tics of the Christian Church, in which he soon made considerable progress. But before he could complete this work, it pleased Divine Providence to call him to his reward. In the ensuing summer of 1768, he was seized with a rapid decline, which carried him off in a few weeks at Hawkhurst, the place of his nativity, where he had a small paternal estate. Here he died on the 24th of July of that year, in the 85th year of his age. His remains were interred in the burial ground at Bunhill Fields, where he who loves to meditate on the records of English Nonconformity finds so many impressive memorials to enliven his grateful recollection of the venerable dead.

Though Dr. Lardner was not permitted to finish his History of Ancient Heretics, his papers were found to be in such a state of forwardness as to justify his friends in committing them to the care of the Rev. John Hogg, of Exeter. By this gentleman the work was completed, under the guidance of such hints as the author himself had left for such parts as were not finished by his own hand, and finally published in 1780. Some allowance must, of course, be made for the circumstances in which this work was prepared, and, perhaps, for the inferior interest of the subject. It is, however, a subject of considerable interest and importance, and particularly well suited to so proverbially candid a writer as Lardner. No man would understand better how to make the necessary deductions from exaggerated, partial, and passionate statements;-remembering that we have our accounts of these (so called) heretics almost exclusively from the writings of their opponents, and that it is next to impossible, even for

those who have no disposition to pervert and misrepresent, to give a perfectly fair account of parties and opinions which he does not himself approve. Under these circumstances it is clearly impossible, in the nature of things, that we should have a history of ancient heretics that can be thoroughly depended on; but Lardner's, probably, approaches as near to it as is practicable with our present imperfect and partial sources of information.

Besides this larger work, eight sermons, most of which had been transcribed and prepared for the press by the author himself, were published after his decease, with a memoir of his life and writings. The fifth and sixth of these are the sermons before referred to, preached at the Old Jewry lecture, as containing a sort of sketch of the argument of his great work, particularly of that part of it which relates to the facts occasionally mentioned in the Gospel History. Another valuable series of sermons on Philippians ii. 5-11, which have already been mentioned, were first published in 1784, by the Rev. Mr. Wiche, of Maidstone.

164

JAMES FOSTER,

One of the brightest ornaments of the school of liberal and rational divines among the Protestant dissenters in the earlier part of the last century, was born at Exeter, September 16, 1697. His grandfather was a clergyman at Kettering, in Northamptonshire; but his father having been brought up by a Nonconformist uncle, himself embraced the same religious profession. His mother is spoken of as a woman of great worth and excellence; and he may, therefore, probably be added to the list of eminent men, in various departments of life, who have derived from maternal influence and example no small portion of the virtues and graces which afterwards distinguished them. He received the first part of his education at the free school of his native city; where he is said to have given early indications of talent and proficiency. He afterwards became a member of the academy already spoken of as conducted by Mr. Hallet, at which several other men of high and deserved eminence were prepared for the Christian ministry. Here we are informed* that "he was admired by his tutor and fellow-students as having natural abilities superior to most, a quick apprehension, a solid judgment, a happy memory, a free commanding elocution. In his public exercises his thoughts were clear, his talents for argumentation

* Funeral Sermon, by Dr. Fleming, p. 8.

great, his modesty and integrity remarkable; and for the strictness of his piety, the candour of his spirit, the tenderness and benevolence of his heart, he was highly esteemed. From his first coming to the academy, he had a sovereign contempt of human authority in all matters of religious opinion, faith, and practice. Nothing would convince him short of reason and argument.'

Mr. Foster began to preach in the year 1718, when the violent ferment of religious bigotry which terminated in the expulsion from their charges of his tutor and his colleague Mr. Peirce, was rapidly coming to a crisis. And we cannot doubt that, independently of the personal influence of his instructor, who was so deeply involved in this memorable struggle, the naturally enlarged and liberal mind of Foster would lead him to take a warm interest in the controversy, and to resent, in terms perhaps stronger and less measured than his more cautious and discreet seniors would permit themselves to use, the extravagant and inconsistent proceedings of those who, when only beginning to enjoy a toleration themselves, attempted to impose articles of faith upon others. He already began to display those qualifications as a preacher which afterwards raised him to so much distinction; and there can be no doubt that, if he had belonged to the popular party, he would presently have been called upon to take a leading place as the minister of some numerous and considerable congregation. But he had from the first espoused the liberal principles which characterized him through life; and at this period of strong religious excitement, clamours rose high against him; for his notions of integrity and sincerity could

not be satisfied, like those of many in similar circumstances, with a systematic concealment of what he believed to be divine truth. He had formed his judgment, and he felt himself bound to declare it, and to appear publicly in defence of it. Nor was it possible at that time distinctly to foresee to what extent the clamour and violence of the hostile party, already excited to a high degree of bitterness, might carry them. Intolerant laws were in being, which, though they lay dormant, had been passed at no such distant period that they could as yet be said to be in any sense obsolete; and the rigorous treatment which had actually been experienced by that eminent Christian divine and confessor, Thomas Emlyn, was still fresh in every one's recollection.

At length he accepted of an invitation to settle with a congregation at Milbourne Port, in Somersetshire, where, however, he does not appear to have remained long. His unpopular sentiments on the points in dispute soon made him obnoxious to a prevailing party, whose influence rendered his situation so uneasy, that he was induced to retire to the house of his friend, the Rev. N. Billingsley, of Ashwick, near the Mendip hills; a gentleman who seems to have afforded a temporary asylum to more than one young man of merit when labouring under the stigma of heresy in these troubled times. While in this secluded retreat, Mr. Foster undertook the charge of two plain congregations in that wild district, which together raised him only fifteen pounds a year. Some of his best works are said to have been composed in an old summer house, almost covered with ivy, on the property of J. Billingsley, Esq.,