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    found himself wholly incapable of fulfil ^ ling any longer the duties of his station . In his walk he was so feeble as to require a staff in each hand to support him , his voice was extremely debilitated , and his hearing was imperfect ; and

    ¦ with much grief of heart he announced to his congregation his necessity of relinquishing his pastoral office among them , and provided them , with an able and worthy successor . It was his intention to have taken a formal leave of

    them , and of his ministerial functions , from the pulpit , by a farewel sermon he 3 iad prepared for the occasion , but the sensibility of his heart was well known ; and his congregation , conceiving such an effort would have been fatal to him

    dissuaded him from the attempt ; and his sermon , instead of being preached , was only circulated among them . He retired to Charmouth very soon afterwards , where he sedulously dedicated the remainder of his days to the private exercises of devotion . His increased

    deafness , and difficulty of walking , rendered him incapable of attending on the public services , or ordinances of the church . By way of amusement , he composed , occasionally at this period , several little pieces of sacred or moral poetry , having always possessed a turn for poetic composition ; many of these have a considerable portion of merit , and the world

    may yet , perhaps , be favoured with them in some form or other . At this period , St , Austin's Meditations appear to have been studied by him with a particular degree of pleasure , and some of the poetry with which they are interspersed , he took much delight in rendering into Englhh verse , and accomplished with success . Towards the close of the last

    year , he was ag-ain attacked with violent spasmodic affections , that extended bydegrees from the chest over the whole region of the abdomen ; and his feeble frame being incapable of resisting so severe an assault , he died on January r , 1807 , in the seventieth year of his age . He was twice married ; having a year or two after the death of the niece of the

    Riiv . John Mason , who died in childbirth about the year 17 66 , re-married to Miss Baker , daughter of Mr . J . Baker , of Cannon-street , -London , who now survives him . In his person , he was rather below the common stature ; but in his manner , and especially in the pulpit , dignified and commanding . His discourses were well studied and arranged ; his language per-

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    spicuous rather than flowery ; aiid his style rather argumentative than sentimental . Upon thorough conviction in his own . mind , he was a Dissenter and a Trinitarian ; yet , from an intrinsic liberality of heart , and from always allowing ' to others the same claim to private judgment which he exercised for himself , he

    succeeded in living on terms of the closest friendship with several clergymen of the established and Roman Catholic churches , as "well as of a variety of other communities . With him , the Christian religion was a system of love and harmony ; and he hence always preferred

    adverting to those points on which all Christians agreed , to points on which they differed . On this account , he constantly endeavoured , in all less important matters , to assimilate as nearl y as possible his own mode of conducting public worship to that of the church of England . He uniforml y wore a gown , commenced the service in the desk , and

    strongly inculcated by precept , as well as example , that very decent and reverential act of addressing a short prayer to the Supreme Beinej on entering into the pew . By this happy system of conciliation , he never failed in producing harmony and marked esteem among Christians of all parties in the different towns in which he resided , although , in more than one instance , he found them in his

    first entrance among them divided by the bitterest animosities . For the same reason , he was always adverse to the custom of itinerary preaching , or licensing private or other houses for the purpose of diffusing different religious opinions , which has of late years been becoming so common . He was ready t «> admit that some benefit might result

    from it ; but in the party spirit , divisions and jealousies it introduced , he was convinced that the benefit was by no means equal to the mischief . He was also one of the very few Dissenters who disapproved of the late petitions to parliament for a repeal of the Test Act . By the excellence of the constitutional code , and the liberality of the present times , he conceived that Protestant Dissenters

    -were already in possession of all the liberty that is necessary to their acquisition of wealth or honours , and especially to that of their eternal well being ; and he was fearful that ii this grand partywall were once broken dowri > Dissenters would by decrees , become so much interwoven and amalgamated with the established church , as that the very or-

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    Ohitaary * i £

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1807, page 45, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2376/page/45/