeting-persons who are no longer in the way for being attracted, and who will, for the most part, never come again in the way;-I cannot feel the duty, unless it were impossible for me to be in any place to which I should be more adapted, and unless I felt it a compulsory duty at all events to preach. On a deliberate view of the whole case, then, I am impelled to the practical conclusion I have expressed above, that I must retire from the service within some short time. I am sure you and my other estimable friends will believe me when I say, that so far as my high and grateful regard for them is concerned, I shall execute the determination with very great regret. For a small circle of such friends, and such partial auditors, I cannot look elsewhere. Their value and their kindness will make me willing to protract a few months longer a service which I should otherwise feel the propriety of declining immediately.” ”– Vol. ii. p. 1-3.

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Six years after, died Mrs Foster, whose health for several years had been in a very precarious state. Mr Foster's union with this excellent woman had subsisted for about a quarter of a century. We may judge of his sense of bereavement from his own attestation, that, "for a refined perception, and depth of reflective feeling, he had never known her equal."

In December 1841, Mr Foster's health began to give way. Near the end of the month, "he was attacked with bronchitis, 'a visitation' which, he remarked,

came as a very strange one to a man who had not for fifty years been confined to bed a single day.' He kept his room somewhere about two months. He manifested, throughout, the greatest patience; and his letters, written when he became convalescent, disclose how anxiously he sought to derive spiritual improvement from the affliction: 'I hope,' he says, 'this season of imprisonment has not been without a real advantage in respect to the highest concern. It has brought with it many grave, earnest, and painful reflections. The review of life has been solemnly condemnatory-such a sad deficiency of the vitality of religion, the devotional spirit, the love, the zeal, the fidelity of conscience. I have been really amazed to think how I could-I do not say, have been content with such a low and almost equivocal piety, for I never have been at all content-but, how I could have His literary labours consisted chiefly endured it, without my whole soul rising in contributions to the Eclectic Review-up against it, and calling vehemently on a species of authorship which he appears to have liked, and to have valued as a salutary intellectual discipline; but however worthy of Foster's name those productions of his pen, it may be questioned whether there is not room to

Though from this time living in comparative retirement, Mr Foster took a lively interest in public questions touching the welfare of society and of the church. Proof of this was afforded by his new work on Popular Ignorance the part he took in the Serampore Controversy, Catholic Emancipation, and Reform Bill. On all subjects of this nature his sentiments were thoroughly liberal-sometimes verging to a point which men of less decided character might regard as extreme.

the almighty Helper to come to my rescue, and never ceasing till the blessed experience was attained. And then the sad burden of accumulated guilt! and the solemn future! and life so near the end! Oh! what dark despair but for

that blessed light that shines from the Prince of Life, the only and the all-sufficient Deliverer from the second death. I have prayed earnestly for a genuine, penitential, living faith on Him. Do you pray for me. Thus I hope this temporary experience of suspended health will have a salutary effect on the soul's health. I do not mean that these exercises of mind are a new thing, brought on by this visitation. They have grown upon me in this late declining stage of life. But for every thing that enforces and augments them I have cause to be thankful. There is much work yet to be done in this most unworthy soul; my sole reliance is on divine assistance; and I do hope and earnestly trust (trust in that assistance itself) that every day I may yet have to stay on earth, will be employed as part of a period of persevering, and I almost say passionate, petitions for the divine mercy in Christ, and so continue to the last day and hour of life, if consciousness be then granted. .

Often I am making humbling comparisons between my lot, and that of the many ten thousands who are suffering at this time all the miseries of hopeless destitution. Why am I so favoured, and millions so wretched?'"-Vol. ii. p. 343.

Amidst vicissitudes of health, and occasional attention to public matters, Mr Foster survived till October 1843. "On the 24th of September previous, he took to his room, which he never again left. There exists no doubt that his lungs had been diseased for many years. With very rare and slight exceptions, he betrayed none of the irritability so generally attendant upon the disease. The religious remarks and admonitions addressed to those around him were deeply interesting and affecting; but it was not often that his cough and extreme weakness allowed him to say much. On one occasion, however, he spoke at great length on "the duty of earnest, persevering, importunate prayer; " and at another time, on the absolute necessity of casting ourselves on the mercy of God in Christ Jesus, concluding in the following words, "We can do nothing in our own strength; we must look to Jesus-our only Mediator-our only Redeemer-our only hope." But no exhortations could have been half so impressive as the uniform patience he displayed, and the self-condemnatory remarks he often made, indicating a profound feeling of the evil of sin.

"One evening, when he appeared very much exhausted, it was remarked,

You are very languid to-night.' 'Yes,' he replied, 'I shall languish out of this mortal life some time not long hence.' On being told of the frequent kind inquiries made for him by friends in the neighbourhood, he said, To all inquiries it's always the same answer, and the last will be the best of all.' On the Sabbath previous to his death, while a friend was reading to him one of Doddridge's Sermons, he fell asleep; on awaking, he said in a tone very expressive of a grateful feeling, ""Tis a thankless office to read to sleepy people.'

"In the earlier stages of his illness he was very much in the habit of speaking of the value of time, and sometimes quoted Young's lines on the subject. Another frequent topic of conversation was the separate state. After the death of any friend, he seemed impatient to be made acquainted with the secrets of the invisible world. On one occasion of this kind (rather more than a twelvemonth before his own decease), he exclaimed, They don't come back to tell us!' and then, after a short silence, emphatically striking his hand upon the table, he added, with a look of intense seriousness, 'But we shall know some time!'

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"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.

"During the whole course of his illness he showed the greatest consideration for the servants and all about him, and was anxious to give them as little trouble as possible. He never allowed any one to sit up, even for a part of the night-he would not listen to such a proposal, and when urged would say, that it would so annoy him as to prevent his sleeping.

On

"Speaking of his weakness to one of his two servants who had both lived with him for about thirty years, he mentioned some things which he had not strength to perform; and then added, 'But I can pray, and that is a glorious thing.' another occasion he said to his attendant, Trust in Christ-trust in Christ.' At another time, the servant heard him repeating to himself the words, ‘O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ.'

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"On October 3rd he wrote to Sir J. Easthope, and stated that he had no ex

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pectation of surviving more than a very | religious character, these volumes afford few months, but though he felt unequal many and conclusive evidences, as our to the exertion of a personal interview, readers may judge from some of the exhe would not yet say, Farewell. Two tracts we have given; but on one or two days later, however, his debility had in- points of belief he departed from the creased so rapidly, that he limited his evangelical standard to an extent which expectations of prolonged life to only a has surprised us. He more than doubted few days, and ended his last letter to the eternity of future punishments; and the same friend with the words, 'I com- assigns at length the grounds of his disbemend you to the God of mercy, and lief in an epistolary essay, which presents very affectionately bid you-Farewell.' a remarkable specimen of a good man founding his opinion of a matter of faith upon considerations of feeling, when he should be making his appeal to the law and to the testimony. His handling of this question is much in the way in which Socinians and others set aside still more fundamental truths, by treating them as subjects of human speculation, and not of scripture interpretation, as the authority and intent of revelation demand.

"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 appoint

ment.

Much of the interest of these volumes lies in the insight they give us into the literary as well as religious character of Mr Foster, his habits of study and composition, and his opinions of men and things.

"On Saturday October 14th, 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, but so as not He wrote with difficulty and labourto disturb him, till the usual hour of re- especially at first. "It is an employtiring to rest; they then particularly ment," says he, "in which I am inconrequested that some one might be al- ceivably slow, and have even had expelowed to sit up with him through the rience enough to be certain that I shall night. This however he steadily refused, always be so. You would be surthough in consequence of a long contin- prised if I was to tell you what a length ued fit of coughing he was in a state of of time and labour it cost me to write greater exhaustion than usual. The any given part of the small volumes kind old servant who attended upon already printed; or if I were to tell you him, from an apprehension lest she how many months have been consumed should disturb him, did not go at all into in the mere revision and correction of his room in the course of that night, as those volumes for a second edition." she had been in the habit of doing every Again: "When I wrote to you last, I benight for the past fortnight. But towards lieve I told you I had completed a task four o'clock she went to the door of his of authorship in which I had been emroom to listen, and being satisfied from ployed a year or two before. What a the sound she heard that he was sleep-fool I was; even so lately as when I told ing, returned without going in. At about you this, I had, it is true, written more 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.

"On the following Saturday his remains were laid in the grave, which just seventeen years before had been opened to receive those of his son, in the burialground belonging to the chapel at Downend, where he formerly preached."-Vol. íí. p. 354-359.

Of the sincerity and depth of Foster's

than enough for a considerable volume, but I had not begun to revise and correct it in order to write it for the press. When I began this work, and had proceeded a little way, I found I had a job on my hands with a vengeance. To my astonishment and vexation, I found there was not a paragraph, and scarcely a sentence, that did not want mending, and sometimes that whole pages could not be mended, but must be burnt, and something new written in their stead. This was often a most irksome and toilsome business, much more so than the first writing. On the whole, I verily believe the revision and new modelling

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