whence he came to London. Here he succeeded Dr. John Gale in the General Baptist Congregation, Barbican. This situation he held twenty years, and carried on an evening lecture at the Old Jewry with a popularity unparalleled among the Dissenters. Here Pope heard him with admiration; and writes, Let modest Foster, if he will, excell

Ten metropolitans in preaching well!

In 1731 he published his Reply to Christianity as old as the Creation, a most able work, which even his antagonist spoke of with respect. He disputed with Dr. Stebbing, concerning Heresy, with consummate ability. He now succeeded Dr. Hunt, and attended the amiable but unfortunate Earl of Kilmarnock on the scaffold, Tower Hill, 1746, which so shocked him that he never recovered it. He died peaceful and happy, 1753, in the fiftyseventh year of his age! He says somewhere, "I always had, I bless God, ever since I began to understand or think to any purpose, large and generous principles, and there was never any thing, either in my temper or education, which might incline to narrowness and bigotry; and I am heartily glad of this opportunity of making this public serious profession, that I value those, who are of different persuasions from me, more than those who agree with me in sentiment, if they are more serious, sober, and charitable!" His works are Four Volumes of SERMONS, and also DISCOURSES on NATURAL REVEALED RELIGION. He was a man of great

talents, unquestionable benevolence, and unsullied integrity; he would have proved an ornament to any denomination of the Christian world.

73.

BENJAMIN GROSVENOR, D. D.

DIED 1758.

BIGOTS there may be, and have been of all persuasions; but an implacable, irreconcilable, cruel Christian, is of the same figure of speech as a godly adulterer, a religious drunkard, or a devout murderer. A religion that inspires cruelty and revenge; that is so far from forgiving injuries, that it multiplies them upon such as desire to injure nobody; that can allow its votaries to contrive, as near as possible, the misery of poor people in this world, or their damnation in the next; as they do, undeniably, who first tempt a poor creature to shipwreck his conscience, and strain upon him for not doing it; first tempt a man to be a hypocrite, and next punish him for not being so: I say a religion of this complexion needs no stronger confutation, nor can be better proved to be none of his, than to be compared with the temper and spirit, with the carriage and commission of the lovely Jesus. For, O Lord! where didst thou ever put fire and sword, prisons, halters, and gibbets, into thy commission? Or what was ever seen in thee, that could look like approving

T

of any such kind of methods? Hast thou ever said to thine apostles, go-preach the gospel, beginning at Jerusalem; and they that will not believe, as you bid them, plunder, imprison, and starve them? Didst thou ever give thine apostles such powers? Are men to be forced by pain into the belief that this JESUS was the most merciful being, that his religion was the kindest thing in the world, and that his ministers are all sons of benignity and peace; and if they will not believe it, to call for the gaoler and the rack to prove it? Such a commission would rather be supposed to come from Apollyon the destroyer, than from Jesus the Saviour of mankind— who came into the world not to destroy men's lives, but to save: to make the lamb and the wolf feed together that there might be no more destroying nor hurting, in all thy holy mountain!

JESUS! with what a mind and frame of soul didst thou leave this world and go up to heaven! And art thou still the same? Has the highest place in heaven only enlarged thy power of doing good according to the established economy and order of grace? And is that grace still as free, as full, as extensive, as sufficient, as when first offered to Jerusalem? Then I am thy captive, for who can hold out against all this? Who can deny any thing to it? Hear me but in the following prayer-that some portion of the same spirit that renders thee so lovely, may descend upon me, and then I am sure to be beloved by thee; for if this be thy carriage towards thine enemies, what is thy heart towards them that

love thee as their own souls? Let, therefore, all those passions and affections, that held the apostles in ecstasy of attention, when they beheld at parting the sweet majesty of thy humble grandeur; when they beheld the marks of thy late sufferings, and of present authority, of all power in heaven and earth, and of BROTHERLY LOVE, at once seated in thy divine aspect; when they beheld the heavens opening, their Lord ascending, and followed thee with eyes drowned in love, and stretching with curious wonder into the celestial presence; let the same passions and affections so possess my soul, and devote me to thyself and service, that I may never give over looking upwards in expectation-till I shall behold thee, IN LIKE MANNER, COMING THE SECOND TIME, WITHOUT SIN, UNTO SALVATION! AMEN. The Temper of Jesus.

BENJAMIN GROSVENOR was born, 1675, in London. In 1693 he was put under the tuition of the Rev. Mr. Jollie of Attercliffe, Yorkshire. Leaving it, he settled in London, and perfected himself in the Hebrew language. In 1699 he became assistant to the Rev. Mr. Oldfield in Southwark, and engaged in a lecture at the Old Jewry. He, 1704, succeeded the Rev. Mr. Slater, Crosby Square, who, in his last administration of the sacrament, thus expressed himself: "I charge you, before God, that you prepare to meet me at the day of judgment as my crown and my joy, that none of you be found wanting to meet me there at the right

hand of God!" In 1710 he became lecturer at Salter's Hall, which added much to his reputation. He resigned the pastoral office in 1749, and died, after a severe indisposition, which he bore with resignation, 1758, in the eighty-third year of his age. The Rev. John Barker, the friend of Doddridge, and a popular preacher at Salter's Hall, delivered his funeral sermon. Like too many other good men, he was tried by the disobedience of children, which he bore with exemplary piety. He published several excellent sermons; but his principal publications were an Essay on Health, scarce and valuable; and his MOURNER, an incomparable little piece, which is read and admired even to the present day. As a preacher his voice was sweet, though, owing to a surgical operation, there was an impediment in his delivery. His writings are original and impressive; they are full of devotional turns, uncommon remarks, and indicate a deep acquaintance with history. He was enlightened and candid, having drank deep into the spirit of Christianity.

74.

JOHN TAYLOR, D. D.

NORWICH.-DIED 1761.

To what purpose is our boasted liberty, if we dare not use it? To what purpose do we enjoy the light, if we may not open our eyes to it? To what